“You used to know Ms. Weaver?” Josh asked through the open car window.
Jack had the nerve to slide a finger down her nose. “Know? We used to date.”
His teeth were so white and straight. She wanted to punch a hole through them. Instead, she forced a smile. “That was a long time ago. How are you, Jack? You look good.” Amazing, to-die-for sexy, hotter than any man had a right to be.Why did you just tell him he looked good, dumbass? This is not the time to be nice. Remember what you did to the sugar cookie.Yet she didn’t think she could take a bite out of his groin, even if Josh hadn’t been staring at them.
“I’m good,” Jack was saying. “I transferred from Washington to teach at the OSU satellite campus here. The school is transitioning to a four year program, you know.”
“I read that.” Great. No way he’d be jobless and move anytime soon. The state-funded project had been given the green light.
“Just the excuse I needed to come back home. I sure missed Bend.” And her, by the way he seemed to stare at her. She recognized carnal hunger in that gaze.
What. The. Hell?
Twelve years ago, while he’d had an arm draped over Selena Thorpe’s shoulders, he’d announced they were done. Just like that, in front of the entire cafeteria. No explanation. No concern about breaking her heart in two. She’d erupted into embarrassing tears, and he’d looked bored by it all. After a minute or two, he’d asked when she thought she might be done crying, then walked away laughing with Selena.
She’d been the pitiful laughingstock of the school for two solid weeks before Bethany James ran off with Carl Longtree and became the new talk of the town. Then things had gotten mostly back to normal. But not this normal.
As if reading her mind, Jack said, “The past should stay in the past, right?” He smiled. “We’re old friends, aren’t we?”
“Are we?”
He laughed and hugged her again, and she was torn between wanting to slap him and wanting to kiss him—which horrified her.
“Of course we are,” he said as he let her go. “I think Josh might have told you, but I’m taking care of him until Dan and Julie get back. They’re away on business.” He caressed her cheek until she stepped back.
He sure had turned into Mr. Touchy-Feely. She wanted badly to tell him what she really thought, but with Josh hanging on their every word, she swallowed her wrath. For now.
“Nice seeing you, Josh.”
“You too, Ms. Weaver.”
She looked at Jack and let him see the frost in her eyes. His lips curled, and she gripped the strap of her bag with a tight fist. Punching him in the face would not set a good example for the little one waiting for his uncle. “Jack.” She nodded and stepped around him and his expensive car, then walked up the steps to her porch and let herself in the house.
She shut the door behind her and slumped against it, shaking from the confusing mix of rage and desire coursing through her. Tears pricked at the backs of her eyes, the need to go back to a happy past conflicting with the pain she still felt, even after all these years.
The past is gone. Let it go, she tried to tell herself. But she couldn’t convince herself not to care.It’ll go away as soon as I get some ass-kicking closure with Jack Bloom.
Now that she believed.
Jack drove Josh home, only half-listening to his nephew prattle on about a game he’d played at school. Ann fucking Weaver.Of courseshe had to look like the delicate fairy princess he remembered. But she was older, wiser, and damn, even hotter now.
She still had that same blood-red hair.Wine-red, she’d always corrected him. So deep and rich, and it still curled around her shoulders in waves. Ann seemed just the same as she had in high school, though her body had filled out in all the right places. Despite her petite size, she had really nice breasts. Which fit in his hands perfectly, if he recalled.
Man. Talk about fate kicking him in the teeth. Back in town for only two days and he’d run into the one woman he’d never been able to completely get over. Even when dating other women over the years, something would always remind him of Ann. A gesture, a smile, a scent, and he’d be transported into the past. He’d felt it back then, that he and Ann would be together forever.
And then came the rumors, the half-truths, the betrayal. Covering his wounds as best he could, he’d pretended indifference and broken off with her.
Always in the back of his mind though was the what if.What ifhe found her again?What ifshe hadn’t married?What ifshe was available, and this time they made it work?
“Right, Uncle Jack?”
“Um, sorry, dude. What’s that?”
Josh sighed. “Didn’t you hear any of what I said? You’re not a very good listener.”
He tried not to smile. The kid was a miniature version of Jack’s older brother Dan. Jesus, but Josh acted just like his dad. Bossy and ready to set the world on fire.
“Right. I’ll try to do better.” He paused, hoping to sound casual when he pumped the kid for information. Nope. He had no shame. None at all. “So what do you think about Ms. Weaver? Is she nice?”
