I lift an eyebrow; she smiles sheepishly. “Actually, I do own a Victorian. But no husband. Well, not anymore.”
“What kind of moron can’t make it work with you?” Winnie asks bluntly, and I smile.
“It was basically mutual. Just not a good fit, long term,” I say, and I’m surprised by how accurate that is but how much it still hurts. Not so much the losing Adam but the failure in general. I never would have married him if I didn’t think I could be with him until the end. But I realized too late that I can’t. Even if this kid thing hadn’t come up, we were not a good fit.
The three of them fall silent for a moment. Then Winnie sits straighter in her chair and grins at me. “So you’re single then. We should go out and pick up boys!”
“Oh my God.” Sadie rolls her eyes and chucks a napkin at her sister. “You aren’t single, remember?”
“No. I’m not, but I like to pretend.” She laughs sheepishly. “I mean, not the way Jude pretends.”
“Jude doesn’t pretend he’s single, he forgets he isn’t. Big difference,” Dixie replies with a frown. “Big, cheating difference.”
“Jude’s married?”
Different noises erupt in unisonfrom each of them. Winnie snorts again. Dixie lets out a high-pitched laugh and Sadie chuffs. The waiter gives our table a confused stare as he collects our empty plates and hesitantly asks if there’s anything else we’d like. We all shake our heads no. He disappears, and Sadie turns to me. She still looks like she could be Jude’s twin. I mean, if he still looks like I remember. Tall, blond, smoky blue bedroom eyes and that smile that makes you think he wants to do dirty things to you. Correction: makes you hope that he’s thinking about doing dirty things to you.
“Jude is impossibly single,” Sadie explains and tosses her napkin on the table. “He tried the serious relationship thing once.”
“And it was a serious nightmare,” Dixie interjects, rolling her eyes. “He can’t keep his dick in his pants. It’s like genetically impossible. I swear it just opens the zipper on his pants itself if a hot, willing woman is within five feet.”
Winnie swears. “Jesus, Dixie, you have to stop being so graphic when it comes to Jude’s body parts.”
Dixie shrugs. Sadie turns to me again. “She wasn’t the right fit for him, and deep down he knew it. Or his dick did, which is why he cheated. But when the right person gives him a chance, he’ll be exactly like our dad. Loyal, faithful and completely trustworthy.”
“Well, hopefully not exactly like Dad.” Dixie’s words are barely a whisper, but she’s sitting right beside me so I catch them. I glance at her, but her face is hidden by a curtain of hair. Still, the melancholy in her voice is unmistakable. I’m about to ask if everything is all right with her dad when a shadow falls across the table. I look up, expecting it to be our waiter with the bill, but it’s not. It’s Jude Braddock.
Our eyes lock. They’re just as impossibly, breathtakingly blue as I remember. There’s no surprise or shock in them. He knew his sisters were meeting me. He’s here on purpose. But judging by the groans and shocked murmurs around the table, he wasn’t invited.
“Hey, Sunset.”
Oh my God, he remembers that nickname? He called me that the first night we kissed. He told me I was more beautiful than a sunset, and then it started raining and he kissed me under a lifeguard stand on the beach. I smile at the memory. “Hey, Jude.”
I half expect the girls to start singing a loud, off-key version of the Beatles song like they used to do when someone said “hey, Jude,” just to annoy him. But I guess they outgrew that.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Winnie asks, but he ignores her, his eyes still glued to mine.
“You look like life’s been good,” he says. Oh God, if only he were right.
“You look like life’s been great,” I counter.
He grins. Oh my word, that bloody grin. Full lips part to reveal perfect teeth with just the slightest slice of pink tongue visible as his high cheekbones seem to get higher and his chiseled jaw more defined. Those perfectly arched eyebrows bend just a little bit more to give him that totally cheeky, undeniably attractive bad-boy quality. Holy shit, it was hot when he was seventeenbut now it’s downright inferno inducing.
“Dear God, go away!” Dixie mutters, rolling her eyes again. I get the feeling it’s how she gets her cardio. “You’re bringing down the property value of this place with that sleazy smirk.”
He ignores her completely, again, and moves around the table. His body is big, wider and maybe even taller than I remember, but he still moves with this mesmerizing grace. He steps in between my chair and Dixie’s, angling his ass toward her as he turns to me. He holds out a hand. “How about a hug?”
I lift my hand off the table and place it in his. I feel his strength and his warmth surround it as he wraps his fingers around it and helps me to my feet. A second later I’m pressed into his torso, his arms circling my waist, and that strength and warmth is like a blanket covering all of me. Yeah, he’s taller now. And thicker. God, it’s sexy—the large, wide, hard size of his frame. Muscles are everywhere. They aren’t bulky, but you canfeelthem.
The hug ends, but we don’t really break apart. My arms are still around his shoulders and his still circle my waist. Our heads are only far enough apart to lock eyes once again. And then, in a low rumble of a whisper he says, “Christ, you’re still as beautiful as I remember.”
Oh sweet snickerdoodles.
And then I remember we’re in the middle of a restaurant surrounded by his siblings. I remember, because they don’t give me any other choice. They all stand up and start talking.
“Jude, let go of our friend,” Sadie requests calmly.
“Jude, I’ve told you before, no eye-fucking in public. It’s rude,” Winnie remarks, not so calmly.
