She inhaled the sweet, buttery scent. If she had chosen to return Jace’s calls, to come back the summer after her freshman year instead of taking an internship in Boston, would she have spent today eating pie and celebrating Andrew’s engagement, too? Selena sighed. Maybe. But she would have probably dropped out of college. He’d wanted her to stay so badly, and when they were together, she had wanted it, too. That was the problem. If she had dropped out of college, she never would have forgiven Jace—or herself. How many times had she gone over the choices she made?
Selena resealed the lid and blinked her eyes a few times until the burning subsided. It was too much. Time to shut off the past and focus on the present. She pushed the bag aside and unstacked the three, damp packages from the back seat of her car.
The one from her parents was the smallest. What would they send her? Something in silver, something to remind her of the little town they’d finally returned to, with help from her and Darren. Darren had been generous early on in their relationship; that much she could say about him.
The door to the bathroom opened, and Selena looked up just as Jace emerged from the steam. With only a towel wrapped around his waist. Oh, God he was gorgeous. Jace had filled out in the best way possible, his shoulders wider, his arms bigger. There was a spray of hair across his chest, and the trail down to his towel was a little thicker.
Her gaze darted up to his face as her cheeks heated up. No gawking at her high school boyfriend allowed. His too-long hair hung over his forehead, uncombed, and his lips quirked up in a smile.
“The blanket is a little scratchy,” he said. “Got anything else?”
He sounded almost apologetic, as if he knew what being nearly naked with her might do for both of them. Maybe he was just as wary about dragging that up as she was.
She shrugged and smiled. “I have some flowery beach dresses that might fit.”
Selena stole another glance at his bare torso as she passed him. She could have married this man. She bit her lip and forced her gaze on her bedroom door.
Jace followed her in, dressed in only a towel, the water dripping off his hair. She didn’t even need to turn around to know that. The image of him walking out of the bathroom was imprinted firmly in her mind. She opened her dresser drawers, sifting through shirts and leggings.
“It’s all on the small side,” she mumbled.
He bent over her shoulder, peering down into the piles of clothing. What had caught his attention? Then she saw it. Buried deep in the stack was Jace’s old high school football sweatshirt. She had kept it all these years.
He was right behind her, near enough to feel his breath in her hair. She remembered this, the way it felt to be so close to him, the way she could feel his mood without looking. The electric pull between them grew stronger, and her heart pounded in her chest.
Selena pulled out the sweatshirt and handed it to him over her shoulder. “I should have given this back a long time ago.”
He didn’t move. His breaths stopped. After a long pause, he took the sweatshirt, his hand brushing over hers. Then he stepped away, breaking the current between them.
She turned back to the drawer and searched until she found a t-shirt his size. She had originally bought it as a gag gift for Darren, though he hadn’t thought it was funny. Yet another sign of a bad match. But it fit right into her collection, so she’d kept it. She slipped it out of the pile and handed it to Jace, and he held it up.
“Abs are nice but doughnuts are better,” he read aloud, chuckling. “Nice.”
She closed the drawer and opened another, searching until she found a pair of Darren’s old green cut-off sweatpants he hadn’t bothered to take with him,Winnerprinted on the rear. In her sock drawer, she found a fluffy pair of bright red socks. The more ridiculous the outfit, the better to keep the mood between them fun. Which was the key to enjoying this dose of alone time with Jace…and letting it go, unscathed.
Smiling, she handed them over to him, making sure her gaze didn’t drift down from his face to his bare chest. “If I’m dressed like this, you get a colorful outfit, too.”
“‘Winner’?”
“Make your own conclusions.”
His smile was way too cocky for his state of undress. Right next to her bed. Time to get out of there.
So she left him alone in her bedroom and returned to the kitchen island. God, he still had the same effect on her as he did all those years ago. Before she could brace herself for another round of Jace, he wandered into the kitchen. No more bare chest. Still hot, but the quirky outfit took the effect down a notch. Much better. He planted his hands on the island counter and studied her packages.
“From your parents,” he said, nodding to the little brown-wrapped box at the center.
She frowned. It was a little too personal, a little too intimate to discuss her parents with him. It was no secret how hard they’d pushed her to break up with Jace, to move away and set her sights on college instead. And the second package was from Darren’s sister, another topic she didn’t want to get into.
Selena pushed those two boxes aside and focused on the third one. The return address had no name, just a P.O. Box in Delilah’s Cove, Oregon. She bent down for a side view, but there were no other clues.
“It’s not gonna open itself,” said Jace, his voice laced with humor.
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know who it’s from. But Delilah’s Cove sounds familiar.”
“Are you sure you don’t know? Or are you just waiting for me to leave so you can open those sex toys you ordered?” He picked up the box and shook it a little. “Hmm. If it’s a vibrator, it’s heavy. Do you get a discount if you order in bulk?”
“What would I do with a bulk load of vibrators?”
