“Red Mercedes.”
Jace froze. There were just over eight hundred people in Sacred Harbor and another few hundred spread out along the surrounding coast. Only one of them owned a red Mercedes. Though he had never seen it up close in his garage, he knew as well as the rest of the town did that the red Mercedes belonged to Selena Guerrero. Or Selena Miller, as she now was called. Not that he was keeping track.
“Hello? Are you s-s-s-still there?” Her voice sent another prickle down his spine, but this time, it didn’t stop there.
Hervoice. Goddamn. It had been so long.
“Yes, Selena,” he finally said. “I’m here. I’ll be there in ten.”
He hung up the phone and massaged his temples. When Selena and her rich-ass husband had bought a vacation house just outside Sacred Harbor, every one of his siblings had found a way to mention it. Who the hell had the money for a vacation house, especially one they almost never visited since Selena’s parents moved back to Mexico. Not that he was keeping track. It wasn’t his business, not anymore. And it shouldn’t matter that his sister Lizzie had mentioned seeing her at a distance during the fall. He had expected to run into her at some point, but he wasn’t ready for it right now, when he had just closed up shop and changed for his brother’s engagement dinner. He ran a hand through his hair.Just get this encounter over with and move on.
Jace grabbed his coat and jogged to the truck, the rain smacking hard against the dress pants he had just put on. Too late to change back. He jumped in and steered the truck toward the highway, the phone conversation looping through his mind.
Since Lizzie had dropped hints about Selena, he’d had some late-night fantasies that started this way. She would call for a tow, and he’d take the job instead of his regular crew. She’d be surprised to see him, the good kind of surprised. She’d tell him that she’d made a mistake all those years ago, that she shouldn’t have turned him down, and he’d tell her that she could show him how sorry she was. She’d climb in, straddle him, and they’d be right back where they were nine years ago, going at it in his truck, despite her marriage. Then, after he made her feel good one more time, the way he used to—after he’d given her one last reminder of what she had given up when she traded him in for a luxury model—he’d finally put her out of his mind forever.
The cheating aspect of that scenario didn’t feel great, but the fantasy always got the job done quickly.
Except this wasn’t one of his fantasies. She had called him in the middle of a storm, and her teeth had been chattering. Forbidden reunion sex wasn’t nearly as appealing when real-life Selena was in distress.
The wind had muffled her voice throughout the call. Why the hell was she outside? Was her husband with her, or was she alone? Jace had tried to block out all the rumors around town about why she was in Sacred Harbor a lot more often these days.
The sleet turned to hail as he neared Willow River, and he slowed the truck, searching for the red car. It was a good choice of colors, considering the situation. The car came into sight just past the bridge. Jace swung the truck around and parked. He turned off the engine and blew out a long breath. His heart was racing, as if it still hadn’t gotten the message that it was better not to think about the good parts. The way she looked at him when his hands were on her bare skin. The way she loved Lizzie, too. The way she had so deftly navigated his mother, a feat most of his family still hadn’t mastered. The way holding her had felt like the home he didn’t know he was missing.
Jace scrubbed his hands over his face and let out a breath. It was time to get this over with.
He pulled the hood of his raincoat over his head and climbed out of the truck. The windows of the car were steamed up, and the hail piled on her windshield. He knocked on the driver’s side door, and she pushed it open. Bending down, he peered in.
Selena was wrapped in a white raincoat with grey and black designs, hood up. The coat looked expensive and impractical as hell. How fitting for this new version of her. Even her raincoat saidI don’t belong with a small-town guy who runs a garage.
Big brown eyes with long, dark lashes blinked up at him, and his heart stuttered in his chest.
“J-J-J-J-Jace?” she said, her teeth knocking together. “I didn’t mean to call you.”
Despite everything, he had to laugh. “Next time, try a different number.”
Selena rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”
Yes, he did. Jace looked inside her car again and found it empty. Good. It was probably easier for both of them this way, without her husband. Seeing Selena again shouldn’t be a big deal, but his heart was doing strange things in his chest.
“Come climb into the truck,” he said, trying to keep his voice casual. “It’s warmer in there.”
She gave a quick nod and stepped out into the rain.
Jace fought images of that X-rated scenario he had imagined as he followed her. Not happening. Eighteen-year-old Selena would have been a different story. But twenty-seven-year-old Selena, in her designer coat? Not a chance in hell.
He led the way to the passenger’s side and opened the door, helping her in as water poured over the hood of his raincoat. His gut clenched as her cold hand brushed against his. Damn. She was freezing, and his mind was in the gutter.
He walked around to the driver’s side and climbed in, trying hard not to look at her. The engine purred, and he turned up the heaters. Well...just one good look wouldn't hurt, would it? He turned as Selena slid off her hood and lifted her hands to the truck’s little heating vent, rubbing them together. Wet strands of hair fell in her face, and she pushed them away. Her hair was different.
“Your hair is brown,” he said.
She smiled a little. “Y-y-you’re just noticing that now?”
Jace bit back a smirk. He remembered every single inch of this woman. Intimately.
“I mean you don’t have those red streaks anymore,” he said. He fingered the ends of one of the strands, then let it go.
“Oh, that.” She wrinkled her forehead. “I got rid of those in business school.”
