She tapped her glass to his. “Second chances,” she echoed.
“I’m so excited aboutnext week,” Savannah said as they walked back to his apartment.
Since Wildcat Tower was just across the square from Baron’s, after he picked up Savannah, Harlan had parked in the parking garage rather than on the street.
“What’s next week?” Had he forgotten something? He knew it wasn’t her birthday. Looking shocked, she stopped walking. “Christmas on the Square, of course.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s next week? I hadn’t thought about it.” They started walking again.
“Well, I have. Christmas on the Square is so much fun. I love Christmas.”
“I remember,” he said. “The first time I kissed you was under the mistletoe at a Christmas party.”
“You remember our first kiss?” she said, sounding surprised and pleased. “I didn’t think guys remembered things like that. It was a long time ago.”
He stopped, beneath a streetlight this time, and put his hand beneath her chin, tipping up her face. Her cheeks were red and so were her lips. Her eyes sparkled, blue and clear as a cloudless Texas sky. She wore a fuzzy white coat buttoned up to her neck, but her head was bare. Leaning down, he kissed her lightly. “There’s no way I’d forget finally getting to kiss the girl I’d been dreaming about for two years.”
“Two years? Really?”
“Absolutely.”
Her lips curved upward in a mischievous smile. “I’ll tell you a secret,” she said, hooking her arm through his and beginning to walk again. “I arranged it so that I’d be under that mistletoe at the same time you walked through that door.”
“You’ve got it wrong. I arranged that mistletoe. I couldn’t think of any other way I could kiss you without you clobbering me.” They reached the building and he opened the door, letting Savannah go in ahead of him.
“I wouldn’t have clobbered you,” Savannah said with a laugh. “Far from it. I was fascinated with you. You were one of the ‘bad boys from the Barrels.’ I couldn’t believe you were interested in me.”
“Other way around. You were way out of my league.”
“Did you really think that?”
“Hell, yes. Why are you surprised? I was a kid from the Barrels and you were the banker’s daughter. I figured you just wanted a taste of the wild side.”
“I’ll admit that was part of the fascination. At least until we started talking and I realized that beneath that macho, bad boy exterior was a really sweet guy.”
That wasn’t how he’d have described his younger self, but he let her keep her illusions. Harlan let them into his apartment and tossed his keys on a small table. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“No, I’m good. But you go ahead.”
“I’m good too.” He helped her off with her coat and hung it on the coat rack. “I’ll put on some music. Any requests?”
“Surprise me.”
He chose a CD by Jamie Templeton, Whiskey River’s local boy turned rock star.River Song, one of his favorites.
“Great choice,” she said. “I love Jamie Templeton’s music.” She walked over to the window and stood with her back to him, looking out. With her short, white dress and her thigh-high black boots she looked beautiful and very, very sexy. He wanted her so badly, wanted to hold her, kiss her, make love to her until neither of them could move. But he still wasn’t sure if that was what she wanted or if she was ready for that step.
She turned around, smiling when she caught him staring at her—thinking he could have eaten her alive. “No need to ask what’s on your mind.”
“I’ve been told I have a poker face.”
“Not right now, you don’t,” she said, laughing.
He stayed where he was, a few feet away, not trusting himself to get too close to her. “I didn’t come back expecting we could be together again. I didn’t see any way you’d forgive me and I wasn’t planning on telling you the truth about what happened. Besides, I figured it had been fourteen years. We’d both moved on. Gotten married.”
“And divorced,” she remarked.
“That too. I thought I’d be fine with working with you, maybe we could even be friends.” He half-laughed. “Then at the ball, I turned around and there you were.”
