He shrugged again and blew out a breath. “Honestly, April, I don’t give a fuck if they’re okay or not. I wouldn’t have even come at all if I hadn’t needed to deal with the shop.”
Landry’s. The mechanic shop his dad owned.
“Oh.” She couldn’t think of what else to say. He was so stoic and nonchalant about the death of his father. “Did, uh, did something happen between you and your family to create a riff?”
He stared at her a moment and then half-chuckled, rubbing a hand down his face. “I’d rather not discuss my family if you don’t mind. Tell me about you. What are you doing these days?” He leaned back and made himself comfortable, crossing one leg over the other.
She was shocked by his intent to change the conversation abruptly from the fact that his dad died to her stupid boring life.
“I assume you were on your way to work when I ran into you?” he prodded.
She shook her head. “I’m a realtor. My client for the day canceled on me after the first showing.”
“So, you’re free? We could do lunch?”
She frowned. “Why, Cole? Why would you want to have lunch with me?”
He chuckled. “You’re cute and seem like a fun girl. I could try one of my one-liners on you. How about, hey babe, what’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?”
She did not laugh. She just stared at him. Was he seriously trying to make jokes right now? Again?
“I’m kidding, April.”
“Does that still work for you? Do you still make jokes out of everything? Your dad died, and you’re here for a funeral, and all you can think to do is joke around?”
He held her gaze, sighing. “It’s what I do, April. It’s how I cope. How I avoid reality sometimes.” He hesitated and then continued. “Go to lunch with me because we were once close. Because I don’t know anyone in town anymore. Because I don’t have anything to do until after the funeral when I meet with the lawyer.”
April took another slow drink of coffee. Ten years ago, this man had broken her heart into ten million pieces and he thought he could just waltz into town, take her to lunch, and catch up like old times?
Part of her wanted to shout all of this at him, demand that he explain why he’d ghosted her and left town without a word. She wanted answers to all the questions that had plagued her for ten years. But something about him was off. His dad had just died. Even though he acted like he didn’t give a fuck, even that was strange. Now wasn’t a good time to pick a fight with him. It would be insensitive.
“Do your parents still live in the same house?” he asked, making small talk like there weren’t two giant elephants in the room.
She hesitated and then responded. “Yeah. They haven’t even changed my bedroom. When I sleep over, I still crawl into that same twin bed with the same comforter covered in those gaudy red cherries.”
He chuckled. “Those were gaudy, but you loved red. I remember when you got that bedding for your birthday. And that bed…” He sucked in a breath and glanced down.
She pulled in a breath at the same time. Yeah, that bed. The place where we had sex for the first time on a Friday night when my parents were out of town. The place where we often had sex any time my parents were both at work or on a date. That bed.
Cole must have been having similar thoughts because he didn’t say anything or look up again for a while. “Why didn’t your parents ever turn your old room into a guest room or something?”
She shrugged. “They seem to feel nostalgic about it. Plus, my mom thinks it’s the perfect room for a grandchild. She hints at that often.”
He laughed. “I can see your mom doing that.” There were tiny wrinkles around his eyes that hadn’t been there ten years ago. They were only twenty-eight, but she knew he’d been through a lot in the last ten years. The man wasn’t just in the Navy. He was a SEAL. She knew this because her mother sometimes mentioned it.
“What do you say, April? Lunch?”
Chapter 2
Cole couldn’t believe he was sitting in April’s living room staring at the woman he’d loved more than anything in the world ten years ago. Maybe they’d just been kids. Maybe he hadn’t known what real love was. But seeing her today was pulling at his heartstrings.
She was colder somehow. Jaded. Angry even, though he wasn’t sure why. She clearly didn’t want to reconnect with him, and he couldn’t blame her on that front. He had walked away from her without a word and never looked back. She had a right to be angry, but something was odd about her reaction to him. Something more than a high school resentment.
He hadn’t meant to see her this week. He’d intended to come to town, handle his father’s affairs, and get back to base in San Diego as fast as possible. One week. There was no reason why he would run into April.
Now he had a new problem. This grown-up version of April was smoking hot. She’d been the cutest girl in high school as far as he was concerned, but now she’d filled in. She had a more hourglass figure with fuller boobs and a fucking nice ass. Her blond hair was a shade darker, but not much. Her brown eyes penetrated just as they had back then. In the overlapping circles of Zig’s strange Venn diagram, April definitely fell into the smoking hot, curvy, improved-with-time circle.
April had always been able to control him with hardly more than a look. He would melt into a puddle when she shot him the you’ve-gone-too-far glance. Truth was, she’d been a savior to him, taming him when he got carried away.
She’d gone to her
