I didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry.”
“Boy, we sure know how to bring down the mood, don’t we?” He shook his head as if to dispel the bad thoughts. “Tell me more about Brooke. I bet she’s awesome.”
I smiled at the thought of my daughter. “I just talked to her before I got here. She’s excited for me—finding you.”
“That’s sweet.” His voice sounded wistful.
“She’s studying chemistry at college. The English professor’s daughter is a math and science genius. She gets that from her father.”
“How is it between them?”
“About like your brothers and your dad. I don’t know if she’ll ever really accept him back into her life. Everything she thought about her world shattered.”
“How could it not?”
“I worry about her, not having a good relationship with her father. Will that spill over to how she sees men? Will she be able to trust?”
“What about you? Can you trust again?”
“I want to,” I said softly. “But it’ll take someone special.”
“Someone who truly gets you?”
“Yes. Someone like you.” I smiled, remembering the first time I’d ever laid eyes on him.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“Do you remember the day you came to school for the first time? Second grade. It was a few weeks after school had started.”
“Not really. I can remember my mom telling me were moving back here and being super excited.”
We’d already begun our day when the principal escorted them into our second-grade classroom. Two sweet, hapless little boys who more tripped than walked into the room. They’d both been adorable, but Cole captured my heart. “You looked right at me,” I said, “and winked.”
“No way.”
“You did.” I laughed at the look of shock on his face. “I swear. My stomach dropped to the floor, and then I flushed from head to toe.”
“What was I thinking? Winking at the prettiest girl in class.”
“I don’t know, but I fell head over heels for you. From then on, it was all about Cole Paisley.”
“So what you’re telling me is that Drew never had a chance?”
“Correct.”
“I can’t wait to call and tell him that.”
I let my eyes sparkle back at him, enjoying myself. “Then it took you another eight years or so to get up the nerve to wink again.”
He groaned. “I pined for you for years and years, suffering in silence.”
“As I did you.”
He gestured toward his house. “You see that? Black and white? That’s how I’ve always been. I was as sure as anything in my life that you were the girl for me.”
“We were so young, though. Do you think it was real?”
“It was for me.”
“You don’t think part of it was pure teenage fantasy?” I shook my head. “Beth used to tease me about how much I daydreamed about you.”
“Are you telling me you fantasized about me?” He rubbed the slight indentation in his chin with the pad of his thumb.
“A daydream. Not a fantasy.” My voice came out huskier and sexier than I wished.
His eyes flickered. “What kind of daydreams?”
“Kissing you.”
His eyebrows lifted. “That’s it?”
I laughed. “Don’t look so disappointed. What other daydreams would I have had?”
“I was hoping for ones more on the naughty side.”
“I was much too innocent to go any further in my mind. Then, not now.” I was baiting him, teasing him, like a woman accustomed to flirting. Who was I?
“We’re no longer sixteen, this is true.” He gave me a wolfish grin.
“Did you ever think about me? Wonder where I was? If I was married?”
“Every day of my life. I felt sure you were married. How could you not be? I told myself to leave your memory alone, but I didn’t listen.”
“I was married, but I’m not now,” I said.
His eyes glittered, no longer playful. The pull of his gaze reached across the table and took hold of me. “I’ve carried a torch for you my entire life. Nothing’s changed. I doubt it ever will.”
My pulse quickened. “Is that true? For real?”
“As real as it can be. What about you? Did you ever think about me?”
“More times than once a day. So I win.”
“No, if you thought of me even once in all those years, then I’m the winner.”
10
Cole
Carlie dipped her chin the way she had when we were young. Her dark lashes decorated her cheekbones. Those cheekbones. Age had only made them more pronounced. The angles of her face seemed carved from the finest marble, including her pointed chin and strong jawline. My fingers itched to caress the space between her cheekbone and jawline.
“What is it?” I asked. “Have I scared you?”
“Not at all.” She looked at me, her eyes wide. “I’m amazed at your honesty.”
“I’m too old to pretend like this isn’t a damn miracle. You’re here, sitting at my table. I have nothing to gain by acting coy. God’s given us a second chance. Unless you tell me you don’t want me, I intend on making the most of our time together.”
“How can you be so bold after your wife’s betrayal?”
“Fate’s brought us back together. Her betrayal has nothing to do with us. Or so it seems to me.” I settled back into my chair and crossed one leg over the other. I hardly recognized myself. This was not the bitter version of myself who’d clobbered the romantic, trusting one. Or life had, anyway. This was the man she brought out in me. Glorious and bold. Willing to risk my ego for the chance at love.
“I don’t do this kind of thing,” she said. “Whirlwind romances.”
I chuckled. “Thirty years in the making.”
A pink flush crept into her cheeks. “I haven’t been with anyone but my husband in a very long time. This is new territory for me.”
“Except it’s me. You know me.”
Her mouth curved up in a gentle smile. “I do.”
“Make no mistake. I’d love to haul you upstairs
