I could hardly believe that I’d once seen Dylan as nothing more than my best friend’s little sister. When she’d been in high school she’d gotten drunk at a party once and called me to pick her up.
I’d driven her home and she’d thrown up all over my back seat. It had taken me a week to clean it out. I definitely hadn’t seen her as sexy back then. She’d always been around, and I had taken her presence for granted.
Then I’d had to go and mess it all up by sleeping with her and walking away. I wanted to kick my past self all over again.
I led her to my expensive car and she touched the paint job in appreciation.
“Mercedes. Nice. I’m a little shocked it’s not red and sporty though.”
“I’m not compensating for anything.” I liked my understated car. It was luxurious and impressive without rubbing that fact in everyone’s face.
Dylan laughed and clapped a hand over her mouth.
I smiled. I liked being able to make her laugh. I opened the passenger door with a flourish.
She gave me a sly smile. “Are you sure you aren’t just over-compensating?”
I paused. Had she just implied what I thought she’d just implied? “I haven’t had any complaints.”
“Do you put out comment cards?”
Who was this woman and where had she been all my life? Never mind. I knew exactly where she’d been. A foot down and a little to the left. I’d just been too stupid to notice her there.
I’d missed her these last ten years. Missed everything about her. The way she laughed, her snarky commentary, the way those ‘donate now’ commercials could make her cry and reach for the phone.
Did she still do that? I wanted to ask, but I was afraid of how she’d react to such an out of the blue question.
I took the driver’s side and tried not to stare at her out of the corner of my eye. She ran her hands over the buttery soft leather of the seats. I’d never wished so badly to be upholstery.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“You’ll see.” I wanted it to be a surprise. Dylan wasn’t easy to impress, as she’d made clear with her comments about my car and lack of comment about the Armani suit I was wearing.
“I don’t like surprises.” Dylan squirmed in her seat as she turned to look at me.
I had to keep my hands off her. I hadn’t realized how difficult that would be.
“Sure you do. You liked your surprise birthday party.” I’d attended it under duress. Dylan’s mother had worried the guest list would be too sparse if I didn’t attend. It had turned out that plenty of people had shown up, and I’d dumped the punch bowl over Dylan’s head.
“I was ten. I’ve grown up since then,” Dylan said.
“I noticed.” Fuck. I shouldn’t have said that. My eyes dipped down to the front of her dress, and when I lifted them again, she was pursing her lips together like I’d just said something really stupid.
It was impossible not to notice, though. Dylan had started out as a very scrawny child. She hadn’t filled out until she hit puberty, and then curves had developed in all the right places.
She’d still been my best friend’s little sister, though, so she’d been off limits on the fantasy front. Until I’d fucked her.
That had messed up the off limits thing a bit. I’d panicked and run right after it happened, which had been an even worse mistake. I wished I could take back how things had gone between us.
If I could do it again, I wouldn’t have made a move on her until after college when I was man enough to deal with my own actions. Waiting until then would have kept her from running from me for ten years.
And that was even assuming she was going to forgive me tonight. She could walk away and it could be ten more years before I saw her again.
The thought of losing Dylan again hurt like hell. I had to find a way to hold onto her.
We pulled up in front of the restaurant.
“Italian. Nice,” Dylan said.
I was shocked. It was the closest thing to approval she’d given me since she’d walked into that conference room.
“We’re lucky I could get a reservation here. Usually it’s booked.” I was only half lying. I’d booked this reservation the moment I’d seen Dylan’s name. I wasn’t sure she would say yes, but I wanted to make sure I could take her to the best food money could buy if she did. All part of the plan to make my past behavior up to her.
I parked the car and hurried around to her side to open the door for her. She smiled at me, amused. “You’re quite the gentleman tonight. You know you lost the chance to impress me when you stole my Barbies with my brother and had your GI Joes hold them hostage, right?”