She shrugged. “I just couldn’t stop thinking about you. A lot of it was just wondering if you’d said no when I kissed you because you didn’t like me. It had definitely occurred to me that you might have used Adam as an excuse.”
Could she really think that? After all this time? “He wasn’t an excuse. I was completely honest with you, Anna. If it hadn’t been for Adam, I would’ve kissed you all night long. Your Dartmouth sweatshirt would’ve been off in a heartbeat.”
She dropped her chin and grinned. “Really?”
“Yes. Really.” Just thinking about it filled him with equal measures of regret and gratitude. At least he’d gotten a second chance, but had he unwittingly thrown it away?
“So anyway, I wrote you letters. A lot of letters.”
He narrowed his gaze. “But I never heard from you at all.”
“I never mailed them. I kept them in a box. I threw them away right before I graduated from college. At that point, it felt pretty silly to still be pining for you, and I had a boyfriend. Although he didn’t last for long.”
“Why didn’t you send them after my friendship with Adam went south?”
“You can’t be serious. Didn’t you hate my entire family at that point?”
He had to think hard about that. “I definitely told myself I hated all of you, but I never truly felt that way about you. Or your mom. You were both so kind to me.”
“Would you have actually read them?”
He had to be honest. “Probably not. I was insanely angry those first few years. I probably would’ve just thrown them away.” If only he could have thrown away that anger instead, he wouldn’t be in this position right now. If only things with Adam hadn’t ended the way they had. “Can you tell me what they said?”
Her face flushed with bright red. “You would ask that, wouldn’t you?”
“I’m curious.”
“Of course you are. They were all about you. Who doesn’t want to hear about a bunch of love letters someone wrote about them?”
“Just tell me one thing.” His curiosity was getting the better of him. It was difficult not to be fascinated by the idea of someone being that preoccupied with him. The thought of Anna feeling that way was nothing short of awe inspiring.
She laughed quietly and walked her fingers across the table until she took his hand. It covered his arm in goose bumps. What she could do with a single touch—it astounded him every time. “It depended on the day. If I was dealing with it okay, I would just write and tell you how much I missed you, but then I would write about normal things happening with me. If I was sad, then it was a lot about how much I missed you.” She cast her eyes aside as if she was trying to summon her courage. “And then there were the times when I was feeling lonely in other ways. That’s when I wrote to you about what I wished would’ve happened that night.”
Now he was really kicking himself for having turned her down that night. “Dammit. Really? And you threw those away? I’d pay just about anything to read that.”
“How about if I just show you instead?”
Her eyes glinted with mischief, warming him from head to toe. Was he the luckiest man on earth? Because it sure felt that way. He not only needed her at that moment, he needed to have her as his forever. He couldn’t imagine a moment without what they had together. That meant he needed to double his efforts to stop the LangTel takeover. Then he could tell her he loved her. Then he could find a way to smooth things over with Adam. Then he could go to Tiffany’s, buy her a big fat ring, and have what he knew he couldn’t live without—Anna.
Eleven
Anna could no longer tiptoe around Adam. Hiding her relationship with Jacob had become ridiculous. His birthday had illustrated that they were moving in a good direction, but they were both clearly holding back. She’d sensed it all night from him, that there was something he was dying to say. Was it that he loved her? If those were the words he wanted to say, the only thing she could imagine stopping him was Adam. There was no other explanation.
Could she persuade Adam to set aside the feud? The more she thought about it, the more convinced she was that it could be fixed. If she could get her two favorite guys to bury the hatchet, everything in her life would be better.
Anna buzzed her assistant, Carrie. “Can you let me know when my brother is out of his meeting? I need to speak to him this morning.”
“Sure thing, Ms. Langford. Anything else?”
Anything else. Maybe get Adam’s secretary to slip a shot of bourbon into his coffee cup. “No, Carrie. Thank you.”