“I’ll keep it in mind.” Her smile felt forced. She was distracted.
“How’s Wade?”
An innocent enough question, it brought Annabeth’s gaze swinging back to Dan’s face. Emma tensed, mid-way through her glass of wine. She looked jerkily towards Annabeth. But Annabeth kept her smile pinned in place. The music was cranking out classic rock. As the families moved on, the drinking and dancing was beginning in earnest. There was no way Kirk Robinson, several tables away, would hear what they were discussing.
Except that he was straining to hear every word. Far from going over the finer points of the upcoming wedding, he was absorbed by Annabeth, and Annabeth alone.
“Hell, Kirk, you sure it’s over between the two of you?” Cam asked, over their third pitcher of beer. “You can’t take your eyes off the woman.”
Kirk forced himself to shrug nonchalantly and look his cousin clear in the eyes. “It’s strange seeing her again is all.”
“You guys are ancient history, right?”
Kirk nodded, swallowing uncomfortably. They were. Ancient history. But he remembered every single inch of her body as though he’d made love to her yesterday. She was laughing now, and without realizing it, she was leaning forward, placing her hand on the man’s shoulder. Her blonde hair had fallen over one shoulder, leaving the other exposed. It hinted at the swell of her cleavage. His gut kicked with an immediate ache of need. “Yeah. All in the past.”
“Then you won’t mind me saying that Annabeth Sparks has grown into quite the knockout.”
Kirk threw his cousin a speculative glance. “You’re getting married in two weeks.”
“I know. And Rosie’d agree with me. I’m not saying I wanna hit on her, man. I’m just saying, she’s hot.”
Kirk turned back to Annabeth. She was beautiful. Not just beautiful. Achingly lovely. It hurt too damned much to watch her like this. To see her, to be so close to her, and know he could never touch her again. That he’d never hear her moan and whimper in his arms as she had done in the past. “Yeah.” He shrugged. “Always was.”
“She was a kid back then,” Cam persisted. “Now, she’s all woman.”
“Still looks like a kid to me,” Kirk said, seriously. She was three years his junior, but she had the kind of sweet face and youthful vibrancy that could have belonged to a teenager.
“You thinking of rekindling things while you’re here?”
“No.” Kirk’s retort was fierce. His eyes glowed with intensity. “I can promise you, Cam, that Annabeth and I are over. What we used to mean to each other is dead. That love can never exist between us again.”
Cam was used to Kirk’s fiercely controlling nature. Even before he’d joined the Navy, he’d been a domineering, bossy bastard of a boy. But they’d been best friends regardless, and Cam had come to understand that there was a streak of emotional vulnerability beneath his determination. Though Kirk had never spoken of his time overseas, Cam knew it had left him a changed man.
“What time’s Rosie getting in?” Kirk forced a change in conversation, so that he could get back to drinking his beer and watching Annabeth flirt her ass off with the man who fancied himself too smooth for his own good.
“Later tonight,” Cam’s grin took over his whole face. He’d fallen in love with Rosie the first time he’d seen her, and he’d never come close to falling out of it again. He wasn’t sure what had happened between Kirk and Annabeth. At one time, he’d thought they were soul mates. Now, he knew they weren’t. They couldn’t be. True love didn’t evaporate like that. It didn’t simply fade into nothingness. No. They’d shared a teenage crush. Nothing more.
* * *
“Come on, slow poke!” Annabeth called, her short blonde curls bouncing cheekily around her face. Her cheerleader sweater was lifting up, exposing her tanned midriff, and Kirk could hardly stand to keep his hands to himself. He’d promised himself he’d wait, though. She was still a senior. When she graduated, it would be a different story.
Still, he was only human. He broke out into a run, his powerful legs pounding the pavement in the same style that had made him a star Quarterback in school. He caught her easily, lifting her around her narrow waist and throwing her over his shoulders.
“Hey!” She laughed, kicking her legs against his chest. He had to put a hand over her bottom, simply to stop her skirt from flicking up in the breeze, giving every passing driver a look at her pink underwear. That, and also, he couldn’t resist. His other hand had no business stroking her legs the way it was, but again, he found he couldn’t help it. On his shoulder, Annabeth had stopped kicking, as if she knew the atmosphere between them had changed. His stride was long as he turned into the wrought iron gates of the plantation. He didn’t move in the direction of the house. Instead, he crossed to a mulberry tree, on the side of a gentle slope.
By the time he deposited her back on the ground, his whole body was taut with desire. He stared down at her face, and the passion he saw in her eyes made him groan.
“Beth,” he said quietly, placing his palm on her cheek and stroking it.
Her eyes were beseeching. “It’s only a few weeks ‘til graduation,” she argued valiantly, for she knew he had imposed a date in his mind.
“Exactly. Only a few weeks.” He wrapped his arms loosely around her middle, pulling her against his chest so that she could feel for herself that he was in as much agony as she.
“Come on, Kirk,” she swayed her hips provocatively, reveling in the feeling of his erection, so close to her skirt. “You’re only a little bit older than I am.”
“I’ve got almost four years on you, Beth.”
“Four years!” Her smile was cheeky as she scooped her hands under his shirt and pressed her palms against his muscular chest. “Four years is nothing in the scheme of things.”
He kissed the tip of her nose. “And nor is a few weeks,” he promised. Without loosening his grip, he changed the subject. “Now, what are we going to do about that pick-up Horace is letting you drive around in?”
Her laugh was self-conscious. “Oh, Pete’ll fix her up. There’s always something or other going wrong but he always seems to get it going again.”
“I don’t like it,” Kirk’s eyes searched her face. “I wish you’d let me buy you a new car. A safe car. Something that won’t leave you stranded in the middle of the interstate.”
“And I’ve told you, no.” She stood on tiptoes, and pressed her lips against his.
“Why not, Beth?” He broke the kiss, and pulled her down to the ground with him. Side by side, they lay on the soft grass, staring up at the thicket of branches and the dappled sunshine piercing its way through.
“Because, Kirk, it’s your money, and I don’t want you spending it on me.”
“It’s not my money,” he said with a shake of his head. “It was my Pa’s. He left it to me, and it’s an obscene amount. If I want to spend it getting you a car, why’s that a problem?”
She pushed up on her elbow, staring down into his handsome face. “Because, I don’t want anything from you, except this.” Her smile was slow, her heart swollen with love.
“I know that,” he caught her wrist and pulled her so that she collapsed on top of him with a giggle. “So what? You’re worried about what other people’ll think?”
“Partly,” she agreed honestly. “You guys are royalty down here. I don’t ever want anyone to think I’m, like, your kept woman or anything.”
His frown was thick with amusement. “You, my sweet angel, couldn’t be kept by anyone. It’d be like trying to put the sun in a box.” His body was groaning with the weight of desperate need. He’d never wanted anything more than he wanted to make love to Annabeth. His lovely, beautiful Annabeth. But what was the rush? They would have the rest of their lives together. He could wait a few weeks for her. One day, she’d be his wife, and they’d make love anytime they damned wanted.
His kiss was chaste, as he consoled himself with the certainty that one day, they would be together, forever.
CHAPTER TWO
Jeanie placed the ribs and fries down without cracking a smile. She knew who he was and what he’d done, and she thought he had a hide and a half to so much as show his face in at The Whistlestop. He might have been the golden boy of Clearview once upon a time, but that was a long time ago.
Now, he has just the boy who’d broken Annabeth’s heart.
Cam’s amusement was clear. “I see your reputation precedes you,” he observed with a grin, as the middle aged woman stalked back to the kitchen.
“Yeah, I’m Clearview’s number one cad,” he agreed, his mouth just a slash in his symmetrical face. Hell, he knew he’d hurt Annabeth, but it had been five years ago. Surely she’d moved on. So why was everyone looking at him as though he was the devil incarnate?
“You haven’t been back since … your tour?”
“Nah.” Kirk ran a hand through his blonde hair. “No time.” His father had retired as soon as Kirk had got back to the States. Nothing like a busy job to keep your mind focused and positive. At least, that had been Don Robinson’s thinking. Robinson Inc. was a world leader in construction, and with Kirk at the helm, it had gone from strength to strength. Still, it was not the demands of his job that had kept him away. It was exactly this scenario. Being back, seeing Beth, it was too much. Not just the memories, but the realization that his past was now in a different time continuum. No one could ever go back in time, but sometimes, people could reach through the threads of history and pluck something back. Revive it. None of that was possible for Kirk. What he’d loved about Clearview had died with his tour of Iraq. Now, there was nothing here but more emptiness.