bottom, and Lauren sent up a mental curse against the person who’d designed airplane seats to be tiny and clothes-rumpling, and their processed air to be hair-flattening and makeup-melting. Of course it hadn’t helped that a harried mommy and her way-too-big-to-be-a-lap-baby demon spawn had been seated beside her. The kid kept throwing tantrums and lollipops, one of which had landed in Lauren’s hair, which now probably had a sticky streak of red mixed in with the golden brown. And the little brute had been a kicker, so she had a bruise on the side of her arm.
Worst. Day. Ever.
Okay. Nix that.
Second. Worst. Day. Ever.
He stared at her, as if he couldn’t look enough, and Lauren found herself shifting from foot to foot, like a nervous kid being inspected by the school principal.
Good grief, she so needed to get away from this reunion. She was degenerating back to high school mode, even in her thoughts! It didn’t help that she suddenly remembered the secret Senior Class Superlatives that had made their way around campus, outside of the safe, sanctioned ones in the yearbook. Seth had been voted “Most Likely to Score with the Prom Queen.” She’d forgotten all about it until right now…when she was face-to-throat with the potent male who was supposed to have been her first lover.
It was one more thing to be mad at him for. Because of Seth, she’d lost her virginity to a guy she didn’t even like much. Being abandoned by her first love had made her anxious to prove herself worthy of sexual desire, so she’d gone to bed with the first guy she’d dated in college.
He’d thought her clitoris was inside her belly button.
“What are you doing here, Seth?” she finally asked.
“Last time I checked, I was part of the class of ‘02.”
“You didn’t show up at graduation,” she reminded him again.
“That doesn’t mean I didn’t get a diploma.”
Well, that was news to her.
“I got them to mail it to me,” he continued. “I had the grades, even without being there to take my finals.”
He’d definitely been smart enough, which had been part of his appeal. Handsome, athletic, sexy and supersmart. Could any girl have resisted him? Certainly none back in high school. He could have had anyone he wanted…but he’d sworn he only wanted her.
They had gone to an exclusive, pricey private school in Chicago. She’d been a scholarship commuter kid from a blue-collar neighborhood who took a city bus to and from classes every day. He’d been a golden boy, a blue blood, living in the Ivy League–priced dorms, occasionally mentioning a family estate outside the city, but mostly not talking about his parents, with whom he didn’t get along.
She and Seth had been as different as chocolate and sauerkraut…yet those ten months they’d been together, she’d believed there was nobody else on the planet as right for her.
Stupid teenager.
“Did they mail your diploma to the dark side of the moon?” she asked with a sweet smile. “I mean, I assumed you were kidnapped by aliens, the way you disappeared.”
“You can’t know how badly I feel about that.”
“Save it.”
“It killed me not to be able to take you to prom.”
“Yeah, well, believe me, if you’d been close and I’d had a weapon that night, I would have happily taken care of that killing thing for you.”
“Lauren…”
“Then, on Monday, when I found out you’d withdrawn from school, I stopped hating you long enough to be really worried,” she admitted, though she chided herself for the note of concern she still heard in her voice.
But she had been concerned. Concerned enough to forgive him, enough to think something truly awful must have happened. Enough to decide to be there for him during whatever calamity must have befallen him. She’d waited for him to reach out to her to explain. And she’d waited.
Finally, she’d called—number disconnected.
She’d written—letter returned to sender.
Only the fact that his younger sister, a middle schooler, had also withdrawn the same day convinced her Seth hadn’t been murdered. That, and his second call. He’d phoned her house that autumn, saying he was okay, and he was sorry.
Lauren had already been living in Georgia with her aunt, having just started her freshman year of college, and her parents had refused to give Seth her number. When her mom called to give her the message, Lauren had only cried for about ten minutes before going back to her regularly scheduled plan of get-over-Seth-and-move-on. End of contact. Until today.
“Lauren, I…”
“Hey, look guys, it’s Seth and Lauren! The king and queen of the prom are finally together!”
“Oh, fuck my life,” she muttered under her breath.
Seth’s quick, short bark of laughter told her she hadn’t been quiet enough.
Never had Lauren so wished for a time machine—she’d get in it and go back ten minutes, to the moment when she’d pulled up her rental car in front of this overly lavish place. Instead of parking, she’d have kept on driving. Canada was nice this time of year. Or Mexico. The Sahara. Anywhere else.
Though, honestly, if she had a time machine, she’d be better off going back to warn her young, vulnerable self to never say yes to Seth Crowder in the first place. She could even take an extra minute during the trip to offer herself a stock tip: Starbucks, yes. Borders, no. Oh, and since you’re single, cruise on up to Harvard and introduce yourself to this dude named Mark Zuckerberg. He’s single right now, too. He’s a bit of an egghead, but he’s got an idea for this thing called Facebook…
“Pose for a picture guys—the one you never got on prom night!”
“Fat chance,” she snapped, turning quickly. They could take a picture of her butt as she walked away. “Lauren, we need to talk,” Seth said.
“No, we don’t.”
“Please!” He held out a hand and put it on her arm.
She shivered slightly, affected in spite of herself. Seth was here, looking at her with desperate longing in his beautiful green eyes, touching her with those strong hands that had once given her as much pleasure as a girl could get with her hymen still intact. This man had been born understanding a woman’s anatomy—no belly button confusion for him. He and her clitoris had made friends on their third date. By the fifth they’d been drinking buddies.
But it didn’t matter.
“Let me go, Seth,” she told him.
“Can’t you give me a chance to explain?”
“Nope.”
“Come on, a half
