world,” he said.
She grunted. “Too small.”
This had to be the most unlucky coincidence anyone had ever experienced. Okay, maybe getting engaged to a guy and then finding out you were twins separated at birth would be worse. But this was pretty damn bad.
“It’s been a long time, Em.”
“Not long enough.”
“Ouch.”
She was being bitchy, but she couldn’t help herself. Of course, considering that she hadn’t heard word one from him in years, even after the way they’d spent their last moments together, he deserved a little bitchiness.
In fairness, she’d been young and stupid and had instigated something she wasn’t ready for. She’d blamed herself a lot over the years for the way things had turned out. But Rand’s hands weren’t lily white. His falling-out with Seth hadn’t been entirely her fault.
“How’s your brother?” he asked, as if reading her mind.
“Fine. Married.”
He looked surprised. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“Anybody I’d know?”
“His old high school sweetheart. They’d lost touch, but met up again at their ten-year reunion a couple of summers ago.”
His brow furrowed. “Hmm...Laura? Lauren? He talked about her once.”
Her turn to look—and feel—surprised. Not only that Seth would have told Rand about Lauren Desantos, but that Rand would remember her name so many years later.
“We were tight once, me and your brother, even before I became his client,” he said by way of explanation.
He didn’t continue, didn’t say the next logical sentence: Until you came between us.
She had, which was her biggest regret of all. And, possibly, one reason she was being so nasty to Rand. Her own sense of guilt and responsibility still weighed on her.
Rand and Seth had been friends in college, Seth being only three years ahead of the star athlete. And when their business partnership broke up, their friendship had, too. All because Seth’s horny, pushy little sister hadn’t been able to keep her hands to herself. And because Rand hadn’t seemed to mind all that much.
“So you haven’t spoken to him since—”
“No. I see him once in a while, at banquets and events, but we don’t speak.”
Her heart clenched in her chest and she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. Regret choked her, and she acknowledged again just how selfish she’d been.
“I’m really sorry about that, Rand,” she murmured, aware that the words were long overdue. She’d said them in the letters and messages she’d sent him after their last encounter, but they deserved to be spoken out loud. “I never meant to come between you two. I wouldn’t have...”
“It’s okay. Besides, it wasn’t all your fault. It takes two to tango.”
“Yeah. And you danced that night, too.”
He didn’t smile, that sexy grin didn’t flash, he simply stared at her, his eyes intense, as if he, too, recalled their last night with utter clarity.
“My turn to say I’m sorry,” he finally said. “I shouldn’t have let things go so far.”
She stiffened. “Don’t try to claim you weren’t interested.”
“Oh, I was interested,” he insisted. “Way too interested than I was supposed to be in my friend’s baby sister.”
“I wasn’t a baby!”
Well, she’d been kind of a baby.
They had met a month before Emily’s eighteenth birthday. She’d just graduated from high school and was primed to have a fun visit in SoCal with her big brother. She’d been thrilled to get away from her overprotective grandfather, who hadn’t let her even talk to a guy on the phone, much less actually go out with one. Having been a good girl for so long, she’d dreamed about getting a little wild even before she’d met Rand McConnell.
Once she’d met him and gotten to know him as an amazingly smart, funny, nice guy who was also über-hot, she’d been a goner.
“I was too old for you,” he said.
“Three years...”
“Is nothing now. But then? There’s a big difference between just-turned-eighteen and twenty-one, and I should have known better.”
Rand had graduated early from UCLA—he was gorgeous, talented and smart, talk about a triple threat—and had been expected to land in the big leagues. Everyone predicted he’d be a big star. Seth had signed him, worked with him, helping plan his career, which was supposed to be brilliant.
Well, his career had been brilliant, but Seth hadn’t taken him there. Because her brother had caught Rand and Emily in bed together and not only sent Emily back to their grandfather for the rest of the summer, but had dumped Rand as a client.
She hadn’t heard from the star athlete since. Not one phone call, not one email, not even a pathetic nice-to-have-known-you-and-almost-relieved-you-of-your-virginity text. Nothing but silence from the guy who’d walked away from the girl and the agent, but had gotten a hefty, multimillion-dollar career instead.
That’s what she hadn’t been able to get over. She’d thought there was a connection between them that went beyond that one night in his bed, but he’d dropped her from his life as if she’d never existed. As if she meant nothing to him.
It’s your own fault.
Man, she hated that little voice in her head, the sensible, fair one that forced her to admit that Rand hadn’t exactly invited her into his bed that night.
He had definitely flirted with her, though, on the nights she’d gone out with Seth and his friends. He’d etched his way into her heart every time he flashed that sexy, dimpled smile. He’d even kissed her one night—serious kisses, not you’re-the-cute-little-sister-of-my-friend kisses.
It had been a few days before her birthday. Seth had been working and Rand had offered to take her to Disneyland, since she’d never been there. Maybe it had started out as a big-brother/kid-sister kind of thing in Rand’s mind, but as the hours had passed, the two of them had realized just how in sync they really were.
It wasn’t just their histories—the tragedies in their teen years that had molded them. They liked the same things—the fast rides—and disliked the same things—the spinny ones. He made her laugh and she made him want to show off.
She’d held up her rapidly melting ice cream and let him help her finish it, melting right along with the confection at the sight of his lips and tongue devouring something sweet and soft. They’d grabbed hands and had never let go for the rest of the day, each of them taking every opportunity
