you,” she said between gritted teeth as she turned to stare at him again. “Why I ever thought I needed to apologize to you is beyond me.” Why she still found him attractive was another mystery, too unpleasant to delve into deeply. Why, why, why?
And he seemed to know her thoughts as he reclined against the sofa arm, gazing at her. His eyes sparked with mischief and reckless fun, much the same as in more youthful days. But now…now he was so much more handsome. No young boy, but a grown man broad of chest and shoulders, his muscled arms not nearly concealed enough by the clinging white polo shirt. Darn him. Though his eyes were still those of her teenaged Romeo, his face had planed into maturity. A five o’clock shadow surrounded well-formed lips, those lips that had just left her breathless with a kiss every bit as heart-stealing as their cherished kisses of the past.
“Now, Crystal, admit you’re glad to see me.”
“I don’t think telling lies is honorable.”
He vaulted over the sofa back to stand in front of her. “I’m glad to see you,” he said softly. “I’ve thought about you a lot.”
Her heart froze, suspended like a cold rock in her chest. “You have not,” she said weakly.
“I have. How could I forget you?”
She couldn’t stand it any longer. Common sense told her she didn’t want to know, but her foolish heart was already crying to know the answer. “Why didn’t you take me to the prom?” she asked on an anguished whisper.
“I wanted to. I was looking forward to it.” He reached up, finally snagging the red Chinese sticks and removing them so that her hair fell to her shoulders. Laying the sticks on the sofa table, he pulled her into his arms. “I couldn’t,” he said, brushing a kiss against her lips. “I just found myself in a position I couldn’t extricate myself from,” he murmured against her mouth, before tasting deeply of her.
He pulled back and his words brushed her lips. “Crystal, I tried to talk to you a hundred times after the prom, and you ignored me every time. You wouldn’t return my calls. Never replied to my notes—which, by the way, I saw torn up in the trash after we cleared out our lockers. You didn’t attend our graduation night party, and I knew then that you’d avoid me at any cost.
“And you did, didn’t you, Crystal? And today I’ve just teased you a lot to keep from scaring you off again. I didn’t want to lose you then—” but I can’t have you now, he finished silently.
Crystal clung to him as if there were no tomorrow. There were no family members waiting on her, no birthday dinner with just her relatives woefully eyeing the carefully counted candles on her homemade birthday cake. She was seventeen again, and nothing would ever come between her and Mitch. Nothing.
“What was it?” she asked on a gasp, feeling his thigh part hers and push against the serviceable dress she’d worn to work.
“I can’t tell you,” he said. “All I can tell you is that I wish it had been you I was with that night.”
Stunned, she stared up into his eyes. He ran a thumb lightly over her lips. “Why can’t you tell me?”
“The reason is confidential. I would be breaking Kathryn’s confidence to tell you.”
Splinters of jealousy flew into her heart. “I was never sure how Kathryn got to be part of our big night. When did the two of you get to be such good friends?”
“She had a problem that she came to me for help with.” Mitch gazed at her, his expression longing. “I can say no more than that. You have to trust me, Crystal. I wanted to be with you.”
A long moment passed as she weighed whether she really wanted to ask the question that popped into her mind. Most likely, she didn’t want to know. “Did you kiss her?” she asked, her face flaming as soon as she said the words.
After a moment, he gave a single nod. Crystal’s heart shattered all over again. There was nothing else she would ask, because he’d given her the answer she needed. He’d made love to her the night before; she’d thought their shared first time meant something.
But he’d kissed Kathryn the very next night.
“I have to go! I have to get out of here.”
She flew to the front door and outside before he could stop her. Sprinting across the street, she noted that her house was brightly lit, which was unusual. Her family was usually very energy-conscious. But she had to get away from Mitch and their past and the pain, and she couldn’t stop to admire how pretty the house looked with all the lights bedecking the evening.
She threw open the door and slammed it behind her, gulping air as she realized she’d left her hair ornaments at Mitch’s, so that her usual snug do was a tousled mop. Her lips had been kissed of lipstick and felt larger than normal. She had to get her makeup on and her hair up before her family’s sharp eyes noticed—
“Surprise!”
Crystal screamed as it seemed a hundred people leapt out at her from behind sofas and curtains and tables. Her hand flew to her throat and then to her uncustomarily mussed hair.
The added shock was too much for her already skittish blood pressure. Before Crystal could stop herself, she slid to the parquet floor in a faint.
Chapter Four
Crystal thought she was waking from a nightmare when she opened her eyes to see Frank Peters staring down at her. “Are you all right, Crystal?” he asked.
Even in their high school days, Frankie had been a menace. Girls weren’t safe in his car. He was too darn handsome for words, and he by golly knew it.
She wanted no part of him. “I’m fine,” she whispered. Now go away, nightmare.
Lincoln Lark, who’d once held the record for most yards rushed in a season for the Lover’s Valley Vikings, tried to help her to her feet. “Let me carry you,” he offered. “I’ll put you on the sofa.”
Lincoln hadn’t come by his record by accident. He rushed for yardage the same way he rushed for women. Crystal wanted no part of him, either, having seen him snap the back of homely Penny Parson’s bra while she was fishing around in her locker. He’d laughed uproariously at her yelp of surprise and pain. Crystal hadn’t thought the “turtle snap” was very funny. “Go away, Lincoln,” she said, as gently as possible, giving him a little push. “I can get up by myself.”
“Aw. You’re always saying you can do everything by yourself, Crystal Jennings.” Barney Fearing was the third head that clouded her vision. “Only woman in Lover’s Valley who’d have three strong, handsome men offer to help her, and stubbornly stay lying on her back just to show everybody how independent she is. Come on, you old party pooper. Can’t believe you hit the ground at your own surprise party.”
She eyed Barney, her gaze narrow. He was always less tolerant of her than the other high school guys, possibly since they’d once gotten into a water-balloon-throwing contest and she’d hit him square in the zipper so that he’d gone around for a couple of hours looking like he’d peed his jeans. Not only that, but the balloon had hit him hard enough to send the color rushing from his face. The girls had cheered her, but Barney had been respectful of her aim after that. He’d begun treating her like a kid sister he had to protect.
