last memory was the strongest, perhaps because it had been the impetus he’d used to get over her.
And he had gotten over her. Years ago. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t thought about her and wondered what had become of her. Especially recently when her mother had been on a quest to keep her brother’s killer from getting parole, gathering signatures on a petition in front of the grocery store and placing ads in the local newspaper.
With her clear skin, apple cheeks and gently arched brows, Diana had a natural quality that had always captivated him. She’d gotten even more appealing with age, something his infatuated teenage self wouldn’t have thought possible.
Her step didn’t falter, her slight smile didn’t waver, as though seeing him again hadn’t unduly affected her. It could have been because she’d done the spurning, although he could no longer blame her for that. With the wisdom that comes with age, he understood that she’d turned to him out of grief. But it still stung that he hadn’t mattered much to her while she’d been vital to him.
“Hello, Tyler,” she said, her voice still low, still smoky.
Annoyed at his reaction to her, he tried to pull himself together but still couldn’t manage to smile. “Hello, Diana.”
He knew he was staring, but couldn’t help it. Although her oval-shaped face appeared virtually the same, her eyes seemed different, as though they’d seen more than she’d bargained for. His gaze slid downward to the tiny mole to the left of her mouth that he used to like to kiss. Before she’d told him he hadn’t been the only guy she’d granted access to it.
The thought snapped him out of his embarrassing stupor. He wasn’t a teenager anymore but an accomplished adult who prided himself on his poise. He could deal with the unexpected appearance of a girl from his past.
“This is quite a surprise,” he said, pleased his voice sounded the way it always did. “I hadn’t realized you were in town visiting.”
A few beats of silence passed before she shook her head. “I’m not visiting. I’m working here at the center.”
“You’re working at the center?” he repeated numbly, barely keeping the incredulity out of his voice. “Since when?”
“Since today, actually.” She slipped one of her hands in the front pocket of her slacks, where she seemed to be fiddling with something. He tried to wrap his mind around the startling revelation that she wasn’t only back in Bentonsville temporarily. She was back to stay. “I’m going to school in Gaithersburg. My plan was to work there, too. But I ran into Chris over the weekend, he offered me a job and here I am.”
Yeah, here she was. Back in Bentonsville for a reason that had nothing to do with him.
Blindsided that he’d subconsciously wished she’d returned to town because of him, he felt the need to put space between them. He wasn’t that naive kid who’d once stupidly confused a grieving girl’s dependence for something it wasn’t.
But for the life of him, he couldn’t make himself move.
“How about you?” She broke the deafening silence between them. “What are you doing here?”
“I needed to talk to Chris.” His spinning brain furnished a reason why he was still frozen in place. Should he prepare himself to run into her around every Bentonsville corner? “Are you living here in town?”
“No, I’m not. I’m in a hotel right now but I’ll probably get an apartment in Gaithersburg.”
“I hope it all works out for you,” he said shortly. Move, Tyler, he told himself. Leave before you say something you’ll regret. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to be getting back to work.”
“Oh, of course,” she said, taking a step sideways so he had more room to pass. The way she turned her head subtracted years from her face, peeling the decade away and taking him back to the time he was trying to forget. A time when he’d dreamed of a perfect girl, a girl he cared about and who cared about him.
He walked determinedly past her, banking his urge to speed up. His vaunted poise hadn’t held up as well as he’d hoped, but a hasty retreat might give her the idea that her long-ago betrayal still hurt.
Which, unfortunately, it did.
CHAPTER THREE
DIANA SAT on the tall stool behind the welcome counter during a temporary lull, nursing her third cup of coffee of the day and turning over and over a smooth, flat stone with a psychedelic design.
Jaye had painted it last year during art class, then gravely presented it after Diana crashed into the tree. Amidst all the upheaval in their lives, Diana had forgotten the stone’s existence—until she’d found it inside a box last night, its bold slashes of red, blue and yellow demanding to be noticed.
Her daughter had insisted it was a good-luck charm. After Diana’s earlier encounter with Tyler, during which she’d held onto the stone like a lifeline, she seriously doubted it held hidden power.
She’d wondered if Tyler had thought to ask about her child, paving the eventual way for her to tell him he had a daughter. But he’d been silent, showing no more interest in the subject than he had a decade ago.
Disappointment rose up in Diana. He’d seemed like a stranger and not the boy she’d loved.
She hadn’t remembered him being over six feet, but then he’d been young when they were together and possibly still growing. His chest and shoulders had filled out, changes apparent despite his well-cut gray suit. His face was different, too. The shape more rectangular, his clefted chin squarer, his blue eyes warier.
Once she’d been able to tell him anything, but she’d had a hard time getting out any words at all, let alone about Jaye.
She pushed off the floor with her right foot, sending the stool revolving in a complete three-sixty. She couldn’t let their difficult first meeting deter her. Her reasons for telling Tyler about Jaye hadn’t changed. Clearing her conscience so she could start her life anew constituted only a minor part of it. Doing right by her daughter—and, by extension, Tyler—made up the rest.
When the stool faced frontward again, a vaguely familiar woman with dyed red hair and a matronly figure was approaching.
“Aren’t you Elaine Smith’s daughter, Diana?” the woman, who was probably in her sixties, asked in a voice Diana recognized at once.
Diana’s hand closed around the stone. She’d told Chris filling in at the welcome desk while the regular receptionist went on lunch break wasn’t a problem, but she’d lied.
She’d gotten through her initial meeting with Tyler, but she wasn’t ready to face her past and the rest of the people who populated it.
Please, God, she prayed, don’t let the woman have worked at the high school. Teachers talked, and Bentonsville High’s insulated community ensured that everybody knew Diana had been trouble. After Diana abruptly left town amidst rumors that she was an easy lay, speculation that she was pregnant must have been rampant.
“You’re right,” she admitted slowly. “I am Diana Smith.”
The woman smiled broadly,
