and to enjoy being out on a date with a good-looking guy. She and Chris Richardson had always made a stunning couple.
“That’s good. I wanted to take you out to celebrate the removal of the last bandages, but you know how it is with work. I don’t keep banker’s hours.” She and her dad had been alone since her mother had died when Macy was a toddler. They celebrated things in their own way and on their own time. She knew he’d make it up to her.
“You never have,” she said. Macy was very aware of how hard her father worked. He owned one of the largest construction companies in Texas. And flew from Royal to other parts of the state most weeks. He also had his weekly poker game in Midland and a twice-yearly fishing trip with his college buddies.
The waiter called his name and he hesitated. “Do you want me to wait with you?”
She smiled at him. “No, I’m fine. Go on. I’ll see you at breakfast tomorrow.”
He hugged her quickly and then walked away. She turned back to the bar just as her wine arrived. She took a sip before glancing around the bar. Chris waved at her as he walked toward her.
“Sorry if I kept you waiting,” Chris said. “I’ll have a Lone Star beer,” he told the bartender.
“Right away, sir,” the man said.
“You didn’t. I was a little early. Since the accident I … I drive a little more slowly,” she said. There really wasn’t any part of her life that hadn’t been affected by it.
“You will have to tell me more about what happened. Mom knew some of the details,” he said. “Let’s grab a booth while we wait to be seated for dinner.”
She nodded and he led the way to one of the small intimate booths in the corner. Macy slid in and then waited while Chris did the same. He sat directly across from her and put his elbows on the table.
“So what happened? Mom said you’d been burned,” he said.
She shrugged. “No one’s really ever asked me about it before, because it was on the news.”
“Not in Dallas,” he said. “But then most of the stuff that happens here doesn’t make the headlines there.”
“I don’t know what to say except my car was hit by a long-haul trucker and that it was a mangled mess … all the rescuers said I was lucky to be alive.”
She held her hands loosely together, taking off the ring on her right hand and playing with it before putting it back on. She didn’t like to talk about the accident. To be honest, she remembered so little of it.
“I’m glad that you are such a lucky woman, Macy,” he said.
The bartender arrived with his beer. She studied him as he took a swallow from it. He hadn’t changed at all since high school—well, that wasn’t really true. He’d matured into his features; if anything, he was better looking today than he had been back then.
He arched one eyebrow at her and she flushed. “The years have been good to you,” she said, trying to find the words to ask him to forgive the immature girl she’d been.
“I can’t complain,” he said. “I’ve been working hard building my company, but I play hard too.”
“You mentioned that you are here for business.”
“That’s right. I’m doing consulting work for the expansion of the buildings here on the grounds.”
Macy tipped her head to the side and studied him. “Who asked you to do that?”
“Brad Price. We went to college together.”
“You went to UT Austin?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I thought you were going to get the hell out of Texas,” she said.
“Plans changed. I graduated at the top of our class … so it was cheaper for me to go to a Texas state university.”
“I forgot about that. Beauty and brains,” she said.
“Ah, no, you were always the beauty,” he said.
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. That other girl she’d been was as foreign to her now as the thought of living anywhere other than Royal. “I was a little intolerable back then.”
“Not at all. You were pretty and confident. Every boy in school wanted you.”
“Not anymore,” she said. “And there was only one boy I wanted.”
“You had me, if that’s what you meant. Why aren’t you confident now?”
She realized that she was feeling a little bit funky tonight. Almost blue. She wasn’t about to say out loud that she was no longer pretty. Not to Chris. Especially when she realized that he might want a little revenge against her for the way she’d treated him back then.
“Just not as shallow as I used to be. After my accident, I started working with the kids in the hospital’s Burn Unit and I came to realize that true beauty has nothing to do with physical appearance.”
“What has it got to do with?” he asked, taking another long swallow of his beer.
“I can’t define it, but I do know that it comes from deep inside. I think it’s how a person deals with others,” she said.
He shook his head. “You sure have changed.”
His name was called for dinner before she could respond. She slid out of the booth and Chris put his hand on the small of her back as they walked toward the dining room. His hand was big and warm through the fabric of her sundress and she was very glad that she’d run into him today. Being with Chris tonight made her realize just how much she’d been missing.
Chris spent the evening realizing why he’d fallen for Macy in the first place. She was funny and lively and had the kind of dry wit that made him laugh. She was also very intelligent and just a little bit shy. The shyness was new. She used to be a different girl.
He guessed that was what the difference really was. Macy was a woman now and life had handed her more than a few surprises. He was almost afraid to trust the woman she was tonight. He’d been burned by her once before.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” she asked, taking a sip of her wine.
“You aren’t what I expected you to be,” he said, opting for the truth, as he usually did. When he’d first gotten into the development business he had run into vendors who’d say anything to make their company sound good. And Chris had set Richardson Development apart from them by always being up front and never promising what he couldn’t deliver. He did the same thing in his personal life.
“In what way?” she asked, leaning forward as if his answer was something she wanted to hear.
“Well, to be honest, when you dumped me I had sort of hoped the years would be unkind to you and that you’d get fat and sort of dumpy.”
“Are
