Page 50 of Feels Like the First Time

“You come here often?” His head poked through the floor.

She gave a reluctant smile. “Are you going to ask me my sign next?”

“Scorpio.” Using his impressive biceps, he raised himself the rest of the way into the tree house. Much more graceful than her gasping, huffing struggle to pull herself in, she had to admit.

“Why aren’t you playing reunion   games?” he asked, sitting across from her and leaning his back gingerly against the rotting wood wall. “I hear my grandma’s organized rounds of spin the bottle in the conference room.”

Zoe cracked a smile.

“Not up to it,” she said with a shrug. “I needed some think time. I figured there had to be some residual mulling energy in the tree house, so I risked life and limb—to say nothing of my jeans—” she gestured to the rip in the knee of her pants “—to cop a little nostalgia time.”

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

It didn’t seem appropriate to tell him it was sex, so she settled for sharing her other issue. “Whether I was a total jerk in school or if everyone here has changed.”

“You were never a jerk,” he said with a frown.

“I worried you’d think I was one yesterday,” she said softly.

“Does this mean you’ve changed your mind?”

She reluctantly returned his smile, but shook her head.

“I don’t want to risk our friendship, Dex. I know I blew it before. I was a jerk and let our friendship go. I don’t want to lose touch again.” Trying to lighten the moment, she winked and said, “Maybe that’d be easier if I pretended I don’t think you’re gorgeous. But I can’t lie to you.”

As she’d intended, he smiled. But she saw frustration and something else in his eyes. It almost looked like guilt.

“You weren’t a jerk,” he muttered again.

Zoe shrugged. She had been. She’d shown up here with a huge chip on her shoulder and an attitude bigger than the state of Idaho. “I guess I thought, somewhere in the back of my head, that to do my job, to travel and be free to come and go, I had to do it unencumbered.”

“You really do love your job,” he noted.

“I do. And I’ve come to realize that I can love it and still have people in my life. Weird thing to come to a reunion   that I thought I’d hate and find myself making new friends. I’m kind of excited about it.”

He grinned. “You should always do what gets you excited.”

She peered at his face, wondering if he’d meant the double entendre. But he looked as innocent as a baby. She gave a wicked grin. Which meant he probably did.

“Excitement is crucial,” she agreed before she remembered her no-flirtation-games rule. She dropped her smile and shrugged.

“So is that your big goal this week?” he asked. “To collect as many friends as you can?”

“That’s not what I intended,” she admitted. “But it’s turning into a nice unexpected benefit.”

“Sometimes intentions get twisted up when we’re faced with temptation.” He hesitated, an intense look of contemplation on his face. Then he said, “ook, I need to tell you something.”

She raised a brow. But before he could expand on that confession, his phone buzzed.

He pulled it out of the pocket of his black leather jacket, glanced at the screen and grimaced. “I need to get back. The morning manager is an idiot and apparently can’t handle the linen delivery without someone to hold his hand.”

“Your parents must be loving you for giving them this break,” she said, wondering how they stood the constant demands on their time. She could see how much it was stressing Dex out.

“They called this morning. I’ve never heard my dad sound so relaxed.” Dex gave her a sheepish look. “He thanked me. I didn’t realize my parents hadn’t had a vacation in twelve years. Not since Gramps died. I guess it’s no wonder Dad stresses about money all the time. This place is obviously getting to be a total pain in his ass.”

He excused himself to deal with the text message.

Zoe’s gaze fixed on the phone. She blinked. Her heart froze. It couldn’t be. Zoe’s mind raced. Confusion fought with emotions, her tangled thoughts in shock. Forcing herself not to gasp, she raised her eyes to search his face. He wasn’t looking at her, luckily. Instead, she watched his beautiful eyes scan the message, then text something back.

“I’ve got to go,” he said after a few seconds. Obviously unaware that her brain had gone numb, he hesitated, then leaned forward and brushed a soft, sweet kiss over the flesh visible through the tear in her jeans. “Sorry to kiss and run.”

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