Declan walked around the corner from the office to meet Julie for lunch. Other than being sure he had slept with her, he was no closer to remembering exactly where and when. There had been far too many occasions when he had drank too much with the guys, and then found a willing woman to chase away a few hours with. It hadn’t been any time in recent memory though. It was sheer curiosity that had brought him here to meet her.
He should have gone with his first inclination and blown her off. Ella’s polite manner seemed to be rubbing off on him. Remembering the strange looks she had been shooting him earlier, he knew she had picked up on his preoccupation. He felt guilty like he was cheating on her, which was absurd. He had no interest in the woman he was meeting and he had made no promises to Ella. Even as he thought it, though, he knew that with a woman like Ella, the first time he had slept with her had been a promise of sorts. He would just get this over with and move on. He sincerely hoped that Claire didn’t mention anything to her.
As he walked in the door and scanned the tables, he saw Julie tentatively wave to him from a back table in the corner. He pasted on a polite smile that he was far from feeling and made his way over to her. “Nice to see you again, Julie.” Ah hell, Ella really was getting to him. Next he would be asking her about the weather. Get to the point, Stone! Luckily, Julie seemed to read his mind and took a direct shot.
“You have no idea who I am, do you?”
“You look familiar, but no, I can’t place you. Should I?” Declan took a moment to study her reaction to his answer. She didn’t appear upset, just rather resigned. He’d have felt better if she had upended the water glass she had in front of her in his lap. Feminine outrage was easier to deal with.
Julie looked down at the hands she was twisting in her lap and appeared to be talking to them instead of him. “After the first two attempts, I never thought this day would come again. I had accepted that and put it down to fate. I never regretted it and, if anything, I owe you a huge debt of gratitude. Now that this moment is here, I don’t know where to begin.” Then, raising pleading eyes to his, she asked, “Should I just blurt it out, or do you want the whole story?”
What he really wanted was to get up and run like hell. His internal warning system was beeping loudly in alarm. Even though he had no desire to hear a long drawn-out story, he thought that he might need time to compose himself. “Just start at the beginning, whatever that might be.”
Julie took a deep breath and asked, “You did sort of recognize me this morning, right? You might not remember from where, but I look familiar?”
“Yeah, I’ll give you that. I’ve obviously met you before.”
After briefly closing her eyes, she opened them again and he could see the resolve there. Gone was the uncertainly of a few moments ago. Somehow, he preferred nervous Julie to the determined version looking him squarely in the eyes now.
“Declan, we met over five years ago at a party. I don’t even remember who was hosting it. I was there with a few friends and I believe you were there with some of your buddies from the military. You were all in uniform and had just gotten into town. I . . . I was in a bad place that night. My mom had been battling cancer for a year and had just passed away. My friends had insisted I get out of the house because they were worried about me. I reluctantly agreed to go to a party with them where I drank way too much and, um . . . met you.”
Declan scanned his memory vaguely remembering a few parties that he had attended over the years like the one she had described. Like Julie, he had drunk way too much at them and barely remembered the person or even persons that he ended up with for a few hours. “If you were that drunk, how do you even remember what I look like, much less my name? I wasn’t in the habit of giving out contact information back then.”
“We had sex that night, Declan, and then both passed out. When I woke up the next morning, you were still out. I got dressed as quietly as I could, just wanting to get out of there before you woke up. When I was picking up my clothes, I saw your wallet lying on the floor beside them. I picked it up with the intention of putting it back in your pocket before it was lost. Out of curiosity, I opened it just so that I could say I at least knew the name of the man I had slept with. Your military ID was in there. Your name is rather unusual so it was hard to forget.”
Swiping an impatient hand through his hair, Declan asked, “So this entire covert meeting is just a trip down memory lane? If you’re looking to appease your conscience over having a one-night stand, honey, you’ve come to the wrong place. I’ve got enough shit of my own to wade through. It happened, it’s fine, now move past it. I have.” He rose to his feet and threw some bills down on the table intending to finally put an end to this awkward meeting.