“Three years means nothing now. But back then, we were on completely different social planets. Think about it. I was only a freshman when you were a senior. You might as well have been a movie star for all the chance I figured I had with you. Anyway, all you ever saw was Jeff Bradford.”
He was absolutely right about that. She had wanted her happily ever after, a peaceful family life with a man who adored her and would never have an affair with some biker bar cocktail waitress.
She had fallen hard for Jeff because he had been smart and ambitious and had seemed to want the same things she did. His family had seemed so normal after the scandal that had rocked her young life and his parents had adored her. Sometimes she wondered if she hadn’t married Jeff so she could have his parents for in-laws.
He closed his hand around hers and played idly with her fingers. “What if I had said something? What would you have done back then if I had told you how crazy I was about you?”
Her stomach swooped as if she’d just dived off the top of the waterfall into the small pool below. “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “The old Claire was pretty stupid.”
“What about the new Claire?”
She curled her fingers, nails pressing into her flesh. “She would probably wonder why you’re wasting your time with a divorced mother whose husband left her for a ditz with perfect teeth and a boob job.”
He closed his eyes. “You won’t let me forget that, will you?”
“I would still like to know the answer to the question. Why are you here, Riley? Why do you keep coming back, even though both of us know you shouldn’t?”
He gazed at her for a long moment and then he tipped a finger under her chin and kissed her.
Fifteen
She caught her breath at the tenderness of his kiss, sweet as the night air around them. She wanted to curl into him, to wrap her soft throw around both of them and stay there in his arms in the dark while crickets chirped in the bushes and a great horned owl hooted somewhere in the distance.
Some part of her warned her loudly to push him away while she still could, but she ignored it, sliding into the kiss like she had wanted to slide into that warm, scented claw-foot tub earlier.
This was not going to end well. Riley McKnight was going to shatter her heart into a thousand shards of glass and in that moment she knew there was not a single thing she could do about it.
He edged backward, his face a blur in the moonlight. “I can’t stay away. I keep telling myself all the reasons we both know this is crazy. But something keeps pulling me back.”
She said nothing, trembling a little at the fear and desire that warred inside her.
“You’re freezing,” he said.
She wasn’t about to tell him the reasons why. “A little.”
“I’d better get you back to your house. This seemed like a good idea earlier this evening, but I sometimes forget how quickly the temperature can drop in the mountains.”
They were both quiet as Riley pushed her down the slight hill toward her house. She didn’t have the first idea what might be on his mind, but she couldn’t stop thinking about that stunning, tender kiss.
Something was happening here, something she wasn’t sure she was ready to face. Her feelings for Riley were a conflicted muddle. This was no longer about simply being attracted to a gorgeous man who made her feel vibrant and alive.
He took a different route home, a little more direct, that led them along the creek and past the small Craftsman cottage where Maura lived. A light was on inside, and Claire could see a figure move across the window.
“Oh, stop. Please stop.”
He looked down at her, that unreadable look in his eyes again. “It’s late, Claire.”
“She’s awake. I just saw her. I haven’t had a chance to see her in person since the accident. Alex and I stopped this morning on my way to work, but Maura didn’t answer the door. We’ve talked on the phone, but it’s not the same. Please.”
He didn’t want to. She could see it clearly in the hard set of his mouth and the stiffness in his movements, but he finally shrugged and turned her wheelchair into his sister’s winding front walk.
The house had four steps leading to the porch, and he parked her at the bottom.
“Wait here. She doesn’t always answer the door.”
Claire folded her hands together and waited while he knocked softly. After a long moment, just when she thought this would be one of those times Maura wanted to avoid company, the door swung open and his sister stood there in her porch light.
She looked thinner, gaunt almost. Her dark curls were flat and lifeless and she wore a faded Hope’s Crossing High T-shirt and sweats. Surprise flickered for a moment in green eyes so much like her brother’s, but she quickly blinked it away as if she didn’t have the energy to spare.
“Riley, hello. What are you doing here so late?”