He nodded.
“Are we ready to reunite?” he asked, and she knew he was referring to Spencer Matthews. Because yes. She was ready. After a decade of relationship disappointment, she was going to get her kiss—and then some—hopefully, because hello? She was twenty-seven, and it had been a while since then some.
“Lead the way, Mr. Kingston.” And he did, straight out of his office and up the stairs to the indoor party deck that overlooked the rest of the brewery.
It was time to find out if things would have been different had the events of that late spring night ten years ago gone differently. If anything, she’d get the chance to answer a newly resurfaced what-if.
Finally, she thought. Everything changes tonight.
…
Jamie couldn’t wait to get upstairs. Parties were never his thing, but he had ultimate home-court advantage here. So if reliving high school got to be too much, he could always pour himself a pint and claim he had work to take care of in the office.
“Mr. Kingston and Ms. Chandler. I take it you’re here for the Arlington High School reunion?”
Brynn bounced with excitement, then leaned across the upstairs bar and gave their greeter a kiss on the cheek.
“Is your sister here yet?” she asked. Jeremy was Annie’s younger brother. He’d worked here as a server during his last year of grad school, but he just kind of stayed, and Jamie was glad for it. He was more of an assistant manager now, practically running the restaurant side of the brewery, and tonight he was overseeing the reunion.
“Yeah. She’s back there talking to that asshole she dated senior year. What’s his name?”
Jamie and Brynn craned their necks to search for Annie on the other side of the room. There she was, talking to Ryan Freeman who was, as Jeremy put it, the asshole Annie dated for an entire year. Of course no one thought he was an asshole until the students took a cruise around Lake Michigan on the Spirit of Chicago for their post-prom activity. That’s where Jamie, Brynn, and Annie found him on the lower deck of the boat making out with a junior whose date had fallen asleep after spending an hour in the bathroom trying—and failing—to keep his dinner down.
“How does she do it?” Brynn asked.
“What?” Jamie asked.
“Stay friends with all her ex-boyfriends, even guys that do stuff like kiss other girls while we’re all trapped together on a boat. Kinda hard to avoid your cheating boyfriend when you have two choices of locale—upper deck or lower deck.”
Jamie laughed, but there was a bitter edge to the sound. This was what it was going to be like—every little memory, no matter how insignificant, bringing him back. He and Brynn had gone to prom together, as friends. The mono incident had been only a week after that, the best night of his life. And then he’d pushed her away and buried those feelings because at the time he thought the only other alternative was he and Brynn breaking each other’s hearts. He had to remind himself that he was a grown man, and that heartache was a decade behind them. He prided himself on being a level-headed guy who never let his emotions get the best of him, and he wasn’t about to start tonight.
“Not everyone holds on to ten-year grudges, B.” Then again, he thought, it seemed like Brynn held ten-year crushes, so she’d probably disagree.
“There’s no statute of limitations on passionate emotion,” she argued, her arms crossed as her brown eyes blazed into his.
He swallowed and looked away. It was either that or try to read something in her eyes that he knew wasn’t there.
Jeremy shrugged. “I’m with Brynn. I still passionately think he’s an asshole after ten years.”
“You’re a good baby brother,” Brynn said, then ruffled Jeremy’s auburn waves. He slapped her hand away, and the two laughed.
Some things never changed.
The party had barely started, and Jamie had already had enough. “Just get us our name tags, Denning,” he growled. He was outnumbered, and Brynn was enough of a match one-on-one. Besides, a crowd was heading up the stairs, and Jamie wanted a pint in his hand before he had to do the whole socializing thing. He snuck behind the bar to grab something that wasn’t on the menu for the rest of the guests.
Brynn caught his eye with a knowing look. “You aren’t,” she said, but the corners of her mouth were already turning up.
“I am,” he told her. “The only question is whether or not you’re going to join me.” His pulse quickened. Regardless of what happened tonight, at least they’d start it together, something that was just for them.
Brynn looked from him to Jeremy.