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“I seem to remember you being a hell of a lot friendlier the last time I saw you.”
Oh, boy. She remembered, too. In fact, her memory was so clear and so strong, it was all she could do not to squirm in her seat. A flush of heat spread through her body as images rushed through her mind. His body. Hers. Locked together. Desperate kisses, amazing sensations. Didn’t seem to matter that she was already so nervous she could hardly swallow. In spite of everything, Sadie knew that if he reached over to touch her right now, she would probably go up in flames.
“You okay?” he asked from beside her and that deep voice of his seemed to roll across her skin.
Oh, she really was not okay.
“Sure,” she lied. “Fine.”
The familiar scenery raced past them as he left town behind and drove along the highway toward the Price family mansion in the exclusive development of Pine Valley. Three years ago, Sadie had walked away from the home where she grew up to live in Houston, losing herself in the hustle and the crowds. At the time, she had definitely needed to get away. To find a fresh start where no one really knew her. Where her private life wouldn’t be fodder for local gossips.
Now though, she was back and the past was reaching out to grab her.
She looked at Rick again. Funny, she’d known him most of her life and yet hadn’t connected with him at all until that one, memorable night. He’d changed, she thought. He looked older, more serious, more self-confident somehow. And that was saying something, since Rick had never been lacking in confidence.
His brown hair was trimmed military short, his brown eyes locked on the road in front of them. His hands were wrapped around the steering wheel and she watched as the muscles in his arms flexed.
“You sure you’re okay?” Rick asked, glancing at her briefly before shifting his gaze back to the road.
That was Rick, she thought. He wasn’t the kind to be distracted from what he saw as his duty—which at the moment, was driving. He appreciated rules and order and as far as she knew, always did the “right” thing, whatever that might be at the time.
There was simply no way he would ever accept her version of “right.” This day wasn’t going to end well, yet Sadie couldn’t find a way out of it. Now that she was home in Royal, people were going to talk. And the fact that Rick had only been home for a day was probably the only reason he hadn’t heard whispers already.
Well, she couldn’t let him hear this news secondhand. She owed him the truth. At last.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Just trapped like a rat, she added silently. Oh, she had known that this day was going to arrive, sooner or later. She had just been hoping for later. Much later. Which was ridiculous really, she argued with herself. She had moved back to Royal. She knew that, eventually, Rick would return. And keeping a secret in a small town was just impossible. Wasn’t that one of the reasons she had left in the first place?
Frowning, she focused on the road and tried not to think about what would happen when they got to her family home.
“If you say so,” he said, his tone telling her he wasn’t convinced. “So. Since you’re fine and I’m fine and we’re not talking about anything else, why don’t you tell me what you were doing at the TCC besides making your brother crazy?”
She blew out a disgusted breath at the mention of her brother. “Shoe was on the other foot, actually. Brad is the most stubborn, hardheaded man in the state of Texas.”
“This is news to you?” he asked with a chuckle.
Brad Price had long had the reputation in town of being the most hidebound traditionalist in the known universe. His hard head only added to the fun.
“No,” Sadie said, grateful to have a safe subject to talk to him about. “But I keep hoping that somehow, someday, Brad will wake up in the twenty-first century. Anyway, I went in to talk to him about being a part of designing the new clubhouse.”
“There’s going to be a new clubhouse?” Rick whistled, long and low. “Never would have believed that. The club’s been the same for more than a hundred years.”
Sadie rolled her eyes and shook her head. “So it should always stay the same? Why put in electric lights? Why aren’t they still using oil lamps or candles? Why have a telephone? Is tradition so important that no one wants progress?”
“Whoa!” He laughed, then asked, “Is progress so important you just forget about tradition?”
She glared at him, those warm, sexy feelings she’d been experiencing only moments ago dissolving as surely as sugar in hot coffee. “You sound just like Brad. Is this a guy thing? Is it only women who are willing to look at the future?”
“No, but looking to the future doesn’t mean forgetting the past.”
“Who said anything about forgetting?” Sadie waved her hand in dismissal. “All we’re talking about is an up-to-date, comfortable club that every member can enjoy.”
“Now I know what this is about.” He smiled and nodded sagely. “I heard Abby Langley’s a member now. I suppose that’s what’s got the women in town up in arms?”
She just stared at him. “Is it all men or just Texans?”
“Huh? What?”
“You have that drawling tone to your voice when you say ‘women’ like you’re describing a child throwing a tantrum.”
“Hold on a minute, I wasn’t trying to start a fight.”
“No, you’re just stuck in the same rut every other man in town is in.”
“I’ve been home for a day and suddenly I’m the enemy?”
“No,” she said on a sigh. “You just caught me at a bad moment. Sorry.”
He shrugged. “No problem. I know what it’s like to be up to your eyeballs in something and take it out on someone else.”
“Still not much of an excuse. It’s just that Brad makes me so furious.”
“Isn’t that what brothers are for?”
“I suppose so,” she acknowledged, then she smiled. “Besides, I think Brad having to deal with Abby is going to be payback enough.”
“Who knew you had such a mean streak?” he asked, his grin taking the sting out of his words.
“I’m a Price, too, don’t forget.”
“Wouldn’t dare.” He steered into a left turn lane and stopped for the red light. “I’ve done a lot of thinking about you in the last few years, Sadie.”
“You have?” She tensed up again. What was it about this man that could set every nerve in her body to jangling?
His long fingers tapped against the steering wheel. “Sometimes, thoughts of you were all that kept me sane.”
“Rick …”
“You don’t have to say anything,” he said. “I just wanted you to know that the night we had together has stayed with me.”
“It stayed with me, too,” Sadie said, then turned her head to avoid his gaze.
That single night with him three years ago had changed her life so completely, it was no wonder that she’d thought of him often. But now, knowing that he had been doing the same, made her feel even more of a terrible person than she had been. What could she possibly say to him? How would she ever explain?
She’d spent a lot of time assuring herself that one day, she’d tell him everything. That when he got back she would apologize and do whatever she could to make things right.
Yes, she could have written to him, but she had talked herself out of that. She’d been … worried about him. A career marine,