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He grimaced at me, yet said nothing.
He might not have been talking, but the voice was back and piercing as ever. You’re going to marry that beautiful man someday.
The voice startled me and made me drop the clipboard I was holding with Brooks’s paperwork on it. Holy crow. Could I be any more ridiculous? I picked up the clipboard and silently told the voice it was full of crap.
Brooks was staring at me with his head tilted. “Are you all right?”
“Fine, just fine. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other.” I tried to keep the bitterness out of my tone, all while kicking myself for not checking his stupid chart before I came in here. If I had, I could have asked Anastasia to take him or faked an illness. That’s what I got for being all hopeful earlier.
Brooks narrowed his eyes. “I’ve never been in here before.”
It took me a moment to comprehend what that meant. When I finally realized what his words implied, I swore lots of big four-letter words in my head. How was it that he didn’t recognize me? I knew it had been a long time, but it’s not like I had shriveled up and succumbed to old age. Hello, I was still ovulating. And I still wore the same jeans size I had back in high school, thank you very much. I came close to chucking the clipboard at his head. Instead, I professionally scanned it to see if he was allergic to anything I had in my arsenal of cleansers and essential oils. I wasn’t above giving him a rash or some minor breathing difficulties. Unfortunately, I was the one who got the breath knocked out me.
While reading his paperwork, I almost choked on my mint again when I noticed that he was referred to us by Morgan Bronson, my nemesis, the girl I used to love to hate in high school. The girl who had owned Brooks’s heart even though she was awful. Miss Valedictorian had toyed with Brooks all during high school. If she’d told Brooks to jump, not only had he brought out the trampoline, but he’d done tricks in the air just to keep her attention. The girl used to wear pencil skirts to school almost every day. She had thought high school was so beneath her, she’d refused Brooks’s invitation to be his prom date. That’s when I’d stepped in and asked him. What a fool I had been. Even so, he was a bigger one for still having anything to do with the woman.
I wondered if Carly, Brooks’s twin, knew her brother was still in contact with Morgan. Sadly, Carly and I had seen each other only a few times since we’d graduated from high school. Nothing had ever been the same since then. I’d missed her and Brooks’s friendships more than they would ever know. Carly and I only semi kept in touch now over social media. Though she was planning on coming to our reunion in July. I could imagine her going ballistic if she knew about Brooks and Morgan. She hated Morgan more than I did. Perhaps Morgan had changed her manipulative ways. Maybe she and Carly were even friends now. After all, twenty years was a long time.
I plastered on a fake smile and looked up at an impatiently waiting Brooks. “My mistake. Shall we begin?”Chapter TwoI turned off the lights and flipped on the meditative instrumental music, hoping it would calm my soul. The soft sounds of piano and rain normally made me feel peaceful. Not today. I couldn’t believe Brooks Hamilton was here and he didn’t recognize me. What happened to the sweet boy who had brought me cookies the day he’d caught me crying on my lawn? I still remembered him saying, “My momma calls these her happy pills.” We had eaten the entire plate. Then he’d introduced me to Carly. Their friendship that summer before our freshman year was a lifeline.
Now before me sat a man—albeit the most attractive man I’d ever laid eyes on—who looked cold and vacant. I knew he was a divorce lawyer because his daddy was still our neighbor and was like a second father to me. Tom Hamilton was a broken man, but one of the best, in my opinion. I knew Brooks would disagree with me, seeing as he hadn’t seen his daddy in twenty years.
With a deep breath of courage, I faced Brooks. “Mr. Hamilton, please lie down and pull the blanket up to just under your arms.”
Brooks’s brow scrunched. “You look familiar.”
Oh, I look familiar. Gee, I wonder why?
“I didn’t catch your name,” he interrupted my snarky internal dialogue.
Normally, I would have introduced myself, but not only had I gotten flustered, I was mesmerized by his washboard abs. Like an idiot, I responded without thinking, “You can call me Jane.” Like Jane Doe, dead on arrival. Why did I lie?
