I surveilled the area, ignoring the clumps of people gathered around other carousels, looking for a woman traveling alone. That described at least a third of the people swarming baggage claim. No point in even trying to narrow it down by approaching likely candidates. That was probably for the best anyway since I didn’t want to be the creeper chatting up unaccompanied women in the airport.
I turned in a slow circle because my target could be coming from any direction. When I’d almost made it back to my starting position, I glimpsed a tall beauty with long, silky, light brown hair. I’d had a weakness for women like that since at least the age of thirteen, when I’d developed my first crush. Unlike so many travelers, this woman was alert, taking in her surroundings, studying the people close to her while observing those farther away, too. Which was why it was inevitable that our eyes would meet.
My heart stopped for a split second when it happened. Iwas a sucker for golden brown eyes, too. Damn, if I didn’t know better, I would have sworn she was—
Shit. No.
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.
If this woman was who I thought she was, I was going to kill my sister. But unless and until she approached me, there was still a possibility she wasn’t Savannah Lindstrom. Mai’s best friend from high school. My first crush. My best-ever fling.
For a few more seconds, I held on to that hope. But when her open expression turned into a scowl, even as she made a beeline for me, I knew karma had finally caught up with my sorry ass. I straightened my spine, steeled my resolve.
And prepared to pay the price for the biggest mistake of my life.
3
SAVANNAH
Ben Hayes. Ben fucking Hayes.
I stopped in my tracks to avoid crashing into his chest. Three hours ago, I would have said my life couldn’t get any worse. Now I stood a foot away from the biggest mistake of my life. Yep, from the frying pan into a raging inferno.
As I took a beat to collect my thoughts, I noticed every inch of the man Ben had become. He’d been super-cute when I’d met him as Mai’s two-years-younger brother, too-handsome for my own good when I’d bumped into him the summer after he’d started college, and seriously hot when we’d hooked up for one amazing summer fling when he was twenty-two and I was twenty-four. Those few months might as well have been years because we’d already known each other forever, and had wanted each other for nearly as long. And we’d both fallen hard.
Or at least one of us had.
Standing in the middle of the crowded baggage claim area, I was seven years older and—I hoped—wiser. But I was also a red-blooded woman who hadn’t been up close and personal with a red-blooded man for way too long. And hot damn, Ben Hayes was sex on a stick. The boy had grown intoa young man who had then become this definitive specimen of virile manhood.
Like some melodramatic teen drama, the noise of the crowd faded to silence as we stared at each other. We blinked in unison, then sighed and took deep, steadying breaths. After seven years apart, we were together mere seconds before falling into sync with each other.
I’d be damned if I’d fall into anything else with him. Like his bed.
I took a step back, desperate to put distance between us. I wanted to slap him for breaking my heart. I wanted to slap Mai for not telling me her brother was her solution to my problem. I wanted to run out of the airport, hail a cab, and never see either of them again. But mostly, I wanted to lay my hand on his chest and feel his heart beat under my palm like I had on our last day together, minutes before he’d told me he was leaving.
“It’s just terrible timing,” he said. He stood by the door of the cheap motel room, his packed bags at his feet.
I sat on the bed, drowning in the ice-cold water of rejection he’d just thrown on me, barely able to catch my breath. “So it’s all been a lie. This whole summer, none of it was real. You’ve been lying to me every minute.”
He shook his head but didn’t step closer. “I meant to tell you. It was never the right time.”
“And this is? The last possible moment as you’re walking out the door?” I found enough strength to push up off the bed. I wrapped my robe tighter around me and stared him dead in the eye. “You’re on your way to boot camp, then shipping out to who knows where, and I didn’t even know you’d signed up for the Army!”
“Savannah…”
“Savannah.” Ben touched my shoulder. I flinched, and he dropped his hand. “What’s going on? Mai said you’re in trouble.”
Trouble.The word snapped me out of my shitty memories. I glanced over my shoulder, not knowing who or what I was looking for, but scared witless just the same. “Not here. Are we getting on a flight?”
He shook his head, the same way he had in that motel room. But this time, he stepped toward me. He reached out his hand. I waited for his warm touch at the base of my spine. Instead, his fingers brushed my elbow. “That would create a trail with your name on it. I’ll get a rental car. Are these all your bags?”
I nodded.
With his large, warm hand still on my elbow, he guided me through the crowd and out of baggage claim. He kept his hand in place, barely touching but gently guiding me. Each time someone passed too close to us, he angled his body toward mine or maneuvered me out of their path. His physical awareness and protectiveness of me were the same as they’d always been. But his athletic body was broader and stronger, and his movements were clean and precise. I instinctively turned toward the safety of his bulk.
But while my body betrayed my heart, my brain protected it.He’s a liar. He’s a liar. He’s a liar. I would cling to the words like they were my life’s mantra for as long as I was in Ben’s presence, which I hoped would be a blissfully short time.
We entered a lobby lined with car rental company counters.
