Page 5 of Pick Me This Time

I had been—and still was—a geek. Artsy and bookish, I hadn’t run in their circles at all, but because of my relation to Eric, they’d always been good to me. If not for that, I’d have been overrun with nerves at the idea of seeing some of those guys again.

They’d been larger than life to me back in the day. Intimidating as hell with their tackles, and their smirks, and their offers from all the good schools to keep throwing their balls around.

When I arrived at the airport, I saw a few people I recognized from way back when. I waved at some, kept my head down when I passed others, and then I realized that every flight in was bringing more and more of their old crowd back to town.

Their reunion was in a few weeks and it was going to be a huge event because it was happening just after the fall festival, to which a lot of them made their annual pilgrimage home anyway. Checking my phone, I cursed softly.

Eric still hadn’t texted me, and since I had no idea who I was looking for, I wondered if I’d been supposed to collect one of those people I’d just waved at. Crap.

Standing in the arrival terminal, I was about to call my brother when the very last person I’d expected to see walked into view. Sterling North.

Immediately, I knew he was who I’d come for. He’d been my brother’s best friend since kindergarten, and even though I knew they’d fallen out of touch over the years, if Sterling was here and Eric wasn’t, it meant my brother was supposed to have been.

As it happened, however, Sterling had also been my very first crush. Cliche but darn, he’d made my little teenage heart pump chocolates instead of blood, I’d been that sweet on him. Tall, dark, and handsome, I’d longed for him as a boy, and as a man?

Well, time had been kind to him. Lord have mercy.

The same tall, fit frame. The same thick, luxurious black hair, but it was shorter now than it had been. Longer at the top, but neat, business-professional short at the sides. His face had matured, his features more chiseled and sharper than ever, and those sparkling brown eyes that used to be kind held a glint of steel now.

My breath caught at the sight of him, and for a long moment after he’d spotted me, we just stared at each other. Those broad shoulders, covered in a shirt that fit him like a glove. The narrower hips. The strong, toned runner’s muscles that made the expensive fabrics he was wearing bulge in all the right places.

Holy. Mother. Of. Pearl. How is he even more good looking now?

For just that one moment, it felt like we were suspended in time. Attraction coursed through me like a living being in a way it hadn’t done since the last time I’d seen him, but I shut it down, forcing my feet to carry me in his direction and trying my best to play it cool.

“Hey, Sterling,” I said. “I’m here to give you a ride home. Eric sent me.”

Those gorgeous dark eyes widened almost infinitesimally. Then he dropped his chin in a curt nod. “Sure. Where is he?”

“At work,” I explained, uncertain as to why I sounded apologetic. I was doing them both a darn favor being here. Gathering myself, I looked him right in the eye and inclined my head toward the parking lot. “Should we go?”

“Yeah. Let’s do it.” He adjusted his grip on the handle of one of those fancy, metallic wheelie suitcases and on the strap of a slate gray duffel over his shoulder. “Where’s your car?”

I ignored the question, opting instead for making sure he really was who I was supposed to pick up. “Eric was going to collect you, right? You’re not just taking advantage of a free ride while I should be picking up someone else?”

His handsome features contorted, those dark eyebrows inching up. “What? Yeah. Eric was supposed to be here.”

“Oh, good,” I said happily, starting in the direction of the lot outside with my heart back to beating a million miles a minute.

Sterling freaking North. I can’t believe it.

The expensive but faint scent of him wafted to my nostrils as he fell into step beside me, and I almost moaned out loud as I inhaled it. He’d always smelled good, but this was next level. The cologne wasn’t overpowering, rather just providing a hint of what his skin would smell like if I burrowed into his side.

It was spicy and masculine but also fresh. Like a clean, citrusy ocean with a hint of smoke. Is that even possible?

I felt the heat of him radiating into my side and—stop it!

“So,” I said as we stepped out of the revolving doors onto the sidewalk. “Are you in town for the reunion?”

“Yes.”

I waited a moment to see if he’d elaborate, but he didn’t. When I risked a quick glance at him, I realized he was stone-cold serious, his gaze fixed on some point in the distance and his jaw tight.

“You must be pretty tired after your flight, huh?” I asked, trying to empathize. I’d never been on a plane before, but I’d heard it exhausted people. “Where did you fly in from?”

“New York City.”

“That’s cool,” I said, genuinely interested in hearing more about his life now, but he definitely didn’t feel the same way.

I hadn’t seen the guy in years. At least five. I’d been at his mom’s funeral, but I hadn’t actually spoken to him. I’d steered clear because he’d always made me feel things I couldn’t explain. Now, I would be stuck in a car with him while he was grumpy and tired.

I wonder if he ever smiles anymore. It didn’t look like it.

He used to have such a nice smile, too. When I’d watched him and my brother play football back in the day, he’d flashed it easily and often, and it’d always made my heart skip a beat, but now, his expression seemed to be stuck on stony.

Deciding to try making small talk one last time, I turned to him once we were in the car and on our way. “Are you living in New York now? What do you do there?”

“I’m in finance,” he said. “Can you drop me off at Eric’s shop? I’m picking up a car from him to use for the time I’m here.”

“Of course,” I said, leaving him in peace when he turned his head to the window and studied the landscape outside like he’d never seen it before.

We drove in silence from there, but I couldn’t decide if it was awkward or just silence. All I knew was that this guy was not interested in talking to me or even looking at me. It stung a little. Sure, we’d never been friends, but shit.

We had known each other for a long time and it would’ve been nice to get to catch up at least a little, but I didn’t push. He was hotter than sunburn and he used to be a good guy, but I wasn’t sure I knew this person in the car with me now, and if he was this grumpy, I’d rather not talk to him either.

When I pulled up outside Eric’s garage, Sterling nodded at me and then climbed out the car, walking away without another word once he’d collected his luggage. As I watched him go, I couldn’t help but think about that night he’d walked me home after his last party as a high-schooler. He’d been so sweet to me that night, but he was so different now that it was almost difficult to believe he was the same person.

He disappeared into the cavernous depths of my brother’s shop and I sighed, wondering what had happened to him between then and now. What had turned the carefree, charming, most popular guy at school into a brooding, quiet grump, and was he always like this? Or had he just been horribly disappointed to see me?