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Nicole rolled her eyes. “Of course I did. There were kids who couldn’t wait to tell me whatever names you or someone else devised for me. High school was the worst. You were the star, whether it was in soccer or one of the other sports, while most kids either resented me or tried to suck up in hopes of getting something.”
“You were invited to parties, but you mostly didn’t go. The other kids thought you were too stuck-up.”
“I was embarrassed to explain my parents wouldn’t let me because they were afraid I’d mess up my clean teen image.”
He looked rueful. “Our fellow students probably would have resented that as well.”
“Probably. Lissa Anderson was furious when I sneaked out to her birthday bash and my parents showed up to rescue me from the wild crowd, then called the police after we were safely away. It caused quite a ruckus. Lissa said she’d been humiliated in front of everyone who mattered and would never forgive me. I didn’t get many invitations after that. She made sure of it.”
His brow creased. “Did I go to Lissa’s party?”
“Yes, but you were drunk by nine. Lissa’s parents weren’t there and they hadn’t locked up their liquor. Most of the kids were drinking.”
“I’m impressed you remember.”
“Well…” Nicole hesitated, wondering if she should tell him what had happened, but it wasn’t important enough to keep secret. “Mostly I remember because when I went out to the patio for air, you grabbed me and gave me a very hot kiss.”
* * *
JORDAN’S MOUTH WENT DRY. In his high school years he would have been mortified to know he’d kissed “the brain-dead puppet.” Now he’d give a lot to remember it—which made him a fool, since he was already having a difficult enough time controlling his response to her.
“Should I apologize?” he asked finally.
Nicole chuckled with easy humor. “If it mattered, I wouldn’t have mentioned it. We were kids. You were a typical teenage boy, into sports and cars. I was a weird teenage girl with one foot in high school and the other in the bizarre world of modeling.”
At the moment, trying to wrap his brain around the image of them pressed closed together was too much of a challenge, so he focused on her choice of words.
“Do you tell your clients that modeling is a bizarre world?”
“I’m honest with them.”
“Does your family appreciate the description? You mentioned that they made the decisions about your career until you were nineteen.”
Her gaze dropped to the menu. “I don’t say it to them, since they’d consider it a criticism. As fashion buyers they love the culture surrounding haute couture and advertising. Having a daughter they could promote as a model involved them even deeper in the international fashion scene and gave them even more influence.”
“Is it a criticism?”
She lifted her eyes again and stared at him frankly. “Every life, every career, every choice we make is full of pros and cons. When I was a kid, the only reason I knew my parents’ life in the fashion industry was bizarre was when I saw how other people lived. Maybe the hardest part was knowing my sister was getting left out. It kept us from being as close as we should have been. I love Emily, but we don’t have much in common and I don’t know how to bridge the gap, especially now that she’s married and starting a family in another state.”
“Why especially?”
“Because I don’t expect marriage and children will be a part of my life.”
His start of surprise must have been obvious, for her brow rose and she regarded him with a bland expression.
“That’s unusual. Why don’t you think your life will include those things?” he asked.
“You think it’s perfectly all right for a cynical columnist to be happy with his bachelor life, but a woman can’t make the same choice without it being questionable?” she countered.
Jordan felt the walls closing in him again…cave walls and he was a Neanderthal. Only a man mired in old-fashioned stereotypes assumed all women wanted marriage and children. Still, his gut told him that Nicole wasn’t being entirely truthful. But the article he was writing wasn’t about her love life and asking out of personal interest was too, well, personal.
