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“Ahh…”
“We were both bad about follow-through once. I like to think I’ve gotten better about it.” He came to lean beside her at the counter. A long pause ensued. Becca was fully aware of his slim hips so close to hers. “I’m sorry I never called.”
“You already apologized. Sort of. I could have called you, too.”
“No, I should have called,” Hudson said tautly. “I wanted to. I wish I had.”
“I thought you were still in love with Jessie,” Becca admitted with difficulty. “I’m not sure you aren’t still.”
“Like Zeke, I’m not sure I ever was,” he admitted. “We were sixteen.”
“Some people fall in love at sixteen.”
“I wanted to-be with you.”
Becca glanced sideways at him in surprise. “When Jessie was still here?”
“She knew I had feelings for you, though I never said anything. She always knew.”
“I didn’t know,” Becca said a trifle breathlessly. Her heart was starting a giddy galloping. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing!
“I couldn’t act on my feelings, and I didn’t know how to break up with her. I was thinking about it and then she was gone. I kept thinking she’d come back and I’d make this clean break. When I saw you that summer I didn’t care anymore. Zeke thought I was trying to bring Jessie back, but that wasn’t even close. I let him think it, though.”
“He talked you out of seeing me,” Becca realized.
Hudson grimaced. “Zeke didn’t want me with anybody, but his words made me rethink things. I wasn’t really ready to be with anyone seriously. I was a dumb college kid. And Jessie’s disappearance was still like this entity.”
“It’s not anymore?”
“No.” They stared at each other for long moments. She saw his blue eyes darken with a simmering emotion, one she understood well.
Feeling slightly light-headed, Becca murmured, “I think I’d better leave before I do something I’ll regret.”
He seemed about to argue with her, then inclined his head in agreement.
“You’re not going to try harder than that?” she asked, her words sounding far away to her own ears.
With a sensual smile curving his lips, he slowly reached for her, turning her into him, his hands sliding up her back. She ran her arms around his chest and for a moment their lips were a hairsbreadth apart.
He said, “I think I’d like to kiss you.”
“I think…you should…”
She felt his lips press against hers. Felt the promise of something about to ignite. Her insides seemed to melt. She wanted nothing more than for him to sweep her into his arms and carry her up the creaking old stairs to his bedroom.
“Hudson…” she whispered against his mouth.
“Hmmm?”
“I’ve missed you, too.”
In the next split second her fantasy became reality: he picked her off her feet and carried her up the ancient stairs to a room that faced the mountains-his parents’ bedroom all those years ago. Without another word, he fell with her onto a mattress that sagged and groaned, and kissed her as if he thought he might never again get the chance.
Becca let go.
Of her guilt.
Of her reservations.
