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She dated.
She was a woman and had needs and got tired of her own company, so of course she’d been out on dates and even hooked up occasionally. But she had yet to be with a man for more than one night, and she had studied enough psychology to recognize that pattern for what it was. Kingsley had left a part of her scarred when he’d rejected her.
So she was here in part to heal. To somehow bring closure to that one-night stand they’d had and hopefully make it possible for her to have a real relationship and give her mom those grandkids she was desperate for.
“I wasn’t sure you’d come.”
“Why not? I like to eat just as much as the next person.”
“This isn’t just about the meal. You’ve been avoiding being alone with me since you moved into my house,” he said.
He wore a pair of perfectly tailored dress pants and a button-down shirt that had been cut to his size. Kingsley wore his wealth well. And she had to admit that she admired him for it. She was sick of seeing men in baggy jeans on the streets. Kingsley took pride in his appearance and she liked it.
She’d worn a sleeveless sheath dress in turquoise that her mother had told her brought out her eyes. Her mom spent a lot of her time making sure Gabi was presentable to the world.
Kingsley led the way to the table and held a chair out for her. She sort of regretted missing dinner last night. She’d feigned sleepiness and gone to bed early. But she’d needed time to shore up her barriers. To focus on what was important—the kids who’d get the playground that his fee was paying for. Conner, who needed a nanny focused on the job of caring for him and not his superhot dad. And rebuilding her shattered feminine self-worth. That was why she’d stayed away, but today, with the sun shining and Kingsley sitting next to her looking as though he’d stepped out of one of her dreams, it was hard to remember any of that.
“Why are you back in California?” she asked. Get to know him. Wasn’t that the first thing every Cosmo quiz told a woman to do? It was also what she had decided she needed to help herself get over him.
“I wanted Conner to grow up with the sea and the sun. Plus, my parents haven’t forgiven me for...”
“Stacia?” she asked. She wasn’t going to pretend he didn’t have that in his past. It was the incident that defined them as a couple. Three weeks of dating culminating in a one-night stand. And she suspected she needed some closure on that, as well. “What did happen that night?”
“I don’t... Are you sure you want to talk about it?” he asked.
“Yes. I thought... Well, that doesn’t matter. I remember that you took me home and stayed until my roommate came back and then you left. What happened next?”
He rubbed the back of his neck and took a long sip of his sparkling water before he put his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “I took a long walk around the campus. I didn’t want to go back to the frat house or the party. I needed to think.”
“What about?”
“You, Gabi. You were a freshman and I was a senior. My life was on track at that point. You know the draft was my next goal, but then you came along and things sort of changed.”
“How?”
“You were different and it made me think about something other than football for a while,” he said.
She wanted to believe him. There was no reason for him to lie to her at this moment, but if that was the truth, why had he been so cruel to her at the jailhouse?
“Yeah, right. Listen, we both know I was just some dewy-eyed coed that you saw as an easy score,” she said. “You don’t have to put a different spin on it. I was more than willing to go with you that night.”
“Believe what you will, but that night was special for me. You were different,” he said.
“Then why were you so mean when I came to visit you?” she asked. There had been no reason for that.
“I was protecting you. I had no clear memories of the night before. I only knew that I’d been found with Stacia and Hunter and that she had been killed. The cops were trying to implicate me in some sort of twisted sex game, and I wanted you as far from that as I could get you,” he said.
She swallowed hard. “Really?”
“Would I lie about that? I certainly didn’t leave you and go back to the party to kill Stacia.”
“What did happen? Do you know?”
“I don’t,” he said. “We’ve never found out anything other than they had no evidence to prosecute Hunter and me. Both of us can’t recall the night that clearly. What about you? Do you remember anything from that night?” he asked.
