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“As I was saying. He was away but is back for a short while, and I think I’m finally going to do something about it. Maybe try to seduce him or something.” Her face takes on a dreamy look. “I mean, if I could turn back time, there are so many things I would do differently—like actually approach him.”
“Why go back? You have the chance now. Not many people get a second chance at love. I think you need to jump on this train.”
“You mean jump his bones?” she jokes.
I sigh. “I said what I meant.”
She raises her eyebrow. “Really, now? Maybe I would be more inclined to take your advice if you actually followed it yourself.”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“It means your second chance is incoming,” she tells me with a sly grin on her face. “And I want to see you take him. It. I mean, takeit.”
I’m about to ask her to clarify when my answer pushes through the door to the bakery. Asher just strolls in and doesn’t see us.
I realize that from her angle at our table, Madison must have seen him coming this way from outside. Turning around, she whistles at him to catch his attention.
“Hi there, second chance,” she says with a mischievous grin. “What brings you here?”
“I’m here to get some coffee,” Asher answers with a suspicious look on his face. “Do I want to know what she is talking about?” he asks me.
I shake my head vehemently, “No, you don’t.”
He pouts and his soft green eyes are alight with humor. He leans forward onto the table and stares into my eyes. “Come on, Sam,” he says, his voice low and husky. “Don’t you want to let me in?”
My mind goes in a direction not suitable for kids.
Madison coughs and slides out of the seat. “I think you have a good chance of sliding in if you play your hand right.”
I give her the stink eye and she backs up with a giggle.
“Yeah, I have to get back to the register. Give me a second, will you guys?” She stirs her hands around. “Why don’t you two talk among yourselves for a bit?”
As she retreats, I take a sip of my drink to wet my suddenly parched throat, and Asher takes her seat.
He leans in a little too close. His voice is soft and playful as he asks, “You two were talking about me, weren’t you?”
I choke a little, and as I try to compose myself, he leans back with his hands behind his head and a smug smirk stretching his face. It makes him look young and carefree.
For a moment, it feels like we are back to being our old selves. Before the stresses of adult life. Before reality slapped me in the face.
Under control, I narrow my eyes at him with a little smirk of my own. “You football players and your big…” I pause for effect. “Egos.”
“It's not the onlybigthing about me, and you know it,” he hints with a wink.
I shift in the seat as my traitorous body responds to his innuendo. My mind flashes back to my first night here in the hotel room.
His eyes follow the movement of my lower body and I see him bite the inside of his cheek. “So, you girls just having a late lunch, or what?”
I blow out a breath, trying to calm my galloping heart. “Umm, Madison wanted to catch up. We haven’t really talked much over the years.”
Madison returns to our table, and the tension dissipates as all three of us chat for a while. Talking freely about old times and the new things in our lives.
I stand up. “Guys, I’m heading out. I want to go over to Mrs. Kendall’s house to look through some of the stuff you guys packed up yesterday. There’s maybe something I’d like to keep to remind me of her.”
Both Asher and Madison stand, too.
“Yeah, back to work for me,” Madison drawls.
