Ex, Why, and Me (3 page)

The beauty queen’s enthusiasm and spirit was almost tangible. Her long blond hair streamed behind her as she eagerly waved to the townspeople. Michelle realized that the girl wasn’t pretty as much as she was cute. And for some reason, the young woman’s wide-eyed innocence and beaming smile made Michelle feel as old and worn as her running shoes.

She turned away from the parade and hurried to the square with a little bit more determination, but the comparison lingered like an ache. Michelle gratefully pushed away the troubling thoughts as she spotted her brother at the starting line for the scavenger hunt. “Danny!”

Her older brother’s face lit up and he greeted her with a fierce hug. “Hey, Michelle. I didn’t know if you were going to make it.”

“I escaped Mom before she pulled out her makeup kit,” she told him. “Did you find a partner for me?”

“Yeah. Where is—?” Danny looked over her head. “Oh, he’s there talking to Vanessa.”

Michelle turned, looking for her friend.
Please, just be under forty-five. That’s all I ask
…

“Slater! Michelle’s here.”

Slater? Goose bumps blanketed her skin as she went from hot to cold. Ryan Slater? Her lungs shriveled up as her protest died in her throat.

Okay, let me revise that wish…

Hearing his name was a jolt to her system. Michelle’s heart shuddered from the impact as she stood motionless, watching Ryan Slater stroll toward her.

Her brain went on the fritz, filtering his approach in a dizzying collage of stop-motion images. Ryan’s slow, casual gait didn’t fool her. One look at those long, powerful legs and she knew he could catch her.

That thought did little to calm her nerves. Michelle’s gaze seemed to gravitate to his soft, faded jeans. His body was as lean and tapered as when she last saw him. Maybe even more so.

It took some effort, but she managed to yank her attention upward. The autumn breeze tugged at his pale blue shirt, hinting at the sleek contours of his flat stomach and sculpted muscles.

Her stomach clenched as the old embers of desire stirred. No, no, no. She wasn’t going to make that mistake again. No matter how hot and sexy Ryan looked, she knew from experience it was all false advertising.

That piece of knowledge was the only thing that gave Michelle the courage to look him in the eye. She was startled to see Ryan meeting her gaze head-on. She instinctively looked away, but his imprint remained.

If she had to, Michelle could turn around and describe him easily. Sexy. Tousled. And had that
knowing
glint in his brilliant blue eyes.

He stopped in front of her. It was as if a live wire had suddenly dropped between them, right there on the crowded sidewalk. The currents darted wildly in the air, but she was almost afraid to move, not sure which action would take her to safety.

She felt his gaze on her face and her skin tingled. She could only imagine what he was thinking. The guy was a pro at teasing. A master flirt. She wouldn’t put it past him to say something shocking, just to get a response out of her.

The heat rose into her face and she fought the urge to cover the blush with her hands. If anything, she should brazen her way out of this. Make the first move. Say something before Ryan did.

She gave a sharp, jerky nod. “Ryan.” The word got stuck somewhere in her throat. She struggled to make eye contact and barely made it.

His smile crooked to one side, revealing two deep dimples. “Michelle.”

She shivered at the way he drew out her name. There was no rush, like pouring a bowl of melted chocolate. The anticipation was building inside her, and she knew it was going to be worth the wait but was impatient for a lick.

Michelle didn’t realize she drew on her bottom lip until her tongue swept along the tender flesh. She blinked in surprise and pursed her lips. She had forgotten about the mesmerizing effect of his voice. Combine it with those gorgeous blue eyes and she was a goner every time.

She darted her gaze away, unsure where would be the safest place to look. Even closing her eyes would be dangerous with Ryan Slater standing right beside her. “How have you been?” she asked briskly, studying his scuffed sneakers.

“Great. You?”

“Can’t complain.” But that vein in her neck was threatening to pulse right out of her skin. That might be a problem.

Michelle opened her mouth and her mind froze. As though it got stuck and the gears were grinding for something more to say. What? What had she been about to say?

The panic flashed inside her, hot and destructive. She frantically tried to calm down. Whatever she had to say couldn’t have been important. It was probably routine and safe. Nothing memorable. Nothing at all like,
Hey, you know when we did it my last night here? That was my first time. What’s your excuse?

But that was probably why her mind skipped and paused. That good ol’ self-preservation instinct kicking in. So she wouldn’t say it.

Think it? Absolutely. Frequently, often, like the ticker tape headlines on the bottom of the TV news. Send ESP waves Ryan’s way? No doubt about it. Maybe fit into the conversation that she’d had lots of practice since then, and too bad he’d never find out what she had learned.

Damn if she couldn’t remember right now what one of those other guys looked like, let alone what they had taught her. But she did want Ryan to know one thing she had discovered. That she wasn’t solely responsible for their disastrous night.

Yeah, the moment that came up in conversation, she’d mention that.

“Are you my partner for the scavenger hunt?” Michelle blurted out.
Please say no…Please say no…

“Yep.” His smile grew impossibly wider.

Her stomach twisted with dread. There went her last hope. She looked up at his face, wondering what possessed him to agree to this.

And was it possible that Ryan got taller since she last saw him? She didn’t remember him towering over her. Making her feel small and delicate.

Michelle shook the thought away. “How did you get roped into the job?”

The lines creasing his forehead deepened as he frowned. “Sorry?”

“Was it bribery, blackmail, or just plain bullying?” Once she found out, she could pay whatever outstanding debt Ryan had and get him far, far away.

“Nothing like that.” Ryan folded his arms across his chest and braced his legs. “I volunteered.”

Michelle’s eyes widened until they burned. “You did what?” She felt as if she was spluttering. “Why?”

“Michelle! You’re here!”

Michelle heard her best friend’s squeal before she saw Vanessa launching at her. One minute there was a blur of blond hair and long arms and the next she was smack dab in a rib-crushing hug.

“I can’t believe it!” Vanessa said. “I’ve missed you so much!”

Can we say overkill?
“It’s good to see you, too,” Michelle replied cautiously, certain that her words were muffled. She wondered what was going on with Vanessa. She had just seen her best friend a couple of months ago up in Chicago.

“Oh!” Vanessa pulled away, but held Michelle’s shoulders in a death grip. “You wouldn’t believe what happened—excuse us for a minute, guys. Girl talk.”

“We’ll be here,” Danny said with his hands up as Ryan took a prudent step back.

Danny? Michelle whirled around, putting a crick in her neck as Vanessa dragged her out of earshot. She had completely forgotten her big brother had been standing beside her all this time.

“I am really, really sorry, Michelle,” Vanessa said, turning her back on the guys so they wouldn’t see what she was saying. Unfortunately, it gave Michelle an eagle-eye view of Ryan.

“You have nothing to be sorry about.”

Vanessa spread her arms out wide. “I didn’t know who your partner was until he signed up five minutes ago.”

“I know.” Her friend would have called her the second she found out. In fact, Vanessa would have gotten rid of Ryan. At the very least, she would have talked Danny into finding someone else.

“Now listen.” Vanessa leaned forward and spoke softly without moving her mouth. “I know the two of you did it on your last night here, and only you and I know it was simply a matter of ticking an item off your to-do list.”

Michelle flinched. Her summer with Ryan had been much more than that. “That’s not—”

“And now that makes things awkward. I get that.” Vanessa folded her hands across her heart.

“I’m fine,” Michelle lied.

“I’ll give it to you straight. You know that deer-caught-in-the-headlights look? You are so beyond that level. It’s more like you’ve already been hit and tied onto the roof of the car.”

Michelle instinctively looked over Vanessa’s shoulder. Her gaze collided with Ryan’s. Her ribs pushed into her lungs. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t think.

Damn, Vanessa was right. How was she going to deal with Ryan 24/7? It was impossible!

“If you want to dump him and get a new partner in the next five minutes,” Vanessa suggested, “or if you want to drop out altogether, that’s fine with me.”

That got Michelle’s attention. She looked back at her friend. “But then—”

“Don’t worry about me, or about the hunt, or even about what your mom is going to say.”

Wow. Vanessa was giving her permission to duck out of the festival and hightail it back to Chicago. Michelle knew she could take the offer, walk away, and her friend wouldn’t hold it against her.

It was a tempting offer, but she immediately knew she wasn’t going to back out. Michelle straightened her shoulders. She wasn’t going to run for cover because of one insignificant yet embarrassing episode in the past. No guy, not even Ryan Slater, was going to prevent her from fulfilling a promise.

“No, I’ll be fine,” Michelle said, very proud of her calm, strong voice. “I can handle Ryan.”

Vanessa tilted her head to the side. “Are you sure?” she asked, unconvinced.

“Positive,” Michelle said with more gusto than she felt. “After all, being in a contest for the Sexiest Couple title doesn’t mean sexual contact is involved.” She froze as she realized her assumption. “Does it?”

“Uh…” Vanessa’s eyes drifted up as she recalled the events planned. “No.”

“Positive?”

“Oh, puhleeze.” Vanessa rolled her eyes. “This is Carbon Hill, remember?”

Michelle breathed a little easier and wrapped her arm around her friend’s. “Then let’s do this.”

Vanessa sighed with relief. “Good.” She dragged Michelle back toward the men. “There’s something else I needed to tell you, but I can’t remember what it is.” She motioned at her mouth. “It’s on the tip of my tongue.”

“You have a lot going on.” Michelle patted her friend’s arm. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I don’t mind telling you that the festival planning has been stressful,” Vanessa admitted under her breath. “I can’t wait until this celebration is over.”

I know how you feel…

Ryan couldn’t take his eyes off of Michelle. He had always thought she was beautiful, and that one night he caught a glimpse of how breathtaking she would become.

It turned out he had been wrong. She was even more extraordinary than he had imagined.

He didn’t know what did it, what made her so beautiful that it caused something deep inside him to shift when he looked at her. All he knew was that he had better find out before he did something like fall to his knees. Serenade her. Let his tongue hang out and pant.

Ryan pulled his attention up and away from her face. It couldn’t be her hair that threw him into a tailspin. He wasn’t even sure if he liked the short cut. He was pissed off for the loss of all that long, silky black hair. Not that he had a say in the decision, but he remembered how much he had enjoyed finding any excuse to sink his hands into the waves of her hair.

Although there was something to be said about the new style. It was flirty, chic, and it emphasized her gentle features. He was tempted to rub his fingertips along the feathery ends to see if it was as soft as it looked.

Her brown eyes seemed bigger. Wiser. Yet he still saw the innocence lurking in the shadows. There was something about her face that made him think she had braved through a lot of life in just the past couple of years.

Even the informal clothes had a cosmopolitan edge. The jeans hung low on the graceful slope of her hips, offering a glimpse of silky skin. The simple T-shirt screamed designer, but he was more interested in how the expensive cotton skimmed her curves. The denim jacket she wore looked trendy and aggressive. Very big city.

Maybe that was the problem. No matter how hard he had tried to hide it in the past, Ryan had felt uncivilized with the previous version of Michelle. God knew what he was going to do around this sophisticated incarnation.

And as much as he wanted to prove to himself that that one night wasn’t going to get the better of him, that he could erase his mistake, he had a bad feeling he was about to make it worse.

He didn’t know why he was making that prediction. It didn’t make sense. He had dated a lot. Even the most beautiful and sexiest women around. So why did Michelle Nelson have the power to tie him up in knots?

Now wasn’t the time to find out. Not in front of the watching town and definitely not in front of the local newspaper reporter. It was time to admit his error in judgment and get the hell out before it was too late.

“Sorry about that,” Michelle said, not quite looking him in the eye as she stuffed her fists into her jean jacket.

“Good luck, you guys,” Danny said as he curled his arm around Vanessa’s waist. “And, Michelle? You owe me. You owe me big.”

Michelle’s smile was wry as she watched her brother and friend walk away. “Oh, yeah, Danny. Don’t worry. I won’t forget this for a long, long time.”

Yep. She’s not happy at all.
Ryan didn’t blame her, but that was the point of why he had volunteered to do this stupid hunt. He had never gotten the chance to do or say anything about that one night because she had left the next morning. This scavenger hunt was supposed to be his chance.

But his chance for what? He didn’t know. Now that he thought about it, when he had said he’d do this, he’d had a vague idea of a plan.

Okay, he had no plan. No strategy. Nothing.

Which was mistake number one. Maybe mistake number two or three, because why did he think he had the power to change the past. To erase it? To make Michelle forgive and forget?

While he was often accused of being too optimistic, Ryan never strove for the impossible. He might have gone over the edge this time. What he wanted to accomplish was unrealistic. He got that now. If he really wanted that episode to be forgotten, wouldn’t it be more effective—not to mention easier—if he avoided Michelle for the next fifty or sixty years?

Anyway, did he really want to spend all this time with a woman who refused to look at him?

Ryan turned toward her. “Michelle, maybe this was a bad idea.”

Her head jerked up. The bare look in her eyes made his gut twist. As though he had betrayed her. Let her down.

“I can tell the organizers I can’t do it. Family obligations”—which wouldn’t be far from the truth—“and they can find you another partner.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You’re bailing out on me?”

Ryan couldn’t stop staring at her soft, parted lips. It took him a minute to realize what she was saying. “No! I’m not doing that at all.”

She gestured at the scavenger hunt starting point. “This thing starts any second now and you’re leaving?”