Hot Pursuit - Denise A. Agnew [3]
He took another swig of his beer. “Why are you alone tonight?”
His question took her off-guard. She expected other small talk. Just enough to lead her right to the bottom line.
Sex.
Oh, God. Was she considering trying to seduce geeky Victor? Correction, Vic. Stud muffin, hunk beyond her dreams Vic. Mouth-watering—
Enough.
When she stayed silent, he said, “Now answer my question. Why are you alone tonight?”
“I’m enjoying the holiday by myself. What are you doing here alone?”
His smile couldn’t cover the pain that flickered through his eyes. “It’s a long story.”
She leaned on the table. “You don’t have family in Clarksville?”
“Not anymore. My parents live in Colorado Springs now. My brother is in California. Most of the rest of my family lives in Denver.”
“Yet you came to Clarksville for the holidays?”
He stared at the beer bottle with an intensity that bordered on furious, as if the bottle had pissed him off. “Yeah. My girlfriend…ex-girlfriend lives up here.”
She waited. What could she say to that? Ex-girlfriend? She didn’t dare ask, at least not right away. How personal could she presume to be?
His gaze returned to hers as the old-fashioned jukebox changed to a Kenny Chesney song Lucy hadn’t heard in forever.
He seemed okay with leaving information hanging, but before she could speak, he said, “I’m thinking it’s a good thing I came here alone. I get to spend time with you.”
Heat spiraled from her stomach straight into her face. Her brain didn’t catch up with her mouth. She didn’t know what to say or how to say it. “Thank you. It’s always good to see friends.”
Lame. So lame.
For godssake she was a grown woman but her reaction was so high school. Where had her sophistication gone?
Probably right out the door with her mind the moment she’d seen Vic.
He leaned back in the booth and eyed her. “If I remember right, there was nothing friendly about our relationship in high school.”
Oh, man. She chewed on her lower lip. “I was hoping you’d forgotten that.”
His scrubbed at his chin with a big, tanned hand. A very masculine but gorgeous hand. “Not a chance. I think I was scared of girls for six months after that.”
She winced. “Like you said, we were just kids. Teenagers are so dumb sometimes.”
Teasing entered his eyes. “You feel guilty about it.”
“How can you tell?”
“Your eyes give away everything. You’d make a terrible poker player.”
“Good thing I hate poker.” She contemplated the rosy-red color in her wine glass. “I’m sorry I was such a brat in high school. Miss Tryin’ To Get And Stay Popular.”
“You weren’t that bad.”
“Yes, I was. I sold out. I compromised my integrity by going for popularity over—” Lucy couldn’t say it. What she’d done haunted her sometimes. “I bought into the crap, Vic. The stupid cheerleader stereotype instead of thinking about who I really was. Instead of being who I should have been.”
Guilt like hers didn’t go away quickly, even though she’d reminded him that teenagers often did rash things—very rash things. It had been more than fifteen years ago that she’d seen Vic, yet the memory of the last time she’d talked to him was fresh in her mind. Her so-called friends, two cheerleaders who threw their weight around on a regular basis, talked her into approaching geeky Victor and asking him on a date. No girl dated Vic the Dip, as the cheerleaders had called him. Vic the Geek Wad, as the football players had called him.
“If I hadn’t been trying to stay popular…” She shook her head again. “Stupid. Stupid.”
“What motivated you to do what those cheerleaders said?” Apparently he didn’t plan to let her off the hook.
God, did she want to explain this? Kenny Chesney sang something mellow and slow, and people swayed on the small dance floor. The shadowy booth though, made her feel a million miles from everyone.
She jolted back to reality. More than guilt propelled her to answer. Vic deserved to understand what had motivated her to humiliate him. Maybe if she admitted the truth and the whole truth, she’d feel better and could banish the guilt forever.
After a