again, Delaney always had kept him on his toes. It could, he decided as they arrived at the table, be an interesting evening.
“Want to join us?” she asked.
He wanted a whole hell of a lot more than that. He wanted to be somewhere private where they had all the time in the world. Yeah, he remembered what it had been like to kiss her, he thought, staring at her mouth, and he was now imagining what it would be like to kiss her again. But he wasn’t fourteen anymore and kissing wasn’t enough to satisfy him. Not even close.
For now, though… “I’m here with a buddy. Let me go get him and then you can introduce us both at the same time.”
And then, because he couldn’t quite keep all his needs clamped down, he leaned in to brush his lips over hers before he turned and walked away.
“HE’S GORGEOUS,” WAS the first thing out of Kelly’s mouth. “I can’t believe you just walk into a bar and a guy like that falls into your lap. If I weren’t so deliriously happy I’d be jealous.”
“Where did he go?” Paige wanted to know.
It took Delaney a moment to respond because her lips were still tingling from his. It hadn’t been a real kiss, barely even a touch. So why was her heart sprinting in her chest?
And why could she still feel the warmth of his mouth on hers?
“Earth to Delaney,” said Paige.
“To get his friend. It’s Jake,” she added, trying to blink away the fog.
Cilla gave her a blank stare. “He said his name was Dom.”
“It’s him, Jake,” Delaney repeated. “My eighth grade boyfriend.”
“Your eighth grade boyfriend you weren’t in love with, that guy?” Paige asked incredulously.
“Well, he didn’t look like that in eighth grade,” Delaney defended. “Shorter, a lot shorter. And rounder. And no moustache.”
“At fourteen? Gee, imagine that.”
“And his hair was so light and he didn’t have those…” she waved in the direction of her shoulders. And when had he gotten that voice, that husky voice that made her want to rub herself all over him like a cat? She took a swallow of her drink. “I still don’t quite buy that it’s him.”
But it was. Somewhere down in her gut she knew, because she felt that same twisting, flipping feel that she’d had for him in eighth grade. Before he’d broken up with her and gone off to private school. And now here, three thousand miles from either of their homes, she’d run into him. Sixteen years later, she had another chance, to laugh, to give him a hard time for the heartache. To boink his brains out.
And to be the one to walk away.
3
DELANEY TURNED AS JAKE approached with his friend. Giving the two of them a brilliant smile, she turned to the rest of the Supper Club. “Okay, guys, this is someone I knew from junior high school, Jake—”
“Dom,” he corrected.
“Right. Dom Gordon.” Humor leapt in her eyes. “I still think Jake the Snake suited you better.”
The guy with Jake—Dom—let go a burst of laughter. “Jake the Snake?” he repeated.
Dom scowled. “It was a nickname. And this is Eric Novak, my sometimes friend.”
“Hi, Eric. I’m Delaney,” she said, “and this is my college gang—Sabrina, Cilla, Paige, Thea, Trish and Kelly. Pay attention, there’ll be a test after,” she added.
Eric looked like he couldn’t believe his luck. “Nice to meet you all.”
“To new friends.” Delaney raised her margarita.
“And old ones,” Dom added. With a clink of glasses, they all drank.
Eric put down his glass, still staring at Thea. “You used to be a model, didn’t you?” he blurted.
And all of them, the whole Supper Club, tensed a little. Maybe none of them knew quite what had happened to Thea back in New York, but they knew that any reminder of that time had a bad effect on her. Delaney waited now to see how she’d respond.
And to her everlasting shock, Thea smiled.
That was Brady, Delaney realized, the man Thea had fallen for just a month before. Somehow Brady and Portland—and love—had healed her.
“It’s been years since I modeled,” Thea was saying calmly. “Now I just teach tango.”
“And live with the best brew master in the Pacific Northwest,” Delaney added, seeing the adoration plastered all over Eric’s face.
He closed his eyes briefly. “That crashing sound you hear is my heat breaking,” he told Delaney. “But thank you.”
“Reality is sometimes painful.”
“How could you?” He turned to Thea. “Why didn’t you wait? You must have known I was going to be here.”
“Sorry,” Thea told him. “Poor planning on my part.”
“And I suppose you didn’t bring any copies of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit picture to sign, either.”
She spread her hands apologetically. “Fresh out.”
He gave a mournful glance at the flashes of gold and diamonds that adorned several of the other hands at the table. “Married, married, married,” he ticked off. “This is looking more tragic all the time. I don’t suppose any of the rest of you are single,” he added hopefully.
“Delaney’s the only holdout,” Kelly said with a wicked smile.
“And holding hard,” Delaney added fervently. “How about you, Jake the Snake?”
“Slipped the noose so far,” he said.
“I see. And what do you do with yourself when you’re not slipping the noose? Or is that a full-time job?”
“Oh, I—”
“He runs a garage,” Eric supplied, leaning over toward them for a second.
Delaney’s mouth curved with pleasure. “Stan’s? Your father’s old place?”
“You need your tires rotated, Dom’s your boy.”
“I’ll remember that.” Her eyes gleamed. “I’ve got great memories of the garage. Do you remember the day your dad came in and found us riding the lift up and down?”
Dom winced. “Hard to forget. You and your dares.”
“Admit it, you had fun. How’s your family, by the way?”
Dom moved his shoulders. “My mom’s good. She’s still teaching special ed at St. Joseph’s.”
“And the twins? I still remember them as babies, but I guess they’re not anymore.”
“Nope. They’re starting college in a couple of weeks.”
Delaney stared. “College?” she repeated faintly. “Now, that’s scary.”
“Tell me about it.”
“And how’s your dad?”
A beat went by. “We lost him about five years back. Mouth cancer.” He smiled briefly. “He never could give up those stogies.”
And she saw in his eyes what it cost him to joke. “Oh, Jake, I—” She stopped. “Dom, I mean. It’s hard to get used to.”
“It doesn’t matter. Dad still called me Jake even after I changed over.”
“I’m sorry,” Delaney said simply. “He was a good man. He made me laugh.”
And