To Tempt A Stallion. Deborah Fletcher Mello

of his button-down shirt. He jotted a phone number on the back then winked his eye at her a second time. “Here’s my number. Please. Call me. I’d love for us to sit down and talk.”

      Rebecca nodded, her face lifting in a sweet smile. “I will do that,” she responded.

      Nathaniel met Jeffrey’s outstretched hand with his own and shook it. “It was good seeing you again, Jeff,” he said politely.

      The two watched as Jeffrey took his leave, sauntering back across the room and through the swinging doors into the employees-only area.

      “Well, that was a surprise,” Rebecca quipped as casually as she could muster.

      Nathaniel sensed her feeling out his mood as she tried to make sense of her own emotions. He nodded. “It’s not often you run into your ex-fiancé. Must have been like old times the way he was so touchy-feely.”

      “It was not like that.”

      “You sure about that, Bec? You looked like you were enjoying his attention.”

      “I did not!”

      “You did, too! And that’s okay if you were. I know how much you loved him. You were ready to throw your whole life away to follow him around the world. The way it ended left a lot unsaid. You may still have some residual feelings for him.”

      Rebecca closed her eyes. Jeffrey Baylor had been so lost in her past that she had never imagined ever having to revisit him or that time period again. He’d arrived as a transfer student at UCLA their junior year. Tall, dark and handsome to the nth degree, he’d captured the attention of every woman on campus and Rebecca had captured his. His pursuit of her had been taken right out of the handbook for a romance novel. He’d said and done all the right things, never amiss with the romantic attention. He’d had her swooning by the third date and before she knew it she’d been his girl. Even then Nathaniel’s teasing her about it had been unmerciful.

      But her best friend and her boyfriend had never meshed, unable to find any common ground. Not even her happiness. The two had butted heads at every turn, like two bulls in a china shop racing for the door. Nathaniel hadn’t trusted the man and had often pointed out flaws she’d chosen to ignore. When her grades slipped, her attention divided, he’d blamed her love life, often admonishing her to get back on track.

      Jeffrey had graduated the year before she and Nathaniel did, with plans to head to France for a culinary career. When he’d shown up on her doorstep begging her to join him, she had wanted to say yes. When Nathaniel found out, enumerating every reason why that was a bad idea, doubt had set in. Although the two had never discussed it, the words never said out loud, she and Jeffrey had known that if she’d been made to choose one over the other, Nathaniel would have always won. He’d known and he had hated it and despised Nathaniel for it. But Nathaniel owned her heart, Jeffrey had only occupied a very small piece of it. She could have loved Jeffrey but she would have always been in love with Nathaniel. It had been the difference between her leaving and her final decision to stay. And Nathaniel didn’t have a clue.

      She opened her eyes to stare at her friend. “You really don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, Nate.”

      “I know what I see, Bec.”

      “Do you really? I swear, you are such a jerk sometimes!” she hissed between clenched teeth. She stood up abruptly.

      “Where are you going?”

      “Back to my hotel room.”

      “I thought you wanted to go walk on the beach?”

      “You just ruined the mood!” she said and with a dismissive flick of her hand and a twirl on her high heels she stomped toward the door and out of the restaurant.