“I don’t want you to think I’m hitting on you again. I’m not a total jerk. I realize you probably have a boyfriend, and even if you don’t, you spent too much time over the years throwing darts at my pictures to care what I think. I’m just trying to make amends.”
“I never threw darts at your picture. Curses, maybe, but not darts.” She smiled despite herself. He thought she was beautiful. She felt a spiteful sense of happiness that he was complimenting her instead of all those starlets she’d seen with him in tabloids.
He turned toward the backseat of the car. She followed his gaze and saw a pair of small, slender boxes sitting there. One black, one white. He picked up the black one, fingering it nervously. “I’m not . . . I know that . . .” He ran a hand through his dusky-blond hair, apparently at a loss for words.
“What?” she prompted.
“This is probably stupid and I shouldn’t do it, but I feel bad that you and Alexia had to carry around Maribel’s necklace for years. I shouldn’t have stuck you with that memory. I shouldn’t have compared you to her in the first place.” He gave a frustrated grunt. “Even knowing that, I did it again. Two minutes after we climbed into this car, I told you how much you look like her.”
“I never minded that,” Sabrina said, somehow unable to let him feel guilty for that part. She had always liked the fact that she looked like his first wife. Back when she was younger it was one of the things that had convinced her she and Alex belonged together—even God thought so. Otherwise he wouldn’t have formed Sabrina to be exactly Alex Kingsley’s type.
“I know you’re not her,” he said. “I just wanted to tell you thanks for the sacrifices you’ve made to raise Alexia right. That says a lot about you.” He handed the box awkwardly to Sabrina. “Consider each one of those stones an “I’m sorry.” Now I’m only a few thousand apologies short.”
Stones? She took the box from him, stunned. She should feel something at this moment. Maybe gratitude, or perhaps indignation that he thought he could throw money around to win her over. But he seemed so genuinely eager for her to like the gift that she couldn’t refuse it. His genuine nature. That’s what had attracted her to him in the first place, and here it was again, swaying her actions.
She flipped open the box. Snuggled against black velvet was a necklace dripping with rubies. They grew progressively bigger until the center stone, which was a perfect, winking red circle.
She stared at them, entranced.
“Do you like it?” he asked.
She didn’t touch the necklace. “It’s stunning.” It belonged on the neck of an actress. Someone who was off to a posh red-carpet event. Sabrina had no idea when or where she’d ever be able to wear it, which deflated her a little. Alex Kingsley had finally given her a gift meant for her, and she would only be able to stare at it in the box. This necklace belonged to a completely different world than she did.
He must have read apprehension into her gaze. “It’s a purely platonic gift,” he told her. “I’m not hitting on you.”
She glanced up from the box. “You know, I wouldn’t mind if you hit on me a little. ‘Women scorned’ like that sort of thing. It’s vindication.”
He cracked a smile. “Okay, in that case, I’m hitting on you a little, just so you feel vindicated.”
She laughed, checking his gaze to see if there was any truth to his words. His blue eyes met hers and flashed with some emotion. Perhaps earnestness. Perhaps he was testing the waters. Or maybe it was just her imagination. She was, after all, incurably foolish where he was concerned.
He gestured at the box. “If you don’t like it, I can get you something else.”
“No, it’s beautiful.” She ran a finger over the rich red gems. “I’m just not sure where I would wear something this elegant.”
“Ahh,” he said, with a note of understanding. He unclipped the necklace from the box. “You’re in luck. These are all-purpose, dress-up, dress-down rubies. Here, let me show you.” He undid the clasp and reached toward her. She only had time to sweep her hair away from her shoulders before he was leaning over, putting his arms around her while he redid the clasp. She sat stiffly, trying not to react to his sudden nearness. She could smell his aftershave. His fingers brushed against her skin, making her neck tingle.
He’d done this the last time they met too. He had put a necklace on her, and his fingers had lingered, gently caressing the back of her neck and making their way to her shoulders.
This time he sat back and surveyed her with satisfaction. The memory of the first necklace vanished. She was back in the present. Alex Kingsley was sitting just inches away. It seemed unfair that after nineteen years he was still handsome enough to make her heart stutter several beats. He flipped down the passenger-side mirror for her. “See, it’s the perfect way to accessorize any hotel uniform.”
She nodded, breathing too hard to speak.
Definitely incurably foolish.
“I could take you out to an exclusive restaurant,” he said, still surveying her. “Then you’d have some place to wear it. I don’t mind waiting if you want to change.”
She grinned, not because he’d said anything funny, but because she’d been so worried about meeting him, and here he was trying his hardest to please her. He wanted her friendship. That knowledge relaxed her. Maybe it was time to change lots of things. “Why don’t you come to my house for dinner instead. Lexi will be anxious to see you again.”
He hesitated. “She was pretty steamed when she talked to me last. What’s the best way to handle this now?”
With patience, Sabrina thought. And lots of forgiveness.
Sabrina reached out and put her hand on his arm in a confiding manner. “Lexi wants to love you. It will just take some time. But that’s okay. She’s a wonderful girl.”
He nodded, his gaze first on Sabrina’s hand, then her eyes. “I wanted to talk to you about that. I’d like you and Lexi to come out to my ranch in California so we can spend some time getting to know each other. I’ve got horses, a pool, a weight room, a music studio—if she’s interested in that sort of thing—and it’s not too far away from shopping and the nightlife . . . .” His voice trailed off. He was waiting for reaction. “I can hit on you if that would help to sway your decision . . . .”
She laughed—a happy, tinkling sound even to her own ears. “We’ll talk to Lexi about it. Let’s go to my house and get something to eat. I’ve got mango salsa.”
He smiled at her and put the car in reverse.
Other titles by Janette Rallison
Son of War, Daughter of Chaos
Blue Eyes and Other Teenage Hazards
Just One Wish
Masquerade
My Double Life
A Longtime (and at One Point Illegal) Crush
Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws
Playing The Field
My Fair Godmother
My Unfair Godmother
All’s Fair in Love, War, and High School
Fame, Glory, and Other Things on my To Do List
It’s a Mall World After All
Revenge of the Cheerleaders
How to Take The Ex Out of Ex-boyfriend
Slayers (under pen name CJ Hill)
Slayers: Friends and Traitors (under pen name CJ Hill)
Erasing Time (under pen name CJ Hill)
Echo in Time (under pen name CJ Hill)
What the Doctor Ordered (under pen name Sierra St. James)