“I know. I shouldn’t have just assumed that it was okay to invade your space like that, but seeing you again... I just... fuck, Nora. There’s something about you. Always has been. I wanted to be near you.”
“Now you do,” she scoffed.
“I deserve that,” I conceded. She raised her eyebrows and turned to face me, her arm resting against the wall. I mimicked her stance. “It was never about not wanting to be with you,” I confessed. “I should have apologized for a lot of things the second I saw you. I hate the way things ended between us and if I could take it back I would.”
“But you can’t,” she replied with certainty. “You can’t take back anything that happened because it’s already said and done.”
“I know but—”
“But nothing.” She shook her head. “I’m going to go back into that bar and enjoy my evening with my sister. You’re here for what, a few weeks? A month?”
“Three actually.”
“Well for the next three months can you please just stay away from me? We’re both different people now. Whatever it is you feel, it’s just memories. Ancient history. There isn’t anything between us anymore.”
“If you’d just let me apologize then maybe we could move past this,” I countered, desperately. The way she was just ready to shut me out completely was not sitting right. Things should not be this way between us. “You know this is just like you, never letting me get a damn word in.”
“Whatever.” She shook her head as if she didn’t understand what I was saying. She knew damn well that she was real good at shutting me down before I had a chance to explain my side of the story. It was exactly what happened when we broke up. She wouldn’t let me explain then and she won’t let me explain now.
“Can we please just talk?”
“What’s the point? You moved on. I moved on. Can we please just let it lay? There is absolutely no sense in stirring things up. Let’s just call it like it is. We are strangers now.”
“Wait just a damn minute, Nora. We’re far from strangers.” I reached out to touch her arm and watched as her skin prickled beneath my fingertips. Her eyes narrowed in on my hand and I could tell she felt the spark between us. It was still there whether she wanted to admit it or not. I took a step forward, closing the distance between us and watched as she held her breath and looked up at me. “I know you, Shutterbug. Always have, always will.” I leaned in until my nose was practically grazing hers. “And I can tell you want me to kiss you right now,” I whispered. Only a few inches separated my mouth from hers, I could have breathed her in if I tried hard enough. She smelled like wildflowers and home. I’d been so stupid to let her go. Her sultry pink lips were waiting for me, but just as I was about to claim them with mine, she stepped back.
“Don’t,” she said. “Please don’t,” her voice was shaky and I didn’t know how much further I could or should push her.
“I missed you so much,” I goaded, placing my hands on her hips, but she turned out of my grasp.
“Really?” she said sarcastically. “Do you have any idea what I have been doing for the last seven years? Did you know I graduated from college at the top of my class? That I got my real estate license and am one of the top selling agents in the area?” That explained why she was the one who delivered the land deed. “Maybe it doesn’t sound like much to you, but I do have a life here.”
“It sounds like a lot,” I answered. “These are things I want to learn,” I added, but she was uninterested in anything I had to say.
“It’s too late for that.”
“It’s not,” I insisted. If there was ever a woman who knew how to get under my skin it was her. She’d always been stubborn, but the grown up version of her was taking it to a whole other level. If she’d just hear me out. I reached out for her hand one more time, but the second I made contact, she folded her arms across her chest and out of my reach.
“Oh, and did I mentioned that I practically had to glue my sister back to together when Jamie died? Thanks for coming to the funeral by the way. It’s not like you grew up with the kid or anything.” Nora’s frustration at my absence over the last few years was only matched by the contempt in her voice. She just went from under my skin, to punching me right in the heart. I did know about Jamie and I did think about how Georgia was doing. The two of them had been pretty much inseparable as kids and when I heard what had happened I knew she had to be devastated.
“I would have come, but I was trying to make things easier on you.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit. You were trying to make things easier on you. You broke up with me. You left. You pretended like me, like this town, never even existed. Don’t deny it.”
I wanted to tell her that I hadn’t, but it would have been a lie. It was easier to pretend like I’d done the right thing by leaving her behind, but the truth was, I wasn’t so sure. If my leaving had caused her to become so jaded and bitter then maybe I’d made an even bigger mistake than I thought.
“Okay,” I agreed. If she didn’t want to let me apologize and try to make things right then I guess I owed her that much. She was right, I was only in town for a short time and the pained look on her face was killing me. “I’m not denying that I left this place all wrong.” As she walked away, I added, “But don’t think for a second that I’m not going to try to make things right with you.”
“It won’t work,” she promised as she pushed past me and made her way back to the bar. I watched her go back inside and when the door closed, I let out the breath I’d been holding. That might have been one of the most painful things I’d ever experienced, and thanks to my career choice, I’d broken bones. Lots of them. At once.
* * *
When I finally picked my pride up off the sidewalk and went back into the bar, I found Brett and Hoyt racking the balls on one of the pool tables in the back.
“Guessing you struck out, Romeo?” Brett teased.
“What makes you think that?”
“She came back in and asked her sister to go to the bathroom with her,” he explained. “Haven’t seen them since. Man, you really know how to scare that one off. What’s that, twice now?”
“Yeah, she hates me,” I said, hanging my head briefly. “Apparently I did some serious damage when I left.” If she would have just let me explain why I thought what I was doing was the right thing then maybe I could have made her not so mad. So bitter.
“You tried,” Hoyt offered up. “If she doesn’t want to talk then maybe you should just leave her alone.”
“You’re right,” I said with a nod. “I tried.” I walked over to the table, where one of them had placed our bucket of beer and pulled a cold one out. Cracking it open, I held up my bottle to my brother and friend. “To trying,” I saluted, before drinking back half the contents. “And to being strangers,” I added under my breath. All I needed was a few more of these and I’d be numb enough to stop thinking about the way she’d looked at me outside. Like I was nothing to her.
“How about we try and pick up a few of those locals,” Brett said, giving a nod to the group of women sitting a few tables over. They had definitely seen us—all giggling when Brett raised his drink and fired a wink in their direction. Two of them looked familiar, but I couldn’t be sure if I knew them from high school or not. It wasn’t like I looked at any other girls back then. I only saw one.
“Why not,” I said, clinking my bottle against his. “Might as well find someone in this town that will give me the time of day. Otherwise it’s going to be a long three months.”
Brett waved the women over about the same time Georgia and Nora came out of the bathroom. Georgia offered up a sympathetic smile as she walked with her sister, but Nora didn’t even cast a look in my direction. If this was what she wanted, to act like the other didn’t exist, then I’d accommodate her request. I refused to be some little bitch that sat around pining over a girl that didn’t want him.