without having to stuff themselves in a bathroom on a commercial airline. “I’d only want that if we were still together. I can’t imagine joining the mile-high club with anyone other than you.”
Well dammit. Why did he have to go and say that? “You’re just being a sap now.”
“You’re right. I am.” He reached across the table and took her free hand in his own. “Hope, you’re what my life’s been missing. The first time I left you, I was young and so were you. We both had college, and I know I broke my promise when I said I’d stay here and go to the state school with you, but I couldn’t pass up my chance to go to the school of my dreams. You know that, right?”
She nodded. “Of course I do”. She wasn’t so selfish that she’d expected him to give up a scholarship just because he’d promised to stay in Premonition Pointe with her. “But that doesn’t mean you didn’t break my heart when you left and said we’d do long distance and then changed your mind two months later.”
He winced. “That was my twenty-year-old ego talking. When you decided to not go with me, I just… I was mad, and I missed the hell out of you, okay? I admit that I didn’t handle it well.”
After they’d graduated high school, they’d moved in together and both gone to the local community college. Their plan was to transfer to the state school their junior year. But then Lucas had gotten an academic scholarship to a small private school back East. One that was way too expensive for Hope to manage without crippling debt. So even though he’d asked her to go with him, she’d declined and stayed in Premonition Pointe, thinking they’d do long distance for two years and then he’d come home.
“Can you just tell me the truth about something?” she asked, already feeling defeated. She didn’t want to have this argument again, but here they were over twenty years later, still hashing out their past.
“Of course. I’ve never lied to you.”
She stared into his unrelenting gaze and decided that he was telling the truth. But she still had to ask. “Did you break it off back then because you’d met someone?”
Lucas sucked in a deep breath, and Hope felt like her heart was going to bust in two. How could she still not be over something that happened twenty-six years ago? It was because it was Lucas, and she’d never gotten over him. “Yes and no.”
Hope rolled her eyes. “That isn’t an answer.”
“I know. Here’s the truth. I did meet someone. She asked me out, and I was so lonely that I wanted to go. You and I, we were everything to each other. And at the time, you were working and going to school full-time. Our schedules were completely out of sync, and I just needed someone in my life. So I told you that maybe it was better if we allowed each other to see other people while I was at school.”
“And I flipped out,” Hope said, still feeling the echo of the pain she’d felt back then.
“Yeah. I tried to take it back, but it was too late. You told me to live my life and you’d live yours. And if I ever came home again, not to count on your being available.” He let out a low chuckle. “Dammit, Hope. You were so hardheaded back then. I expected you to find someone and marry them right away just to spite me.”
She had considered it. But she’d never fallen in love with anyone else. Besides, getting married had never been her style anyway. “And the girl you wanted to date? How’d that work out for you?”
“We didn’t date. We went to dinner one night and became really good friends. That’s it,” he said.
“That’s it? Really? You didn’t sleep with her?”
He shook his head. “Hope, I didn’t sleep with anyone but you while I was in school.”
“You’re kidding?” she asked, shocked. “Seriously?”
“Do you really think I’d lie to you, especially now that I know you can read my thoughts?” he asked with a chuckle.
“I’m not reading your thoughts,” she said. “In fact, I’m actively trying to not invade your privacy.”
He tightened his hold on her hand and shook his head slightly, looking amused. “That right there is one of the reasons I never got over you.”
“Why’s that? Because I have some ethics?” Because if that was the reason, he was giving her