the hotel and let his eyes linger on the swing of her hips. It had been twelve years, but he vividly recalled holding her sweet ass as she kissed his brains out. He wondered if reality was as good as his memories.
“So how did you find me, anyway? Canton has several good-sized hotels.” Nadya sipped her Shiraz and marveled at the way the candlelight brought out blond, bronze and gold highlights in J.T.’s hair. He wore it shorter now, but there was still a little shock that fell over his forehead. Her fingers itched to brush it back.
“I employed my amazing detective skills and deduced where you’d be staying. It was just luck that the bar was near the pool.”
“Really?”
“Sort of. I figured you would stay in one of the nicer hotels, and I cruised the parking lot until I saw your car. Elementary, my dear Watson.”
She laughed and leaned back in her seat. The Italian restaurant he’d brought her to had plush booths, dim lighting and fabulous food. She’d dithered over whether to order the lasagna since she was wearing white pants but decided to risk it. The aroma of tomato sauce, garlic and oregano was too much to resist.
“This place is great. Do you come here a lot?” She could have bitten her tongue off. It sounded like she was prying into his love life.
“I try to hit it when I’m in town. I get sick of my own cooking, and there are only so many variations at the deli.”
“I was disappointed to see Sonny’s Barbeque had gone out of business. He had the best ribs and coleslaw.”
“Yeah, he closed up shop a couple years back. His son moved to Atlanta and he was getting too old to keep the place running.”
“I noticed a lot of empty storefronts on Main Street. It reminded me of an old woman who had fallen on hard times but refused to go away gracefully.”
“I guess in a way Dale is dying. It was never big to begin with, but families stayed generation after generation. Now the kids graduate high school, go on to college or trade school and move away. There’s not a lot of options in Dale.”
“You know, I was born in Dale, but I was always considered an outsider because my mama wasn’t from Georgia. I was the only kid who didn’t have cousins in the school and family all around until you and your daddy came.”
“I remember what it felt like to be the new kid. But I was used to it. My daddy traveled from church to church most of my life. When my mama was alive, it was easier. By the time we got to Dale, I was so used to feeling like an outsider, it didn’t bother me. Much.”
“Considering you became an almost instant celebrity, I’m not surprised. All anyone could talk about was J.T. this and J.T. that. You had the entire town in the palm of your hand the day you walked into school.”
“I don’t remember it that way.” He grabbed a roll and buttered it. “How did we get on this topic, anyway? So tell me what you’re doing in Georgia, Miss Fancy Pants New York City Lawyer.”
Nadya swirled the deep red wine in her glass and refrained from taking one of the heavenly smelling rolls. She planned on enjoying her lasagna, and she could only have so many carbs before her ass got too big for her pants.
“You knew my mama died, right? I figured your daddy would have told you.” Pastor McBride was one of the few people she had notified of her mama’s death. Apparently, Talaitha had kept in touch with him after their inglorious departure from Dale.
“Yup. I was real sorry to hear about that. Your mama was a special lady. She’s the one who convinced me to go into the service, you know.”
“What? Really? No, I didn’t know that. My mama hated anything to do with the gadzé’s rules. I’d think she’d have been appalled by the idea of joining the military.”
“She caught me smashing the hell out of a tree with my baseball bat in the woods back behind the church. I was furious with my daddy for one reason or another. Hell, I don’t even remember what now, and she just stood there while I wailed away, smacking this sapling with a bat. When I wore myself out, she asked me if I felt better and gave me this look.”