Chapter 2

2

DAPHNE

M y heart raced as I squealed to a stop in front of my brother's auto shop. I'd barely turned off my engine when I was out of the car, running to his office with my nostrils flaring and my eyes wide.

"What's the emergency?" I asked as soon as I saw him behind his desk, quickly giving him a onceover to make sure he was alright.

"Hey, easy," Eric said.

When I saw no visible signs of injury or even alarm, I scowled, breathing hard and pressing a hand to my chest in an attempt to calm my wildly beating heart. "There's no blood on the walls or the floor. You seem fine. Why did you make it sound like the sky was falling?"

He frowned as he turned slowly away from his computer to face me, confusion clouding his usually clear blue eyes. "What? I didn't. The sky is fine. I just asked if you could help me out."

"Yeah, but you said it was an emergency."

"That's because it is," he said, still seeming a little confused until he shook his head and smiled. "I'm sorry if I scared you. It's not a life-or-death emergency. I guess I could've been clearer."

"Ya think?" I shot back at him, picking a path across the car parts scattered on the floor and sinking into the chair across from desk. "So what's going on?"

"I have to pick up a friend from the airport, but Mr. Jackson is going to pitch a fit if I don't finish his car today. He needs to pick up supplies for the diner and he claims it'll go out of business if he can't collect this order."

"Right," I said slowly, blinking hard as I tried to process that the emergency was, in fact, not at all an actual emergency. "You could've just said that."

"Yeah, I know." He wrinkled his nose at me. "I wasn't thinking, but to be fair, I didn't know your mind would jump to blood on the walls. It's just time sensitive."

"You said emergency ," I reiterated. "I don't think I've ever heard you use that word. Nothing constitutes an emergency to you."

Seriously, my big brother was the most laidback person in the world. About most things anyway. He was crazy protective of me and he worked his ass off as a mechanic in his auto shop, but he was also tough. He took most things life threw at him in stride and that was what made him seem so easygoing. He just wasn't the type to panic.

"It is an emergency if the owner of the only diner everyone loves around here says he's going out of business if you don't have his car fixed by four."

I inhaled deeply. "Well, I suppose I should be happy you're okay. Next time, just don't give me half a heart attack when you need a favor."

He smirked, his eyes filling with laughter as he nodded his agreement. "Sure, but next time, maybe don't jump to conclusions."

I fought the urge to stick my tongue out at him. "You do need a favor, right? It might help to be kind to the person you're asking it from."

"But you love me." He batted his pitch-black lashes at me and I laughed, shaking my head.

"Fine. What time is your friend's flight getting in? I have to be at the bakery by three."

He glanced at his watch. "You should be done way before then. All you need to do is drive to the airport, pick him up, and bring him back to Allisburg."

"Fine," I said, doing a quick mental calculation of my own. The airport was only one town over, and unless there was some kind of problem on the roads, I should make it back in plenty of time for work. "You owe me, though."

"Don't I always?" he teased. "Jokes aside, I do owe you. Thanks, Daph. I really need to get this car fixed and the coordination for the reunion has taken way too much of my time recently, and I can't exactly leave him at the airport until I'm done."

"Fair enough," I agreed. "Who is i?—"

My question was interrupted by the ringing of his landline and he grabbed the phone, the humor melting from his eyes as the businessman within flared back to life. "This is Eric."

As I watched, relief slowly started washing over his features as he listened to the person on the other end of the line. I waited for a few seconds, but finally, he put his hand over the receiver and whispered to me. "This is about the parts for Mr. Jackson's car. You better get going. I'll text you."

"You're lucky I love you," I whispered back before getting up and walking out into the sunshine to my car.

Feeling a lot less stressed than I had when I'd arrived, I turned over the engine and slid my sunglasses over my eyes, still wondering who I was collecting from the airport. I'd known all of Eric's friends back in the day and I assumed this was someone who was flying in for the reunion. Curious but not nervous at all, I got on the road and sang along to pop music on my radio as I drove to the airport.

The great thing about all of Eric's friends from back in high school was that none of them had ever made fun of me. They'd been the popular crowd. The football players who had carried our local team to victory again and again.

I had been—and still was—a geek. Artsy and bookish, I hadn't run in their circles at all, but because of my relation to Eric, they'd always been good to me. If not for that, I'd have been overrun with nerves at the idea of seeing some of those guys again.

They'd been larger than life to me back in the day. Intimidating as hell with their tackles, and their smirks, and their offers from all the good schools to keep throwing their balls around.

When I arrived at the airport, I saw a few people I recognized from way back when. I waved at some, kept my head down when I passed others, and then I realized that every flight in was bringing more and more of their old crowd back to town.

Their reunion was in a few weeks and it was going to be a huge event because it was happening just after the fall festival, to which a lot of them made their annual pilgrimage home anyway. Checking my phone, I cursed softly.

Eric still hadn't texted me, and since I had no idea who I was looking for, I wondered if I'd been supposed to collect one of those people I'd just waved at. Crap .

Standing in the arrival terminal, I was about to call my brother when the very last person I'd expected to see walked into view. Sterling North.

Immediately, I knew he was who I'd come for. He'd been my brother's best friend since kindergarten, and even though I knew they'd fallen out of touch over the years, if Sterling was here and Eric wasn't, it meant my brother was supposed to have been.

As it happened, however, Sterling had also been my very first crush. Cliche but darn, he'd made my little teenage heart pump chocolates instead of blood, I'd been that sweet on him. Tall, dark, and handsome, I'd longed for him as a boy, and as a man?

Well, time had been kind to him. Lord have mercy.

The same tall, fit frame. The same thick, luxurious black hair, but it was shorter now than it had been. Longer at the top, but neat, business-professional short at the sides. His face had matured, his features more chiseled and sharper than ever, and those sparkling brown eyes that used to be kind held a glint of steel now.

My breath caught at the sight of him, and for a long moment after he'd spotted me, we just stared at each other. Those broad shoulders, covered in a shirt that fit him like a glove. The narrower hips. The strong, toned runner's muscles that made the expensive fabrics he was wearing bulge in all the right places.

Holy. Mother. Of. Pearl. How is he even more good looking now?

For just that one moment, it felt like we were suspended in time. Attraction coursed through me like a living being in a way it hadn't done since the last time I'd seen him, but I shut it down, forcing my feet to carry me in his direction and trying my best to play it cool.

"Hey, Sterling," I said. "I'm here to give you a ride home. Eric sent me."

Those gorgeous dark eyes widened almost infinitesimally. Then he dropped his chin in a curt nod. "Sure. Where is he?"

"At work," I explained, uncertain as to why I sounded apologetic. I was doing them both a darn favor being here. Gathering myself, I looked him right in the eye and inclined my head toward the parking lot. "Should we go?"

"Yeah. Let's do it." He adjusted his grip on the handle of one of those fancy, metallic wheelie suitcases and on the strap of a slate gray duffel over his shoulder. "Where's your car?"

I ignored the question, opting instead for making sure he really was who I was supposed to pick up. "Eric was going to collect you , right? You're not just taking advantage of a free ride while I should be picking up someone else?"

His handsome features contorted, those dark eyebrows inching up. "What? Yeah. Eric was supposed to be here."

"Oh, good," I said happily, starting in the direction of the lot outside with my heart back to beating a million miles a minute.

Sterling freaking North. I can't believe it.

The expensive but faint scent of him wafted to my nostrils as he fell into step beside me, and I almost moaned out loud as I inhaled it. He'd always smelled good, but this was next level. The cologne wasn't overpowering, rather just providing a hint of what his skin would smell like if I burrowed into his side.

It was spicy and masculine but also fresh. Like a clean, citrusy ocean with a hint of smoke. Is that even possible?

I felt the heat of him radiating into my side and— stop it!

"So," I said as we stepped out of the revolving doors onto the sidewalk. "Are you in town for the reunion?"

"Yes."

I waited a moment to see if he'd elaborate, but he didn't. When I risked a quick glance at him, I realized he was stone-cold serious, his gaze fixed on some point in the distance and his jaw tight.

"You must be pretty tired after your flight, huh?" I asked, trying to empathize. I'd never been on a plane before, but I'd heard it exhausted people. "Where did you fly in from?"

"New York City."

"That's cool," I said, genuinely interested in hearing more about his life now, but he definitely didn't feel the same way.

I hadn't seen the guy in years. At least five. I'd been at his mom's funeral, but I hadn't actually spoken to him. I'd steered clear because he'd always made me feel things I couldn't explain. Now, I would be stuck in a car with him while he was grumpy and tired.

I wonder if he ever smiles anymore. It didn't look like it.

He used to have such a nice smile, too. When I'd watched him and my brother play football back in the day, he'd flashed it easily and often, and it'd always made my heart skip a beat, but now, his expression seemed to be stuck on stony .

Deciding to try making small talk one last time, I turned to him once we were in the car and on our way. "Are you living in New York now? What do you do there?"

"I'm in finance," he said. "Can you drop me off at Eric's shop? I'm picking up a car from him to use for the time I'm here."

"Of course," I said, leaving him in peace when he turned his head to the window and studied the landscape outside like he'd never seen it before.

We drove in silence from there, but I couldn't decide if it was awkward or just silence. All I knew was that this guy was not interested in talking to me or even looking at me. It stung a little. Sure, we'd never been friends, but shit.

We had known each other for a long time and it would've been nice to get to catch up at least a little, but I didn't push. He was hotter than sunburn and he used to be a good guy, but I wasn't sure I knew this person in the car with me now, and if he was this grumpy, I'd rather not talk to him either.

When I pulled up outside Eric's garage, Sterling nodded at me and then climbed out the car, walking away without another word once he'd collected his luggage. As I watched him go, I couldn't help but think about that night he'd walked me home after his last party as a high-schooler. He'd been so sweet to me that night, but he was so different now that it was almost difficult to believe he was the same person.

He disappeared into the cavernous depths of my brother's shop and I sighed, wondering what had happened to him between then and now. What had turned the carefree, charming, most popular guy at school into a brooding, quiet grump, and was he always like this? Or had he just been horribly disappointed to see me?