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  Kiss me.

  The request and the action had taken her breath away that night and she was feeling the same lightheadedness now as she had then. As soon as the memory entered her mind, she pulled away with a gasp and looked around. If she wasn’t mistaken, this was very nearly the same parking spot.

  “Our first kiss.”

  He grinned, pleased she’d remembered. “Yep. Right here. In front of the school.” He turned on the radio and slid in a CD. Pushing Play, he pointed back down to the photo album as the sounds of Fleetwood Mac drifted through the speakers.

  For the first time, her gaze traveled from the picture on the left page to a letter protected under the plastic film on the right page. It was written to her in Troy’s handwriting.

  “What’s this?” she asked.

  “Read it.”

  Faith,

  You and I have known each other nearly our entire lives, traveling the same path through elementary, middle and high school. While we were acquaintances through those early years, I feel like I never really knew you, never saw you until the night of our senior prom.

  Betsy Jordan coming down with the flu was probably the best thing that ever happened to me, even though I didn’t realize it at the time. I remember how pissed off I was after her mother called and said she couldn’t go to the dance with me. I almost stayed home that night, but my mom insisted I put the rented tux to use. You know my mom—waste not, want not.

  I came late and by the time I got there, that dickhead, Travis had left you sitting all alone. I knew you all had been dating, so I was surprised when I saw him with Amber. I can still remember the look on your face as you watched him dancing with that other girl. You were so pale and yet, so strong. I could see how hard you were fighting not to cry, to hold on to your dignity. It was like a light went on inside me. I’d passed you in the hallways for years and never really looked at you, but that night, you were the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen and I wondered why in the hell I’d never noticed it before.

  I was nervous as shit when I walked over to you and asked to sit down. You smiled at me and I felt like somebody had punched me in the gut. Talk about an instant attraction. We talked and laughed and after awhile, we started dancing. The last song of the night was “Landslide” and I took you in my arms and we slow danced while Stevie Nicks sang. After the dance, you said I could drive you home and we had our first kiss in the parking lot. I fell in love with you that night even though I was too stupid at the time to know it. When I dropped you off at your house, I asked if I could call you again and you said yes. I smiled the whole way home, thinking about you.

  Even after all this time, I only have to think about you and I smile.

  Love,

  Troy

  Chapter Two

  As Faith looked up from the page, she couldn’t hold back the tears streaming down her face. He took the photo album from her hands and placed it on the dashboard. Unhooking her seatbelt, he pulled her into his arms.

  “Shhh. This is supposed to be a celebration. No crying allowed,” he teased as he cupped the back of her neck, holding her head to his chest.

  “It’s happy crying.” The words were muffled by his shirt, but they still produced a quiet laugh from him.

  “Oh well, happy crying. That’s okay then.”

  She pulled away a few inches so that she could see his face as she spoke. Stroking his beloved, familiar cheek, she leaned closer, kissing him again. “I love you,” she whispered against his lips just before the kiss deepened. Troy’s arms tightened around her and she was overwhelmed by the passion behind his hold. It had been years since he’d kissed her with such fervor, such need. Her body responded to him, her nipples puckering beneath the cotton T-shirt, the juncture of her thighs going moist.

  Pulling away to gasp a breath, she grinned. “You are getting so lucky.”

  He laughed, rubbing his nose against hers in a gesture as familiar as his kisses. “I’m counting on it. But it will have to be later. Right now, we need to get going. Few more stops before I cash in on that getting lucky promise.”

  He moved her back into her seat, pulling the seatbelt across her chest. His forearm grazed her taut nipples and she sucked in a breath, her eyes narrowing when she saw him grin. He was seducing her and doing a damn fine job of it. If anyone had told her yesterday, she’d be reacting to her own husband like a sex-starved woman, she’d have laughed and claimed it impossible.

  After so long together, their roles had evolved gradually over time until they settled into their now-comfortable pattern. The lust of their honeymoon phase had shifted away from red-hot lovers after the first couple of years. For a few years, it seemed like they were roommates rather than a couple and at times, they’d felt more like coworkers whose job it was to raise two kids. Lately though, they’d simply become best friends.

  While they still had sex regularly, the act itself wasn’t the explosion of bodies coming together in a flash of lightning and earth-shattering thunder that it had been in their younger years. Nowadays, it was a slow, smooth glide that slaked their needs and brought them closer in a contented, easy way.

  However, at this moment, there was nothing she wanted more than to unhook her seatbelt and ride her husband’s lap in the middle of the high-school parking lot, and she didn’t give a damn who saw her.

  Troy started the car and pulled back on to the street. His smug expression proved he knew what she was thinking. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Shame on you, Faith. You know, it’s all coming back to me now. You always were impatient when it came to sex.”

  She crossed her arms and shot him a dirty look. “And you were always a tease.”

  His smile grew wider and she was taken aback by the beauty of it. Sometimes it amazed her that this gorgeous hunky man was in love with her. That he belonged to her. “I’m not a tease. A tease never delivers. And you, Mrs. Wainwright, are going to get seriously fucked tonight—long and hard and deep. What I’m doing is building up the anticipation.”

  Her mouth went dry with each word he uttered and she squeezed her legs together in an attempt to fend off the sudden spark of arousal. “Shit,” she whispered and he laughed loudly.

  “You might want to pull that jacket over those pretty nipples of yours. I have a feeling the diner is still a hotspot for the local teens after school and I’d hate to have to fend off a bunch of horny boys.” As he spoke, he pulled into the small parking lot behind the Main Street Diner.

  “What are we doing here?”

  Troy opened his car door and climbed out, leaning in the open window to look at her. “Having dinner.”

  She glanced at her watch and saw it was only four-thirty.

  “I know. It’s a bit early, but we have too much to do tonight so we’re going to have to eat now. Besides we skipped lunch, remember?”

  She wanted to tell him the only thing she was hungry for was him, but he didn’t give her a chance to respond as he crossed around the truck to open her door. Taking her hand, he led her into the diner, pulling her directly to a booth in the corner.

  As she took in the familiar restaurant, she noticed that the place was indeed packed with teenagers. A few of them glanced at her and Troy and she figured they were curious about her wearing an ancient letterman’s jacket.

  “This place never changes,” Troy said as he picked up the menu, skimming it quickly. “Yep, even the food is the same. What do you say we have a couple of cheeseburgers with the works and split a big basket of fries?”

  “Throw in a couple of chocolate shakes and I say you’ve got yourself a deal.” As she put the menu down, Troy reached across the table to take her hand.

  “Same thing we had the night after graduation.”

  As soon as he spoke, she realized why he’d brought her here. The diner was one of their regular hangouts during high school, so she figured the stop here was just a part of their walk down memory lane. Her mind traveled back to the night of commencement and suddenly the importance of the diner becam
e more apparent.

  She nodded. “You gave me this jacket that night.”

  Troy released her hand and his fingers roamed up the leather sleeve until he reached her face. Cupping her cheek, he lightly caressed her lips with his thumb, looking at them as he spoke. “I told you I didn’t know exactly what the future held for me, just that I wanted you in it.”

  She kissed the pad of his thumb on its next pass. “You gave me this jacket, said you’d replace it with a ring when you had the money.”

  He lowered his hand, used it to pick hers up from the table. He looked at her engagement ring and the tiny diamond sparkled in the fluorescent light.

  “Maybe I should have waited until I had more money before we made the jacket/ring exchange.”

  “This ring is beautiful.” He’d offered several times over the past few years to buy her another ring, but she’d always refused. She didn’t want a bigger diamond. She wanted the memories attached to this one.

  His face became more serious, his brows furrowed. “I’ve always wanted to do right by you, Faith.”

  She swallowed heavily. “And you always have.”

  “I know I couldn’t give you a lot of things that you probably wanted, but—”

  His words died down when the waitress came over. He placed their order, but he didn’t return to the conversation once the woman left.

  Faith watched the worries she’d seen in his eyes disappear, quickly replaced by the mischievous twinkle she loved so well. “Seem to recall us making out in this booth a few times back in the day.”

  “Behave. There are minors around.”

  He chuckled, and then released a relaxed sigh. “Nice to be home again.” He stretched his arm across the back of the booth. “Seems like every time we’ve come back here lately, it’s been to put out a fire or deal with something bad.”

  Faith agreed. They’d returned to Carlysle three times in the past year, once for her uncle’s funeral, once to help her mother clean out her basement after a pipe broke and flooded it, and again when Troy’s dad suffered a mild heart attack. During each trip, they’d been too busy to visit friends or old stomping grounds, so this trip back was particularly special. Given Troy’s surprise celebration, Faith suspected this could very well be one of the best trips of her life.

  Their dinner conversation turned to the same familiar topics—parents, jobs, the kids. As they ate, they talked just as they’d done every night for the past twenty-five years, and then Troy paid the bill. He stood and rubbed his stomach before taking her hand and helping her up.

  She groaned. “I can’t believe I ate all that food. I feel like I could pop I’m so full.”

  Troy kept her hand and surprised her by kissing her knuckles softly. “You’re in no danger of that. You’ve got a smokin’ hot body and I swear you get prettier every year.”

  She laughed at his compliment. “Remind me to call Dr. Rosenberg when we get back. I think you need your eyes examined.”

  “Is this going to be the same sort of check-up as the hearing one?” Troy teased as they stepped out of the diner and back on to the sidewalk.

  Faith laughed. She’d insisted he get his hearing checked a couple of years ago, convinced he was losing his after she spent months repeating herself to him. “Yeah, well, I wouldn’t brag about passing that hearing test with flying colors. That just proves you ignore me when I’m talking.”

  Troy put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “I hear you just fine when you say stuff I want to hear. I mean if you were inviting me to suck on those pretty breasts or telling me to take you on the kitchen counter, I think you’d find out just how good my hearing is.”

  “So what you’re saying is you have selective hearing?”

  He nodded. “Yep, only picks up dirty sex talk.”

  “Ah, dirty sex talk. Not just dirty talk. So when I tell you to take out the garbage—”

  “Eh, sorry. What? Were you talking?” He laughed at his joke as she playfully elbowed him.

  Faith rolled her eyes. “It’s so nice to have that mystery solved after all these years.”

  Grasping her hand again, he looked around the quiet neighborhood. “What do you say we walk off a few calories? Take a stroll down Main Street.”

  “Sounds great.” Faith took a deep breath of the fresh scents of autumn. It was late September and she smiled as they walked. Fall was her favorite season. She loved the vibrant colors as the leaves on the trees started to change and the crisp, cool evening air. “I have to admit they’ve worked wonders on some of these buildings.”

  They ambled slowly, window-shopping and reminiscing about the town and the people who lived there. Faith was almost surprised when Troy tugged her hand and pulled her into the small park located in the center of the town.

  “Hey,” she said. “They’ve even redone the playground.”

  Troy stopped to look where she was pointing. “Damn. They got rid of the rusty digger and sandpit. I loved that when I was a kid.”

  “Your mother said you were destined for construction work and she knew it when you were three years old. She said you’d never leave home without your building blocks and plastic toolset.”

  “Yeah, well, your mom said she always knew you were gonna work with kids. Said you started babysitting when you were twelve and everyone in town lined up to have you take care of their little ones. Deborah swears being a preschool teacher was your calling.”

  “Predictable as the tides, you and me,” she said.

  Troy scratched his chin, then nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “Do you ever worry that we can’t pinpoint our kids in the same way?” Faith had often wondered and worried about Jackson’s and Jenna’s futures.

  Troy gave her an amused look. “For one thing, it’s easy for our moms to say now that they knew all along what we’d become as adults. All they have to do is look at our chosen careers and then they can go back and pick out all the so-called signs. Secondly, I think I have a good idea about where our two are gonna end up.”

  “You do?” Faith was genuinely surprised. Troy usually didn’t play the “I wonder” game with her, so she’d just assumed he didn’t think about the future.

  “Jenna’s a natural at two things—sports and teaching. I wouldn’t be surprised if she called us to say she’s going to major in education, maybe study to become a health and phys. ed. teacher.”

  Faith thought his guess was a good one. “I think you may be right. I don’t see her with little kids though.”

  “Me either, but I could easily see her in a high school.”

  She was amazed by how dead-on Troy’s assumption was. “And Jackson?”

  “That kid came out of the womb talking. He’ll do something where all he needs is his mouth. Figure he could work in politics or be a sports announcer or even sell fucking used cars. Doesn’t matter what it is. That kid will land on his feet—not because of his brains, but because of his confidence and cockiness.”

  Faith laughed. “Amen.”

  “They’re good kids. They’ll be successful whatever they choose to do.”

  While Faith truly believed the same thing, having Troy reaffirm that notion went a long way to easing her inner worrywart. “I agree.”

  They’d been walking as they talked, the conversation distracting Faith from her surroundings. When they ended up at a bench by the lake, Faith realized where she was. Her words when she spoke showed her surprise. “Our bench.”

  “What trip down memory lane would be complete without a visit here?”

  She immediately noticed the original bench, which had been covered with graffiti, had been replaced. “It’s not the same one.”

  Troy wrapped his arm around her waist. “Apparently part of the beautification of the city was to replace all of the old wooden benches with metal ones. The others were covered in carved-out initials, remember?”

  She nodded. “Two of those initials were ours.” She looked around and noticed the new metal benches
surrounding the lake, and then she looked back at the one in front of her, confused. “This bench is still made of wood.”

  “I made a phone call when I heard they were doing work on the park. And then a little donation.” Troy drew her attention to a new plaque that hung on the back of the wooden bench.

  As Faith read the words, her eyes welled with tears. Apparently happy crying was becoming a habit for her.

  This bench was donated in honor of the love of my life.

  It was here Faith said yes and agreed to become my wife.

  “Oh my God. That’s beautiful.”

  Troy beamed. “And it rhymes.”

  “So it does.” They laughed together until Troy reached out and pulled her into his strong embrace. She’d never quite gotten over how good it felt to be enveloped by this large frame. She loved the feeling of being surrounded by him—it always made her feel protected and cherished.

  “One of the happiest days of my life was the day you said you’d marry me, Faith.”

  She pulled away just a bit to look at him. “Smartest decision I ever made.”

  He bent down and kissed her, their lips betraying their need for each other. She wanted him more than she’d wanted him in a long time. Hell, maybe more than she’d ever wanted him. His thigh moved inward, brushing between her legs and she thrust forward, driving herself against his strong leg muscle, trying to find surcease for her aching pussy.

  His hand delved beneath her jacket, plucking at her hard nipples in the way he knew she loved, and the action caused her to push against his thigh even harder.

  “Sex,” she murmured against his lips when he lightened the kiss, nipping playfully at her lower lip.

  “Not yet. We’re still in public.”

  “I don’t give a shit.” She didn’t. She would happily lie down on this bench—her bench—and say yes all over again if only he’d make love to her.