Two star-crossed lovers, torn apart by secrets, reunite for one torrid moment of passion and discover their love never died. But it's too late because they've moved on with their lives. Can a few days together make up for a lifetime of lost love?
Crystal Kenethey's safe, plain yogurt life turns upside down when she runs into her old love, Mike Perzelle. She's struggled for ten long years to forget him and his betrayal, only to come face to face with him, and all the old questions and doubts, again. Mike destroyed Crystal's trust in him and she walked away without a backward glance. But she always wondered if she'd done the right thing. She's been playing the "What If" game for years, since no man has sparked the heat and passion Mikey could.
Seeing Mike again stirs those feelings she buried so long ago. She learns the truth about the incident that led to their demise and realizes she never stopped loving him. She never gave him a chance to explain himself when she accused him of cheating, and now she's too late. He's carved out his own life in a new city and there isn't room for her in it, not the way she wants. Mike is a man of honor and has promised another woman he will not abandon her, despite his own renewed feelings for Crystal and the love he admits never died.
Can there be a happy ending to a pivotal reunion ten years too late?
Excerpt
Chapter One
Mike Perzelle scanned the sea of heads that blanketed the funeral parlor and, like a north-to-south magnetic draw, he found her. Their eyes met and locked, and a familiar surge of excitement, silent for so many years, stirred in his belly. He smiled and nodded, glad now that he decided to make this trip.
“Crystal’s here. She drove in this afternoon," his friend Johnner said, following the direction of Mike’s stare. "How long has it been since you two talked?”
“Your wedding.” She hadn’t turned away and he couldn’t keep his eyes off her. His heartbeat quickened. Life could have been so different if . . .
“What? Are you kidding me?” Johnner’s voice rose with the question.
Mike still considered his years with Crystal Kenethey the best of his life. Granted, his childhood hadn’t been pretty, but Crystal had played a major role in what little happiness he’d had. And hers was the only real love he’d ever known.
He’d fallen for her the minute he noticed her standing at home plate holding a baseball bat completely wrong. Holding it like a girl.
Sure, there’d been other women since her, but never anyone who came close to the bar she’d set. He’d never loved anyone else. When criminals accused him of being heartless, he immediately agreed. Crystal had stolen his heart years ago.
Mike shook his head in answer to Johnner’s question.
“Why?” He sounded incredulous, his eyes wide and his eyebrows arched high.
Mike tore his gaze from Crystal and smiled at his long-time friend. “You know why.”
Johnner’s mouth dropped open into a perfect oval. “You mean you never told her?”
Mike shrugged. Honor was honor; a promise—forever. “I promised you I wouldn’t.”
“You’re kidding. You should tell her, Mike. Crystal is still single and you two could get together.”
He shook his head and refocused on Crystal. She was engaged in a conversation now with someone he didn’t recognize, but even her profile propelled his heartbeat into high gear.
“It’s too late, Johnner. Ten years too late. Childhood history best left buried and it doesn’t matter anyway because, technically, I’m married.”
Johnner grabbed his arm. “What? Married? When? Who? Why didn’t we get an invitation?”
Mike handed him a tissue-wrapped bundle of flowers, shrugged off his overcoat and tossed it on the back of a nearby chair piled with hats and coats. He squeezed Johnner’s shoulder.
“It’s a marriage on paper, for convenience sake if you will, but it's still legal. It's a long story. I’ll tell you later.”
Mike inhaled deeply, seeking to calm his nerves. He’d faced down drug dealers, crashed through locked doors not knowing what waited on the other side, and battled wits in court with irate defense attorneys and none of them made him as nervous as the steps he was about to take. Rubbing his palms against his thighs he started across the room, zigzagging between the people, offering a wave or a nod when someone spoke his name.
But he kept his eyes on her. Man, she'd been everything to him once. The very reason he breathed. Now, he held his breath and took a step forward. Chrissy.
*
Crystal watched Mike cut through the crowd, reminding her of his days on the football field when he so deftly dodged the opposing team’s tacklers. Her chest tightened. Was this what a heart attack felt like?
She locked her arms to her sides and clenched her fists. She hadn’t allowed herself to wonder if he would mysteriously reappear and pay his last respects to Mammaw. She couldn’t believe he had.
Mikey was a ghost from her past. An almost overwhelming feeling of despair nearly choked her. It shouldn't. The betrayal happened a lifetime ago.
Still, seeing him out of the blue like this after nearly a decade pierced her heart like an arrow.
Along with the pain came that damn tingling, a thousand needles pinching her to life. She thought she’d buried that feeling with the heartache. A vision of Madam Marceau popped into her head.
"You two are connected at the heart, my dear," the turbaned fortuneteller had whispered years ago.
Crystal believed it then and she felt it now. He was almost in front of her.
She locked her jaw and folded her hands in a tight grip at her thighs.
A full year of counseling and countless tears had convinced her she was emotionally healthy. She’d dealt with his duplicity and successfully moved on.
But that was as long as she kept him out of sight. And he had, indeed, pretty much disappeared. No one had heard from him in forever.
The distance between them shrank, and she straightened her spine. Seeing him live and in person was a whole new challenge.
He held her gaze as he approached, but he didn’t smile until he stood in front of her. And then, that familiar, heart-stopping grin.
“You look good, Chrissy. When did you cut your hair?”
“Ah, I, a long time ago,” she stuttered. A remark about her hairstyle surprised her. It wasn’t the first comment she expected after so many years. But what had she expected? An apology?
She was drawn to his deep blue eyes. Once, she’d believed they were as blue as the ocean and she could dive into them and swim to happiness. Her reaction to them hadn’t changed. Her stomach somersaulted.
Mike leaned in to kiss her on the cheek and she jerked back as if he’d come at her with a blow torch. She didn’t want to feel his lips again. She remembered all too vividly the heat they ignited.
His eyes narrowed, searching her face, silently questioning. Then he nodded almost imperceptibly and straightened. He turned to stand beside her and took a deep breath.
“Still using that melon stuff on your hair that I loved. I’ve never quite forgotten that scent.”
A young widow joins her aunt’s house-restoration project in the wilderness, determined to take a stand for independence, but two men have different plans for her—and so does God.
