I wasn’t sure he would remember anything about me. Maybe the unibrow? The braces?
Our parents had been friends since I could remember. Joshua was the same age as my brother. My sister was a year younger, and to my eternal frustration, I was the baby. The baby with a crush on her older brother’s best friend.
I was nothing more than a lurking spectator during games of tennis, dares, and talks about girls. Almost like I’d been a part of the scenery—the background in Joshua and my brother’s summers. Unlike my older sister, Thea, who’d embraced the denim mini-skirt trend like she was a twenty-five-year old supermodel. Thea was always at the center of everything. I’d watched as she twirled and giggled in front of Joshua, who responded with cocky grins and pouty lips. He’d definitely remember Thea. Unlike forgettable, invisible me.
I’d never told a soul my fantasies about Joshua. And at seventeen I’d swallowed them down, determined to keep them tucked away in a deep, dark place forever.
Now, as I stood in the airport, about to come face-to-face with him, an unwelcome, familiar shiver breezed across my skin and tripped my pulse.
My phone buzzed. I dipped out of the queue so I didn’t breach the mobile ban. It was my mum. I released my right crutch and slid open the phone.
“Have you landed, darling?”
The thing about working in war zones was that your parents always worried. War zones didn’t worry me. Reunions did.
“Yep. Will be heading to get my bag in a minute. Can I call you when I get back to Joshua’s place?”
“Of course. Marian said it’s a wonderful flat. He’s such a good boy. Has his own company, a marketing agency. Just bought them a new car, you know.”
I must have heard about the new car at least three times. “Yes. The Lexus. I remember.” I was never going to be the daughter who bought her parents a brand-new car. I didn’t earn that kind of money. And even if I did—they didn’t need one.
“He’s done very well for himself. Very reliable. I’m sure he’ll be waiting for you.”
“I could have made it into town on the Heathrow Express.” I hated the thought of Joshua going out of his way for me. I was sure he had better things to be doing on a Tuesday than playing chauffeur to me.
“You have a broken leg, Hartford,” she said in her you-don’t-get-a-say tone. As soon as I’d told my parents I was coming back to London, my mother had pushed her perpetual interfering into a higher gear. I knew it was an expression of her relief. After three years abroad, I’d be a couple of hours away instead of a couple of time zones. Now I was back, I’d have to get better at dodging her well-intentioned help bombs.
I glanced over my shoulder at the wave of people herding down the corridor, heading for the queue. A flight must have just landed, and I didn’t want to be stuck behind them all. “I shouldn’t keep him waiting. I’ll call you later.”
“Send my love to Joshua and call me when you’ve settled in.”
There was my icebreaker with Joshua. I could tell him I’d spoken to my mother and she sent her love.
I re-joined the queue and told myself if I could handle treating sick kids on folding beds in searing heat, I could handle Joshua Luca.
No. Big. Deal.
The doors out onto the landside concourse slid open. I scanned the audience of cab drivers with signs and people waiting for loved ones to appear. Set back from the crowd, as if a spotlight was positioned over him, Joshua stood, leaning against a post, head down, focused on his phone.
A fizzle of desire bloomed in my chest. I had to remind myself to breathe. He was still gorgeous. And I was furious about it. I’d set down my torch for Joshua a long time ago and wasn’t about to pick it back up. It could only lead to trouble. Again.
His shoulders had broadened, but the dirty blond hair still had a way of looking perfectly tousled. And that magnetic confidence? It was still palpable from ten meters away.
He glanced up and right at me, as if he could hear me thinking. I felt his lopsided smile between my legs.
Vagina, you’re a traitor.
I grinned and started toward him as if I’d just been searching him out in the crowd, rather than drawn to him like lightning to a metal rod.
“Hey.” I tipped my head back to meet his gaze.
He took his time and made a slow, unapologetic sweep of my body from head to toe and back again, lingering on my lips and my cheeks on the way back. “Hartford?”
Should we kiss? One cheek or two? Hug? Why did I feel so awkward?
Twenty-nine, I reminded myself.
A doctor.
A crush on Joshua Luca leads to nothing but trouble.
I pulled him into a one-handed hug, pushing myself up awkwardly onto a one-legged tiptoe so I could reach around his neck. He stiffened almost unnoticeably before hugging me back.
“Good to see you,” I said into his hairline.
I could feel his large hand through my jacket span almost the entire width of my back. And that smell? I’d forgotten that. What was it, and how had it not changed in all these years?
Without asking, he pulled my backpack from me like it weighed nothing and slung it over his shoulder. “That’s it? No more luggage?”
I shrugged. “Nope. Just me.”
He nodded toward the exit and I followed him. “What happened to your leg?”
I glanced down at my cast as if I needed to clarify which leg he was talking about. “Oh nothing. Just an accident.” I didn’t want to get into it. I just wanted it to heal. Quickly. So I could get back to work. “Tell me about you, Joshua Luca. What have you been doing since I last saw you?”
He shot me another trademark smile. “When was the last time I saw you?”
“I can’t remember . . .” I knew exactly. I refused to think about what had come after my accident. For years afterward, I ruminated about the night I broke my leg. Joshua had come to collect my brother before heading out to celebrate the New Year. He was in his second year at university and had just turned twenty. As I’d watched him from the top of the stairs, I’d never been so aware of our age difference thanks to the new stubble on his jaw and the flat, toned stomach he unintentionally revealed when he’d reached for my brother’s jacket. He’d turned into a man and I still felt like a child. My glimpse of him had lasted thirty seconds max, but it was etched in my memory like a tattoo. Those few seconds had been the last good memories I had of Joshua.
“You lost your braces.”
Of course he would remember those.
“Shocking, isn’t it? I thought I was going to have to wear them forever. I also tweezed my monobrow. And I got a couple of degrees along the way.” People could change. I wasn’t who I’d been back then. “It’s been a while.”
“Right.” He glanced over at me and furrowed his brow before looking away. “This is us.”
He pressed a button on his key fob and the boot opened on an expensive-looking car. He slung my backpack in before heading the wrong direction to the passenger seat.
And then he opened the door. The passenger door. For me.
I shook my head. Had he grown up in the fifties? It was all part and parcel of that Joshua Luca charm he’d had since he came out of the womb. I wanted nothing to do with it.
“What?” He looked genuinely confused.