Tanner skimmed his fingers across the top of her bare arm, then reached forward to shake Rich’s hand. Even that briefest of touches was enough for the goosebumps to rise on her skin. Van swallowed hard, trying to slow her heart down. Why was it so difficult to keep a poker face?
“Everything under control?” Tanner asked.
“All good. I was just telling Van about the audio visual installation next week. Once that’s done, we have a couple of weeks to finish up the parking area, buildings, and the playground. We should be good to go by completion day.” Rich shrugged. “Of course it does mean working weekends.”
Tanner lifted a brow. “Whatever it takes.” He gave Rich a nod then turned to Van. “You got time for a meeting?” he asked her. “I have lunch in the truck. I thought we could go over the opening plans while we eat.”
“Sure.” Van nodded. “Let me sign these papers and I’ll be with you.”
Five minutes later, she was climbing into Tanner’s rental car, an oversized beast of a truck that probably ate fifty gallons of gas for breakfast. He was still trying to decide which new car to buy, since he’d had to give up his old one when he sold the company in New York. “I see your taste in cars hasn’t improved,” she said, biting down on her lip as he started up the engine.
“What do you mean?” he asked, his brows knitting together.
She looked around the interior. “This is pretty much a penis extension in vehicular form,” she told him, grinning at his raised eyebrow. “And I have to tell you, you don’t need one.”
He grinned. “This was all they had left in its class. I’ll get something better soon. And for what it’s worth, you used to love my old Camaro.”
“I loved the way it meant I didn’t have to walk to school or the drive-in anymore,” Van told him, remembering the rusty orange sportscar with a smile. “But it stank like ditch water and was so unreliable.”
“I have a lot of good memories from that car.” Tanner pulled out into the main road. “A few of them with you.”
Her face heated up as she remembered prom night. They’d both gone with other people, though the four of them had traveled in the same limo. One paid for by her date, Brad. They hadn’t gone home together, though. After a few drunken fumbles, Brad had finally gotten the message that she wasn’t planning on giving him her virginity on prom night, no matter how much he’d paid for the limo. He’d gone off in a huff, leaving her without a ride home.
“Remember prom night?” Van murmured, as Tanner pulled onto a dirt road. The same one his Camaro had juddered along as they drove to the overlook together. Him in the black dinner suit he’d inherited from Logan, who’d inherited it from Gray. Van in one of her mom’s more demure dresses, that somehow looked anything but demure when Van put it on.
“Yeah, I remember.” Tanner nodded. “I hadn’t wanted to go at all.”
Van blinked. “So why did you?”
“Because Brad Wilshaw told me he was taking you. I wanted to be there to make sure he didn’t take advantage of you.”
“Yeah, well he tried.”
“It’s a good thing I went then,” Tanner said simply.
“What happened between you and Chrissie that night?” Van asked. “One minute you were dancing, the next she wasn’t talking to you anymore.”
“Nothing.” He pulled up next to a tree. The outlook was empty. From here you could see all of Hartson’s Creek, from the sparkling blue water that gave the town its name, to the vibrant green grass of the town square and the glinting white roof of the First Baptist Church.
“I thought you liked her.”
“Yeah, I kind of did. But it turned out, there was somebody I liked more.” His eyes met hers, and she felt her chest tighten.
“Is that why you didn’t get a ride home with her?”
“She offered me a ride. I asked if you could come, too. She told me to choose between her and you.” Tanner shrugged. “There was no competition. It was always you.”
Those words again. They warmed her and made her afraid at the same time. If it was always her, what had happened over the past ten years?
“It was sweet, the way you made me wait at the school so you could run home and get your car.”
“I didn’t want you to ruin those shoes you were wearing.” He winked at her. “They were hot.” He cleared his throat, a smile lifting his lips. “I also had an ulterior motive. I wanted to get you up here and I couldn’t do that without a car.”
The air was sparking between them. Despite the cold blast of the air conditioning, her body felt overheated as she remembered that night. Their second kiss. Less fumbling this time. More sure. They’d lain on the grass together, looking up at the stars sparkling in the dark sky. Then he’d touched her, until she saw stars behind her eyes, swallowing her cries with his warm, wanting mouth.
“Is that why you’ve brought us up here now?”
He grinned. “I really do want to talk to you about the drive-in,” he told her. “But I also don’t know if I can talk to you without kissing you, and I figure you don’t want Rich and his crew seeing that.”
The way he was looking at her made her stomach do a flip. Intense, dark, needy. “I don’t,” she said softly. “I hate it when people talk about me. About us. This thing that’s happening between us.” She gestured at the space between them. “I want it to stay between us. And I’m grateful that you’re thinking of my needs.”
“I know you,” he said, a half-smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. “I know how you think. And though I want to go and shout about you to the world, I’ll take this at your pace.”
“Even if it means playing it cool in front of everybody else?”
“I hid my feelings for you for years,” he said, biting down a grin. “I can do it for a few more weeks.” He leaned forward to brush his lips against hers. “At least in public.”
She curled her hand around his neck, sighing softly as he deepened the kiss. “I just don’t want people judging me. They’ll say you gave me this job because I’m sleeping with you.”
“They’re not as judgmental as you think.” He brushed the hair from her face, his fingers lingering on her jaw. “You’re not your mom, Van.”
“That’s not how they’d see it.” She closed her eyes as he leaned in to kiss her neck, his mouth sending tingles down her spine. “Like mother like daughter. The town sluts.”
“Anybody calls you that, I’ll make sure they can’t speak again.” His voice was low.
She laughed at his words. “You’re my hero, you know that?”
“I’ll be whatever you want me to be,” he told her. “But I need you to know this is serious. I want you in my life and in my bed, Van. No messing about, no mixed messages. This is it for me.”
His gaze was deadly serious. Her breath caught at his intensity. “I feel the same. Just give me some time to get used to it.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “Agreed.”
“And in the meantime, we can sneak around like teenagers,” she said, grinning. “And make out in cars.” She cupped his jaw with her hands, brushing her lips against his. He kissed her back, hot and hard until they were both breathless.