Back to Square One (Brandon Bay Babes) (13 page)

“Hello Miss Davidson”

“Mr. Atwell.
 
Fancy meeting you here” she replied smartly.

“A guys gotta eat”

“True” she smiled, looking into his basket.
 
You could tell a lot about a man by what he bought at the store.
 
She saw some vegetables and a “Hungry man” or two –not what she expected.
 
Well what
did
she expect, condoms and copy of Playboy?
      

“So tell me Kit, what have you been doing since high school?” he said suddenly.

Kit’s smile dropped in shock. “You
remember
me?”

He grinned sheepishly. “I didn’t at first, but then I remembered your last name.
 
I put a new roof on your mom’s house a couple of years ago, and I remembered her telling me how we’d gone to school together”

“Gee, thanks Mom” Kit said under her breath.
 
“So what else did my Mom say about me?”

“Not much” he added with a grin, “Except that she was very proud of her high-flying daughter”

Sighing, Kit gave him a shrug.
 
“High-flying, huh?
 
Turned out more like crash and burn”

He chuckled at that.
 
“At least you got out of Brandon Bay, some of us weren’t so lucky”

“You? –not lucky?” Kit asked with a frown.
 

“Not as much as people seem to think” he said with a scratch of his chin.

“I guess sometimes things aren’t always what they seem from the outside.
 
I would have thought you had it all” she replied lightly.

“Yeah” he grinned sadly, “Did you know I almost got to play professional?”

“Almost …?”

“I wrecked my leg just before the scouts came to see what I could do.
 
Unfortunately, by then, I couldn’t do much” he gulped at the memory.
 
“I can tell you, I was pretty unhappy at the prospect of running my dad’s business instead of playing pro ball like I wanted”

Kit noticed he was genuinely upset by the way things had turned out, and touched his arm in concern.
 
“It seems dreams have a way of evaporating pretty easily when you least expect it.
 
It’s funny how they always pump you up in high school to follow your dreams.
 
They never tell you, that except for the incredibly lucky few, they’re pretty much bound to remain
only
dreams”

“And what was
your
dream in high school?” he asked seriously, looking at her hand on his arm.

Kit let out a long breath and removed her hand thinking, oh Jeremy, if you only knew.
 
“Let’s just say what I wanted in high school, was all dream with no basis or hope of reality” Until now, she thought unwisely.
 

Looking from side to side down the aisle at the other shoppers, Jeremy gave her a thoughtful look and asked, “Want to get a cup of coffee and catch up some more?
 
This is not really the place for a D and M”

“Well I, um” she stammered.
  
Oh what was the harm, she thought, it wasn’t like he was asking her to his place to see his etchings. GAG Kit GAG.
 
“Sure Jeremy, why not”

He gave her a knee-weakening smile.
 
“Why don’t we finish up our shopping and meet at Fred’s in say … fifteen minutes?”

“Sounds great” Kit replied, wondering at the sanity in her decision.
 

“See you soon” he said shortly and took off down the aisle.

Watching as he walked away from her; Kit was quite positive that the effect Jeremy had on her was a faded memory. Unfortunately, she was also quite positive that he was, without a doubt, the most gorgeous human being she’d ever laid eyes on; with a butt tight enough to bounce off a penny.
 

Kit looked into her basket and decided she’d put it all back and do her shopping later.
 
For now, a quick trip to the ladies room to reapply her lip gloss was in order.
 
For as much as she hated to admit it; she’d always dreamed of going to Fred’s diner on the arm of Jeremy Atwell and sitting at a booth, gazing into each other’s eyes.
 

So what if it was ten years late, and no-one from high school were around to rub their noses in it.
 
It was a harmless fantasy she could make happen without guilt or regret.
 
And she couldn’t think of a better way of spending the afternoon, than swimming in Jeremy’s sea-green eyes.

When Kit strolled into Fred’s diner, she spotted Jeremy within seconds.
 
The middle-aged waitresses were fawning over him as though Brad Pitt was in their midst.
 
Jeremy took it all in stride; just another ordinary day in his world.
 
The idea that she would soon be visiting Planet Jeremy made her incredibly uncomfortable.
 
Orbiting his planet for so many years; she never dreamed she’d actually get clearance to land.

Approaching the table, his fan club dispersed and he smiled at her warmly.
 
“I was starting to think you weren’t coming” he confided.

“If I didn’t, I don’t think you’d be lacking for company” she said smartly, noting the dirty looks being thrown her way from the diner’s female contingent and taking a seat across from him in the booth.

“I prefer to choose the company I keep; not the other way around”

“Still,” Kit began, “must be nice to have so much choice in the matter”

He shrugged.
 
“Well, I’m glad you’re here; I wasn’t sure if my attentions would be appreciated after the other night. You were pretty rough on me as I recall”

“I’m sure I’m not the first woman to turn you down for dance; or am I?” she asked in amusement.

He gave her a direct look, “Actually you are”.
 
Kit shifted uncomfortably in her seat, and he went on, “So you can see why I thought you might stand me up.
 
I usually don’t have to wonder if a woman’s interested or not; it’s pretty much a given”

Blinking at his conceit, Kit paused a moment to work out just how to reply to such a statement, but finally decided on, “So, Jeremy, ever had a woman walk out on you?”
  

He smiled and boasted, “Never had that happen either”

“Well, you just may be two for two if you’re not careful” she said flatly.
 
When nothing registered, she tried again, “Conceit is very unbecoming on a man; or woman for that matter”

Scowling, he scratched his chin in thought, then grinned.
 
“I like to think of it as a healthy self-esteem”

“Self-esteem, huh?”

“Yeah” he beamed wider, “I’m full of it”

“Yeah, you’re full of it, alright” she laughed back at him.
 
“There’s a fine line between confidence and cocky my friend”

“Can’t I be both?” he answered suggestively.

Kit shivered.
 
My God, he was cute.
 
All that cuteness was certainly appealing; and high school Kit would be practically wetting herself just about now if it had happened ten years ago.
 
But it wasn’t the same.
 
Whatever fire and heat Kit had felt when in the vicinity of Jeremy Atwell had dwindled to a mere smoking ember.
 

“Anything wrong?” he asked, forcing her out of her thoughts.

“No” she replied, “I was just thinking about high school.
 
Sometimes it seems so long ago; other times, like it was yesterday”

“Frankly” he said morosely, “I try not to think about high school.
 
Everything’s been downhill since then for me”

“But Atwell Construction does well, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah. It does well.
 
But my dad built that company, not me.
 
If it does well, it’s because of him.
 
I just reap rewards of the previous generation; without having done any of the grunt work”

Kit thought about what he’d said at the grocery store, “You really wanted to play ball, didn’t you?”

“Yep”

“I’m sorry Jeremy”

He got a far off look on his face.
 
“You know, I used laugh at all the old guys at Gillman’s reliving their ‘glory days’ and think, I’ll never be like that.
 
And now, I have to stop myself from talking about my own when I have a few beers under my belt.
 
It’s hard to face the fact you peaked at eighteen.
 
Unfortunately this town has a way of reminding you of the fact every day; from Fred at the diner, to Mr. Falridge at the hardware store.
 
They all point at me a say ‘there goes Jeremy Atwell, remember when he used to be somebody’.
 
Like I’m nothing now”

“There are other things in life” she said in sympathy.
 
“I mean, playing ball would have been great.
 
But even careers in that field don’t last forever.
 
In fact, the age we are now, you’d be considered pretty old to play and wouldn’t have that many more years left before retiring”

Jeremy snorted softly.
 
“You’re right.
 
I never thought of that.
 
I would be considered old soon enough; and probably be taking over the family business anyway.
 
Still it would have been nice … ”
 
He blew out a breath, “Life certainly isn’t what I thought it was going to be”

“I suppose life’s what you make of it.
 
I’ve learned recently that it’s the little things in life that make it worthwhile.
 
For me, it’s my mom’s scones, laughing with my friend Jasmine; and even a cold beer on a hot day.
 
When it comes right down to it, it doesn’t get much better than that.”

He gave her a heart-melting look, like he was truly seeing her for the first time.
 
“God, but you’re smart, … and, …
pretty
.
 
How come I never noticed how pretty you were in school?”

Shrugging, Kit blushed, “I was ‘pretty’ invisible back then”

He reached out and stroked her cheek, “And apparently I was, ‘pretty’ blind”

“You went in for cheerleaders, and I wasn’t exactly cheerleader material” she stammered.
 
Was he really touching her?
 
Teenage Kit was in heaven!
 
“I, mean, you were dating Kate Baxter, buxom prom queen and
numero uno
popular girl”