Romance Me (Boxed Set) (33 page)

Chapter Three

Sadie stood in stunned silence. Ethan didn’t recognize her. He didn’t even know it was her—
Sadie
.

That look they’d shared earlier tonight—he’d given it to a stranger, not to her. Had she been
that
different twelve years ago? Sure, she’d shot up a few inches and had grown boobs, wore contacts and had straight hair now, but how could he have not recognized her at all? Suddenly she felt like she was twelve years old again—gawky, frizzy, buck-toothed, and invisible.

Ethan took a step forward, his hand still outstretched to meet hers, a perplexed look on his face. She took a step backward. Her heart clenched and she felt her face go red.

She should be proud that she’d grown up to be the kind of woman who’d catch Ethan Sawyer’s eye. Heck. Wasn’t that what she was going for when she’d dressed earlier this evening? Lord knows she never had caught his attention before. But instead, emotional pain now tore through her body. He hadn’t recognized her—to him, she wasn’t even Sadie. This wasn’t the reunion she’d expected, had hoped for, had dreamed of for years. He didn’t even know her.

“I…I need to check on the volunteers. Make sure everyone’s getting the financial billings correct,” she said, completely lying. Feeling tears well up, she turned on her stiletto heels and began to push her way through the crowd. She had to get out of there before she started bawling. Behind her, she could hear Lia and Chessie berate Ethan, then his voice carried through the crowd as he called her name.

It didn’t matter anymore. All the expectations she’d had for this night had been ruined. Whatever she’d hoped to have come out of seeing Ethan again no longer mattered. She just wanted to go home and cry it all out, like old times.

Blinded by tears, she shouldered her way through the crowd, choking out numerous apologies as she elbowed people out of her way. The heavy scent of perfume and stale bodies gagged her. She needed air.

One of the winning bidders excitedly pushed past her and flung open the emergency exit door. Sadie dashed through it, grateful to escape the crowd and for the cool rush of air on her face. Like a drowning woman, she gulped down deep breaths of the night air.

After stumbling down the steps, she stopped and stared, getting her bearings. Down the street, she could see that her car—her escape to safety—was blocked off by a tow truck. Her back went ramrod straight. A mechanic stood in the street, untangling jumper cables. Someone’s battery had died. Sadie groaned. Waiting for the road to become unblocked was simply not an option. She had to leave, and
now
.

Home wasn’t far. In fact, she often walked to work, or jogged into town to grab a latte or the morning paper. No reason she couldn’t do so tonight. Decision made, she tugged off her heels, hoping the streets were clean of broken glass. The pavement of the parking lot was warm and wet under her bare feet and she hit the ground running, crossing the parking lot. In seconds, she’d reached the grassy path that followed a meandering creek through town.

Her lungs burned, but at least the soft grass kept her feet from bruising. She had often jogged on this path but had never imagined a barefoot run through her hometown in the middle of the night. Never thought she’d be running away from her dream.

No—her
nightmare
.

Ethan not recognizing her had to be the worst living nightmare she’d ever experienced.

A half mile later, she reached her driveway and slowed to a walk, hampered by a stitch in her side. Ahead, a light glowed on the porch of the Courant family home. A few years ago, her parents had retired from running their philanthropic organization, the Courant Foundation, and had bequeathed the family home to her. Theo had received the townhouse in San Francisco. Sadie had been eager to take over the reins of the Modern Playwright’s Festival and return to her hometown to build her career as the managing director. Although now, she wasn’t so sure coming back to Meadowview had been the right idea. Maybe she should have joined the Peace Corp after college and hidden herself away somewhere in the Amazon, digging wells. Anything other than being humiliated by Ethan Sawyer.

After stumbling her way down her overly-long pea-graveled driveway, she loped across her front porch, still slick from the earlier rain, slipped, and smacked her knee on the heavy oak door.

“This night
sucks
!” she shouted, glad the neighbors’ houses were far away and her hissy fit had gone unnoticed. She limped up the curved staircase and made her way to her bedroom. She loved her old room—her sanctuary—with its warm chocolate piquet duvet on a bed that faced a set of double-hung shuttered windows overlooking the hundred-year-old rose and herb garden below.

She opened the windows, lit a few candles, and within seconds the heady scent of cucumber and rose mixed with the fresh spring air, cleaned from the earlier rain. The gentle breeze billowed the silk curtains and made the glow of the candles wave and dance against the bedroom wall. Her heartbeat slowed to an even rhythm.

Comforted and slightly mollified, she plopped down hard on the bed. She reached inside the broken box that held all her Ethan memorabilia, and  pulled out the advertisement for tonight’s auction, with Ethan’s latest head shot prominently displayed.

“Ethan,” she whispered, touching his picture with her fingertips. What had she expected? For him to swing her up in his arms, claim he’d always fantasized about her, too, then take her to bed? That was
her
dream, not his. He probably had expected a good time with old friends, herself included. It had been so long since the six of them had all been together as buddies, and she’d had to go run off in a pout.

Some reunion you gave him
, she thought.

She ran her finger down Ethan’s picture again, pausing at his lips. She bit her lower lip and sucked in a quick breath, then closed her eyes. In seconds, she’d drifted away to the last time she had seen him in person, the day he left for college.

“Ethan, hurry up! We have to be at the airport in two hours.” Sadie’s brother Theo had been yelling, full of excitement and energy.

She sat on the wrought-iron swing at the edge of the veranda, watching three eighteen-year-old boys go crazy. Theo, Ethan, and Lia’s brother Jack had all been accepted to Harvard. Today was the last day she’d see them for who knew how long.

She drew a finger through the condensation forming on the iced glass of lemonade as she watched the gangly-limbed teenage boys gallop down the steps, aiming for the limo parked on the pea-graveled drive. She supposed it looked like she was watching all three, but her eyes were on one boy only: Ethan.

He was almost five years older, eighteen to her nearly fourteen years. Tall—over six foot four inches—Ethan’s height was enhanced by his silky, thick black hair that fell in curly waves over his dark green eyes. He reminded her of the Greek god, Eros. When he was happy his eyes glowed emerald; when he was mad they turned just a shade away from black.

The swing squeaked as she shifted her weight, the sound catching Ethan’s attention. He stopped his flight down the steps to the limousine to turn and look at Sadie.

Her face grew warm under his intent gaze. In the distance, she could hear her brother yelling again.

“I’ll be there in a sec,” Ethan called to Theo. “I need to say goodbye to Sadie first.”

She sat still, hoping Ethan would stay far enough away so he wouldn’t notice her trembling. He came close, anyway. Could he tell how much he affected her?

“Will you write me?” he asked, his dark eyebrows forming a question.

She managed a whispered, “Yes.”

Ethan leaned against the veranda railing, hooking one foot over the other. “You, Chessie, and my sister Lia may be the biggest twerps in the world, but you’re our twerps.” Ethan’s eyes glowed, radiating caring and kindness. “Don’t let anyone push you around, you hear?”

She nodded, almost unable to breathe.

Ethan eased himself off the railing to stand in front of her, then added, “Good. You girls hold a special place in my heart. Never forget it, Little Twerp.”

She froze as Ethan leaned in closer. She could smell him, could feel his breath on her cheek. Time passed in slow motion. Almost as if she were watching from somewhere outside her body, she saw him bend his neck, his lips coming closer to hers, his scent growing stronger, filling her senses.

Then his lips were at the corner of her mouth and he was kissing her, not exactly on the lips, but not on her cheek, either. Her breathing stopped when his lips touched the corner of her mouth and did not start again until after he had patted her on the head, bounded down the stairs, and dove into the limo, crashing into Theo. The last thing she heard was Ethan laughing and the beating of her own heart as the limo drove away.

Sadie shook her head. She supposed she shouldn’t be so angry, so hurt that Ethan hadn’t recognized her. After all, she’d changed so much. But it still hurt not to be known—it really did hurt.

***

Ethan knew he’d been an idiot. How could he have not recognized Sadie? He’d looked right at her, for Pete’s sake. The poor thing had looked so bewildered when he asked his sister to introduce them. Here he’d thought this was one of his sister’s hot new friends or a coworker. Instead, the woman he’d been hungering after was his best friend’s little sister—and his own friend. How was it he hadn’t recognized her when he noticed her in the crowd?

Hell, he’d spent nearly every day from age fourteen to eighteen at her parent’s house hanging out with her brother, having dinner with her family, spending nights in the spare room down the hall from hers, ditching her and the other Little Twerps when they got too annoying. Just because Sadie had grown up a little didn’t give him the excuse to not recognize her.

Well, in his justification, she had actually grown up quite a bit. Mick Calhoun was right—Sadie was
hot
. So much of her had changed—her height, her hair, her…boobs. Although, he laughed to himself, one thing hadn’t changed. When she’d stomped her foot and glared at the other bidders, she’d shown her infamous Sadie Courant attitude. At least she still had that.

He shook his head. It still didn’t seem real, his fantasy woman from the auction turning out to be Sadie. Just earlier in the day he’d talked to her on the phone, had laughed at something funny she’d said when she called to apologized for being too late for dinner.

Ethan stepped slowly up the stairs to Sadie’s front door. He’d watched her run from him at the auction, figuring she had headed home. After apologizing to all their friends for being such a dipshit and not recognizing her, he’d headed outside in time to see her take off running down the path that followed the creek, headed toward her house. He’d followed, walking the half-mile to The Cottage.

Built during California’s Gold Rush in the 1850s by Theo and Sadie’s great-great grandfather who’d made a fortune on gold mining, The Cottage had been deceptively named. He’d always considered the place a mansion. On ten acres at the edge of town, it was an opulent two-storied giant of a house. Sadie and Theo had grown up living at the estate, with its cultivated lawns, fountains, and five gardens. Who the hell needed
five
gardens? With a billiard hall, horses in the stable, an Olympic style pool and an outdoor dance pad, The Cottage seemingly offered everything. At least, to Ethan, who hadn’t a penny to his name and a father who spent what he did have on rot-gut alcohol, Theo and Sadie seemed to have it all.

His knock on the door was met with silence.

“Sadie?” he called, peering in the mullioned windows adjacent to the oak door, looking for signs of life. After ringing the doorbell and still hearing no response, he walked around the house to the side garden.

The glow of candlelight coming from opened windows on the second floor indicated Sadie was home, just ignoring him.

“Sadie!” This time he called out with more determination.

“Go home, Ethan,” she yelled back, her voice choked with emotion.

“I just want to talk, to apologize for not recognizing you. Can’t you let me in for a minute?”

“I don’t want to see you.”

He could understand how miserable she felt, but he was beginning to feel like a bit of an ass standing under her window hollering out apologies. “Sadie, just let me in.”

“No.”

“Yes,” he demanded.

“Bite me.”

His jaw hardened. That was it. He’d flown in from New York to be in her stupid fundraiser, humiliated himself on-stage, walked a half mile in the middle of the night, and she was basically telling him to eff off? No way was she going to get away with being such a pill. So he hadn’t recognized her—so what? She should be proud of how well she’d grown up, not hiding her head in the sand like an embarrassed ostrich.

Fine. If she was going to behave like a child, he’d treat her like one.

Muttering cuss words under his breath, he grabbed the thick trunk of ivy winding its way up the trellis adjacent to Sadie’s window and began the long trek upward. Sadie may be the drop-dead gorgeous blonde he’d had a hard-on for all night, but with this major pout, she was proving she could still be every bit of a twerp.

The ivy made a faint scratching sound against the wall, bringing Sadie to the window. She leaned against the windowsill and looked down at him. “You idiot. What are you doing?”