He heard her soft gasp, felt it when her lips parted and let him in. Their lips met. Their breaths mingled and their sighs wrapped around each other. Ford wanted to grab Diane and pull her across the table, but the sane part of his mind reminded him where they were. With a sigh he gentled the kiss before pulling away, catching his soup bowl just before it fell over.
“I want to do that again. Soon,” he told her, feeling a thrill of triumph at the dazed look in her eyes. “Somewhere private. Somewhere warm.”
“I’m plenty warm.” Diane tugged her gloves off. She met his gaze and cupped his jaw. “I’d like to do that again, too.”
He felt that same connection he remembered from years ago. That it was still there amazed him. “Why did we break up back then when things were going so well?” he wondered aloud.
Diane froze, jerked her hand away from his face. “You started dating Irene.”
Ford frowned. “No, I mean, before that.”
“We didn’t break up before that.”
What? “Sure, we did. You did.”
She stared at him, the warmth from a few moments ago gone as if it had never existed.
“I wouldn’t have gone out with Irene if you and I were still dating.” Of that much he was certain.
“I thought we were still dating,” she hissed. “If you didn’t want to date me anymore, you should have told me. Not just shown up at the diner where I was working, holding hands with Irene and buying her a cheeseburger and a chocolate shake.”
“I don’t even remember what we had for lunch,” he said, confused and shaken. “How could you remember what we ate?”
“I don’t care what you ate. I cared that you were holding her hand and making eyes at her and that you didn’t care I was working the counter and could see the whole thing.”
His head started to pound. “Wait. We’d already broke up. You broke up with me.”
Her chin lifted and she stared him down. “When, Ford? When did we break up?”
He wished he’d never brought it up. “I don’t remember. That’s why I asked you.”
Diane folded her arms over her chest and gave him the silent treatment. Diane never gave him the silent treatment. She’d always exploded.
“Wait a minute.” He scrambled to find the words to make it right. To make sense out of this. Then he remembered what led up to the kick-in-the-gut feeling he’d gotten that night over thirty years ago. “Irene. Irene told me. She said you wanted to break up but you didn’t know how to tell me, so Irene offered to do it for you.”
The sparks in her eyes turned to a blaze of indignation. “And you believed her? You didn’t check with me?”
“She was your best friend. Yeah, I believed her.” He shook his head. “Wait, you never told her that?”
Diane shook her head, leaning over, searching for her purse.
“We’d had another fight,” he said, it all coming back to him now. The angry words. The pain they’d brought. “You told me you didn’t want to see me anymore.”
She huffed. “I didn’t mean it.”
“How was I to know that?”
“You could have asked me.”
“When Irene had already said it too? Why would I want to hear it a third time?” Dozens of people they knew milled around them while they threw out accusations in strained whispers. Then another question came to mind. “Why would Irene have lied?”
“It’s pretty obvious that she wanted you and she wasn’t above lying to get you. Bet she said she was happy to console you,” Diane said wryly. “But it really doesn’t matter. What matters is you thought so little of me and what we had that you believed I wanted to break up for good because we fought over what movie we were going to see. How could you? We did that all the time.”
He remembered it all now. “I thought you were tired of fighting with me. That you decided you wanted some easy-going guy who’d let you have your own way all the time.”
Diane stared at him, tears shining in her eyes, her purse clutched in her hands.
“I remember that we were both pretty stubborn,” he added. She nodded, but she didn’t smile, didn’t say anything more. They were both still pretty stubborn. “Look, Di. I’m sorry. I should have come to you back then but I had my pride, you know? I didn’t want to show up at your door and get kicked again. So, yeah, I believed Irene.”
“I have to get out of here.” Her voice was strangled, hurt clear on her face.
“Come on, sweetheart,” he said, trying to make his voice as smooth and charming as he could. “We can make it work this time. We were just kids back then.” Panic made his heart scramble in his chest. Now that he had Diane back in his life he didn’t want to lose her again. He tried to grab for anything that might keep her from leaving. Something that would take them back to the good place they’d been only a few minutes before. “Don’t go. We can make up for lost time now.”
“I think I hate you right now,” she said through gritted teeth.
Blood rushed in his ears. She meant more to him than he ever imagined and he was only now realizing it. “Don’t let a stupid misunderstanding ruin what we have now.” He reached for her hand but she yanked it away. He could feel the wall she was putting up as if it was a physical stack of bricks.
She smacked her gloves on the edge of the table. “We don’t have anything now,” she snapped, eyes flashing. This was the Diane he remembered, but he knew they wouldn’t be having make-up sex tonight.
People were glancing their way. The rumors of their break-up would start flying before the ones putting them together ever had a chance to get off the ground.
She looked around them and saw Jason and a couple of other firemen entering the tent. Diane waved them over. “I have to go.” She jumped to her feet. She didn’t look at Ford. “Can you give your dad a ride home?”
“Sure?” Jason replied, looking from Ford to Diane and back again.
Ford struggled to get up. His knee didn’t want to straighten. His leg muscles had tightened up while he’d been sitting and he didn’t have time to grope for the cane. He pushed to his feet, his hands splayed on the table as he leaned heavily against it. “Diane. Don’t go.”
She looked over her shoulder but her gaze bounced to anything but his face. “Good-bye, Ford.”
Chapter 6
Snow pelted the windshield as Diane drove home Friday evening. When she made it inside her garage and closed the door against the wind and snow, she let out a big sigh of relief.
After she changed into something a whole lot more comfortable, she heated up a bowl of soup for dinner. Then she sat at the table with the soup and crackers, and stared at the pile of college info she’d ignored for the past week, still sitting in the center of the table. Her mind was all kinds of messed up. Her thoughts kept going back to the past. There was no room in her brain right now to think about the future.
Had she over-reacted when she walked out on Ford at the festival? Wasn’t she justified in her feelings of outrage? All the heartbreak and hurt he’d caused her felt as fresh and sharp now as they had that day.
Yes, it had all happened a long time ago and Diane knew she should get over it, but why? Didn’t her feelings count for anything? It didn’t feel like over-reacting, not even a week later. Irene had been her best friend. They’d had sleepovers almost every weekend while they were growing up. They’d giggled over the newest heartthrobs on TV and had shared all their hopes and dreams. At least, Diane had thought they had.
She pushed away from the table, her appetite gone. She’d known Ford in school, but he hadn’t asked her out until the summer after she graduated. She’d started working full-time at Lenny’s Diner, and Ford began to come in every day for lunch. He’d sit at the counter and strike up a conversation with her and stay as long as he could. It took him almost two weeks to ask her out on a date. They drove to Niagara Falls for the day in that old Jeep. She’d had such a good feeling about him—especially after she found a real four leaf clover—that she’d
told herself they’d be going back up there for their honeymoon.
God, she’d loved him.
Tears prickled her eyes. She curled up in a chair and pulled a soft yellow throw over her. She remembered the hungry way Irene had looked at Ford sometimes, but Diane never thought her friend would have lied to steal her boyfriend away. Then again, Diane never imagined Ford would believe Irene without checking with her first.
She’d never confronted Ford either, Diane admitted to herself as she clutched the warm throw around her shoulders. They’d been so young. She hadn’t known how to handle the overwhelming emotions Ford brought out in her. It had been exhilarating. It had been scary as hell.
Had she maybe been a tiny bit relieved when things fell apart?
Things had been easier with Gary. He’d been her rebound guy. She hadn’t loved him as desperately as she had Ford. And for the first time Diane realized how much she’d cheated Gary by marrying him when she couldn’t give him all of her. There’d been very little passion in their marriage. Yes, that meant no fighting, but it also meant rather unexciting sex and lackluster companionship. No wonder he’d left her.
All this soul-searching didn’t ease the pain that still throbbed around her heart. Ford should have known she loved him. Should have known she would never have broken up with him that way. If she’d wanted to end things with him, she would have done it in person, making a big scene out of it, with shouting and swearing and a broken dish or two. And there would have been no doubt when she was done that she’d meant it.
Maybe Ford had been more than a tiny bit relieved he didn’t have to deal with her drama anymore. She would have liked to say she didn’t get caught up in those kinds of theatrics like she used to, but at the festival she hadn’t spent even a second looking at things from Ford’s point of view. She’d blown up at him like she always had. Like she didn’t with anyone else.
But hey, at least she hadn’t dumped her soup over Ford’s head like she probably would have done thirty-five years ago.
The blare of a siren and flashing lights caught her attention. Diane climbed out of the chair and threw open the curtains. She squinted to see through all the snow whirling around in the darkness until she saw an ambulance pull into the driveway of the Foster’s house across the street, red and white lights flashing. Another big rescue unit stopped in front of the house. A few of the volunteers’ private vehicles were parked along the side of the snow-clogged road, blue lights cutting through the blowing snow. Rescue workers in heavy coats milled around the front yard and walked around the house.
She wanted to run over and see what was happening, but she knew they didn’t need a nosy neighbor getting in the way. She checked the time. Katie would have just gotten home from the Cut ‘N’ Curl. Randy was probably still at work at the grocery store where he was the manager. Paige would have been home, though. Had she gotten hurt? Sick?
Diane stood there at the window, her stomach twisting into knots as she waited and wondered. Finally, she saw Katie following a stretcher out of the house. Diane hugged the blanket tighter around her as she watched Paige being loaded into the ambulance. What happened? Diane was debating whether or not to dash over there when one of the rescue workers turned to look at her house.
He must have seen her at the window. His shoulders straightened and he said something to the responder beside him and then started across the road. Her heart sped. It was Ford. It had to be him, trudging through the heavy snow toward her house.
She met him at the door. His helmet and heavy coat were covered with snow. It was starting to come down even harder. “What happened?”
His intense gaze locked on hers. “Where does your furnace vent?”
“What?” He had to be freezing. She was cold standing there with the door open. She stepped back and waved him inside.
He frowned but stepped into the entryway and she closed the door against the blizzard. Closed Ford in with her. If she hadn’t been so worried about her neighbors, she’d have yelled at him for being out in all this snow so soon after his cast was off.
“Your furnace,” Ford said, his face red from the cold. “Does it vent out the chimney or do you have a pipe that comes out by your foundation?” He cleared his throat. “The snow drifted over the Foster’s exhaust pipe and carbon monoxide built up in the house.”
“Oh, no. Paige?”
“It was lucky Katie came home when she did. Paige was still conscious.”
“Oh God.” What would she have done if she’d come home from work one day and found Shay or Rob—
Ford grasped her shoulders. “Diane. Your furnace?”
“Um…sorry. The chimney. And I have CO detectors. Didn’t Katie and Randy have them?”
“Only one and the batteries were dead.”
She nodded. His hands were still on her shoulders, the expression on his face was still intense, but it had changed, heated in a different way. “You were worried about me? After I was such a bitch to you?”
“You were mad. I don’t blame you.” He dropped his hands and stepped back. “I’m getting snow all over the place.” He glanced out the window and then back. “We need to talk.”
“Yes, we do.” She was so happy to see him, she couldn’t call up any of the anger she’d felt before. They definitely had to talk, and that’s what she should have insisted on at the festival instead of stomping away.
“Is now a good time?” he asked.
She looked over his shoulder to the lights still flashing across the street. “Is there anything else you have to do over there?”
“No, but I rode on the rig.” He locked his intense gaze with hers. “I won’t be able to drive home.”
The implication hung in the air. He was leaving it up to her. If he stayed to talk now, he wouldn’t be going home tonight.
“It’s getting pretty nasty out there,” she said smoothly, her heartbeat anything but. “No one should be out driving tonight.”
He pulled the helmet off his head. Snow flew around him. “I hoped you’d say that.”
“Do you have to let someone know you’re staying?”
Ford shook his head. “I told Jason if I wasn’t back in five minutes to leave without me.”
“Smart man. Take off those wet things and hang them over here.”
After he kicked off his snowy boots and hung his coat and hat, he followed her into the living room. Through the picture window she could see the last of the rescue trucks driving away.
She pulled her cell out of the pocket of her pants. “Have a seat. I need to make a quick call.” As it rang, she was afraid Shay wasn’t going to answer. Then Diane would have been worried about her daughter and carbon monoxide all night long.
“Hey, Mom, are you getting as much snow as we are?” Shay’s voice was cheerful.
“Probably. It’s coming down like crazy. Hey, you guys have CO detectors and smoke alarms in your apartment, right?” She glanced over at Ford making himself at home on her sofa. He smiled indulgently.
“Yeah. Of course. I mean, I think so.” There was a pause while Shay talked with her roommate. “Yeah. We do. Why did you want to call and ask me that?”
“I was thinking about you and wanted to make sure you were okay and safe, and I can’t hug you right now.”
“You’re crazy.” Shay laughed and Diane was so glad her daughter was laughing at her and not on the way to the hospital. “Love you, Mom.”
“Love you too, baby. Make sure there are fresh batteries in those things, okay?”
“Okay. Gotta go. The timer’s going off on the oven. Dinner calls.”
Diane said goodbye and called Rob next. He didn’t answer so she left another message about detectors and batteries. She’d get a text from him later. She didn’t care if her kids thought she was over-reacting. She couldn’t imagine her life without her children. They were the two best things to come from her marriage to Gary.
And right then she realized why things had to have happened the way they did thir
ty-some years ago. No sense in wishing life had happened differently with her and Ford. They happened the way they were supposed to.
But the most important question now was what was going to happen tonight? And in the future. What did she want to happen?
She set the phone on the coffee table and sent Ford a wry smile. “That’s out of the way.”
Then she looked down and realized she was wearing her moping-around-the-house clothes, baggy plaid lounge pants and loose T-shirt. And she wasn’t wearing a bra. She crossed her arms over her chest. “If I’d known you were coming over I would have been a little more presentable.”
He chuckled. “You look fine. Wonderful. I ran out of the house without thinking about how I looked.”
He looked great, of course. The faded jeans and navy blue sweatshirt appeared well-worn. He wore dark blue socks on the feet he’d propped up on the coffee table.
“Sit.” Ford patted the sofa cushion next to him. His intense gaze made her shiver.
Diane hesitated for a moment, then dropped to the edge of the sofa. Her knees were weak with nerves, anyway.
He reached out and curled his strong hand around hers. “I want to tell you how sorry I am for the way I hurt you all those years ago. Guess I took the easy way out and it makes me feel like shit.”
She squeezed his hand and sighed softly. “And I want to tell you how sorry I am for the way I acted on Sunday. Guess I fell back to my old actions. Blowing up instead of working through things. I thought I’d outgrown that, but I guess not. At least not when it comes to you. I’m sorry.”
She didn’t expect the grin that spread across his face. “You make me feel like a kid again too.”
Ford slid his arm around her and drew her close. She took a deep breath, drawing in his familiar, earthy scent. She couldn’t believe he was here. That she was in his arms. Emotions rushed in so fast, she had to find some way to keep them at bay, if only for a little while longer. She let her gaze slide down the long stretch of legs. For some reason those feet were sexy as hell. For the first time in a long time, she had the urge to grab a pencil and sketch book, and capture his sexy stocking feet.
Hot Silver Nights: Silver Fox Romance Collection Page 43