Return to You

by Samantha Chase

  “You look exactly the way you did in high school. It’s like time forgot you, but in a good way.”

  “Remind me again how we got to talking about me and not about why you haven’t given this guy your phone number?”

  Jen shrugged. “It seemed a little weird to be in the police station reporting what I thought was a crime and then flirting with the guy at the desk. Then they’d really think I was crazy.”

  She had a point, Selena thought. The situation certainly wasn’t ideal. “Okay, so that means we have to find a way for you to talk to him without it being some sort of official police business.”

  “Easier said than done,” Jen said dejectedly.

  “It’s not ideal, that’s for sure, but I think that with a little effort we can come up with something. Who knows, maybe we’ll get into some kind of trouble and need a hot, single policeman to come and help us!” she said with a laugh and smiled when Jen joined in with her. With that, Selena stacked up all the papers she’d been reviewing, placed them in a folder in her briefcase, snapped it shut, and put it away in the guest room. A quick glance at her watch showed it to be barely eight o’clock. “No more work for tonight. Let’s do something.”

  Jen squealed with delight. “Seriously? You want to go out? You’re not messing with me, are you?”

  Selena forced a bright smile and nodded. “Absolutely. It could be fun going out for drinks, maybe some dancing…a girls’ night out.” About as fun as a root canal, but clearly this meant a lot to Jen. So for tonight, she’d grin and bear it. She’d dance and drink and maybe fake-flirt with someone, and then she’d be off the hook for a little while—at least where Jen was concerned.

  Doing a little happy dance, Jen started rambling off places they could go and things they could do. “We are going to have so much fun. I promise!” She practically skipped down the hall to her bedroom as she continued to talk excitedly about all of the fun they were going to have.

  Not quite sure about that, Selena simply nodded and watched Jen as she went to her room. With a heavy sigh, Selena headed back to the guest room like a person heading to their own execution. There was no getting out of it now, and for one night, she’d survive. Hopefully.

  With that pleasant thought, Selena shut the door to her room and started to get ready.

  Jen waited until she heard the guest room door close before picking up her phone and calling William Montgomery with an update. The whole situation still felt a little cloak-and-dagger for her, but she was just as committed to this as the Montgomerys were. She waited patiently while William’s assistant placed her on hold and hummed along to the music.

  “William Montgomery,” a jovial voice answered.

  “Hi, um…Mr. Montgomery. It’s Jen Lawson. How are you?”

  “Miss Lawson! Wonderful to hear from you. Has Selena arrived yet?”

  “Today actually,” she said quietly, keeping her voice down just in case Selena came out of her room. “We’re going to go out tonight and celebrate.”

  “That sounds good. Are you taking her someplace where James might be?”

  “Unfortunately, no. I wasn’t able to find out where James hangs out, but I’m working on it.” She briefly filled him in on her situation with Todd and how she had visited James several times.

  “Are you all right?” William asked, concern lacing his voice. “Is James taking care of this?”

  “He’s doing all he’s allowed by law. Right now it’s just a nuisance more than anything. But James is keeping an eye on the situation for me.”

  “Well, that’s good. I wish you didn’t have to deal with it. Now I kind of feel bad about involving you in my little hobby,” he said with a chuckle.

  “Are you kidding me?” Jen laughed. “This has been a great distraction.”

  “Has Selena mentioned James at all yet?” he asked hopefully.

  “Kind of, but more in a depressing trip down memory lane. But I’m confident that we’re going to pull this off.”

  “Oh, I know we will, Miss Lawson. I’m not afraid to come up there and do a little…orchestrating…if I have to. I had to get a little hands-on with my own sons to prod them in the right direction. I won’t hesitate to do that for my nephew if need be.”

  “I don’t think we need to do that yet. But I’ll keep you posted.”

  “Excellent! Go and have a fun night out with Selena, Miss Lawson. I look forward to talking with you again soon!”

  * * *

  Everything in moderation. That was going to be Selena’s new motto. Starting today and going until the end of time.

  A quick once-over of herself found Selena cursing the very day she was born. Even her eyelashes hurt.

  Jen had been true to her word that they’d have fun—that had been an understatement. There were several clubs Selena never had a chance to get into before moving away at eighteen, so the two of them decided they had to make up for lost time. Never one for clubbing in general, at first Selena had been intrigued by the idea of a night of dancing. It wasn’t until the third club that she’d finally just taken off her shoes and realized that this was more like an Olympic event than a night out.

  By the time they arrived back at Jen’s house, it was nearly four in the morning, and she had barely made it down the hall to the guest room without collapsing from exhaustion. Carefully, she opened one eye and peered at the clock. It was almost noon. With as much finesse as she could muster, Selena slowly climbed from the bed and went in search of the bathroom. The sight of herself in the mirror made her scream.

  “Shh…” Jen hissed as she walked by the open bathroom door holding her head. “It’s way too early for that kind of noise.”

  “Early?” Selena said, her voice hoarse and dry. “It’s lunchtime.”

  “Well, since we came home at breakfast time, it’s still early, and you’re still loud. So keep it down.”

  Deciding that this was a losing argument, Selena shut the door and did her best to pull herself together. The hot shower went a long way toward making her feel human again, but it was going to take a fistful of ibuprofen and perhaps a gallon of coffee to finish her off. Too bad she hated coffee.

  She met up with Jen in the kitchen and found her huddled over a large mug of coffee. “You want some?” Jen asked, her voice barely audible.

  Selena slumped in the chair beside her, holding her head in hopes of stopping the pounding. How was it possible that she could still hear the music from last night? “Don’t drink it.”

  Raising her head slowly, Jen looked at her through slitted eyes. “How could you still not drink coffee? You’re a grown-up, right?”

  “Love the smell, hate the taste.”

  “I have no words for that.” She took a deep drink of her own beverage. “Juice is in the fridge, ibuprofen on the counter.” Selena wanted to make fun of her friend’s clipped words and sad condition, but unfortunately, she was no better off herself.

  Long minutes later, they both started to resurface. “I cannot believe how much I hurt,” Jen finally said. “I don’t even remember the last time I danced so much. When did dancing get to be so exhausting?”

  “I used to think I was in good shape until last night. I didn’t even recognize most of the music. When did it all get so…loud?” Selena asked, her brows furrowed.

  “Have you been living under a rock? Don’t you go out at all?”

  “I do,” she responded defensively. “I just don’t go to bars or clubs or…”

  “Places with people? Come on, Selena, it’s like you’ve been living in isolation or something. Did you at least have fun last night?”

  She nodded. “Definitely. I can’t remember the last time I went dancing. I had forgotten how much fun it was.” Oddly enough, it was the truth. She had been completely surprised at how much she had enjoyed herself.

  “You’re killing me.”


  “But you know what the weirdest part was? All the years we were too young to get into those places, I had built them up in my mind, and going into them now is kind of disappointing.”

  “It wasn’t at twenty-one, I can tell you that.”

  It didn’t need to be said that they wished they had the opportunity to explore those things together back then; no sense in beating a dead horse. With a night of fun under their belt, the businesswoman in Selena automatically went back into work mode. “What do we have planned for today? Can we go and take a look at the venue?” It would take a Herculean effort to get herself to the point where she’d feel like she was human again and ready to face the public, but there was work to be done and Selena didn’t like the feeling that she wasn’t pulling her weight.

  “Ugh…why are you like this?” Jen groaned and banged her head on the kitchen table, her blond hair hiding her face. Then she groaned at the force with which she’d hit her head.

  “Like what?”

  “Why can’t you just go back to sleep, eat ice cream for dinner, and not think about work or anything until Monday? You know, like us mere mortals. Come, join us on the dark side. We really do have cookies.”

  “Because I want you to go with me, and Monday you’ll be at work. Come on, Jen, a shower and some food will help you feel better. I can call the manager and see if we can come by around three. That will give us some time to pace ourselves. What do you say?”

  “That you’re the devil.”

  “Yeah, but you love me.”

  * * *

  James was scanning the report in front of him without really seeing it. The creep who was bothering Jen was a bit elusive, and he was being careful about staying under the radar and not doing anything too radical to draw attention to himself. Biding their time and waiting was getting old, and he knew Jen was anxious for it to be over. He’d tried to convince her to get a restraining order on her last visit, but she was forever optimistic that Todd would get bored and move on. James doubted it.

  He was on edge—had been for days. Besides the conversation about a restraining order, Jen had mentioned that Selena was going to be staying with her while she was here for the reunion. By all accounts, she was probably there now. It wouldn’t be completely out of line for him to stop by and check on Jen in person, especially considering how much time they had spent discussing her situation.

  While it all sounded good enough, the real problem was what he was going to say once he actually got there and saw Selena. How was he supposed to act in front of her? The whole damn situation was making him crazy. He couldn’t focus on his job, couldn’t relax at home. No. Nothing was going to get better until they finally faced each other. Then maybe…

  “James? You got a minute?”

  Looking up, he saw one of the beat cops who had worked with him on a homicide earlier in the week standing next to his desk. He needed this—to be forced to think about something else other than Selena and seeing her again. Tossing Jen’s file down, he leaned back in his seat. “What can I do for you?”

  Chapter 3

  While it could hardly be called eventful, the tour of the venue went exactly as Selena had hoped, and although she had to move at a much slower pace than she was used to, she was confident that everything was going to run smoothly the following weekend. After a very slow start to the day, she and Jen had somewhat gotten their groove back, and after they had covered all of Selena’s reunion business, they had gone dress shopping and grabbed some dinner before heading back to Jen’s.

  Sitting in front of the TV in their pajamas, each with a pint of Häagen-Dazs in their hands, they watched episodes of Friends.

  “I always thought we’d be like that,” Jen said around a spoonful of rocky road ice cream, pointing her spoon at the television.

  “Like what?”

  “Like the cast of Friends. You know, we’d have an apartment together, hang out with people all the time.” She shrugged. “I mean, back then, it seemed like the ideal thing. I remember us talking about it when we were younger, and I couldn’t wait until we were old enough to make it a reality.”

  Selena knew her friend wasn’t really trying to make her feel bad; she was just sharing her feelings. Instead of apologizing and going down that road, she opted for playful. “Who would you be? Monica? Rachel? Phoebe?”

  “You would definitely be Monica,” Jen said with a laugh. “You’re OCD just like her.”

  Selena shrugged. “I don’t see that as a bad thing. What about you?”

  “Hmm…I’d like to say that I’m Rachel because…well, you know, she’s the beautiful one, but I have a feeling that I’m way too wacky for that. So I guess it’s Phoebe. And that’s a good thing because she was the cool one.” They laughed at the scene playing out before them on the TV, and once the episode ended, Jen turned back to Selena. “Could you imagine us living in the city? Who would we want living across the hall from us?”

  They laughed themselves silly with possible scenarios until all of the ice cream was gone and neither was able to keep their eyes open any longer. “As much as I’m enjoying this,” Selena said as she stood and yawned, “I need a solid night of sleep that wasn’t brought on by dancing till I dropped.”

  “Agreed.”

  Settling into the spacious guest room, sleep didn’t claim Selena as fast as she thought it would. Lying in the dark, she thought more about her conversation with Jen. The reality was that even if she hadn’t moved away, she and Jen wouldn’t have gotten an apartment together because she and James were together back then and had planned on getting married.

  Just the thought of that made her stomach do its familiar clenching. If things had been different, if life hadn’t been quite so cruel, would they still be married now? What would their lives be like? Shifting into a more comfortable position, Selena rolled onto her side, let her eyes drift closed, and felt her body begin to relax. It wasn’t often that she let herself think about what could have been, but right now it felt appropriate.

  They would have kids, she thought, at least three. That had been their plan. They had talked about it often enough. They wanted two girls and a boy. Selena wracked her brain, and for the life of her she couldn’t remember why it was that they had wanted that particular configuration, but there it was. They had wanted to have a son first and then the girls—twins had even been discussed, but there was no history of that in their families so they’d let that dream go.

  James would have his own landscaping business. He had always talked about how he wanted to go to school to learn about landscape design and architecture, and she imagined he’d have a large company by now, with multiple crews working for him. Selena would be at home raising their family. Back in high school, she thought she’d go to college and study something, but the bottom line was that all she really wanted to be was a wife and a mom. When Selena had been with James then, she knew it was what he wanted for her too. She smiled. Life had been so simple once. While she was happy with her current life, the one that had been taken from her had been her dream.

  A tear rolled down her cheek as she finally drifted off to sleep.

  * * *

  “Hey! Pull the car over, that’s my cousin over there.” From the backseat of her tiny Honda, Selena’s friend Kent called out the favor. “Let’s see if he wants to join us for lunch. The more the merrier, right?” Kent said as she pulled over.

  Selena rolled her eyes behind her pink sunglasses. “Sure,” she said politely, all the while wondering where they were going to fit a sixth person in the already overcrowded car. They all took turns driving at lunch, and with barely forty-five minutes to get back and forth to the local pizza place, making an unscheduled stop to cram a complete stranger in the car seemed like a colossal waste of time. And Selena hated to waste time.

  Everyone was talking at once, and when Selena pulled to a stop and saw the person in question walking t
oward the car, her mouth went dry. “Wait, who is this?” she asked the group as a whole.

  “My cousin James. He’s staying with us for a while. You met him, didn’t you? Last month at Ryan’s party?”

  Selena shook her head. “That must have been when I was in Florida with my family.” Jen was riding shotgun and rolled down the window as James approached and crouched down to look in the car. In that moment, Selena found herself staring into the deepest, brownest eyes she had ever seen. He gave a wide, sexy smile before greeting everyone.

  “I didn’t know you were working in the area,” Kent said. “We’re just heading to lunch. Wanna join us?”

  “I didn’t realize the high school let you guys leave for lunch,” James said, his eyes wandering back to Selena’s.

  “We only get like forty-five minutes,” Jen said, her tone bordering on gushing.

  He nodded. “Hi, I’m James,” he said, looking directly at Selena.

  She actually felt herself blush. “So I heard from all of the…the, uh…” Rather than continue to babble, she just gestured to the car as a whole.

  “So what do you say?” Kent asked. “You in?”

  “Sorry, not today. I can’t get away right now, but thanks. I’ll see you guys around.” With that, they had all been dismissed as James turned and walked away. Selena felt suddenly all alone, as if all the air had been sucked out of her little sedan. It wasn’t until Kent cleared his throat that Selena remembered what their original plan had been and put the car in gear and headed into town for lunch.

  “You’re awfully quiet, Selena,” Jen said as soon as they sat down with their lunch.

  “Sorry. I guess I just got lost in my own head there for a few minutes.”

  “You were thinking about James, right?”

  Selena’s head snapped up. “What? What are you talking about? Why would you even suggest that?”

  “Because he’s hot, that’s why. What I wouldn’t give for just an hour alone with him!” Jen fanned herself with a napkin as she waggled her eyebrows. “Don’t get me wrong. He’s a bit older than we are, and I’m sure he has better things to do than to hang out with a bunch of high schoolers, but he’s a really nice guy.”