Page 67 of Second Time Around

She shook her head. “We’ve been over this.”

Frustration rose inside him, and he fought to tamp it down. “Can you honestly say you don’t have feelings for me anymore? What about the other night in your kitchen?”

“I told you, I was just curious.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Her brows raised. “Of course you don’t. You thought you could just waltz back into my life after all these years and sweep me off my feet. That I would just forget about your betrayal—”

Anger propelled him off the seat, and he stood over her. “I did NOT betray you.”

She rose too and went toe to toe with him, literally, as there wasn’t much room for them both to stand. “I know what I saw, and you were kissing Kat.”

“No. She kissed me. She was on something that night, and she was telling me how jealous she was of you—”

“So, you gave her a sample of what she was missing?”

“I tried to leave and go get Cody, but then she almost fell—”

“And landed on your lips?”

Threading his hands in his hair, he growled, “Why won’t you believe me? When did I ever give you a reason to think I’d betray you like that?”

She planted her hands on her hips, and her chest was flushed and heaving. They were standing so close he could feel her breath on his bare skin and see the flecks of gray in her eyes.

“Do you have any idea how excited I was to take you to prom that night? It was all I could think about for weeks leading up to it. Then, when I picked you up and saw you in that dress…I could hardly breathe. I looked at you and wondered how I ever got so lucky. I had the most beautiful, wonderful girl on my arm, and I felt so proud…”

Suddenly his throat constricted, and he felt lightheaded, so he sat back down for fear of toppling over on her.

“I was excited that night too, so imagine my shock when I went to find you and saw you in a liplock with Kat.”

“If you’d shown up a few seconds earlier, you would have heard me trying to talk some sense into her. I prayed someone would come looking for her so I could get back to you.”

It was somewhat encouraging that she was still standing there and listening, but it wasn’t enough. He had to find a way to make her believe him.

“Did you ever open my emails or listen to my messages?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.

“That’s what I was afraid of. I told all your friends what happened, hoping they would pass it on, but they didn’t believe me, either. The only person who did was Cody.”

“Kat’s boyfriend?”

He nodded. “That night, I told him everything because I wanted him to hear my side of the story and not just hers.”

“And he believed you?”

“He told me he found some newspaper clippings in Kat’s bedroom one time. They were pictures of me from football games. When he questioned her, she said she’d clipped them out to give to you, but he had his doubts. Once I told him what happened, he believed me. He broke up with her the next day.”

“I heard about that,” she admitted.

“Did she try to contact you afterwards?”

“No, but I wouldn’t have talked to her anyway. I was too pissed off.”

He sighed. “I would have felt the same way if I saw you kissing some other guy. But when you wouldn’t even give me a chance to explain…”

“I hurt you too,” she said softly and relaxed her stance.