Last First Kiss (7 page)

He drew Sophi
e in closer, no longer
embarrassed
that he had an erecti
on and that
it
was impossible
to hide
. The room was spinning
,
and he was thinking about letting his hand slide to her breast
when
Sophie pulled away.

“Y
our girlfriend…Cathy, wasn’t it?
I don’t think you should hurt her like I hurt you,” she said looking up at him with those beautiful blue eyes, rimmed by the long lashes that had always held him spellbound.

She was right. They shouldn’t be doing this.

Wade simply nodded.

“How about I come by in the morning, pick you up
and
take you for breakfast at one of
Greenville
’s fine establishments? After, I’ll take you to see your grandma,” he said.

“That would be the beginning of a perfect day.”

He turned to leave, thinking it best that he didn’t even give he
r a peck on the cheek goodnight after what had just happened between them.

“Wade.”

He turned to face
her again.
“Yes.”

“Thank you for picking me up and
bringing me here.”

“You’re welcome. And it’s great to have you home. Night
,
Soph.”

“Goodnight
,
Wade.”

****

Her
old
bedroom
didn’t have any windows that looked
out on the private parking lot
,
which i
n a way was a good thing. I
f it had
,
she’d be standing at it
watching Wade walk back to his SUV.

Sophie s
at on the bed
.
The kiss had been better than the one at the airport. She ran her fingers over his lips. She hadn’t wanted to stop him. She’d searched her mind and soul for every excuse in the
book as to why they should
continue. However, she knew if she hadn’t pulled away from him, they’d get to a point of no return
,
and have regrets later. She had too many of those. Wade probably did
,
too.

She didn’t want to be the reason he messed things up
with his latest girlfriend.
Cathy could be his chance at finding happiness, a wife, a family
,
and she
wouldn’t take that from him by
doing something stupid and spur of the moment.

Sophie flopped back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. The very ceiling she’d been staring at as Travis had been making love to her. She turned her head to the side, mimicking the action she’d done that morning when she’d heard the doo
r open
. At first she’d thought it was
her
grandmother
bursting in on them not realizing Travis had spent the night with her,
but she’d spotted Wade
in the doorway. Every bit of color had quickly drained
from his face.

And then Travis had noticed him
,
too
.

“Hey
,
buddy, you mind giving me and my fiancé
e some privacy,” he
’d
shouted at Wade.

With that Wade had rushed out of the room. She’d tried running after him
,
but by the time
she got some clothes on,
gotten outside
,
all she’d been able to see was
the back of him running down the road.

It wasn’t the way she ever intended for him
to find out that she was going to marry Travis
,
or that she’d broken another promise and given her virginity to another man. 

She sat up and threw a pillow across the room. Travis had swept her off her feet when he’d come to stay
at Mountainview, taken her
from
Wyoming
to
Seattle
,
and now they were divorced.

A tear ran down her face. She and Wade
, had life gone according to the plans they’d made,
would have been celebrating weddin
g anniversary number seven. They’d be the proud parents of
two children, and be working
diligently
on making number three of the four children they
always said they
’d
wanted.

Tomorrow she’d tell him she was sorry because she’d never
had the courage to do that before. No, that wasn’t true. She’d tried too soon after the incident that morning
. She’d
gone to his dad’s house later that day
,
but Bob had told her Wade wasn’t feeling good and didn’t want to see anyone. She’d been persistent and gone back every day, minus her engagement ring of course
,
to
beg his forgiveness
,
but ever
y
time his father had told her Wade
didn’t want to see her.

Finally she’d given up and
left for
Seattle
to start a new lif
e as
Mrs. Travis Benson
. And under the circumstances it had been just a small wedding at City Hall
with her grandmother and Travis
’
s
family in attendance. It had been followed
by a meal
in the restaurant
at the top of the Space Ne
edle. Nothing
like the wedding and reception Wade and
she
had talked about since they were teena
gers. She’d arrive
at the church on
horseback
,
and
they’d leave the church riding in an old stage coach. The reception would include everyone in
Greenville
,
and the honeymoon would be at
none other than one of
Wyoming
’s famous landmarks,
Yellowstone
Park
.

Sophie unzipped her suitcase with gusto.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

When she’d finally got
ten
the courage to ask her grandmother about Wade and
how he was doing, she’d told Sophie he hadn’t been eating
,
and Bob had eventually
rushed him to the ER
where the doctor had ordered an
IV
be p
laced in his arm because of his
severe dehydration. Next time she’d asked Grans for her update on him, she’d been told he was doing better
but
that he’d
decided to move to
Cheyenne
.

Wade,
can you ever, ever forgive me?

**
*
*

Wade knew after last night
’s kiss in Sophie’s room that
he was treading on dangerous waters
if he spent too much time with her. However,
he’d promised to bu
y her
breakfast and then tak
e her to see her grandmother. He was a man of his wor
d.

She’s your childhood buddy and nothing more
became his mantra as he drove over to Mountainview to collect her. He didn’t need to go inside to see if she was ready
because she was outside petting
one of the horses in the paddock next to the inn.

As he got out of the SUV she was bending over getting the horse some
hay. Wade wasn’t sure what was the
more spectacular view
–
the
sun peeking over the mountain range or Sophie’s cute little butt in the t
ight jeans she was wearing this morning
. S
ince she’d turned eighteen s
he’d certainly filled out very nicely in that area.

He knew he shouldn’t
,
but buddies did it
,
so no problem. He crept up behind her and gave her butt a slap.

“What the…”

She turned around and grinned when she saw it was
Wade
.

“Morning,” he said.

“Good morning to you. Looks like it’s going to be a nice one.”

“Sure does. So you get to feed
any horses in
Seattl
e
?”

“No, and it’s one of the things I miss about being here at Mountainview. Julie said the vet’s assistant is coming out to look at this mare today. Grans took her in because the owner couldn’t afford to keep her
,
and she’s been off her food for a week.”

Wade stepped forward and stroked the horse’s nose. “Let’s take a look and see if I can figure it out.”

“Why didn’t you ever become a vet? You always loved animals.”

“I guess law enforcement was in my genes.” Wade rubbed his hand along the outer part of the horse
’
s belly and then underneath it. “I think I
know what the problem is. She’s
expecting a foal.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, here give me your hand.”

Sophie offered it to him and
together they ran their f
ingers along the horse’s belly.

“Yep, you’re right. I guess I should cancel the vet’s visit.”

“Oh, it wouldn’t hurt for him to check her out.
So you ready for breakfast?”

“I’m starving. I almost ate from the breakfast buffet but remembered you were buying.”

“So
does Brown’s Café sound good to you?”

“Just lead
the way.”

**
*
*

Sophie realized she’d been away far too long when she and Wade were stopped every few minutes by people wanting to welcome her home
and ask about her grandmother. It
had tak
en them twenty minutes
just
to get inside
the café.

They slid into one of the booths by
the w
indow
,
and Sophie grabbed a menu from the stand.

“Okay, honey…
hey
,
Sophie, I heard you were back. And so sorry to hear about Emily being arrested,” said the waitress.

“It will all be sorted out
,
so don’t worry,” said Wade.

“Can
I get you two
cute kids coffee while yo
u look over the menu?”

“Sounds like heaven because I need some caffeine,” said Sophie.

“Me
,
too,” said Wade.

She walked away
,
and Sophie waved to an
older man who was walking on the sidewalk outside the cafe window.

“
Miss Popularity,” said Wade.

“And you’re Mr. Popu
larity
,
so d
on’t you ever forget it. Now what
shall we order?”

“I think we should go for the grand slam.”

“You can eat that much food?”
asked Sophie.

“I know you can.”

Sophie gave him
a playful kick under the table, catching his shin with her boot.

“Hey, hey, no roughhousing in public,” said Wade, squeezing her knee under the table.

They both looked at one another
,
Sophie sensing an uncomfortable sexual tension brewing between them. She was about to say something when t
he waitress retur
ned with the coffee and put two mugs
down in front of them.

“There you go
,
honey
,
and I’m guessing our coffee’s better than
Starbucks,” she said.

“I bet you’re right,” said Sophie.

“So have you decided what you’d like this morning?”

“Yep, two grand slams,” said Wade.

“Okey, dokey, I’ll get that order in.”

Sophie took a sip of coffee and looked over the rim at Wade.
She put the mug down.

“Wade, the
re’s something I want to say to you.”

He squinted at her.

She hoped this wasn’t going to ruin their meal with her bringing up the delicate subject again.

“
I never apologized to you for what I did with Travis.”