Once and Again: Petal, Georgia, Book 1

  The subject was dropped after some laughs, and they got down to the business of ogling the denim butts on the dance floor. Not a whole lot she found sexier than a man in a cowboy hat, jeans and boots with a button-down shirt. Yum. Even better when they were all polite. She knew the Chase husbands lurked around at their own manly table elsewhere, but a girl can still look even if she’s not gonna touch after all.

  “Who is that?” Royal Watson, Anne’s used-to-be-boyfriend now best friend, leaned over to ask Nathan.

  He turned to find himself mesmerized by the sway of a spectacular pair of breasts that happened to belong to none other than Lily Travis.

  “That is not yours. That’s who she is.” Nathan frowned as she took a circuit of the floor with Andy Sanchez. Andy’s hand was mighty close to Lily’s ass. That was not going to happen. It was one thing to know she was still pissed at him after all these years. He could live with that. Probably. But it was another to imagine her with anyone else in town. That wasn’t going to be a reality he’d have to live with.

  “Really now?” Royal grinned and looked pointedly at Nathan’s hand. “Don’t see any ring there. Why don’t you…holy shit, that’s Lily!” Royal found this ridiculously funny and Nathan wanted to punch him.

  “Yes, it’s Lily. Stop laughing.”

  “I laugh because your pain is amusing.” Royal shrugged.

  Matt Chase came back over. “Sorry, I had to go smooch up on my woman for a bit. She let me and then shooed me off. Don’t know why we can’t all sit together.”

  “Probably because Lily is with them and she hates Nathan.”

  “Thanks Royal, you can stop with that now before I have to clean your clock.” Nathan watched her move, watched Andy lean in and say something in her ear. Watched her laugh and then thankfully shake her head and step back.

  When she turned to head toward the women’s table, her gaze snagged on his. He caught the awareness shocking through her system and sent her a smile. Oh, yes, he still got to her.

  “I think you should ask her to dance.” Matt hogged the nachos and Nathan frowned.

  “I think he should too. Then she’ll kick him in the stones, and we can laugh and laugh. Mr. Smooth can’t get hisself a woman. Never thought I’d see that day.” Royal smirked.

  “Every time I’m with you for longer than three minutes I know why my sister dumped you.” Nathan rolled his eyes.

  “She dumped me because I asked her to marry me. Three times. And she said no each time. Picky women. This town grows ’em like peaches. Christ. If you don’t ask Lily to dance, I will.”

  “No you won’t. You and Anne aren’t romantic anymore, but she sure as hell isn’t going to be all right with you rubbing up on a close friend. Lily’s like family so if you wouldn’t rub up on Beth, you can’t rub up on Lily either.”

  Royal frowned. “You made that up to keep me away.”

  “You’ll never know for sure.”

  Matt laughed. “True. But he’s right about one thing. You and Lily need a dance. But she’s going to say no if you take her on directly-like. So wait until she’s out there again and cut in. She’s got good manners, she’ll be too nice to snub you in public.”

  “You’re a devious man. I like that about you.”

  So he bided his time until eventually she ended up out there again, and he headed out, careful to avoid the spot where Steffie was. She’d been less than thrilled when they broke the engagement off and continued to send him cow eyes when she wasn’t plotting his death.

  He tapped Phin on the shoulder and the man shot Nathan a look of annoyance, but he stepped back and Nathan smoothly took his place, getting a secure hold on that waist so she couldn’t bolt.

  They danced well together. Always had. He knew she loved it and he’d always loved to hold her as they did. Loved that any man in the place could look his fill but she was his. Christ he was dumb to have let her go.

  “Well hello there, Lily.” He sent her his most charming smile. She was not impressed and frowned back at him.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “There’s no reason we can’t be friends. If I remember rightly, you like dancin’. So do I. Why not dance together? Unless, you know, I’m too much for you to handle, and you can’t bear to be around me if we’re not smooching. That’s okay too, by the by.”

  “You’re so full of yourself. Smooching? Seems to me you’re just fine getting that whenever you want it.”

  He mimed pain, holding a hand over his heart. “I’m wounded.”

  “Not enough for my liking.”

  He laughed. “I’d forgotten how vicious you could be. I am sorry. It was shitty of me. But I’m older and wiser and more discriminating than I once was.”

  She rolled her eyes, and he had to close his eyes for a second as the scent of her perfume wrapped around his senses.

  “Why the eye roll?” he asked when he’d gotten hold of himself once more.

  “Discriminating? You not only put your dick in Stephanie, you were going to marry her. That is not exactly discriminating in my book.”

  “I’d say something like she’s not all bad, but that’s a lie. I sort of…anyway, She came to my house for dinner and she had a stack of wedding invitations she was trying to choose. She’d taken out an ad in the engagements section of the paper and put our picture in it. One of her friends took it at some party! Anyway, I went along with it for a while, but in the end, I couldn’t keep lying to her about it and I couldn’t talk myself into marriage to a woman who didn’t make my heart beat faster unless it was from sick fear. Do you have someone? Back in Macon?”

  “I did.” The song was ending, and he knew she’d break for it once it was over.

  “Did like how? Like you broke up a while ago or…”

  She sighed. “I’ve been single a while. Not that it matters to you, Nathan Murphy.”

  “Let me buy you a drink.”

  “No.”

  “Why you gotta be so hard? We used to be friends. Before we had the other, we were friends. I miss that.”

  The song ended and she extricated herself. “I missed a lot of things for a long time. But I don’t now.” She turned her back on him and stalked back to the table where heads bent close, he knew asking her for details.

  Then Steffie headed in his direction and he had to melt into the crowd to escape.

  Chapter Four

  Two weeks later, thoroughly angry, Lily drove through town until she found her quarry standing around the new convenience store a mile from the high school.

  She whipped into a space and got out, heading straight for him. “In case you’ve forgotten, it’s a school day.”

  He turned with a start and tried to act cool in front of his friends.

  Taking her phone out, she videoed the little scene as she continued walking to them.

  “You’re missing third period. I’m sure it’s an oversight. So get in the car and let’s go.”

  “I was meaning to go.”

  “Yeah? Well it looks like you really meant to be a loser and cut school to me. Congratulations. Top marks on that one. This isn’t a discussion. I am not seeking your input.” She turned her glare to the malcontents her brother had taken up with. “Do your parents know you’re also late to third period?”

  “What’s it to you?” one of them, Paulie, if she remembered right, said as he smoked.

  “You’re nothing to me actually. But he”—she grabbed Chris’s hand—“is everything. So, I guess, to be blunt, what I mean is, will your parents care that y’all are here when you’re supposed to be in school?”

  Chris groaned. “Let’s go.”

  “You don’t have to go with her. What’s she going to do, carry you?” Paulie sneered and she pitied his parents.

  “Knock it off, Paulie.” There he was, the sweet kid she got to see a few times a day. The one she knew could make it if she pushed him. And she was going to, even if she had to pick him up and drag him.

  He got in the car wi
thout another word.

  “You know, Chris,” she said, pulling out of the lot and heading toward the school, “I was in the middle of a piece when the school called me. I told you they would. This bullshit is beneath you. Those dipshits you hang out with are too.”

  “I just lost track of time.”

  She sighed. “Don’t insult me. You can lie to your friends and even Mom, but don’t waste my time. I love you, kid. I think you are worth the effort.” She parked and got out, loving the look of panic on his face. “But we’re on my time now and you’ve broken your word. You didn’t lose track of time. You shouldn’t even be off campus to start with.”

  “I just needed some caffeine. I’ll bring soda tomorrow. You don’t have to go in. I’m going. I promise.” He scampered toward the front doors.

  “Unfortunately I do. Because I can’t trust you, and the state would frown on my kicking your ass. And, because the school has had it with you. Come on.”

  “Other moms don’t use bad words around their kids,” he muttered.

  “You’re fond of reminding me that I’m not your mother.” She hauled the door open and waited. “Also, dude, if the worst thing you ever did was say some bad words, we’d be ahead of the game.”

  She signed him in at the front office and, to his horror, accompanied him to class where she sat in the back, ignored the curious looks and worked quietly while class went on.

  By the time the bell rang, Chris seemed more than ready to get to his next class so she let him go without her escort, but she did watch to be sure he made it inside. She would laugh when she got into her car, but for that moment, it was enough to remember the horrified embarrassment on his face. If he was a smart kid, he’d not do it again. But if he did, she’d sit next to him.

  “Hello there.”

  Oh that voice.

  She had been avoiding him all she could. Which wasn’t always easy because he had a way of turning up wherever she was.

  Nothing to be done about that now. Though she wanted to turn and run, she faced him instead, catching Nathan Murphy standing in the doorway to his classroom. His unruly dark hair tousled around his face. A sinfully handsome face. Lush lips, an honest-to-God cleft in his chin, big hazel-brown eyes. He was tall and currently filling out black jeans, and a long-sleeved shirt hugged his upper body. Good grief he melted her butter.

  Years later, she had more…developed sexual tastes, and still he did it for her. The teacher thing rang her bell like it was dinnertime, and even though she knew him, flaws and all, that click between them hadn’t died. Thick enough that it took work to shake herself free. Familiar enough that she didn’t entirely want to.

  “Mr. Murphy.”

  He quirked up that very talented mouth. “Nice to see you backing up your word.” He moved to her, and she felt that energy between them, warm and distracting.

  She shrugged, and he thought, of course she did. She was precisely the kind of woman who kept her word.

  “You received the first batch of his assignments?”

  “I did. He and I talked about it yesterday. He told me he was nearly finished with the first extra-credit assignment too.”

  What a fucking delight it had been to hear the rumor about Chris’s older sister sitting in on his class and to have it be true. To have her standing right there before him cool and collected, while still managing to look as if she was ready to slay dragons and kick ass on her brother’s behalf. It was ridiculously hot.

  That morning she wore a pretty sundress, navy blue with white polka dots. Her hair was away from her face, held back by a pretty flower clip just below her right ear. She looked effortlessly fashionable and definitely feminine.

  She sped his pulse, hardened his cock and made him fist his hands to keep from touching what was once his.

  “Okay then. Have a nice day.” She spun, the hem of her skirt swaying in time with her ass as she walked away.

  He followed her out. “I have a free period. You want to grab a cup of coffee with me?”

  She paused at her car door. “No, Nathan, I don’t.”

  “We used to be friends. I’d like that again.”

  He wanted more than that. Had accepted that he really wanted to kiss her again, wanted to taste her and feel her skin bare and warm, against his own. But they could start at friends.

  “We used to be a lot of things. I’m not that girl anymore.” She opened her car door and suppressed a growl of frustration. Even managed to stay casual.

  “And I’m not that guy anymore. I’m sorry, Lily. I’m sorry for a lot of things.”

  She paused, emotion washing over her face for a brief moment and hope surged. It wasn’t over. There was a chance to still make something with her if he handled it right.

  “I don’t have the time for any of this. I don’t need your apology nearly seven years later.”

  He put a hand on her door. “Maybe I need to give you one.”

  She breathed out long and slow. “I hope it works out for you. Wish you’d felt that way when it meant something.” She sent him a raised brow as she got into the car, yanking to get his hand loose, but not hard enough she would have harmed him if he hadn’t let go.

  Damn it all, the harder she tried to resist what they had, still, between them only made him hotter. There was something wrong with him.

  “Goodbye, Nathan.”

  He stepped back and waved. “Be seeing you around, Ms. Travis.”

  He realized as she drove away just how much he wanted her. Thankfully, he had an entire team behind him who’d help. He’d known the Chases long enough to have heard how the entire family backed each one of their sons when they found the woman they wanted. He had seven brothers and sisters and the Chases too. She didn’t stand a chance.

  Grinning, he headed back into the school.

  Not even a week later, Lily came back in from dropping Chris off at school and found her mother having a heated conversation with her father while Nancy looked on. The girlfriend was also there.

  “I don’t see why you can’t just sell the house and give me half. It’s my half, after all.”

  “I live here. Your son lives here! It’s not bad enough that you left the way you did? Not enough that you cleared out the bank accounts and stole the electronics in the house? Not bad enough you humiliated me for years and then you do this? You want to sell my home out from under me so you can buy more stuff for her? Get out, Rodger. I’ve had enough.”

  “You two can live in a condo. They’re nice. You don’t need this big house. Heck, we can take part of the money and send Chris to military school to straighten his ass out.”

  Nancy nodded. Uncharitably, Lily wondered if their father had promised her some money for helping.

  “This house belonged to my grandparents. I’m not selling it so you can go to Mexico with your whore.” Her words were slurred, but Lily was so relieved her mother was showing some spine that she didn’t interrupt.

  “You’re holding things up to push our wedding back,” the girlfriend whimpered. “You lost him. Just let it go! You don’t need this place. We want to start a family and our place is too small for it.”

  At that, her mother burst into tears, and the girlfriend sent a smug look toward Lily.

  “Enough. You.” She pointed to the girlfriend. “It’s not necessary for you to be here. This is my mother’s house, and you’ve got no right to make her cry again.”

  “You’ll not talk to my future wife that way,” her father stuttered out.

  “I’m sorry, it’s just… I can’t take you seriously when you’re walking around with this baby on your arm. I have T-shirts older than she is. Your future wife? Really? You’re here trying to push my mother out of the home she’s lived in most of her life so you and your little friend can have more money. Money you’re not even entitled to.” Yes, she’d taken the opportunity to run her mother over to Edward Chase’s office, and they’d declared the trust the house was in as valid. Rodger Travis had no right to it. Lily’s g
reat-grandmother hadn’t ever liked Rodger, but she’d been close with Lily. She placed the house in a trust before she died, deeding it over to Lily when she turned twenty-five. The house was actually hers, though she had no immediate plans to claim it and undo the trust.

  Still she had a rental agreement with her mother to keep them all covered in precisely this situation. Her father wasn’t going to harm her mother, at least not on this one issue.

  “Also, Georgia isn’t a community property state. You aren’t entitled to half of anything. She stayed home with your children, hosted dinners for your work people, essentially lived her entire life for you. You can’t take her house and the law will say the same.”

  “You keep out of it. You’re only stirring up problems. Your sister tells me what goes on here. I don’t approve.”

  “You don’t approve of what? Me stepping in and doing your job ’cause you can’t keep your business in your drawers? Chris is your son, not that you act like it. If I hadn’t have come back to help, he’d be still failing his classes. As for whatever Nancy says, she’s not here unless it’s to borrow money so what does she know anyway? If you don’t approve of another person raising your child, you could do it yourself.”

  “You’re my daughter. You will respect me.”

  She shook her head slowly, wondering at what point it was where she finally saw him for the soulless, selfish asshole he was. “You aren’t owed respect, you earn it. Take your whore and get out. The house is in a trust. It’s not community property. She’s not selling it, even if she could. You’ll just have to send teenage Barbie here out to get a job and learn to live on your retirement. You don’t even respect yourself, why should I respect you? You crap all over your family and pretend to be moral? Get out.”

  “You can’t tell me to get out.”

  “As it happens, I can. You want to beat up on defenseless women, you’ve got a young one right there. You want his kids? Good luck with that. I hope you can keep him interested long enough to make it happen. You need money, ask her parents. You went to high school with them anyway. Oh, wait, that was her grandparents.”