She settled for dragging in a full breath of the salty air.
‘Daydreaming of running away?’ a voice came from behind her.
The goosebumps were because of the sea breeze, Summer told herself, before straightening her shoulders and turning.
‘Wyatt,’ she said steadily, as if her insides didn’t feel as though they were disintegrating at the sight of him. ‘How pleasant to see you again.’
Those sensual lips curved into a smile that seemed decidedly feline.
‘Pleasant?’ he repeated, cocking his head.
She tried not to notice how the wind was mussing his hair. Or that the top button of his shirt was open, revealing tantalising brown skin that sent an irrational image of her licking it flashing through her mind.
‘Not quite the word I would use,’ he continued. She stared at him for a second before remembering she needed to have a sassy response.
‘Okay,’ she said, trying to recover when she thought there might have been a saltiness on her tongue from the skin she’d licked in her imagination, ‘how about it’s a surprise to see you again?’
‘But it’s not a surprise,’ he replied quite logically, slipping his hands into the pockets of his trousers. ‘We knew this was coming.’
‘Unfortunately,’ she muttered.
He quirked a brow, then chuckled softly to himself. ‘You couldn’t get out of it.’
‘I—’ She broke off before she could give herself away. ‘I didn’t try,’ she lied.
Again that not quite genuine smile returned to his lips. ‘I’m disappointed. I thought an occasion that would force you to see your ex-husband for the first time in two years would at least warrant an escape attempt.’
‘It’s my parents’ thirtieth anniversary,’ she said, repeating what her twin sister, Autumn, had told Summer when she’d complained about having to attend.
‘It’s been eight years,’ Autumn had said. ‘We’ve moved on.’
Autumn’s voice had softened, which had been the worst part for Summer. Not that she couldn’t skip the weekend celebration. Not because of the reasons she wanted to escape it. It was the sympathy. With Autumn, when they dared speak about their family dynamics at all, it was always the sympathy.
But Summer’s feelings about her family, her parents, didn’t warrant sympathy. They were valid. Autumn just didn’t know the entire truth of it. Eight years later, Summer still couldn’t share that truth. Not with her sister, and not with the man she’d once loved.
A familiar resentment bubbled inside her.
Summer released a shaky breath and met Wyatt’s eyes. She did a quick intake of air at the intensity as their gazes clashed. It felt as if that air had stumbled on its way to her lungs. Tension crackled around them; she was almost positive she felt the ground shift beneath her.
No. This wasn’t a natural disaster. Rather, it was a natural effect of seeing the man she’d walked away from two years before. An after-effect, she corrected, of the passion that had resulted in a hunger that had never quite been sated between them. It didn’t matter how hard they’d tried. Or how often.
‘Did you try?’ she asked, desperate to distract herself. ‘To get out of this?’
‘No,’ he said simply.
Automatically, her insides twisted and turned. Reminded her of how she’d felt all throughout their short marriage.
She knew what that simple ‘no’ meant. It spoke of Wyatt’s loyalty to Summer’s father. Trevor Bishop had chosen Wyatt to be his protégé while Wyatt had still been in university. Without any reason to, Wyatt had claimed when he’d told her the story, and despite his less than stellar academic record. But Trevor had seen something in Wyatt. He’d trained that something until it had become the discipline Wyatt was now known for. Once Wyatt and Summer had started dating, Trevor had begun to nurture it.
Summer had listened to Wyatt’s recollection of it when they’d started dating. Had smiled and asked questions even though it had left a bitter taste in her mouth. She should have known right then and there that there could be no future for them. Wyatt clearly idealised Trevor. But it had been too late when Summer realised Wyatt didn’t only idealise him; he wanted to be like him. Wyatt wanted to be like Trevor and follow in his footsteps.