Pocketing his phone, Keaton paused a millisecond before pulling open one of the double glass doors.
Keep it together. Don’t embarrass yourself. She hasn’t called you since she left either.
That helped him cool the flash fire in his veins.
He pulled the door open and turned toward her booth. She was frowning at her phone, then glanced over her shoulder at the door. Keaton’s feet halted, stopping him in the middle of the restaurant, and it took a long moment for his brain to catch up with his body to understand why. His conversation with Cam floated into Keaton’s head. Then all the things Rubi had said. And he worried that seeing him again so unexpectedly, so suddenly, might frighten Brooke.
The thought was both stupid and real, making his usual rock-solid confidence waver. Goddamn, she looked amazing. And it felt freaking euphoric to have her eyes on him again.
“Oh my God.” She turned and pushed from the booth, and for a sickening second, Keaton was convinced she was going to freak out—and not in a good way. His heart dropped, and he started to lift his hands with words of reassurance forming on his tongue. But her shock flipped to excitement. The kind that bubbled into her laughter and sparkled in her eyes. “Oh my God. Keaton!”
Instead of putting up a wall or acting skittish, she ran toward him. Just freaking sprinted at him and jumped right into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck, like this was some fucking romance movie set.
Catching and holding her took almost no effort. And it was all he could do with his brain shocked into shutdown by her reaction. Cascading warmth suffused his chest and loosened all the muscles strung tight with tension over the confrontation at Corner and Keaton’s stress. He closed his eyes and held her tight, soaking in the beautiful feeling of her against him. He’d never even held her that night on the beach, and she’d left town so fast, he’d barely gotten a chance to say good-bye.
God almighty, she felt like wicked heaven beneath the smooth, silky fabric of the thin dress he’d barely had time to see. Only knew it was light with dark polka dots and ended midthigh. Her curves were supple and warm and couldn’t have felt any more perfect if she’d been a supermodel instead of an assistant to celebrities of that caliber.
“I can’t believe it,” she kept murmuring at his ear. “I think about you all the time. I can’t believe you’re here. It’s so good to see you.”
“I was just thinking the same thing.” God, he’d needed this. Hadn’t known how badly until that very minute. “I was calling to tell you about your doppelgänger in Austin, then you answered the phone.”
She laughed. A light, happy little giggle. She knew him. She got him. And when she pulled back to look at him, there wasn’t a trace of fear or a nasty thought brewing in her eyes. Christ, her eyes were so blue. And so bright. And so much happiness lived there, just looking at her made him happy too.
And then she hugged him again.
Brooke was pure honey—fresh, real, raw goodness and sunshine. She instantly lightened the weight in his heart. And if she could do this for him after not seeing her for almost a damn year, he couldn’t even imagine what his life would be like to have someone as awesome as Brooke around him every day.
This was exactly what he’d been missing for so long. Brooke was everything he wanted and needed all wrapped up into one sweet little package.
It had just taken him a year and three thousand miles to figure it out.
2
Brooke had to let go. She knew it. But the last time she let Keaton go, she’d lost track of him for almost a year. Partially because all the Renegades were impossible to track, partially because she’d meant to. She’d had to.
“Am I choking you yet?” she asked, hoping to hide her painfully intense joy with a huff of laughter.
“Never.”
His deep voice rumbled in her ear, and he kept his thickly muscled arms doubled around her, twisting just enough to rock her a little, as if hugging her wasn’t quite enough. As if he could hold her forever. As if the overt show of affection in the middle of a café didn’t embarrass the hell out of him. He made her feel safe and accepted and treasured, things she needed so desperately right now, it brought tears to her eyes.
She pressed her mouth to the soft cotton tee covering his shoulder and breathed in his scent. The smell of leather and wood and citrus and Keaton brought back a rush of wonderful memories and a sudden spill of emotion. “Damn, I’ve missed you.”
They hadn’t been lovers. They hadn’t even dated. If Brooke had to put a label on their prior relationship, it would have to be friends, though she’d known from their very first meeting there was something special between them. Looking back, it had worked out for the best given how quickly she’d had to leave and move across the country.
And even though they hadn’t acted on their mutual attraction—short of that one starlit kiss on the beach—she’d fallen a little bit in love with Keaton during those weeks. So holding him now brought both pleasure and pain.
He dropped his head back and smiled up at her. A relaxed, dreamy smile that turned Brooke’s stomach into an Olympic gymnast and made her want to kiss him so badly, she ached.
“You’re even more beautiful than the last time I saw you,” he told her.
She laughed. “And you’re even more charming.” She glanced toward the restaurant’s main door, and when she didn’t see anyone standing there, she asked, “Are you in town for work?”
“Yeah. You too? That gig you took in Florida?”
He remembered
. A little thrill bubbled in her belly. “Yeah. Can you stay? I’d love to catch up.”