I stretched up toward the top of the cabinet, up on my tippy-toes, fingers straining to grab the jar. I managed to slide it inches, inches, but I couldn’t get my hand around it. I made a quick hop, knocked the jar, set it wobbling, and watched as it slowly dropped from the shelf.

And then he was there, another pair of hands. He grabbed the jar before it hit the ground.

“Tony,” I said, surprised.

He looked at me and smiled. “Careful.”

“Sorry.”

He handed me the jar of organic peanut butter. “This stuff is gross, you know. I hate that you have to stir it.”

“It’s better for you.” I took it from him and gave him a quick kiss. “Now go get dressed.”

He nodded and grumbled. “Yeah, okay.”

“We’re leaving in a half hour.”

“I know, I know.”

“We can’t be late. Lauren and Greg have been good to me over the years.”

“Yeah, babe. I get it.”

I sighed. Tony was a decent guy. He owned a night club downtown, and we met through the TV station that I worked for. He was promoting his place and I was reading the weather, and it was love at first sight.

Well, not really. Frankly, I didn’t like Tony the first time we met, but he eventually grew on me. We started dating about six months ago, and only just moved in together recently.

Tony wasn’t the man of my dreams, but he was nice enough. Lauren didn’t approve of him, but she could be so picky sometimes. It was hard to live up to her standards, and besides, she didn’t have to approve. Tony was my boyfriend, not hers.

I finished making the peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread and put everything back before sitting at the kitchen table and eating. I looked at my phone and Tony was still in the bedroom although we had to leave in ten minutes.

“Tony,” I called. “Are you almost ready?”

“Yeah, babe. Whatever.”

I sighed. “We’re leaving in ten minutes.”

“I know, okay? I get it.”

Tony had a temper and was always late. I had to constantly be on his ass, or else we never would get anywhere on time. That was a big stress in our relationship. I tried to work around him, but sometimes he was just impossible.

I finished eating and put on my strappy sandals. I walked back into the bedroom and found Tony standing near the dresser in his underwear.

“What are you doing?” I asked him.

“What about these pants?” He held up some chinos.

“Tony, they’re great. Put them on. Come on, we’re going to be late.”

“Don’t nag,” he said. “We’ll get there. Relax.”

“You know there’s always traffic.”

“Sure, babe. Sure. I’m going.”

I sighed and left the room. I sat down in front of the television and stared at it absently. There was a commercial for the Navy on, and I frowned.

It reminded me of Gates. I hadn’t thought about him in almost a year, but suddenly that night came rushing back to me. The intense attraction, the amazing feelings. I remembered it all so vividly.

I also remembered writing to him. I remembered hearing nothing, even after a few letters. I stopped writing because I felt totally crazy. We barely knew each other. We had that one intense night of passion, but that was all. The phone call the next morning sounded like he wanted something more, but it didn’t matter. He disappeared to Syria, and that was that.

I did nothing wrong. I didn’t feel bad. But every time I heard something about the armed forces, I couldn’t help but remember Gates. At least up until I met Tony and we started dating.

But watching that commercial made me remember that weekend. Probably also since we were going to Lauren and Greg’s housewarming party, and Gates was Greg’s best friend. I hadn’t heard anything about Gates from them, and I didn’t ask. I figured if something happened, they’d tell me. No news was good news, and I’d rather not know anything else.

“Okay,” Tony said, emerging from the bedroom ten minutes later. “Let’s roll.”

I stood and we headed out of our apartment. We found where he parked his black Lexus and climbed in, heading out into New York traffic.

Lauren and Greg bought a house out in Connecticut, in the suburbs. It was actually really close to the city, but the traffic made the drive take forever. Lauren used the train to commute to work every day, and Greg worked at a local VFW. They were renting for a while, but when Lauren got pregnant she decided that they needed to get a house. As soon as that baby popped out, they bought, and the rest was history.

The drive ended up taking ten minutes longer than anticipated, which meant we were twenty minutes late. I was pretty pissed with Tony as we pulled up, but I tried not to let it show.

“Be nice in there,” I said to him as we walked up the front steps. “I know you don’t love these guys.”

“I’m always nice, babe,” he said, although I distinctly remembered him and Greg nearly getting in a drunken fist fight two months ago over some stupid sports argument.

Lauren answered the door, a big smile plastered on her face. “Sweetie!” she said, and we hugged. “Pipes, how long has it been?”

“Two weeks,” I said, laughing.

“God, really? Feels like forever.”

“I know, right.”

“Hi, Tony,” she said.

“Hey, beautiful girl. Lovely house.” Tony kissed her on the cheek.

“Come in, you two,” she said. She ushered us inside.

The place was a lovely little cape cod. Lauren had amazing taste, and so the whole place was this chic nautical theme, all reclaimed wood and boats and brass. She had a nice little spread for the guests, plus lots of beer. Tony disappeared almost immediately, drink in hand, and I let him go. I didn’t need him to hang around me all day.

“Come on,” Lauren said. “Wait until you see the back yard.”

“How’s it feel to own a house?”

“Weird,” she said. “It’s a lot of responsibility. And stress.”

I laughed. “I bet.”

“There’s so much that can go wrong. Houses are like basically silent killers.”

I laughed again as she led me out through the kitchen and back into the yard.

Lots of people were milling about, and I didn’t recognize most of them. Lauren and Greg were both very outgoing people, so they made a ton of friends easily. I worked too hard to make a lot of friends, so I didn’t know most of the people there that afternoon.

The back yard was beautiful, spacious and gorgeous. They had a little deck, and Greg was there near the grill, talking to some tall guy that had his back turned to me.

“Greg,” Lauren said. “Pipes is here.”

“Piper!” Greg turned to me. “Good to see you.”

That was when his tall friend turned toward me, and I felt like time stopped.

Gates smiled at me. I remembered that smile, that handsome as hell smile. It was just as cocky and confident as I remembered, but there was something else to him. There was a new scar along his chin and a heaviness to his eyes, like he was tired or something. In that instant, I suddenly knew that he was the same man that I remembered, but he had seen some things that had changed him. I didn’t know how I knew that, but it was there n his face.

“Hey, Piper,” Gates said.

“Piper, you remember Gates,” Greg said. “You two met at the wedding.”

“I remember,” I said. “Hi, Gates.”

He smirked at me, and I didn’t know what else to say. I wanted to ask him if he got my letters and why he disappeared. I wanted to know how long he’d been home and why he never looked me up. I had a million questions.

But in the end, he was just a one-night stand. He owed me nothing.

“Well,” Lauren said. “Let’s continue the tour?”

“Sure,” I mumbled.

“It’s good to see you again, Pipes,” Gates said to me.

“You too.”

Lauren quickly moved the two of us away.

“Did you see how he was looking at you?” Lauren whispered, laughing. “Oh my god. It was like he wanted to throw you down and ravish you right there.”

“Yeah,” I said weakly, confused and surprised.

“Imagine if Tony saw that. He’d flip.”

“Probably.” Then I blinked. “Where is Tony, anyway?”

“Who knows?” Lauren steered me back inside.

As we headed into the kitchen, Tony came up to us. He had a serious look on his face.

“Listen, babe,” he said. “I gotta go.”

“What?” I asked. “We literally just got here.”

“I know. I know. It’s just, it’s business. I gotta go.”

“The club?”

“Yeah, my job. It’s really important.”

“You drove here.”

“I know. I gotta go, though.”

“I can drive you back,” Lauren said. “Or there’s the train. You don’t have to leave.”

I frowned at Tony. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sorry, babe. It’s an emergency.”

“Okay,” I said, sighing. “Go. I’ll get back on my own.”

“You sure? I can drop you off back home.”

“No, I’m sure.”

“You’re the best, babe. Sorry.” He kissed me on the cheek and then quickly walked out of the room.

“Does he do that a lot?” Lauren asked me.

“Yeah,” I said. “His business is stressful. It’s a tough job, you know?”

“I know,” Lauren said, but I didn’t hear the edge to her voice.

I was too busy thinking about Gates.

I couldn’t believe that he was standing just behind me, right back in the yard. I could turn around and actually see him. He was real, not a figment of my imagination like he felt so many times over the last two years.

Gates had been just one night, but that night loomed large in my mind. Even when I wasn’t thinking about him, that night was still somehow in my mind. Every night since was compared to that night, and they were always lacking somehow. I never reached that sort of intense joy and pleasure that I managed to get to with Gates, not even with Tony. Nothing else compared.

And now he was back. I thought that I would be disappointed if I ever saw Gates again, but I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, he was more handsome than I remembered. Maybe it was the extra weight to his eyes, the intense mystery hidden there, but somehow I found myself even more intensely attracted to him than ever before. I had to take a deep breath and remind myself that I was with Tony.

I couldn’t just turn around and throw myself at Gates. That would be pretty inappropriate.

But I really, really wanted to.

It was crazy. I really wasn’t that kind of girl. I barely dated until I met Tony, since I was way too busy with work. But now all of a sudden with Gates back, I found myself feeling like a teenager again. It was stupid and I knew it.

“Come on,” Lauren said, pulling me out of my daydream. “Let’s go see baby Joey. He’s with his grandmom.”

“Oh, yeah. Your kid.”

She laughed. “Yeah, my kid.”

“Lead the way, mama.”

She laughed again and we headed into the other room, into a world of babies and little socks and dirty diapers.

But even while I was holding Joey and laughing at a story about him peeing all over Greg’s record collection, I just kept thinking about Gates. I just kept thinking about that night.

I knew it was dangerous that he was back, but I couldn’t help myself with him around.