Cody frowned at Sarah’s silence. He’d picked her up at eleven thirty—and she’d been ready and waiting for him. He’d handed her into the truck, stowed her bag and waved goodbye to her Aunt Jo. They’d already spent the better part of two hours on the back roads of Texas, and Sarah had said maybe five words in total throughout the drive. She’d held his hand or rested her palm on his thigh, as he’d driven, and the silence had been relaxed, soft like a cocoon putting them in their own world for the first thirty minutes or so.

Now he wondered, as he pulled into the gravel drive, if he’d made the right choice to bring her to the small bed and breakfast just outside the county limits. It was a place his parents had gone to celebrate one of their anniversaries. His mother had said it was the perfect place for making memories. And right now, Cody wanted to hoard all the memories of Sarah he could get his hands on. All of Sarah he could get his hands on. “Having second thoughts?”

“Second, third, and fourth,” she said.

Cody parked, leaving the engine to idle as he unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to face her. “We don’t have to do this,” he said. “I can turn the truck around and have you back to your Aunt Jo’s by dinner time.”

Sarah shook her head but remained silent.

“Talk to me, Sarah. Please,” he said. “I need to know what’s going on in that beautiful head of your.” Because Cody realized that not talking through things had been a mistake all those years ago. If they’d talked back then, he knew in his gut things would be very different now.

Sarah twisted her fingers together and rested the balled-up fists in her lap. “I know we don’t have to do this. But I also know that I’ll regret it more if I don’t, if I just give up this time, this chance. Even if it’s just a chance to say a proper goodbye.”

“Goodbye? To me or to the past?”

“Maybe to both.” Sarah lifted one hand and gently cupped his cheek.

He nuzzled into her palm, kissed it lightly then covered her hand with his, holding her touch in place. “Maybe we could consider this an opportunity to say hello to the possibilities?”

Sarah sighed softly and pulled her hand from under his. She unbuckled her seat belt and slid across the bench seat, practically crawling into his lap. Tucking her head under his, she lightly traced his throat with her lips and whispered, “Do we have a fireplace in this room you booked?”

Cody swallowed, and she traced the convulsive movement with her lips. He had to clear his throat before he could speak. “As a matter of fact, there’s a fireplace and a jacuzzi tub.”

Sarah pulled back and laid her hand over his, squeezing his fingers gently. “Then let’s go say hello to some possibilities.”

* * *

Sarah watched the shadows move across Cody’s face. She saw regrets, what-might-have-beens, and goodbye again. This was what people called goodbye sex, and it had been both beautiful and bittersweet.

She sighed heavily.

“What’s wrong?” Cody was highly attuned to her moods now. Or maybe he always had been, and she’d just missed it before. He crawled back into the bed, muscles flexing as he moved up her body.

Caged in, naked except for the sheet tucked up under her armpits, Sarah felt too exposed, too raw for a heart to heart, but she answered anyway. “We are, I suppose.”

Cody rolled to her side, stretching his body out along hers. His warmth seeped into her bones, and she wanted to grab hold and bottle that feeling to take with her when…if…she returned to New York.

He propped his head on his palm and trailed one finger under her chin and down over her throat.

She swallowed convulsively, and he chuckled, a dark, rich sound that sent a tingle down her spine. His finger continued its journey, finally landing just over her sternum and trapping her breath in her chest for a moment.

“Then why did you agree to spend the day with me?” he asked.

“Because I couldn’t say no.” Sarah shook her head. “That’s not what I mean exactly. I didn’t want to say no. I didn’t want another regret between us.”

He edged the sheet down, exposing the rounded tops of her breasts. “Is that all that’s between us? Regrets?”

“That and one very flimsy sheet,” she said.

“Well I can remove at least one of those right now,” he said as he whisked the sheet away and tossed it over the end of the bed.

She cupped his skull, his close-cropped hair prickling her fingers. She pulled him closer and he nuzzled her cheek then ran open mouthed kisses from the shell of her ear to the edge of her jaw.

She felt his smile against her cheek when a shiver wracked her body.

“I’d forgotten,” Cody whispered as he lifted his head and held her gaze with his own.

“Forgotten? What?” And the hitch in her breath brought another smile to his face.

“I’d forgotten how good you feel against me. How good we feel together,” he said.

Tears filled her eyes, and he shook his head in denial.

“No tears. No regrets. Not today,” he said. “We can deal with that tomorrow.”

Then he took her lips with his and all regrets vanished. Tear of sadness were replaced by smiles of joy, and she followed where his body led hers.

Afterward, damp with sweat and satisfaction, they clung to each other. Sarah curled into Cody’s chest and waited for her pounding heart to return to a more natural rhythm. And for the ache in her chest to subside.