What are you doing, Elle?

The question echoed through her mind as they made their way to the crosswalk. It rang through her body, too, Lachlan’s proximity every bit as heady as she remembered.

No, that wasn’t right.

It was worse than she remembered. Because now he wasn’t a college boy.

He was a man. A big one with wide shoulders and biceps that bulged under his white T-shirt. With muscled thighs that filled out his jeans like he’d been poured into the denim.

They crossed the street in silence, and she led him down the block to The Big Bean, crowded with customers. She felt a moment’s guilt. She shouldn’t have closed the store, even for an hour or two. Saturday was their busiest day. It was irresponsible to close while she vented her frustration against Malcolm Glover, while she tempted herself with a past she had no intention of revisiting. Especially now when her days as a business owner might be numbered. She needed all the business she could get.

“Why don’t you grab that table in the corner while I get us something?” she suggested to Lachlan.

He shook his head. “I invited you, remember?”

“I know the owner,” she said. “I can get around that monster line.”

He glanced at the line of customers waiting to be served by Katie, a local college student with short black hair and a cynical edge Elle probably wouldn’t even have by the time she was ninety. She was one of Zach’s two employees. Elle wondered how long Zach would be able to keep them both on the payroll.

“All right," he said.

She watched him amble across the store like he always had, like he was never in a hurry to be anywhere in particular. Like he had all the time in the world. Everyone else had been so high-strung in college. So frantic to take it all in. Lachlan had wanted to take it all in, too, but as with everything else, he wanted to savor it. To really experience it, not just say he’d done it.

She tore her gaze away and headed for the counter where Zach was filling containers with loose tea he bought from an artisanal farm that didn’t use pesticides. He stood a good six inches above her, although thinner than Lachlan and not quite as tall. A shock of his hair, so blonde it was nearly platinum, fell across one blue eye as he looked up to see her approach.

“Hey, girl!” he said. “You should have called. I would have run something over so you didn’t have to lock up the store.”

“You’re too sweet,” she said. “You’ve got your hands full here.”

He scanned the crowd, then rolled his eyes. “I should probably take a picture. I doubt Saturdays are going to look like this after that monster across the street devours all my business.”

“Speaking of which, I went over there today,” Elle said. “Spoke to the man himself.”

He stopped scooping tea. “Glover?”

She nodded.

“What did he say? What did you say?”

“I’ll tell you over lunch Monday.” They almost always had lunch on Mondays. Business was slow after the morning coffee rush at the Bean, and she looked forward to the long talks when Zach told her about his newest hot guy and she pretended she had a life outside of the store. She gestured at the crowd. “It’s too much to get into right now, but let’s just say I didn’t change any minds.”

“Not your fault,” he said, slamming the lid on top of the tea container. “He sounds like a real prick.”

Elle laughed. “Indeed.”

Zach wiped off his hands. “Lavender chamomile?”

She nodded, then hesitated before adding to the order. “And a coffee. Black.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “At this time of day? You’ll be up all night!”

“It’s not for me.” She tipped her head a little, not wanting to be obvious. “It’s for him. The guy at the corner table.”

Zach expertly wiped the counter while his eyes traveled the store. “The tall drink of water who looks like he just peeled off a wetsuit for a Boys Gone Wild calendar?”

“That's the one.”

“Holy shit,” he said. “When you break a dry spell you really go for it. Good for you.”

She laughed, shook her head. “It’s not like that. Trust me.”

He leaned forward on the counter, his eyes gleaming. “Why don’t you tell me instead? It sounds good.”

“Another time,” she said. “It’s a long story. And a complicated one.”

“Got it.” She was relieved that he let it go so easily. “Just give me a sec with those drinks.”

He moved down the long counter and went to work, careful not to get in Katie’s way while she worked. Elle tapped her fingers on the counter, trying to forget that right now, Lachlan Hunt was in the same room. Would soon be right across a table from her for the first time in eight years. She tried to breathe through the butterflies fluttering in her stomach, tried to remove all the expectation she hadn’t defined about seeing him again.

By the time Zach returned she was slightly calmer, although nowhere near as blasé as she would have liked.

“Good luck,” Zach said with a grin.

She shoved a five dollar bill across the counter and picked up the drinks, making her getaway before Zach could shove the money back at her. Neither of them could afford to give away product right now.

She wove her way around the crowded store, taking her time getting to the back table, in no hurry to force the conversation that was about to take place. When she reached the table, she set the down and slipped into the seat across from him.

“I hope you still like it black,” she said.

“I do. Thank you.”

She took a drink of her tea, trying to think of something to say.

“What have you been — ”

“I heard you opened a — ”

They both stopped talking, laughed a little, their eyes meeting across the table. And suddenly it was like no time at all had passed. This man wasn’t a stranger. It was him.

Lachlan.

The boy she’d loved before she knew how to love anyone.

The boy who’d taught her what it meant to love someone.

“Please,” he said. “You first.”

She nodded, took a deep breath. “What have you been up to all this time, Lachlan?”

“It’s Locke now,” he said.

“Locke…” She tried the name on, liking the way it sat on her tongue. The simplicity of it. The way it was free of her associations with the past. “It suits you.”

“Thank you.” He leaned forward, and she suddenly remembered his eagerness — when he spoke and when he listened too. How it had been one of the things she loved about him: the way he relished learning, about himself and everyone else, too. It wasn’t perfunctory for him. It was genuine. “I started a company. An app actually.”

“I read about it,” she said. “A corporate watchdog app, right?”

There was something melancholy in his smile. “It was the only thing I could do.”

She’d been touched when she’d read about it. About the app that allowed consumers to keep an eye on big businesses, their practices, their violations. It hadn’t changed what had happened between them, but it made her think some good might come of it.

She turned her paper cup in her hand. “I didn’t blame you. I told you that.”

“I didn't tell you about my parents,” he said. “The fact that I didn’t agree with their business practices, that it wasn’t my decision… neither of those things excuse the lie.”

She felt like she was drowning, sadness welling in her lungs like water. There was too much loss. The original store, her father, what she’d had with Lachlan… all of it seemed like a nearly-forgotten dream.

“You apologized,” she said softly. “I’m sorry I couldn’t move past it.”

“I understood then, and I understand now.” She couldn’t look at him, and she stared at the table, watching it grow blurry as her eyes filled with tears. Then his hand closed around hers, his skin warm, the roughness of it against her own sensual enough to send a flicker of heat to her stomach. She looked up, met his eyes as he continued. “I don’t blame you, Elle. I never have.”

His gaze stole her breath, the alchemy of his brown eyes looking like liquid amber in the sunlight streaming through the big windows.

Then he removed his hand, sat back and looked at her, his smile both familiar and strange in a way that excited her more than it should have.

“Tell me about you,” he said. “I want to know everything.”