Return to You (4 page)

He was on edge—had been for days. Besides the conversation about a restraining order, Jen had mentioned that Selena was going to be staying with her while she was here for the reunion. By all accounts, she was probably there now. It wouldn't be completely out of line for him to stop by and check on Jen in person, especially considering how much time they had spent discussing her situation.

While it all sounded good enough, the real problem was what he was going to say once he actually got there and saw Selena. How was he supposed to act in front of her? The whole damn situation was making him crazy. He couldn't focus on his job, couldn't relax at home. No. Nothing was going to get better until they finally faced each other. Then maybe…

“James? You got a minute?”

Looking up, he saw one of the beat cops who had worked with him on a homicide earlier in the week standing next to his desk. He needed this—to be forced to think about something else other than Selena and seeing her again. Tossing Jen's file down, he leaned back in his seat. “What can I do for you?”

While it could hardly be called eventful, the tour of the venue went exactly as Selena had hoped, and although she had to move at a much slower pace than she was used to, she was confident that everything was going to run smoothly the following weekend. After a very slow start to the day, she and Jen had somewhat gotten their groove back, and after they had covered all of Selena's reunion business, they had gone dress shopping and grabbed some dinner before heading back to Jen's.

Sitting in front of the TV in their pajamas, each with a pint of Häagen-Dazs in their hands, they watched episodes of
Friends
.

“I always thought we'd be like that,” Jen said around a spoonful of rocky road ice cream, pointing her spoon at the television.

“Like what?”

“Like the cast of
Friends.
You know, we'd have an apartment together, hang out with people all the time.” She shrugged. “I mean, back then, it seemed like the ideal thing. I remember us talking about it when we were younger, and I couldn't wait until we were old enough to make it a reality.”

Selena knew her friend wasn't really trying to make her feel bad; she was just sharing her feelings. Instead of apologizing and going down that road, she opted for playful. “Who would you be? Monica? Rachel? Phoebe?”

“You would definitely be Monica,” Jen said with a laugh. “You're OCD just like her.”

Selena shrugged. “I don't see that as a bad thing. What about you?”

“Hmm…I'd like to say that I'm Rachel because…well, you know, she's the beautiful one, but I have a feeling that I'm way too wacky for that. So I guess it's Phoebe. And that's a good thing because she was the cool one.” They laughed at the scene playing out before them on the TV, and once the episode ended, Jen turned back to Selena. “Could you imagine us living in the city? Who would we want living across the hall from us?”

They laughed themselves silly with possible scenarios until all of the ice cream was gone and neither was able to keep their eyes open any longer. “As much as I'm enjoying this,” Selena said as she stood and yawned, “I need a solid night of sleep that wasn't brought on by dancing till I dropped.”

“Agreed.”

Settling into the spacious guest room, sleep didn't claim Selena as fast as she thought it would. Lying in the dark, she thought more about her conversation with Jen. The reality was that even if she hadn't moved away, she and Jen wouldn't have gotten an apartment together because she and James were together back then and had planned on getting married.

Just the thought of that made her stomach do its familiar clenching. If things had been different, if life hadn't been quite so cruel, would they still be married now? What would their lives be like? Shifting into a more comfortable position, Selena rolled onto her side, let her eyes drift closed, and felt her body begin to relax. It wasn't often that she let herself think about what could have been, but right now it felt appropriate.

They would have kids, she thought, at least three. That had been their plan. They had talked about it often enough. They wanted two girls and a boy. Selena wracked her brain, and for the life of her she couldn't remember why it was that they had wanted that particular configuration, but there it was. They had wanted to have a son first and then the girls—twins had even been discussed, but there was no history of that in their families so they'd let that dream go.

James would have his own landscaping business. He had always talked about how he wanted to go to school to learn about landscape design and architecture, and she imagined he'd have a large company by now, with multiple crews working for him. Selena would be at home raising their family. Back in high school, she thought she'd go to college and study something, but the bottom line was that all she really wanted to be was a wife and a mom. When Selena had been with James then, she knew it was what he wanted for her too. She smiled. Life had been so simple once. While she was happy with her current life, the one that had been taken from her had been her dream.

A tear rolled down her cheek as she finally drifted off to sleep.

* * *

“Hey! Pull the car over, that's my cousin over there.” From the backseat of her tiny Honda, Selena's friend Kent called out the favor. “Let's see if he wants to join us for lunch. The more the merrier, right?” Kent said as she pulled over.

Selena
rolled
her
eyes
behind
her
pink
sunglasses. “Sure,” she said politely, all the while wondering where they were going to fit a sixth person in the already overcrowded car. They all took turns driving at lunch, and with barely forty-five minutes to get back and forth to the local pizza place, making an unscheduled stop to cram a complete stranger in the car seemed like a colossal waste of time. And Selena hated to waste time.

Everyone
was
talking
at
once, and when Selena pulled to a stop and saw the person in question walking toward the car, her mouth went dry. “Wait, who is this?” she asked the group as a whole.

“My cousin James. He's staying with us for a while. You met him, didn't you? Last month at Ryan's party?”

Selena
shook
her
head. “That must have been when I was in Florida with my family.” Jen was riding shotgun and rolled down the window as James approached and crouched down to look in the car. In that moment, Selena found herself staring into the deepest, brownest eyes she had ever seen. He gave a wide, sexy smile before greeting everyone.

“I didn't know you were working in the area,” Kent said. “We're just heading to lunch. Wanna join us?”

“I didn't realize the high school let you guys leave for lunch,” James said, his eyes wandering back to Selena's.

“We only get like forty-five minutes,” Jen said, her tone bordering on gushing.

He
nodded. “Hi, I'm James,” he said, looking directly at Selena.

She
actually
felt
herself
blush. “So I heard from all of the…the, uh…” Rather than continue to babble, she just gestured to the car as a whole.

“So what do you say?” Kent asked. “You in?”

“Sorry, not today. I can't get away right now, but thanks. I'll see you guys around.” With that, they had all been dismissed as James turned and walked away. Selena felt suddenly all alone, as if all the air had been sucked out of her little sedan. It wasn't until Kent cleared his throat that Selena remembered what their original plan had been and put the car in gear and headed into town for lunch.

“You're awfully quiet, Selena,” Jen said as soon as they sat down with their lunch.

“Sorry. I guess I just got lost in my own head there for a few minutes.”

“You were thinking about James, right?”

Selena's head snapped up. “What? What are you talking about? Why would you even suggest that?”

“Because he's hot, that's why. What I wouldn't give for just an hour alone with him!” Jen fanned herself with a napkin as she waggled her eyebrows. “Don't get me wrong. He's a bit older than we are, and I'm sure he has better things to do than to hang out with a bunch of high schoolers, but he's a really nice guy.”

“How much older?” Selena asked, doing her best to sound nonchalant.

“I think Kent said he was twenty-one. Still…if he wanted to hang out with me, I wouldn't say no!” Jen teased as she took a bite of her pizza. “What about you?”

“Me?” Selena squeaked. “I really haven't given it much thought. After all, I only saw him for a second.”

Everyone
arrived
at
the
table
and
the
conversation
turned
to
the
upcoming
football
game, the history quiz they were all taking when they got back from lunch, and plans for the weekend. Selena was relieved by the interruption. She took a bite of her own pizza and caught Jen's eye.

“Liar,” Jen whispered with a smile before joining in with the rest of the group.

* * *

Somewhere in the distance there was a loud crash. At first Selena thought she was dreaming, and rolled over to snuggle a little more into her pillow and blanket. It wasn't until she heard Jen's footsteps running past her door that she immediately jumped up and shot into action. Kicking the blankets off and reaching for the door, she heard Jen cry out. Selena was beside her in a flash. “Oh my God! What happened?” A quick glance showed shattered glass all over the floor and furniture and a large brick in the middle of the living room. “What in the world?”

“This cannot just be a coincidence,” Jen muttered as she looked at the mess around her. “It's not possible.”

“You think it's Todd?” Selena asked as she scanned the room.

“How often do you hear about random bricks being thrown through a living room window, Selena?” Jen snapped.

“Okay, okay…let's just calm down and call the police,” Selena said as she carefully stepped around the shattered glass. “Be careful. It's everywhere.”

Jen went in search of her cell phone and was heading back toward Selena when there was a second crash. Screaming, she threw the phone to Selena. “Tell them to come now!” she cried. “That one came from the kitchen!”

Selena had no time to think, a voice was already speaking to her from the phone. “Hello? Is anyone there?” a deep, male voice was saying.

“Um, yes,” Selena began nervously as she moved away from the living room and any windows and made her way down the hall where she thought it would be safer. “My name is Selena Ainsley. I'm staying with Jennifer Lawson. Someone has thrown two bricks through her windows and we think he's still out there. Can you please send someone right away?” She rattled off Jen's address as her heart hammered in her chest.

“We're on our way,” the officer said and hung up.

Closing the phone, Selena called out to Jen. “Where are you?”

Jen came out of the shadows and turned on the light in the hallway. “I think this is the safest place in the house right now.” She motioned to the phone in Selena's hand. “Are they coming?”

“On their way. Hopefully there's a patrol car or something in the neighborhood.”
Do
cops
still
patrol
neighborhoods?
Selena wondered. For all she knew, they could have to wait for God knows how long for someone to get there. They hugged one another for support. “Oh, Jen, I'm so sorry. I can't believe this is happening!” She wasn't sure who was trembling more at the moment.

“Me either. I mean, I knew Todd was crazy, but this is just too much!” Out of the corner of her eye, Jen saw the flashing lights of a police car. “They're here. That was fast.” Relief filled her voice. She pulled back and made a face. “I'm going to go and grab a robe and maybe some slippers. Can you let them in?”

Selena wasn't particularly dressed for the occasion either, but compared to Jen's barely there nightie, Selena's flannel boxers and stretchy tank seemed more appropriate. Carefully, she walked around the worst of the destruction to the front door and pulled it open. No one was standing there, but she could see the flashlight beams as the police searched the yard and the surrounding area. Not wanting to interrupt them, Selena stood quietly in the doorway.

“Did you talk to them yet?” Jen asked from behind her.

Shaking her head, Selena turned. “It looks like they're searching the yard.” Taking in Jen's appearance, Selena decided it was time for her to cover up. “You stay here and I'll go and get dressed.” Without waiting for an answer, she made her way carefully back to her room and shut the door. Searching through her luggage, she found a pair of leggings and a T-shirt and put them on the bed. Off in the distance she heard voices and figured the officers had finally come inside for a look around.

Quickly, she stripped off the boxers and donned the leggings. Hands on the hem of her tank top, Selena jumped at the sound of a knock on her door. Grimacing at the thought of facing anyone while partially in her pajamas, she threw vanity to the wind and opened the door.

And came face-to-face with James Montgomery.

* * *

James did his best to keep his expression neutral, like it was no big deal that he was standing less than a foot away from Selena after ten long years. He did a quick scan of her face and noticed that she seemed to be in shock; her green eyes were wide, her skin pale, and her mouth shaped in a perfect
O
. His immediate reaction was to pull her into his arms and ask if she was all right, if she was hurt, but then he remembered that he was here on actual business.

“The screen to this window has been pulled down and was lying in the yard. Did you hear anyone outside?” he asked as he stepped around her and went to examine the window. When she didn't answer, James turned and saw that while she had turned around and was watching what he was doing, she didn't seem able to speak. “Selena?” he prompted carefully and ignored the way his own heart rate kicked up a notch at being in the same room as her and being able to speak to her.

“Oh…um…no. I didn't hear anyone outside,” she finally said, breaking the trance she was in. “I heard the first crash and then got up when I heard Jen running by the room. After that, we were either in the living room or the hallway until the police showed up.” Her voice was trembling, and she hated herself for that. Maybe he would just attribute it to the fact that there was an obviously crazy person lurking around.