LITMIR.BIZ

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jaw dropped when Elle reeled in her catch, a six-foot-two, ebony-haired, bedroom-blue-eyed hunk…of Mitch McStern. “Not you again!” she exclaimed, wishing with all her might Aunt Elle’s delicate fingers hadn’t been so dastardly.

      “Hi, Crystal,” Mitch said.

      “Turn him loose, Aunt Elle,” Crystal snapped.

      “You said you’d go—” Bess began.

      “I know what I said. I don’t have to fall in with a silly prank. A setup.” She turned her back, stuffed the closed sign up in the window and refused to look at any of them. “You can all leave now.” She heard feet shuffling, but didn’t turn around.

      Mitch cleared his throat. “They’ve gone. It’s just me, Crystal.”

      She told her heart not to beat so fast. She begged her blood not to rush through her veins. With all her will, she pleaded with her ears not to hear the wonderful, heartbreaking baritone of the voice she hadn’t heard in thirteen years.

      It was no use.

      He was probably married. Heaven only knew, he probably had crowns in every tooth, maybe even six children and no less than two extra inches on his waistline, but she’d never gotten over him.

      Never.

      Chapter Two

      “At the risk of appearing obvious,” Crystal said to Mitch, “the store is closed.”

      He knew as well as she did that it was only closed to him. “Please don’t throw me out on my ear, Crystal.”

      The years had left little trace of the girl he’d wanted to dance the night away with at the high school prom. This Crystal was taller, probably five-nine in her stockings if she removed the navy pumps she wore. Her hair was pulled into a serviceable bun-thing, with two red Chinese sticks impaled in the back of the thick honey-blond hair. She might have been trying to give an impression of competence, with her summer dress of navy and white print covering her knees, but wisps of hair had defied the torture of the sticks and escaped, framing her sweet heart-shaped face.

      She couldn’t fool him. Soft, delicate Crystal was hidden beneath that practical, no-nonsense veneer.

      “I have nothing to say to you,” she said.

      Her brittle voice could match ice for hardness. “Can I ever make it up to you for not showing up that night?”

      “No. You cannot.” She drew a deep breath. “Mitch, it might have just been a silly dance to you, but I looked forward to it from the moment you asked me. The crush I had on you was immature, possibly, but it was innocent and deep. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine you would leave me waiting at home, first sitting upstairs waiting eagerly for the doorbell to ring, then peeking surreptitiously out the window, straining to see if you were walking out your front door.” She shuddered, her hand tracing over the wedding gown she’d been pinning. “Silly me, I thought you’d had an accident. A flat tire, or worse, a wreck, on the way home from school. But I believed you were coming.” She met his gaze now, her hazel eyes full of remembered pain, before she drew herself upright. “Of course, life does goes on. No need to rehash the past. But I’m certain you can see why I’d prefer not to spend an afternoon of auld lang syne.”

      “There was a reason,” he said softly.

      “Which I have no interest in hearing, years after you left me high and dry for Kathryn. I heard you looked very handsome when you were crowned king that night, and that she was a very beautiful queen. One can only assume you realized you had a better chance of racking up that win with someone other than me.” Opening the door of the salon, she gestured for Mitch to exit. “I wish Aunt Elle hadn’t pulled you in the door, because I’d forgotten about you. It’s up to me to send you back out.”

      There was little he could do. She didn’t want him around, and he couldn’t blame her. His heart tugged, a cruel, painful sensation. He had actually come here hoping to talk to her. Aunt Elle’s magical fingers wresting him inside had seemed like too kind a fate.

      He moved outside onto the sidewalk. She stared at him, her cheeks pink spots in her pale face. Her eyes were huge and her full lips trembled. He remembered quite clearly how those lips felt against his, though he’d been so unskilled at kissing he probably hadn’t tapped the vein of pleasure kissing Crystal could offer. They’d been young, and those kisses had been earnest and affectionate and sweetly loving.

      “Crystal,” he said haltingly, “the night before the prom, when we—”

      “Don’t say it!” Her voice came out in an agonized gasp. “Don’t you dare mention that night! If I never see you again, my fondest wish will come true!”

      And then she closed the door of the bridal shop.

      TRAITOR! HE’D BEEN ABOUT to mention the one thing she’d never told anyone, never would tell anyone. Crystal’s heart beat wildly, despite the hand she’d thrown against her chest to calm herself. She could only pray he’d never told anyone about the wistful night of discovery they’d spent in a field, far from prying eyes.

      She had loved him so much. Maybe it had been the flush and fury of first love, but all her soul had been behind her giving him the gift of her innocence. She’d thought Mitch would be hers forever.

      Nothing was forever. That lesson had been learned the hard way, and it was one she wouldn’t forget, no matter how handsome the man Mitch had become. He’d branded her, in some mysterious way she’d never understood—and her heart was still his.

      The last thing she wanted was for him to discover that unfortunate fact. It was simply too humiliating to have given herself to a man who’d never thought about her again after he’d—

      The mortifying words echoed in her mind before she could stop them. Gotten what he’d wanted.

      She stiffened. That night of secret loving had happened years ago. She wasn’t prisoner to such mortifying memories now. Her life was full. She’d moved past what had followed, her utter despair and the quiet sorrow of her family as they’d tried everything they could to heal her broken heart.

      She’d gone off to college and received a business degree. Then she’d opened her own store and dedicated herself to making sure that other women’s dreams came true, just the way they had always imagined them. She understood the notions of the foolish, lovestruck heart better than anyone.

      And if she closed herself up in her tiny red brick cottage at night and sometimes thought about her youthful lover as she sat with her five cats, three dogs, pair of lovebirds and a teacup, well, that was no one’s business but hers.

      She was happy with her life, and she was going to stay that way.

      “EGADS, ELLE, YOU COULDN’T have done that any worse if you’d rigged it,” Martin said. The three dejected family members sat in the dining room of the family home.

      Elle’s dainty shoulders crumpled with apology. “My goodness,” she murmured faintly. “Who would have thought he’d be standing outside?”

      Bess’s lips folded. “We are in hot water with Crystal, you can be sure of that. Why, she looked stunned, rooted to the floor, the same way she looked the night he didn’t—”

      “Sh!” Elle commanded on a moan. “I simply can’t bear thinking about that horrible night. Why, my princess in her pretty gown, and that cad not having the decency to…well, I guess it’s murky water under the bridge. The brigand.”

      “It was, until today,” Martin said woefully. “Wonder what they said to each other?”

      “I doubt Crystal let him say very much at all. As is perfectly appropriate, I suppose.” She sounded uncertain. “If I weren’t so shocked to see that scamp, I’d have…I’d…”

      “You’d what?” Martin said, sitting up to tap his pipe.

      “It’s

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