Infatuation

Food, work, the new shoes that pinched her feet and she needed to return, the book in her drawer she’d wanted to finish at lunch, deciding on a dress for tomorrow night, the fact that Natalie would be stopping by any minute for a blow-by-blow of Milla’s morning excursion—

“How’d it go?”

Smiling at the confirmation of her uncanny sixth sense, Milla turned, hoping the tracks of her tears had dried. She pulled in a shuddering breath. “I have a date, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“That’s good, and Joan will be pleased, but that’s not what I’m asking.” Natalie closed Milla’s office door, her silk jacket swinging around her hips, her gaze sharp and demanding. “What happened with your Mr. Bergen?”

Hugging herself tightly, Milla avoided her friend’s eyes that saw too much, staring at her soggy sandwich instead. “Not much, actually. We talked for less than ten minutes.”

Gripping the back of the gold-and-blue paisley visitor’s chair, Natalie leaned forward. “Talked? About?”

“Honestly? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” Milla dropped into her own chair, pulled a pickle from her sandwich and popped it into her mouth.

“So, what then? You compared notes on the weather? The state of the union? Old times?”

“He said, ‘What’re you doing here?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’ He said, ‘What took you so long to look me up?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, but would you like to go out tomorrow?’ He said, ‘Sure, I’ll see you then.’” She chomped on a tomato slice. “And that was it. Like I said. Ten minutes and absolutely nothing.”

Natalie stepped back and frowned. “But he said he’d go out with you.”

Milla nodded.

“And you’ll talk more then?”

She couldn’t even measure the level of dread in her stomach. “If not, it will be an uncomfortably dull date.”

“Then it is a date?”

All she knew was what she’d told Rennie. “A work date. Not a hot and heavy night on the town.”

“Hmm.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Milla asked as Natalie finally circled the guest chair and sat.

“It’s not supposed to mean anything. I was just thinking.”

“About?” Milla pinched off a triangle of cheese.

“How two people with the history you and Rennie Bergen share could get anything out of your systems in ten minutes and by saying nothing.”

Another triangle of cheese. Another pickle slice. She tasted none of it. “Who said we had anything to work out of our systems?”

“I did, but no one has to say it to make it so. Just like no one has to say there’s been an earthquake when the cracks in the wall tell the tale.”

Milla chuckled beneath her breath, deciding the sound was a bit too hysterical for comfort. “Are you saying I’m cracked?”

Natalie’s fingernails rat-tatted against the chair’s maple arms. “I’m saying you haven’t been whole since the last time you saw Rennie Bergen.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Milla said, unable to swallow.

“Is it?” Natalie’s dark brows winged upward. “I may not have known you then, but I know you now. And I’ve been waiting a long time for you to make your way back from wherever it was that he left you.”

“He didn’t leave me anywhere,” Milla grumbled.

“Don’t interrupt.” Natalie held up one elegant finger. “You haven’t wanted to face the impact Rennie Bergen had on your life. I figured that first you had to reach your breaking point. Maybe this was it.”

Milla remained silent and continued to pick at her sandwich. It was easier to pick at the veggies, cheese and bread than her life. “Rennie said I was unbreakable.”

Natalie, always so poised, actually squeaked. “What?”

“Unbreakable.” Milla shook her head because she couldn’t think of anything else to do. “He said we both were.”

“And you believed him?”

She didn’t know what to believe. To tell the truth, as often as she thought about Rennie Bergen, she’d never expected to see him again.

They’d come from different worlds, lived different lives. Nothing about their time together had been normal. Even the first time they’d met, what they’d done, nothing about it had been right.

It had all been so very wrong.…

3

Nine years ago…

MILLA SAT ON THE end of the bed in Derek’s dorm, thumbing through his psych text and listening to Nirvana while waiting for him to get back.

An hour ago they’d finished off his roommate’s six-pack, and Derek had decided to replace it tonight. Rennie got in from work at ten and would be looking to unwind. Finding the minifridge empty would make him one unhappy camper.

But it was ten, and Derek was still gone, and Milla wasn’t sure whether to keep waiting and risk his roommate getting pissed or to cut out for home. It wasn’t like she was afraid of Rennie blowing a gasket over them drinking his beer. Really, what could he do?

But Derek insisting they make things right before Rennie got home did make her uneasy. Especially when she took into consideration everything else her boyfriend had told her about Rennie Bergen. About where he’d come from, the way his life was the flip side of theirs.

How he was so hard to read, so quiet. How he kept himself apart from the other guys when they’d all go out to party or to basketball games. How, when he did laugh, his sense of humor was wicked, almost cruel, as if he never had anything nice to say. As if he hated the world around him.

When she combined all of that with the fact that Derek never felt the need to cover his own ass…She swallowed hard, wishing he would hurry up. She didn’t know why she hadn’t told him earlier that she needed to go home. She had a ton of research to do before she could finish her paper.

Just then, she heard his key in the lock. Her fingers curled into the bedspread and she scooted forward, closing up his book and ready to call it a night. Only it wasn’t her boyfriend that walked through the door.

It was Rennie Bergen.

Her heart jumped into her throat and lodged there, making it impossible to breathe without feeling as if her chest were going to explode. God, why hadn’t she left earlier? Why had she come here at all? How was she going to get out of here now without him thinking she was running away?

He was taller than Derek by a couple of inches, his shoulders broader, the look in his eyes older than any of the guys she hung out with. She knew he’d just had a birthday and turned twenty. Derek had thrown him a kegger last weekend, but she’d been too sick with cramps to go.

Now she wished she’d made it so this wouldn’t be their first meeting, here in this very small room while she was sitting alone on a bed. Still, she met Rennie’s surprised gaze head-on, trying to smile—and to find something intelligent to say.

“Hi.” She gave a weak wave with one hand. “I’m Milla.”

Rennie nodded, glanced around the room. “Where’s Derek?”