McKenna Homecoming Read Free Page A

of the cheerleaders who had maintained both her figure and her perky attitude. A crowd of people surrounded them, the same kind of hangers-on that had always been attached to Alec, with his outgoing personality and capacity for entertainment. A flare of something Leah refused to call jealousy rose in her chest. She tapped the book spines into perfect alignment, but the action did nothing to soothe her, or prevent her gaze from sliding back to Alec and DeeDee. To him laughing at something she said, to the way she put a hand on his arm and gave him a smile.
    What did Leah care? She had no ties to Alec. No claim to his heart. He could date—or marry—anyone he wanted.
    Except he wasn’t married. She’d checked his ring finger. And cursed herself for being relieved.
    He looked up, caught her watching him, and sent her a grin. She spun away, fast, to the pictures. The DJ shifted the music from a fast-paced Usher song to a ballad by Michelle Branch.
    Leah’s heart stuttered. It had been their song, the one that summed up everything she’d ever felt about him, a song about holding on and letting go, and it sent a surge of memories through Leah. Of curving into Alec’s arm and letting the world disappear, of believing they could have it all, even as the very things she wanted were disappearing. A shiver chased down Leah’s back, and she knew before she even turned that Alec was there.
    “That’s our song,” he said from behind her.
    He remembered. That mattered more than she wanted to admit. She pivoted toward him and smiled. “I know.”
    “Let’s dance, Leah.”
    “I should—” She waved a vague hand at the neat, organized table.
    “It’s just one dance,” he said, leaning in and lowering his voice, “not a lifetime commitment.”
    So she took his hand and followed him out to the dance floor, and in that instant, she was eighteen again and looking toward a future that would never happen. To the days when the only thing on her agenda was going to college, pursuing that writing degree. The days before her father got cancer and called her, saying three simple words: I need you.
    So she’d hopped on a plane, giving up everything for the chance to finally have a connection with her absent father. She’d foolishly believed Alec would come with her, or at least join her, but he never had. And she’d left him behind, along with her romantic teenage dreams.
    But right now in Alec’s arms, her thoughts weren’t on the aftermath of their breakup, they were on those days before graduation, when this song had melted her heart and made her fall a little more for Alec each time she heard it. The others made room as Alec and Leah reached the floor. The raised brows and knowing grins told her people noticed the high-school sweethearts back together. Several people greeted Alec; his popularity hadn’t died over the years.
    One dance, Leah vowed. One dance and she’d get Alec out of her system once and for all. But as he slipped an arm around her waist and drew her closer, she realized it might take a lot longer than a single song to forget Alec McKenna.
    ***
    Alec hadn’t paused to think when the song had come on the sound system. He’d reacted. In the past, his impulsive nature had made for some bad choices, but as Leah stepped into his arms, he knew this time the choice had been a good one.
    Her perfume in high school had been a flirty scent, something with baby powder and vanilla, but the perfume she wore now was all woman, with dark, sexy undertones and notes of jasmine. She moved easily with him as they made a small circle on the parquet floor, while the song washed over the space between them and brought him back to long, hot nights ten years in the past.
    “How have you been, Leah?” he asked, trying again to find a smooth transition to the real reason he’d come. “I’ve wondered about you a hundred times since high school.”
    “I’ve been fine.” But she didn’t look at him when she said it, and a flush