She found the old snapshot in her purse, where she’d stashed it while packing for her move, and studied it again, hoping to find a clue to that happy place they’d inhabited so long ago. Mason’s eyes were shadowed by his sunglasses, but his lips curled in a carefree, unaffected grin that was nothing like the guarded, hesitant half-smile he’d affected these last few years.

And what about her own face? The Annajane of the photo gazed up at Mason in unabashed adoration that made her cringe today. Back then, she’d hidden nothing, held back nothing. Stupid, vulnerable girl. Couldn’t know then what she wished she didn’t know now. How she missed that girl.

Annajane heard a small ding come from the direction of her cell phone. It was a text. From Mason.

I need 2 see U.

She glanced at the photograph again, looked at the happy face of that stupid, unguarded, vulnerable nineteen-year-old version of herself. One more time, she decided. One more chance. And the hell with the consequences.

Annajane grabbed her purse and her car keys. She opened the door. Mason stood on the threshold.

“I’m sorry,” he said, but he never got to finish his sentence, because Annajane was kissing him.

*   *   *

“Don’t say anything,” she cautioned, when he managed to pull back from her. “Don’t tell me you’re sorry again.”

“I won’t,” he promised, taking her face between his hands. “I tried to stay away tonight. But I couldn’t. I had to see you.”

“I know,” Annajane said. “I’ve been sitting around here moping and crying all night long.” She managed a laugh. “I was listening to an old Johnny Mathis album, for God’s sake.”

“I’ve been standing here for ten minutes, listening,” Mason admitted. “Trying to get up the nerve to knock.”

“I couldn’t take any more,” Annajane said. “He was killin’ me. My tear ducts are totally dry.”

“I don’t want you to cry,” Mason said. He pointed toward the door. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. I brought the fun car. For old time’s sake. I’m selling it after tomorrow.”

Annajane gasped. “You’re gonna let her make you sell it? But you love that car.”

“Not anymore,” Mason said. “What’s the point of keeping it? I think I’m done with fun.”

“Sophie loves that car, too,” Annajane pointed out. “And you promised to take her for a ride in it. All the way to the coast.”

“She’ll forget,” Mason said with a shrug. “She’s just a kid.”

“Stop that!” Annajane said. “I can’t stand being with you like this.”

“I’m…” he started to say. And then he caught himself. “One more ride.”

Annajane pulled away. “I don’t think so,” she said slowly.

His eyes widened. “Look, it’s my last night. I’ve told her I love you. But after tomorrow, I can’t come to you like this. I won’t cheat. Not even with you.”

“I know that,” Annajane said. She turned her back to him and lifted her hair to expose the nape of her neck. “I think we should stay in tonight. Could you please help me with my zipper?”

He held her hair up with one hand and kissed her neck. He inched the zipper down slowly, following its track with his lips.

Mason turned her around. He kissed her lightly at first, his lips brushing hers, almost a brotherly kiss, she thought, somehow dismayed at the casual nature of his embrace. But then he bent, and his lips strayed to her bare collarbone and the warm hollow of her neck. He pulled her closer, and Annajane’s arms twined around his neck. Finally, his lips found their way back to hers. He kissed her slowly, gently, deeply, his tongue teasing as she opened her lips to him.

I remember this, Annajane thought, as she melted into Mason. She inhaled the scent of him, his soap, his aftershave. She was intoxicated with the scent of him, his nearness, dizzy with wanting him. With her fingertips, she traced the smooth skin of his jawline.

“I’ve missed you,” Annajane started to say, but he kissed away whatever else she might have said. His hands cupped her butt, and then they finger-walked their way up her spine, and the shiver that worked its way up her body made him chuckle, as it always used to.

He eased his thumbs under the band of her bra, pushing her breasts upward, until they spilled out of the gaping neckline of her dress, and then he bent his head, raining feathery kisses at first, and then, nipping and kissing and caressing her exposed nipples, until her knees buckled and her brain idly telegraphed, I remember this. Oh. My …

Somehow, her dress slipped to the floor. She pushed Mason’s polo shirt up, and then over his head, and tossed it aside. A moment later, her lacy coral bra joined his shirt, and she pressed herself against him, wanting the sensastion of his nipples pressed against hers. She hooked her fingers briefly inside the waist of his jeans, and then ran them up his belly, laughing to herself as she felt his sharp inhale of arousal, and pleasing herself, running her fingers through his chest hair, over his now-taut nipples.

He buried his hands in her hair, kissing her so deeply, with such passion, he literally lifted her out of her heels. Then he set her gently back down, pressing her with his hips, until her back was to the cabin wall. Without her heels, she was four inches shorter than Mason. He braced one hand on the cabin wall, looking down at her with such ineffable tenderness it took her breath away. He bent, kissed her forehead, nuzzled her ear, traced the nape of her neck with his tongue, murmuring under his breath. “So sweet, so sweet…”

All the while, he worked his knee between hers, his hands roaming over her bare torso. He bunched the fabric of her lace panties with one hand, and then the other, effortlessly sliding them from her hips. She gasped as he slid his fingers into her, and ripples of pleasure flooded her body. I remember this. Oh. My. God. I want this.

She slid her hand down his chest again, feeling the hard strain of him against the fabric of the worn jeans. She let her hand linger there for a moment, before unfastening the metal button. She inched the zipper down slowly with her thumb, letting the palm of her hand rest against the hardness for another long moment.

Mason’s breath caught as she langorously unzipped his fly. She tugged at his waistband, and then, lifting one leg and wrapping it halfway around him, she pulled at the jeans until they puddled around his ankles, and he was forced to pull away, kick off his shoes and step out of the jeans.

She gave him a lazy appraisal. “Still a boxer man, I see.”

“I’m the same as I always was,” he said, taking her by the hand and leading her to the bed.

She pulled the covers down and slipped beneath them, and a minute later, he was beside her. He propped himself up on one elbow, and gazed at her so intently, she found herself blushing.

“What?” she said nervously.

He kissed her. “I’ve been waiting for this a long time. Five years. I tried to make myself forget you, but it didn’t work. Nothing else worked. Nobody else was you.”

Annajane kissed him back. She laid her cheek on his chest. “I know. Some nights, I’d leave work, and driving home, if I had the radio on, and a certain song came on, I’d completely lose it. I’d go to meetings at work so I could be near you, but then you seemed so cold and distant; I knew you hated me. It was all I could do to stay in the same room.”

Mason ran his hands down the length of her body, and she shivered in delight, curling toward him as he stroked and caressed her, and she did the same, reacquainting herself with the contours of his body, the flat plane of his belly, his muscled thighs, even the smallpox vaccine on his upper left arm.

His voice was husky. “I never hated you. I couldn’t. It was just … a defense mechanism, trying to keep you at a distance because I knew I’d blown my one chance with you. I never thought I’d get you back again.”