This time he sat back and surveyed her with satisfaction. The memory of the first necklace vanished. She was back in the present. Alex Kingsley was sitting just inches away. It seemed unfair that after nineteen years he was still handsome enough to make her heart stutter several beats.  He flipped down the passenger-side mirror for her. “See, it’s the perfect way to accessorize any hotel uniform.”

She nodded, breathing too hard to speak.

Definitely incurably foolish.

“I could take you out to an exclusive restaurant,” he said, still surveying her. “Then you’d have some place to wear it. I don’t mind waiting if you want to change.”

She grinned, not because he’d said anything funny, but because she’d been so worried about meeting him, and here he was trying his hardest to please her. He wanted her friendship. That knowledge relaxed her. Maybe it was time to change lots of things. “Why don’t you come to my house for dinner instead. Lexi will be anxious to see you again.”

He hesitated.  “She was pretty steamed when she talked to me last. What’s the best way to handle this now?”

With patience, Sabrina thought. And lots of forgiveness.

Sabrina reached out and put her hand on his arm in a confiding manner. “Lexi wants to love you. It will just take some time. But that’s okay. She’s a wonderful girl.”

He nodded, his gaze first on Sabrina’s hand, then her eyes. “I wanted to talk to you about that. I’d like you and Lexi to come out to my ranch in California so we can spend some time getting to know each other. I’ve got horses, a pool, a weight room, a music studio—if she’s interested in that sort of thing—and it’s not too far away from shopping and the nightlife . . . .” His voice trailed off. He was waiting for reaction. “I can hit on you if that would help to sway your decision . . . .”

She laughed—a happy, tinkling sound even to her own ears. “We’ll talk to Lexi about it. Let’s go to my house and get something to eat. I’ve got mango salsa.”

He smiled at her and put the car in reverse.

Other titles by Janette Rallison

Son of War, Daughter of Chaos

Blue Eyes and Other Teenage Hazards

Just One Wish

Masquerade

My Double Life

A Longtime (and at One Point Illegal) Crush

Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws

Playing The Field

My Fair Godmother

My Unfair Godmother

All’s Fair in Love, War, and High School

Fame, Glory, and Other Things on my To Do List

It’s a Mall World After All

Revenge of the Cheerleaders

How to Take The Ex Out of Ex-boyfriend

Slayers (under pen name CJ Hill)

Slayers: Friends and Traitors (under pen name CJ Hill)

Erasing Time (under pen name CJ Hill)

Echo in Time (under pen name CJ Hill)

What the Doctor Ordered (under pen name Sierra St. James)