Lead Me On

“Like I’d need to.”

They’d always tried to top each other in grades and at social events, and they’d made each other challenge themselves, too, Margot thought. Too bad she didn’t have Leigh around more these days.

She brushed off the pessimism. There wasn’t room for it this weekend. “The title pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? I have little pieces of paper with different...scenarios...on them. Whoever bids the highest can enact one or more of them during our date.”

“Whoa,” Leigh said. “Brassy. I thought I’d make mine a little vaguer, you know? Just in case it goes to someone who doesn’t really appeal.”

“Oh, I’m going to make sure it goes to someone who appeals to me. But not to worry—the scenarios I’ve chosen can be interpreted in various ways. They can be as naughty as I want...or as nice.”

“You devil,” Leigh said.

“Or angel.” Margot winked and took another drink.

“Just exactly what kind of scenarios are they?” Dani asked.

Behind them, in the other booth, someone cleared his throat.

Margot barely heard, because she was concentrating on Dani. She loved to see that her friend was warming to this basket idea. “Scenarios. You know me. My books were all about seeking fun for the well-traveled girl, so I’ve got several adventures already researched and tested.”

She hesitated. Her books were all about seeking fun? Had she really just used the past tense?

Leigh’s olive-colored eyes lit up. “I can see where this is going.”

“Can you?”

“Please, Marg,” Dani said. “Even a few months ago, you were talking about seeing Brad here at the reunion. I think we can figure out that you’re going to make sure he’s the one who bids the highest, so you can rekindle that flame you had in junior summer break.”

“Did you tell him about your basket yet?” Leigh asked.

Margot thought that she could finally taste a hint of the thick, decadent juice that had come with the maraschino cherry. “I had no idea that Brad was going to be here,” she said, all sweetness and cluelessness.

“Right,” Dani said.

“As if you didn’t know he got divorced recently,” Leigh added.

He was the only guy Margot had connected with in a half-serious way. Okay, the relationship had lasted only about three months, during a summer when he’d taken off from Cal-U and interned on a local dairy near Chico, where she’d been staying with a cousin during break. But he’d lit her teenage fire on more than one occasion.

What she’d give for a little of that fire now.

She glanced around to see if any of her classmates had noticed she was here yet.

Dani cleared her throat. “Riley told me he heard Brad’s going to break away from work this weekend. He’ll be here, all right.”

Leigh waggled her eyebrows. “You plan to have a special mark on your basket so he can bid on it?”

“A burst of gold and silver stars.” Margot smiled at the waitress as she brought the new round of drinks.

Leigh murmured, “A burst of stars, just like he’ll see after Margot—”

She cut Leigh off. “When did Riley say Brad was coming, Dan?”

“I think he’s here already, playing golf with Riley and some of the guys before things really get started.”

Everyone would be here by tomorrow for the homecoming football game, then a casual meal and the auction, followed on Sunday by a more formal dinner before they all headed off in their different directions again.

Leigh leaned back in the booth, surveying Margot. “Honestly, I never really saw Brad’s appeal. He always reminded me of the type of guy who checks himself out in windows when he walks by them. He was kind of self-involved, if you ask me.”

“He was not.” He was smart and ambitious, going places. Margot had related to that. Plus, he’d been in the area, and they’d gotten to know each other without all their Greek brothers and sisters around.

Dani was leaning her elbows on the table, looking at Leigh. “I never thought Brad was that hot, either.”

Hot?

The word conjured up a maddening image of Clint Barrows. That damn video had shoved him into her mind and was making him stay there beyond a decent hello. God, she hoped he wouldn’t be at the reunion.

Margot took another drink, as if she could wash him away.

Dani started to slide out of the booth. “Don’t hate me, but I’m really bushed, you all. I catered a big fortieth birthday party last night. Can we meet up later?”

When Margot started to protest, Leigh stood to leave, too. “Don’t hate me, but I’ve got a script to look over and approve tonight so we can hit the ground running at the studio on Monday.”

“Lightweights,” Margot muttered. She wasn’t nearly ready to hole up in her room yet, even if her classmates would soon be here to tease her about the video.

Bring them on.

Leigh seemed impressed. “You’re actually staying here?”

“To face the lions when they arrive? You’d better believe it. I want to get this over with. Besides, if Brad’s already in town, he might drop in for a post-golf drink.”

“Okay, Braveheart.” Leigh smiled. “How about dinner with us later?”

“No doubt.”

Dani just grinned again, swinging her small, patchwork purse over her shoulder. They both waved as they walked away, and it wasn’t four seconds later that Margot started rethinking this Braveheart stuff.

Did she really want to suffer through the ribbing all alone?

But it wasn’t in her nature to wimp out, so she took another drink.

A deep voice behind her made her almost spray the Midori out of her mouth.

“I’ve always wondered what’d be in your basket.”

She knew that voice, even years later.

Clint Freakin’ Barrows.

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