Undeniable Attraction

Because this time she was going to have to see Aaron Burke. Small-town boy turned international soccer star.

International heartbreaker, more like.

She hadn’t needed to read the tabloids to learn that Aaron had had his share of women and had broken his share of hearts. She knew that from firsthand experience. Eleven years, nine months and ten or so days ago, Aaron had crushed her teenage heart and left her reeling.

Not that she was counting or anything.

Melissa’s fingers began to hurt, and she loosened her grip on the steering wheel. Why she was getting all tense at the thought of seeing Aaron was beyond her. She hadn’t spoken to him in nearly twelve years. He wasn’t part of her life, by any stretch of the imagination. So why was she acting as if seeing him was going to disrupt her world?

Because she didn’t want to see him. Ever. Not after how things had ended between them. She might be over him, but they weren’t friends, and spending time with him was going to be awkward at the very least.

But that’s exactly what she was going to have to do. Over the next few days, she was going to be seeing a lot of Aaron—at the welcome dinner, at the rehearsal, at the wedding. And worse than simply seeing him, she was going to have to interact and play nice, because not only was Melissa in the wedding party, Aaron was, too. And for some unfathomable reason, Tasha had paired Aaron with her.

“What’s the big deal?” Tasha had asked when Melissa expressed mortification over the wedding arrangements. “The other pairings made more sense this way. Besides, you and Aaron used to be close.”

“Exactly—used to be,” Melissa had said. “We haven’t spoken in years. Are you forgetting what he did to me?”

“But weren’t you the one who decided not to follow him to Notre Dame?” Tasha asked, sounding confused. “You said he’d be too busy with his soccer scholarship and you didn’t want to get in his way? Then things fell apart after that.”

Melissa had been glad that she and her cousin were speaking on the phone, three thousand miles between them. Because she didn’t want Tasha to see her face.

The story that Melissa was the one who’d decided not to go to Notre Dame had not been entirely truthful, but it had been much better than admitting that Aaron had rejected her. She’d been trying to save face when she’d told her close friends and family that she was the one who’d chosen not to follow Aaron to college. The truth was, Aaron had been the one to ask her why she would travel across the country for school when there were better social work programs closer to home. Melissa had been stunned. Didn’t he want her around? Didn’t he love her?

Melissa’s heart had been beating out of control as Tasha had gone on to talk about how Melissa being paired with Aaron would be fine, that years had passed and she was sure there would be no tension between them. Melissa hoped her cousin was right, but she wouldn’t bet money on it. How did you play nice with someone you’d tried to eradicate from your memory?

Melissa gazed out at the familiar landscape. The trees along the interstate were a vibrant green and in full bloom. The sky was cloudless and a gorgeous cerulean blue this early-summer day. The weather for the weekend was supposed to be perfect.

If only she could feel good about it.

Her mind ventured back to the one thing she couldn’t escape—the fact that she would have to see Aaron. Did she hate him? No, hate was too strong an emotion, but she certainly didn’t like him. Once she’d learned that Aaron had done the unthinkable—he’d married Ella Donovan, the one girl in high school she couldn’t stand—any remaining respect she might have had for him instantly died. He’d given Melissa the song and dance about how they were young, it was time for them to concentrate on their careers, that the distance between them would eventually become a factor.

Yet somehow he’d ended up making a relationship work with Ella? Ella had stayed in Sheridan Falls and worked for her father, who’d been the longtime mayor of the town. When had Aaron had time to forge a relationship with her?

Unless they’d been involved while he and Melissa had been. Every unthinkable scenario had crossed Melissa’s mind, and she’d ultimately been livid with herself for falling for a Burke brother. Hadn’t she known better? During high school, she’d heard all the rumors about the four Burke boys, how they dated whomever they wanted, were too popular to be faithful and women were supposed to take what they could get—if they were lucky enough to catch the eye of one of the Burkes. Which was exactly why Melissa had always vowed to never be like the other women in town, who seemed to lose their minds whenever in the presence of Aaron, Keith, Carlton or Jonas. Yes, the Burkes were hot, but it was pathetic how googly-eyed women became around them.

And then Melissa spent a summer with Aaron. They were both hired by a local camp at the end of their senior high school year as counselors charged with entertaining kids twelve and under. Melissa and Aaron had spent a lot of time together, time in which she’d gotten to know him. And he’d seemed so different from everything she’d heard. Caring. Funny. Engaging. Truly interested in the kids. Relatable. A good listener. He didn’t seem conceited at all. And somehow, Melissa had fallen for him.

Her first love. Her first heartbreak.

Dreams shattered. Her innocence lost.

The best summer of her life had turned into her biggest regret.

Though Melissa had tried to the best of her ability to avoid following Aaron’s career and his life over the years, she hadn’t been able to avoid everything. She had seen the photos of him in various highlights on the news about his soccer achievements, and of course about his happy marriage to the mayor’s daughter.

It was rare that she didn’t find a story about Aaron whenever she looked up news in the online version of the Sheridan Falls Tribune. In their town of seven thousand people, Aaron Burke was a local hero. Even him buying a new car made the paper.

Melissa had fallen for him before he’d ever become successful, though he had always been legendary. He was the son of Cyrus Burke, a local celebrity who’d had a long and celebrated career in the NFL. Not that Melissa knew anything about Cyrus’s personal life, but every time she’d seen him in town with his wife, Cynthia, he seemed like a man in love. Always holding her hand. Opening doors for her. Gazing at her fondly, as though there was no woman more beautiful in the world.

There’d never been a hint of scandal about Cyrus’s fidelity, something Melissa had reflected on after she and Aaron had become an item. She’d figured like father, like son, and had assumed that if Aaron became successful as a soccer player, he would be like his father. Instead, he’d proceeded to behave exactly like the majority of highly paid professional athletes out there—parties, women, a string of broken hearts.

Melissa had read all about it in the tabloids. Seen pictures of him on yachts in the Mediterranean with other soccer players and a horde of bikini-clad women. She’d seen how female sports reporters would look up at him with the same googly eyes she’d witnessed on the women from Sheridan Falls. It had been hard for Melissa to stomach.

And then Aaron had married Ella in some big event in Sheridan Falls, and Melissa had stopped paying attention to what Aaron did with his life. She’d spent too much time over the years thinking about him as it was, and if he could marry the one person who’d made her life hell in high school, he didn’t deserve a second thought.

“Enough of this nonsense,” she said to herself. Vowing to forget about Aaron, she turned up the music on the radio and bopped her head to an upbeat tune. Her eyes ventured to the lake as she crossed the city limits into Sheridan Falls. That was the lake on which she’d spent her last summer of high school as a counselor.

The summer she had fallen in love with Aaron Burke.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” she all but yelled. “Stop thinking about Aaron! He’s ancient history.”

Suddenly, it hit her what the real issue was. She didn’t want to see him with Ella, who she knew would rub in the fact that she had snagged a Burke brother. Having to stomach Ella gloating over her coveted prize would be more than Melissa could bear. In high school, Ella had lived to steal other women’s men, as though it were a competitive sport. If only Aaron had ended up with anyone but her. Ella, who’d never suffered from self-esteem issues to begin with, must have an ego as large as the state of Texas now.

Dealing with Ella’s gloating would be bearable if Melissa were heading home with a hot man on her arm. But sadly, she was single. Her relationships over the years had all died before any real promise of a happily-ever-after. Her most recent relationship had started off with hope, in part because of the fact that Christopher worked in the social work field, as did she. But hope had faded as quickly as the initial spark, and the relationship had ended without so much as a fizzle.

“You don’t need to return home with a man,” Melissa said. “All you have to do is ignore Aaron. Pretend like he doesn’t exist.”

Because he didn’t. He hadn’t existed in her life for over a decade, and that wasn’t about to change just because of the wedding.

Chapter 2 (#u9414bf9d-fb63-5444-971d-d8423f7a2047)

A slow smile spread on Melissa’s lips as she pulled into the driveway of her parents’ home, the house in which she had been born and raised. Gone were all thoughts of Aaron as she saw her mother sitting on the porch swing. As Melissa exited her navy Chevrolet Malibu, her mother got to her feet, her eyes lighting up with excitement.

“Melissa!” her mother exclaimed. “Ooh, come here, child.”

Melissa quickly closed the car door and rushed up the porch steps. Her mother’s arms were already spread wide, and Melissa threw herself into her embrace. Her mom hugged her long and hard against her large bosom. Instantly, Melissa felt a sense of comfort, the same way she always had as a little girl when her mother had wrapped her in her arms.

The weekend was going to be okay. Why had she been worrying herself silly?

“My baby.” Her mother broke the hug, leaned backward to check her out and took both of Melissa’s hands in hers. “Looks like you could use some good home cooking. You’re getting a little thin.”

Her mother had grown up in the South, and practically everything she made had a stick of butter or lard in it. It was a diet Melissa tried to steer clear of, for the most part. “I’ve been working out.”

“I’ll get some meat back on your bones,” her mother promised. Then she said, “It has been way too long since you’ve been home. It’s like you’ve forgotten your father and me now that you’re living in the big city.”

“You know I could never forget about you and Dad,” Melissa said. She squeezed her mother’s hands affectionately, then released them. “I meant to come back after Christmas, but I’ve been so busy with work.”

“Some days I wonder about that job of yours.”

“I love it,” Melissa said quickly, walking into the house. “Even the crazy hours and the emergencies.” Being the program coordinator at a group home in Newark was deeply rewarding. Melissa made an impact in the lives of troubled youth, helping the kids get back on track.

“I know your job is important. But I don’t like that you have to devote so much time to it. All work and no play, you’ll never find a nice man.”

Melissa offered her mother a small smile, though what she wanted to do was roll her eyes. Her mother would never be fully happy until Melissa had been married off.

Though her mom should know by now that marriage didn’t mean happiness. Her sister, Arlene, had just endured a nasty divorce. Her parents had viewed Craig as the son they’d never had, only to be devastated when he’d turned his back on not only Arlene, but also on them. He’d cheated with his secretary, then had the nerve to be unapologetic about his actions. The ensuing scandal had caused much embarrassment for Arlene and the family.

“Where’s Dad?”