Meant to Be: Southern Heat Series by Jenna Harte Page A

hesitation in her response.
    “You don’t sound so sure.”
    She sighed. “I think there have been times he’s been interested in rekindling our romantic relationship.”
    “Why don’t you?” Mitch took a sip of milk, hoping she didn’t call him on his prying.
    “He’s not y—” She stopped short. “He’s not the type of man I see myself with.”
    Mitch watched her as he set down his milk and wiped his mouth with his napkin. A part of him hoped she would finish her first thought. Not in a I’m-glad-you-like-me-so-I-can-hurt-you-the-way-you-hurt-me kind of way, but in a I-wonder-if-this-thing-between-us-is-real kind of way. The thought both terrified and excited him. But since he still didn’t know what to do about it, he ate another bacon tater.
    “I’ll need to talk to him.”
    Sydney didn’t argue. “He’s at a conference in Washington, D.C.”
    “Where is he staying?”
    “A Marriott. I think it’s on Pennsylvania Avenue.”
    Mitch worked to keep his voice unaffected, professional. “What about Jagger? He’s from New York, and he’s here now. Hasn’t he asked you out yet? He told me he would.”
    Sydney’s eyes narrowed. “Why were you talking about me?”
    “He wanted me to give him the okay. He seemed to think there was something between us. I assured him there wasn’t.”
    She sat back. Anger and hurt flashed in her hazel eyes. “He stopped by yesterday. I reminded him that I couldn’t go out with him because of Julia.”
    “I don’t get that.” Mitch pushed the half-eaten plate of grease, bacon, and potato aside. “Jagger and I are friends, and I’m okay with him seeing you.” Mitch hoped Sydney didn’t hear his brain scream, “LIAR!”
    “I guess it’s different for women.” Her voice was terse. He could feel her withdrawing from him.
    “How’d he take the rejection?”
    “He was annoyed, but I think mostly at Julia for getting in the way. Look, it’s Jagger we’re talking about. He’s a make-love-not-war kind of guy. Plus, I never saw him in New York, except with friends or at parties.”
    But Mitch put Jagger and Patrick on his list of possible suspects, along with Doctor Singer. Someone had attacked her in New York and followed her to Charlotte Tavern. It wasn’t on the way to anywhere else, so no one would end up there by accident. Which led to his next question.
    “Is that why you came here? You’re having some sort of life-after-near-death crisis?”
    Her gaze jerked to his. “In a manner of speaking.” She sighed, and shook her head, making him feel pathetic for asking yet again what she was doing there. “I didn’t seek you out to renew a relationship. I know I can’t go back, but I want to live, Mitch. I want my life to matter. And even with all that I’ve done, I can’t seem to go completely forward without a resolution around what happened to us.”
    Mitch pursed his lips in frustration with her vague explanation. “It was pretty straight forward, Syd.”
    “No, Mitch, it wasn’t.” She surprised him by leaning forward, matching his in-your-face tactic with her own. “We had our lives planned. I was going to be a doctor and you a lawyer. And then you decided you wanted to serve your country, even though it meant risking your life, being away from me, and not knowing where we’d end up. I supported you in that decision.”
    “Then why postpone the wedding?”
    She opened her mouth, but he interrupted her. “Because your parents didn’t want you marrying me.”
    She let out an expletive and sat back. “They had no problem with you specifically.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    She shook her head then looked him straight in the eye. “Have you ever considered they were right to persuade me to postpone the wedding? We were so young, Mitch. We didn’t know the first thing about the realities of life. Maybe they sped up the inevitable. Maybe we wouldn’t have made it.”
    His eyes narrowed. “You believe that?”
    She looked down