LOUISA STOOD IN FRONT OF HER FULL-LENGTH MIRROR and surveyed her outfit. Was a blue cotton romper appropriate for a meeting that wasn’t work but that she might get paid for with a man who wasn’t nice but who was inherently kind?

She slid her polished toes into her gold sandals and buckled them around her ankles, then ran her hands through her long auburn waves. Maybe she was trying too hard.

There was a knock at the door.

Oh, well, not much she could do about it at this point.

She made her way downstairs and saw the outline of Cody’s sturdy frame through the frosted window of her front door. He stared out across the yard, giving her just a moment to admire him.

He’d showered and now wore khaki shorts and a faded light-blue T-shirt with some sort of logo on it. They practically matched and obviously should take a photo tonight to prove how good they looked together, which was an absurd thought if she’d ever had one, given that the man could hardly stand to be in the same room with her.

But the blues were so perfect, it was like they’d planned it.

Would their children have blue eyes too?

Knock it off, Lou.

She opened the door and forced a smile in spite of the nerves wriggling around in her belly. “Hey.”

Did she sound like she was trying to be sexy? Because she absolutely was not, but the accidental huskiness in her own voice startled her. She cleared her throat.

He held up a brown paper bag. “Dinner.”

She opened it and inhaled. “Jetty burgers?” She glanced up and found him looking at her, same way he had all those years ago—with a twinkle of something special in his eye.

He remembered.

She’d forgotten how much she’d loved him once upon a time. Convinced herself first love never amounted to anything anyway. Except when it did.

How was it possible to have the same feelings hanging around so many years later? Nostalgia. That’s all this was. Nostalgia and a desperate need to be forgiven. She had to get her thoughts under control. Her mind had a way of getting her in trouble. It was, after all, her mind that had convinced her Eric loved her.

But when you love someone, you are their biggest cheerleader, a champion of their dreams.