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proceedings.
    As they prepared to leave the sanctity of the den, he bent toward his mother’s ear. “How long can you go?” Glancing at her watch, she looked vaguely surprised. “Tomorrow is going to be a long day. Maybe an hour? I think Amber will be ushering my family out of here in a bit, so we should be able to make that happen.”
    “We’ll make it happen,” he assured her.
    From his vantage point in the doorway of the den, Lex had an open view of kitchen and hallway. Without meaning to, he surveyed the rooms looking for Lu. He didn’t see her at first. Disappointed, he decided that both he and his mother needed a drink. “Want some wine?”
    Grateful eyes met his. “Absolutely. Pinot noir, please.”
    Attempting to take the most obscure way to the bar—not through the kitchen but backtracking through the dining room, Lex turned the corner and stopped as he got his first look at Lu.. The lighting in the bar was dim, but he could make out her features perfectly. Blue-black hair reached midway down her back falling in a straight line without an ounce of wave. Growing up, she had worn her hair either long or short. She would let it get long cut if off for “Locks of Love” and then grow it out again. But when he had left, it was short. She had always been tiny, but now, compared with his six-foot-two frame, her demure height of five foot two left her standing a foot shorter than him. She looked like a pixie, with her delicate features and her big, blue eyes.
    All the angst of seeing her evaporated in the midst of a rainfall of memories. She was what was good about his childhood. She, like his father, had molded him into who he was. Without any hesitation, he moved quickly through the dining room and grabbed her. Wrapping her up in his embrace, he lifted her off the ground.
    “Louisa May Knight, you have no idea how good it is to see you,” he said. Reveling in the feel of her, he noted the changes in her body. She felt delicate but by no means did she feel fragile. Curvier than her sixteen-year-old self, she had filled out in all the right places and his body responded to hers almost immediately. Holding her in his arms, he met his brother’s surprised look with the smile that made Lex Pellitteri Lex Pellitteri. But had he been able to process anything other than what it felt like to hold Lu, he would have noticed Pete’s expression of concern.
    Eight years fell away. Overwhelmed by the feeling of being in Lex’s arms, Lu sighed deeply, breathing him in. His scent was different from the sweaty boy smell she associated with him. His tangy, fresh scent wafted around her and she knew she would forever attempt to remember it. The sinewy feel of him disappeared under the hard-worked muscles he had developed over the last few years. This wasn’t Lex the boy she had known so well. This was Lex the magnificent man whose boyish angles had been traded in and up. Though she felt breathless in his embrace, there was a sense of relief when he set her down. Being in his arms felt too good.
    Lex looked much like she had envisioned when she was a little girl. His dirty-blond hair still sported two very blond spots at his temples. Just as when he was a boy, those spots on his head stood like beacons of his time in the sun. Sprinkled across his nose and cheeks, freckles lent a boyish quality to an otherwise chiseled man. Set perfectly and fringed in amazingly straight black lashes, his green eyes still twinkled with constant mischief and irreverence.
    “God, I am so glad that you are here,” he practically gushed, boyish in his enthusiasm. “I have to go say hello to everyone, and bring my mother some wine, but I want to have some time to talk to you before you leave.”
    “I’m actually headed out soon, but we can catch up tomorrow,” she said, too quickly.
    He looked over his shoulder at her as he poured two glasses of wine. “Absolutely not. I’ll deliver this to my mom and be right back. Don’t leave or I’ll