Alexis couldn't believe he'd wanted to read her poetry. She realized that she would've let him, if she had known. No one in her family had seemed interested. Just her English teachers.
"I'd be happy to share them now, if I knew where they were."
He slackened. "You didn't keep them?"
"I left here with a backpack the day after graduation," she told him. "No exaggeration."
"Well, if you ever decide to express your emotions through the printed word again, I'm volunteering to read. As you know, I write lyrics so I'm always interested." He swept a hand gently over her hair and she shivered at his touch. "So will you come to the Keelers' party? I sure would like to ogle you in a pretty dress."
"I'll go," she relented. She wouldn't mind seeing Peyton again. She remembered the tall blonde as a talented soccer player with a fun-loving attitude.
"They live in Flamingo Key. White Oak Lane."
"Close to Gatsby's," she remarked. "No wonder you like playing there."
"Craig actually owns Gatsby's."
Alexis's eyebrows shot up. "You're kidding."
"People manage to eek out a living here, despite your misconceptions," he teased.
Her face grew hot. "I never thought this place was a dead end," she objected. "I just didn't think it suited me."
"And?"
"And what?"
"Do you still think it doesn't suit you?"
She found the strength to hold his gaze and quickly began to lose herself in the depths of those blue eyes. "I don't know anymore, Tyler. I feel like I'm seeing this place for the first time. Maybe what didn't suit me then, might suit me now."