More Than A Friend Request

Copyright

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© 2012 Julie Prestsater

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of a reviewer using brief passages.

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, and real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The author also acknowledges the copyrighted or trademarked status and trademark owners of any and all wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction.

Cover Photo: © Yuri Arcurs | Dreamstime.com

Visit Julie on the Web at www.juliepbooks.com.

Dedication

To my love, James.

I’m so grateful you sent me that first email

and I’m so happy I responded ...

Chapter 1

1 New Friend Request

Hannah tapped her phone like she’d done many times before to view the new friend request on her FaceSpace page. But little could have been done to prepare her for what she was about to see.

Adam Cooper would like to be friends.

Accept or Decline.

Adam Cooper wanted to be her friend. Her friend. After fifteen years, he wanted to be her friend. On FaceSpace of all places. No phone calls, no emails, no old-fashioned snail mail. He used a social network to initiate contact after what seemed like a lifetime apart. What? Were they fourteen?  

Her head spun as she steadied herself long enough to plant herself in a chair at her kitchen table. Thankfully, it was a Saturday morning or else she may have gotten the request at work and wouldn’t have been able to hide this near hyperventilation. Maybe it was cardiac arrest because her heart was sure beating faster than ever.

Hannah stared at the screen of her phone that she gripped tightly in both her hands.

Adam Cooper.

Like any other woman with a FaceSpace page, she’d spent many nights trolling the pages searching ex-boyfriends, old flames, and all those who could’ve been. She’d come across Jason, who was her first kiss in fourth grade. She was genuinely happy for him when she discovered he was married with four children, two boys and two girls who were just as gorgeous as their parents.

When she located Luke, Hannah actually sent him a friend request. When they had ended their three month relationship after he moved to a different school in junior high, they remained in contact for years. Sometime in high school, they had lost touch but she’d always wondered what happened to him. Now, on occasion, they’d meet after work for drinks. On a platonic level, of course, since he came out to her. Talk about a waste of a good man. For women, anyway. For a man, he was quite the catch. He was stunning, well groomed, and well dressed. She guessed that should have been her first clue. At any rate, she was happy for him and his partner, David. They seemed more than content with the life they’d made together, with their catering business and a pair of his and his matching Old English Sheepdogs.

Hannah’s high school sweetheart had tried to friend her, but she ignored the request. There was no way in hell she was going to talk to that jerk online or any other place for that matter. You’d think after all this time, she would’ve gotten over how Ryan had cheated on her with one of her close friends, yet she hadn’t. And to top it off, she had no interest in reading more about how they were still together since they’d married right after graduation since she was knocked up. Fortunately for her, Ryan’s FaceSpace was private, so it saved her the grief of snooping and seeing just how happy they were.

But Adam. She had searched for him on FaceSpace many times. On occasions when she was lonely and feeling needy. Sometimes after watching a chick flick and getting caught up in happily ever afters. Or when she’d had one too many beers, and she’d thought about the one who got away. She thought about him all right. There hadn’t been a day since she met him all those years ago that she hadn’t let her mind wander with thoughts of him, his warm smile, and the tenderness of his touch.

And now there he was—wanting to be her friend. Wow. Hannah still stared at the screen, making no attempt to accept or deny the request. She just looked at his name on the screen, and sat while her belly did back flips with all the anxiousness that came with seeing his name in print. The more she looked at it, it was like she could feel his gentle hands on her. The way he would take her face in the palms of both his hands and hold her still while he gazed into her eyes—silently expressing his love and desire. She’d never once felt that kind of love again. It had been fifteen years since she’d last seen him, and she could almost feel the taste of his lips on hers. Sweet, warm, and delicious.

Tears filled Hannah’s eyes. Her face got hot, and she could feel her palms getting clammy. Why now Adam? Why now?

She tried hard not to think about their past but knowing he was trying to get in contact with her caused all the memories to come crashing back like the break of waves in the ocean, one after another, without any relief. There was no stopping the images of his gorgeous face from popping up in her mind. They’d always been there, so vivid as if he were standing right in front of her.

Hannah clicked her phone off, blacking out the screen and set it down on the table. She needed a cup of coffee. Maybe a vanilla latte would ease her mind, and her stomach, for awhile. On second thought, she was going to need a little more than some caffeine to do the trick. She decided the caffeine alone would make her mind race even more. She settled on toasting a bagel, and then slathered the thing with gobs of raspberry cream cheese. She was going to need coffee and sweets to deal with this.

She took her breakfast back to the table and started with a sip of her latte. She couldn’t resist any longer. She turned on her phone and brought up the FaceSpace app. Yup, she hadn’t dreamed up the whole thing. It was still there. A friend request from Adam Cooper. She placed it face down on her placemat, and dug into the bagel.

With each bite, she thought about Adam. She could picture the first time she met Adam clearly, like she’d just seen him moments before. Her college roommate, Leila, had been dating Adam’s brother for months. There were many nights when the two girls would stay up talking about how exciting it would be for the roomies to date brothers, twins in fact. The more they talked about it, the more nervous she got. Hannah didn’t have much luck in the boyfriend department. She could count the number of boyfriends she’d had on one hand, and she didn’t even need to use all her fingers. Yet, her roommate was about to set her up on a blind date. Well, not entirely blind. She knew what he’d look like since she’d seen his brother almost every day for the last several months.

When the day finally came to meet him, Hannah was a nervous wreck so Leila talked her into a shot of tequila to calm her nerves. And when Adam finally walked into her dorm room, she regretted not taking more than one. Saying the guy was hot would have been the biggest understatement of all time. He was on fire. A real scorcher. His brother did not do him justice. They were definitely not identical twins.

Adam was close to six feet tall, and had a strong build. He had thick dark wavy hair. It was longer on top, short on the sides and in the back. It didn’t look gelled or anything. It was a perfect effortless mess she immediately wanted to run her fingers through. She had laughed out loud when she thought about how she hoped she’d get the chance to tug on his locks in a night of passion. When he’d asked her what was so funny, she waved him off in embarrassment. He had caught her stare with a raised brow, and she got lost in his almond-shaped hazel eyes. In those first few minutes, they seemed to be paralyzed in the moment, staring each other down. They just smiled like fools, even when his brother and Leila tried to spark conversation.

At dinner, they sat side by side and when their thighs brushed against each other, they both flinched like they had just touched their tongues to a nine volt battery. Hannah had never felt such an instant connection with anyone in her life. She was sure that the feeling was mutual. She knew he was feeling something too. Why else would he have responded to her touch in such a way?

When she finished her bagel, she turned her phone over and clicked it on again. This time, she tapped on his name, bringing up his profile page. She tapped on his face to enlarge the photo. There were those eyes. He was wearing sunglasses in the picture, but she could still see through the tint to make out those long lashes and his sexy stare. He was grinning, like he’d been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to. His angular face was still thin, and he was tan. She could imagine him surfing one early morning and then spending the rest of the day on the beach playing volleyball and reading a book. The passing years had been kind to him. If Hannah didn’t already know his age, she would have thought he was younger, maybe in his late twenties even.

She backed out of the screen and tapped again to bring up his personal information. She scrolled down the list of attributes till she found the one she was looking for. Single. Thank god. He was single. How could that be? How could a man like him still be single? She was still single, but she was a woman and it was a lot more difficult to find the right man. But he was Adam. He could have had any woman he wanted.

Hannah licked her lips as she read more. It was like feeding a hunger that she had suppressed for way too long. She needed more and she was going to get it. She rushed to her office and powered up her desktop computer. The screen of her cell phone was way too small to investigate Adam Cooper.

She scanned all the things she knew about him. His hometown, high school, college, and degrees. She snickered when she saw that he admitted to liking Britney Spears. She knew that about him, but she would have never thought he’d put it out there for the world to see. She paid close attention to the things she didn’t know, things that were new since she’d seen him last. She choked up a bit when she took note that they shared some of the same favorites like the book A Thousand Splendid Suns and the movie The Holiday with Kate Winslet and Jude Law. She could picture snuggling up to Adam on her sofa and watching the flick together. She could also imagine blasting Britney and dancing all over