Page 13 of The Unfinished Line

I hardly knew the meaning of the word.

When I opened my eyes, she was looking at me again in that way she had of making me feel like she was really seeingme.

I would have glanced away, jumped up, suggested a walk to stretch our legs, but she didn’t give me the opportunity. She, too, could see, perhaps, that my nerves were about to get the better of me.

“May I kiss you?”

For the second time in a matter of minutes, I was speechless. I’d never been asked for a kiss before.

I’d kissed plenty of guys. I’d kissed Dani, even, in a drunken game of truth or dare. That had been unexciting, except, maybe, for our high school boyfriends.

I’d been instructed onhowto kiss: from directors, screen partners, scriptwriters who’d written detailed notes on how they wanted the scene played.

But I’d never beenaskedbefore.

I must have managed a nod. I know I never found my voice. But I knew I wanted her to kiss me—I’d been thinking about it all evening. Thinking about it, but never expecting it to happen. I thought the chances of that were about as slim as getting the call from Aaron. But somehow, over the last ninety-six hours, I was batting two for two. Unusual for my odds.

Her lips were softer than I imagined they’d be, the smell of her skin intoxicating.

I remembered to close my eyes—thank God for small favors. I didn’t need to be that freak sitting there with my eyes wide open, unblinking like a fish out of water.

Though in the end, I doubted I was much different than kissing a fish, really. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. I just sat there, frozen, a myriad of broken thoughts swirling through my head:

I was kissing a stranger.

Her mouth tasted like pineapple.

A girl.

Aaron wouldn’t like this.

Fuck Aaron.

Her skin had the faint aroma of sunscreen and chlorine.

A girl!

Dani wouldn’t like it either.

Fuck Dani. And Darlene.EspeciallyDarlene.

Had the wind gotten stronger, or was it the blood rushing to my head?

I was kissing Kelsey Evan’s ex-girlfriend.

Ex-girlfriend!

Well then, fuck Kelsey Evans, too.

Somewhere, the sharp chime of a bell rang—was it the church from across the street?

Mighty fine timing you have, Jesus.

Well, fu—okay, that was taking it too far.

It startled us both, and I bumped my chin against her lips as I lurched away. “Shit, I’m sorry,” I apologized, even while darting a glance around, furtive, feeling like I’d been caught at something I shouldn’t have been doing.

I realized the sound had come from my phone. It was my ringtone. I rifled it out of my pocket to shut it up. I thought it might be Aaron. Or even Dani, to tell me what mind-blowing island excursion they had gone on today. It was neither. In the irony of what was becoming my bizarre universe, it was Carter.