Page 48 of Before You Say I Do

“You want to kiss me too?”

Jordan nodded. “I do. Last night. Today in the sea. When you were trying on your wedding dress.” She tilted her head towards the sky. “But you know we can’t act on it, right?”

If Abby’s body could have deflated right there and then, it would have. “I know.”

But it’s so unfair!That’s what she wanted to scream. But she didn’t.

Jordan scooted a bit closer, and brought Abby’s hand to her mouth. She kissed it, then placed it back in her lap.

“Whatever attraction there is here has to stay just that. An attraction.”

Abby nodded, dumbstruck by Jordan kissing her hand. Her skin tingled. “Of course.” She’d never been so insincere in her life.

“I’m employed by your fiancé and by you. My job is to get you to the altar in one piece. Happy. Content.”

“You’ve already screwed up on that one just by being here.”

Now it was Jordan’s turn to shake her head.

The bubbles stopped again.

The water calmed.

The silence this time was even louder.

“We can’t do this,” Jordan began, but she edged a little closer to Abby.

“I know.” Abby slid along the seat until she was right beside Jordan.

“You’re getting married. To somebody else.”

Abby nodded ever so slowly. Like she was on shutter-speed in some old movie.

“I know.” She put a hand up to Jordan’s face as their legs touched. “But why is it then, that ever since we met, when I go to bed and when I wake up, all I think about is you? I dream about you, Jordan. I did last night.”

She had no idea where the courage had come from. Or how she was going to store it up in her future, because she was going to need it if she went through with this.

“Abby,” Jordan began.

Her tone said one thing. Her hungry eyes said quite something else.

“Don’t say anything else.” Abby’s words came out as a whisper as she leaned forward. She was about to make her dreams a reality. She was about to kiss Jordan, the woman who’d made her finally wake up.

“Abby! Jordan!”

Or maybe she wasn’t.

Because that voice was her mum.

Which meant their party was about to be crashed.

Abby jerked with such ferocity that she went forward before moving backwards.

The crack as her head collided with Jordan’s reverberated around her brain. Abby clutched her head, dazed in more ways than one.

“Argh, fuck!” Jordan said.

When Abby peered through her hands, Jordan had moved backwards on the hot tub seat, clutching her head. Abby moved, too, staring at her hands as she pulled them from her head.