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She paused to try to gather her thoughts, and his heart hammered even faster as he waited for her to finish. Only, she didn’t finish it with words. Instead, she put down the cup, lifted her hands to his face, and gave him a kiss that was sweet and seductive all at once.
“Thank you for the smoothie, Trent. Have a good day working at the resort.”
He couldn’t quite figure out how to form words as he stepped away, walking backward so that he could hold the image of her in his mind for as long as possible. He blew her a kiss and jogged away with a big grin.
Despite the incredible kiss she’d just given him, he knew the road ahead likely wouldn’t be completely smooth. But nothing in life that mattered was easy. He’d never failed at a damn thing besides his marriage—the one and only thing that mattered.
What he’d felt when he was making love with Reese last night—and what he saw in her eyes every time they were together—was pure, unadulterated love, whether she was fully ready to accept it or not.
He believed in them, and hopefully, in time, she would, too.
And until then, he prayed there would be lots and lots more kisses, just like the one she’d given him today.
* * *
REESE COULDN’T STOP smiling as she drove to her gallery. Once inside, she went directly to her workspace and, without second-guessing herself, tacked the picture of her and Trent to her easel. For the next few hours, while she wasn’t able to concentrate on any one thing for too long, every time she saw the picture, joy bubbled up inside of her.
“What is with you today?” Jocelyn asked as Reese organized a new display of paintings for a second time. “It’s like you’re on speed.”
I’m on a new drug called Trent. Reese stopped in her tracks with the thought and bit her lower lip to keep the words from escaping. Especially since Trent wasn’t actually new, was he? More like she was back on an old drug that was suddenly more addictive than ever.
“I just...” Need to stop thinking about how good it felt to be with him last night—and how much I loved kissing him again this morning.
“I haven’t seen you like this since—” Jocelyn’s eyes grew huge. “Oh my God, you slept with him! Did you at least make it out of your apartment this time?”
“Of course we did.” She purposefully left off the just barely part of the sentence.
“Well,” Jocelyn said in her own defense, “considering we’re talking about the man you had sex with in the bathroom of the movie theater, in the car by the pond, behind the bushes in the park—”
“Boulders! They were boulders, not bushes!” Why had she ever shared those details with her friend? Because I was bursting with excitement. Only now I’m older. More mature. I’ve lasted—she glanced at the clock—a few hours without gushing like a schoolgirl.
“Whatever.” Jocelyn brushed her clarifications aside. “Just tell me one thing. Am I allowed to be excited for you, or do you want me to tell you to slow down?”
“Honestly,” Reese said as she forced herself to sit like a normal person in a chair even though her insides were still bouncing all around, “I don’t know what I want or how you can help. I only know that the minute we kissed, it was like all those years never happened. We’re still so in sync with each other. We’re still so…”
“Mushy. Sappy.” Jocelyn smiled. “And, obviously, still deeply in love with each other.” When Reese’s eyes went wide at that statement, her friend said, “I knew it the second I saw the picture on your easel. He’s back in your heart, isn’t he?”
“You look as conflicted as I am about it,” Reese said. “Your eyebrows are all pinched together and your jaw is tight. You’re the one who’s supposed to have the clear head in this.”
“You’re my best friend in the whole world, and you know I want you to be totally happy. If Trent makes you happy, that’s wonderful, but...” Jocelyn paused before saying, “This is very familiar. What if after six months he’s right back to working a hundred hours a week and I have to mop up your tears again?”
“He says he’s changed, that he didn’t know how to handle our relationship before. Neither of us did, Joce. I screwed up just as badly by being so damn scared of everything in the city.” She met Jocelyn’s concerned gaze. “All I know is that when I’m with him, I feel alive again, and when we kiss…” Her insides went gooey again, and her knees went weak just thinking about Trent’s mouth on hers. “When we kiss, everything feels right again. But...”
“Then you remember how hurt you were.”
