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“What are you doing?” she cried.
Chris shifted in his seat until he was turned to face her, his expression a mix of annoyance and concern. “I’m not going to sit here and listen to you cry for twenty minutes.”
His tone sent fissions of fury across her skin and she reached for the door handle. “Then I’ll walk.”
Chris grabbed her arm gently but firmly, and didn’t let go when she tried to pull away.
“You’re being a real jerk, you know that?”
“I’m trying to apologize, if you’ll just let me,” he said.
“Not interested.”
His face snapped into a scowl. “Well, too bad, because you’re not walking on this road at night, so you’re stuck with me.”
She crossed her arms mutinously across her chest and waited.
“You threw me for a loop, is all. Not because I never wanted to kiss you and see what it would be like. I have, several times over the years. But not like this. Not to be used as practice for another guy you really want to kiss.”
I don’t know if I’d say I really want to kiss him.
Chris’s hand cupped her chin, and the dome light came on. She blinked her eyes as they adjusted to the light and then met Chris’s intense gaze.
“Kissing you now would be cheap and meaningless. If or when we kiss, I want it to be me you’re thinking about.”
Kelly’s heart was hammering so fast she couldn’t keep count of the beats, and her breathing became shallow and rapid. That sounded romantic. Had he meant it that way?
And why did his honest, heartfelt admission make her want to close the distance between them?
His hand, which had been so warm against the skin of her jaw, fell away and he smiled. “I’m sorry if I came off as a jerk.”
She swallowed hard, her mouth dryer than her childhood sandbox.
“It’s okay. I get it.”
“Do you?”
No, she didn’t. She thought Chris had refused to kiss her because she didn’t really want to kiss him.
Except, she was pretty sure she did want to kiss him, because she was freaking disappointed that he was denying her again.
But instead of pushing the issue, she nodded. “Of course. Let’s get back to the kitten.”
He flipped off the dome light and pulled back onto the road. Kelly stopped crying, instead staring at the passing dark outlines of the pine trees.
Chris had refused to kiss her because he didn’t think she wanted him.
Or, Chris was just being nice because he doesn’t want to hurt my feelings. I was practically sexually harassing him, which would have been really bad if we weren’t friends.
She just needed to forget all this craziness and go back to thinking of Chris as her friend. No muscles under tight T-shirts. His eyes weren’t even that pretty and he didn’t smell that great.
She could do this.
Chapter 16
On Friday, Kelly sat at her desk across from Veronica, a stack of papers to her right. She was reading over the final menu for the Valdez wedding, which included a chicken and beef dish, spicy rice, beans, and a signature drink of sangria that they were calling a “Telejandro Forever.”
Kelly smiled as she set aside the menu for the Valdez wedding and met Veronica’s nervous gaze across the desk.
