Page 119 of Just One Kiss

People were staring. She could feel their eyes. She didn’t care.

She shook her head. “And to think, I almost fell for it.”

“Fell for what?”

“Your little speech last night. How you deserved a second chance—what absolute garbage. You’re with him alone for five seconds and you’re breaking all the rules again.”

“It wasn’t garbage—will you let me explain?”

“No, I’m done listening to you, Josh,” she said. “You confuse me. I can’t see straight when you’re around.”

He took a step toward her, but she stopped him with an upheld hand.

“Just leave me alone, all right?”

He lingered there for a long moment, and she could tell he wanted to say more—but he didn’t. Instead, he turned and disappeared inside the training center, leaving her standing on the sidewalk with pairs of touristy eyes trained on her.

She wondered if any of them had filmed her outburst. Would she see herself on Twitter later that night?

She pulled the door of her Civic open and got inside, plopping down into the beautiful solitude of the vehicle. Only then did she look up and straight into the eyes of Dr. David Willette, standing only a few feet away, a witness to her glorious outburst.

Well, great. She supposed now he would do what he should’ve done weeks ago—run as far away from her as he could.

30

Carly got out of the car and met David on the sidewalk.

So far he wasn’t running in the opposite direction, though it was highly likely he was contemplating it.

What could she say to smooth over what he’d just seen and heard? She didn’t deserve someone like him and she knew it. She’d always known it.

“David, I’m sorry you had to hear that.” She rushed after him, away from the curious onlookers watching through the windows from inside the restaurant. How could she lose her cool like that? Where was her ever-present, carefully controlled, level head?

Her father was right—Josh did bring out the worst in her. It’s what he’d said when she told him she was pregnant. He blamed it on Josh, the troublemaker, as if he’d been the one who’d twisted her arm. As if it hadn’t been her idea for them to sleep together in the first place. As if she’d protested the several times they’d been together since the junior prom.

Sometimes she regretted not standing up for Josh. She’d let her dad believe what he wanted to believe because she was so afraid of what he’d think of her.

Why had she been such a coward?

Why was she still such a coward?

David turned and faced her. “No, I’m the one who’s sorry. I obviously inserted myself into a very complicated situation.”

“There is no situation,” she said.

But the expression on his face told her that was hardly true.

“Okay, maybe it’s a little confusing right now, but Josh and I, we’re ancient history.” If she didn’t believe that before, she certainly did now that she knew he couldn’t be trusted.

“Sounds like there’s still a lot to work through,” he said. “And I’m going to give you some space so you can do that.”

“David, no.”

“I’m not saying this is over between us, just that maybe we should put it on pause.” He was pragmatic and measured. He would never show up on her porch late at night, out of breath and needing to profess his love. David might not be passionate, but he was a good man. And good men were hard to find.

But when she boiled it down, they had very little in common, and truthfully, she couldn’t see herself with him for the rest of her life, which made her the worst person in the world, she knew.

“I’d like us to still be friends, Carly,” he said matter-of-factly. “If you want.”

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