Page 129 of Just One Kiss

33

Carly and Jaden hadn’t been to Sunday dinner in a couple of weeks, and as they were leaving church, it was clear they weren’t going to get out of it again.

She’d sat through the message thinking the kinds of thoughts that made her blush, replaying her short-lived make-out session with Josh. She’d felt like a teenager all over again, and for a few delicious moments, their past hadn’t mattered.

He’d gotten his one kiss. She was mortified to think he’d almost convinced her he was right.

She told herself to think about what had happened after the kiss, the fighting, the harsh words they’d spoken, but the memories of his soft, full lips kissing her with such urgency kept creeping in.

“You’re coming to Dad’s,” Quinn said.

Carly held back a groan. “I have a lot to do, Q.”

“I don’t care. You can’t keep avoiding family dinner.”

“Dad’s just going to lecture me.”

Quinn raised a brow. “And why would he need to do that?”

“He doesn’t.” Carly slung her purse over her shoulder as Beverly wrapped an arm around Quinn’s.

“You girls ready for ham and potatoes?”

“I’m ready,” Jaden said from behind his mother. “I’m starving.”

Beverly smiled, then reached over and squeezed Carly’s hand. “It’ll be good to have the whole family together again.”

Carly sighed as the older woman walked away.

“Now you have to come,” Quinn said.

Carly wished she had Quinn’s easy-going relationship with their father, but the truth was, she’d been the great Collins disappointment. After their mother left, Gus had raised the girls the best he could, but Carly hadn’t turned out the way she was supposed to. She’d made the kinds of mistakes that publicly humiliated her dad, practically proving he wasn’t fit to raise a teenage daughter on his own.

She’d embarrassed him, and he was ashamed of her.

And Carly was ashamed of herself, sometimes even still.

She’d suffered through weeks and months and years of family dinners, and it never changed. She always left feeling just on the underside of accepted.

How much worse would it be today—with news of her outburst outside the training center spreading throughout the little town? Not to mention her flushed cheeks over her encounter with Josh last night.

Nobody even knew about that, but if they found out . . .

What they must think of her.

She and Jaden drove in silence until they reached the neighborhood where she and Quinn had grown up.

She could practically see herself as a child, chasing Josh and some of the other kids down the sidewalk on the way to the park.

“I invited Dad.” Jaden stared out the window.

“You what?” She spun sideways and faced her son.

“He probably can’t make it,” Jaden said. “Said something about going to his own parents’ house today.”

Carly turned back to the road, aware she was frowning. Why would Josh go to his parents’ house? Her pulse kicked up a notch at the thought. What if Josh did something stupid? She’d always marveled at the fact that he seemed nothing like his own father, and yet, he did have a temper—what if he lost it?

What if he finally faced all those old demons?

---