Page 50 of Fight Or Flight

His skin warmed under her hands, and he moved closer, closing the distance between them. She rose on her toes, hesitated slightly, then leaned forward and grazed her soft, dewy lips across his cheek.

A bolt of white-hot light shot through his blood. He reached his free hand up the back of her neck, through her silky hair and pulled her in close until his lips were millimetres from hers. The warmth radiating from her skin was soaking into his brain, and he couldn’t recall why he’d ever thought this was a bad idea. He inched toward her as she tipped her face up to meet his, andslowly closed the distance until his lips softly grazed hers in an almost kiss that made his heart spiral.

All he could think wasmore.

He leaned in, deepening the kiss as she opened for him. A soft moan escaped her lips, and he spiralled more, down down down out of control until the smack of a slamming screen door broke through his daze.

“Ethan?”

He jumped back from Natalie, looking over to find his mother standing on the porch. She couldn’t see them, so he stayed put, hoping she’d give up and go back inside and he wouldn’t have to explain why he was in the landscaping, groping their dinner guest.

He laid a finger over Natalie’s snickering, swollen red lips and stayed still. A few seconds passed with his mother muttering to herself on the porch about everyone disappearing. Finally, she gave up and went back inside, letting the door slam behind her.

When he moved his finger away, Natalie smiled her blinding smile at him and laughed. She was impossibly pretty. His heart pulled him toward her, but his brain fought back. Now that he’d been slapped to reality, he remembered why this was a terrible idea. He took three big steps away from her and a deep breath. Distance was what he needed, he reminded himself. When he got too close, things got out of hand.

“Yeah, it’s all funny now,” he said. “Just wait until Adam finds out. We’ll never hear the end.”

“How would Adam know?”

“He has spies.”

Natalie looked at him like he was a weirdo. “Did you ever get caught bringing girls back here when you were younger?”

Ethan huffed out a laugh. The question was absurd. “Of course not. Girls weren’t interested in me when I was younger. Evennow, everyone in town still looks at me like I’m a nerdy little kid always covered in dirt.”

She tilted her head and looked up at him. “Do you mean a nerdy hot doctor always covered in dirt?”

He laughed. “Hot? That’s definitely not the descriptor they’d use. But I’ll take it over scary, homeless snake charmer.”

“I don’t think I ever called you scary.”

“It was implied. You yelped when you first saw me.”

She let out a breathy laugh that grazed along his heart. “I was startled. But I’m lucky you were there. You saved me.”

She smiled at him, held his eyes for a long moment. He wanted to take her back into his arms, push her up against the wall, press his body into hers, and finish what they’d started.

But he now knew without a doubt that he couldn’t shield his heart from her. She’d leave, and it would devastate him. Better to ignore it, avoid it, and move on. He broke eye contact, cleared his throat and took a step back.

“We should go in,” he said with all the conviction he could muster up.

Natalie’s smile fell away, replaced with a confused furrow to her brow, but she said nothing. She nodded once, then sidestepped him and walked toward the front porch, leaving him wondering whether he’d just made the best possible decision, or the worst.

Natalie stepped into the house and took an exaggerated inhale of the chicken pie– scented air, a smile returning to her face. Ethan closed the door behind him and watched as she took off her sandals and walked in.

“I hear you spent a lot of time here in high school.”

Natalie’s smile faltered at his voice but mostly stayed in place. “Yes. I loved it here. It’s like family houses you see in movies.”

She sounded stiff, missing her usual sarcastic, playful tone. Unease filled his chest, and he nearly choked on it.

“Natalie,” he began, not really sure where he was going with it. She turned, waiting for him to continue, but he had no idea what to say. “About the bushes . . . in the bushes, I mean. I know you’re leaving in a while, and I—”

“Natalie?”

His mother poked her head around the wall from the kitchen down the hall and interrupted them.

Again.

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