Page 103 of At the Heart of It
Kate laughed, and Jonah admired the faintest hint of a dimple on her left cheek. God, she was beautiful.
“That’s your idea of a tough question?” Kate asked.
“You’ve gotta admit, it’s a difficult one. Do you go with a family member or a lover? Considering how much tonsil hockey a couple might play over a lifetime, you probably do consume about a cup of saliva if you really think about it.”
She gave him a pained look, but she was still smiling. “I’d rather not think about it.”
“Okay, here’s another tough question,” he said. “If you could give one person in the world the biggest, most uncomfortable wedgie imaginable, who would you pick and why?”
“This is a real question?” She seemed to consider it, though, twirling her beer bottle on the table as she watched it with a thoughtful look. “John Peckenham.”
“Who’s John Peckenham?”
“My boyfriend when I was twelve years old. He broke up with me at recess and then told everyone I kissed like a goldfish. For months afterward, everyone went around making fish faces at me.”
“If it’s any comfort, you don’t kiss like a goldfish.”
“Thank you.” She grinned. “I’ve had time to practice.”
Jonah desperately wanted to ask for a demonstration, but knew they shouldn’t start down that path again. Even if they wanted to. Even if he desperately, urgently wanted to touch her just one more time?—
“Okay, here’s another tough question,” he said. “What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done in front of a mirror?”
She laughed and grabbed another piece of cornbread. “I’ve read Our Bodies, Ourselves. I’m not ashamed to admit I straddled that mirror like a pro and figured out what was what. I think I was in college.”
Jonah laughed, not wanting to admit how sexy he found that image. “How very enlightened of you.”
“I try.” Kate nibbled a piece of cornbread and looked thoughtful. “My turn to ask one.”
“Fire away.”
She scrunched up her face the way she always did when she was pondering something. Jonah wanted to reach out and trace a finger over the lines in her forehead.
“Tell me the most embarrassing thing your parents have caught you doing,” she said at last.
“Trying to stick my dick in the vacuum cleaner,” he answered without hesitation. Kate’s look of surprise made him think he should have hesitated just a little. “I was eleven or twelve years old and had just learned what a blow job was. Suffice it to say, it didn’t work out well for me.”
“Oh my God! Did you get hurt?”
“No. But I did require a little outside assistance to extricate myself.”
Kate burst out laughing, shaking her head as she smeared her bread through the last of her chili. “You’re nuts.” She snorted and popped the bite into her mouth. “No pun intended.”
“I haven’t done it recently,” he pointed out. “I am capable of learning from my mistakes.”
“I’m sure you are. I didn’t mean to sound judgmental.”
“Now you have to volunteer your own sexual mishap,” he said. “While we’re on the subject.”
He expected her to balk or change the subject. But she surprised him. “Anton—that was my last boyfriend?—”
“I know,” Jonah said, biting back a flare of jealousy he knew he wasn’t entitled to. “You’ve mentioned him a few times.”
“Right, of course. Sometimes he’d text me in the middle of the day and ask me to send him a sexy pic.”
“Typical guy.”
“You’ve done it?”
