Page 7 of Kissing in the Rain
“Therapy didn’t help?” heasked.
She shrugged. “I mean, I enjoyed talking about what went wrong, which was pretty much everything, but…” She shook her head. “It doesn’tmatter.”
He knocked his elbow against hers. “What were you hoping to accomplish intherapy?”
She hugged her arms around her knees. “Oh, I don’t know. I was hoping to feel a little better about love and marriage and all that jazz.” Glancing over, she asked, “Have you ever beenclose?”
“To marrying? No.” He shook his head quickly. “Not because I’m not interested in it. I am. One day. With the rightperson.”
She pulled her knees in tighter. “Having the right person iskey.”
“Marriage is forever. You really need it to be with someone youlove.”
“Or at leastlike.”
He looked over. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, what did gowrong?”
She shook her head. “Too many things to list. We had nothing in common, which made things interesting at first. Except, after a while, he did his thing and I did mine, and neither of us cared to venture into the other’sworld.”
“Sounds prettylonely.”
“You have no idea.” She swallowed as she remembered the feeling of being utterly alone. Of eating dinner with someone and not saying a word. Her ex-husband, Frank, always had his cell phone out, reading something of interest and making her feel like she was of least importance in his life. “So, if we have the entire night ahead of us, let’s find a happier topic, shallwe?”
“Okay.”
They sat next to each other, neither saying aword.
“I guess it’s hard to be happy when you’re cold and wet and stranded on a deserted island, naked with a stranger,” she joked. “That’s a TV show, right?Naked andAfraid.”
Gabe chuckled. She liked the deep sound. “We’re not exactly naked.” His gaze dropped again, noting her bra and panties. A burn scorched her skin even though she was still chilled to her core. “And I’m not afraid. You shouldn’t be either. As long as we can stay warm, there’s nothing here that can harmus.”
“No wild animals?” she asked, feeling slightlyfoolish.
“No. There’s no food source here. Just sand and brush. We’resafe.”
She swallowed. Safe, except her heart was pattering around like a silly little puppy. For some reason, Gabe had always had that effect onher.
And that was an incredibly dangerousthing.
The sightof Jillian half-naked was driving Gabe a little insane. He’d always had a thing for her, even when she was younger with glasses and her long hair pulled back in a single braid. Opposite to her, Gabe had always been the outdoorsy kind. Sitting still and reading wasn’t his thing, but he found it interesting how she could get lost in a book’s pages. She was too young for him back then, though. Fifteen and seventeen were light yearsapart.
Wrong time. Wronggirl.
Jillian wasn’t a schoolgirl anymore, though. No, she was definitely all woman. He sneaked a peek to the side again. The more she hugged herself, trying to conceal her body, the more her cleavage popped out of her lacebra.
He snapped his gaze back. “I’m sorry,” hemuttered.
“What?”
He glanced over at her eyes this time. He forgot she couldn’t see too well without her contact lenses. “I keep looking at you. I’m, uh,sorry.”
“Oh.” She hugged herself tighter. The cleavage dugdeeper.
Fuck.Me.
“Funny, because you were never interested in looking at me in highschool.”
The tone in her voice told him it wasn’t funny at all. “Not true. I thought you were pretty even then. But you were young and Lorelai’s bestfriend.”
