Page 17 of Not You Again
Just as quickly, though, Carly reached for his hand and intertwined her fingers with his.
He looked down at their joined hands. “What are you doing?”
“Take a deep breath,” she said. “You look like you’re about to fall over, and you’re way too big for me to catch even when I’m standing.”
Adam stared into her eyes, took a deep breath and let it out.
“Good,” Carly said. “Again.”
They both inhaled, then exhaled. Inhaled and exhaled.
Adam’s eyes burned with the sting of tears. It was onething to have the idea of Shireen and Dean, but seeing them together was a new kind of horror. “I don’t usually...” He could barely get the words he wanted to say out.I don’t usually cry.
He could still see the shape of her and Dean through his blurred vision. They’d been holding each other, touching, very much together. Like she’d really moved on from their marriage.
“I’m sorry, Adam.” Carly squeezed his hand tighter. “What they’re doing is total bullshit.”
He didn’t want to pass out or weep, or both. So he simply pinched his eyes closed and breathed out again.
“I have an idea,” Carly said. “Do you want to do something that will make you feel better?”
He’d cut off his own leg if it guaranteed him relief from the white-hot burn of shame filling his throat. Adam nodded.
Carly’s cool palm squeezed his again. She glanced down at their joined hands, then looked back up at him. He couldn’t help noticing how plump that bottom lip of hers was.
Her tongue licked the bottom lip he’d admired, as if in acknowledgment. “You saved me from a car today, and now it’s my turn to repay the favor. My good deed for the day.”
“Good deed? I’m not your charity case. I don’t need—” He honestly didn’t even know what he was protesting, but without much warning Carly pushed herself up from the chair and leaned into his arms. Adam hurried to hold her up, and as he did she reached behind his neck, pulled him down and kissed him. A kiss so surprising that Adam nearly tripped backward, but instead just fell closer toward her.
Well, she didn’tactuallykiss him. She kissed her own thumb, which was placed strategically over his lips. When she pulled away, Adam felt dizzy from all the things going on in that moment.
Shireen’s nose nuzzling up to Dean’s.
Carly’s thumb and lips on his mouth.
Her breath that smelled like the free peppermints they had in the lobby of the funeral home. He loved those.
“Okay, my back,” Carly’s voice was pained, and Adam lowered her into the chair. She let out a shuddering breath as she relaxed into the seat. Then she looked up, and he could just make out the line of sweat along her hairline. She looked... exhausted. Like what she’d just done had taken every single drop of energy.
But whathadshe done? Why had she gone and kissed him?
“What the hell was that?” he eventually asked.
“Look,” she said softly, almost imperceptibly signaling to where Shireen was. He glanced over and, to his surprise, Shireen locked eyes with Adam, as if trying to silently ask,What the fuck?
“It worked, right?” Carly whispered.
“I...” he started to say. “I don’t understand. What worked?”
She released her grip on the arm of the chair and took hold of his hand again. “Every day I do something nice for someone else.”
“Nice?” Now he was even more confused. Did she really think that wasnice? And why was he so lightheaded?
“Pretending to kiss you was my nice thing! No chance she’ll be thinking about Dean for the next—”
As if on cue, Goldie’s booming voice came through a megaphone with, “Ten hours remaining, people!”
“She gets it.” Carly hooked a thumb in the direction of the voice. “Now, wheel me off into the sunset and don’t look back.”
