Page 39 of The Déjà Glitch

Gemma, suddenly swooning for a different reason, closedher fist around a handful of his shirt and pulled him into a kiss. She had been out-of-her-mind terrified on the sidewalk, and he’d given her the boost she needed. Without him, she never would have had the guts to talk to Nigel.

He sucked in a sharp breath and almost lost his balance.

Gemma had been caught up in the moment, yes, but kissing Jack felt both new and like returning home from a long journey. Once he recovered from the shock, he kissed her back like his life depended on it. His lips molded around hers like complementary shapes cut out for each other. The soft pout was everything she’d imagined, and his tongue tasted like something she could get drunk on. She leaned into him, a dizzying warmth spreading over her, and felt his arms hook around her back. Flashes of their kiss in the bar came back but they were no longer dreamlike blips. She felt the familiarity of his lips and his arms. She couldn’t make sense of what any of it meant, but she knew it meant something big.

She pulled back, and he followed for a second, almost unconsciously, like he wanted to hold on longer. She softly smiled at him and pressed her fingers to his lips. “Thank you for lying to me.”

He looked positively stunned. A dazed shine filled his blue eyes. He softly kissed the pads of her fingers in a way that made Gemma tingle before she dropped her hand. “I’ll lie to you all day if this is the consequence.”

Gemma laughed as she heard the audio system click on.

“Uh, Gem? Who is this guy again?” Carmen’s voice came through the speakers in the ceiling.

Gemma flushed a shade of scarlet, she was sure. She had forgotten they were on display behind the glass.

“This is Jack.”

“Uh-huh. So, Jack, you’re not a musician, are you?” Carmen said protectively. She leaned over Hugo where he sat at the soundboard with his arms crossed like a father waiting for his daughter to come home from prom.

“No,” Jack said. “I’m a writer.”

Carmen exchanged a glance with Hugo. “Not sure if that’s better or worse in this town.”

“I vote better,” Hugo said.

Jack gave them a puzzled look. “Thank you?”

Gemma quietly laughed.

“Well, whatever you did to get our girl out of her shell, thank you. She totally nailed it,” Carmen said.

“Nailed it,” Hugo echoed like a parrot. They tended to get in a rhythm when they spoke.

Gemma proudly smiled that her work family was cheering her on.

“Way to handle that curve ball, by the way,” Carmen said. “We heard Azalea, and I had to put it through to keep the interview flowing. Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine,” Gemma said, thankful she’d been able to handle it well.

“Her ex is the front man,” Carmen tacked on for Jack’s benefit since her romantic history was no secret to anyone else in earshot. “Guy’s a dick.”

“Total dick,” Hugo said.

“He used her to get a record deal because her dad knows everyone in the industry,” Carmen added like a sprinkle of salt on a wound.

“Every—”

“Thanks, guys! He already knows!” Gemma shouted over whatever Hugo tried to add.

Jack still had his arms around her. He gave her a sympathetic squeeze.

She shot him a sad half smile and shrugged. “So, now what?” she asked. “If I just did something I’ve never done before, is that going to set the whole day on a different path?”

Jack paused in thought. “I don’t know. You’d never visited Dr. Woods before, nor had you visited the psychic, and we still ended up here. And for that matter, I’d never explained what was going on in the coffee shop back at the start of it all. And you’vedefinitelynever kissed me during the day, so who knows what we’ve set in motion.”

Warmth filled her cheeks. She had been bold on several counts, and she liked the turn of events. She also liked the feel of Jack’s arms around her and the memory—a real one she was sure about this time—of his kiss.

The shine in his eye felt like a promise.

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