Teaser Time

“One day, do you think you’d be able to forgive me?” He faced me, total seriousness upon his face.

The breeze picked up, and I pulled the sweater tight. “I don’t know. Maybe?”

With a twist, he leaned back against the weathered wood seat and draped his good arm along the top of the bench, behind my back. I tried to sense if he was close to touching me, but his arm stayed put. Probably a good thing as I worried I’d lose the last restraint I had left.

“I can work with maybe.”

My heart squeezed for a moment. He’d dangled the carrot, and I cut off the line.

Sheesh. What was wrong with me? Everything about tonight felt so right, so perfect, and so god-damned natural. Sitting beside him, it felt more like a couple thing, not a friendship thing. So why had I put the brakes on?

Was it foolishness?

All day long I had been entertaining the idea of an apology and the prospect of more, and yet, when it appeared, I cowardly backed away. Or was it pride preventing me from letting him back in, since there was no way I could live through another rejection. Whatever it was though, I’d have to take it and deal with it.

Turning my head slightly in his direction, I inhaled the lingering cologne and allowed it to wrap around my soul and hold me together. I needed it, because I knew deep down just being in the same vicinity as my first love was dangerous. With Benjamin, anything had been possible.

My focus rolled up from his shoulder, and into the wanton look forming in his eyes.

Oh god, was he fighting it too? Was he feeling what I was? As if I were seventeen all over again, readying for my first kiss, my insides squealed with delight.

His gaze scanned my face, and I found myself leaning toward him.

Casually, as if the last fourteen years hadn’t created an ocean between us, he trailed a finger down the side of my face and wrapped a tendril of hair behind my ear. “God, I’ve missed you.”

My voice was weaker than my resolve, and I was in over my head. “I’ve missed you too.”

~~~~~
Oh damn! These two... ❤
Meet Chloe & Benjamin in Second Chances in Cheshire Bay

SECOND CHANCES in CHESHIRE BAY, coming April 18th
Have you preordered?