Shelby was safe.
I was safe.
This was just one friend helping out another.
18
SHELBY
I wasa woman who had just been kissed.
Looking at it objectively, it had been a nice kiss. Quick and sweet, but…a nice way to kiss someone you’ve just met. Granted, I had no idea it was coming, but that just made it more exciting.
The pressure of his lips had been light but not too light. I checked the bathroom mirror as I readied my toothbrush with paste. My lips weren’t puffy, which was good. A first kiss at the front door was definitely not a time for a full-blown make-out session. I didn’t need to feel fireworks and butterflies this early. Nobody needed to be overcome by the passion of the moment on a front porch. Or even having passion at all. There hadn’t been time for passion. By the time I registered what was going on, it was almost over. For a surprise first-date kiss, it had been great.
Good, at the very least.
I doused the toothbrush with water and began brushing. Easton was sweet. The kiss was sweet. I didn’t think he intended it to be more than that. He did mention that maybe we could get together in Boise when I moved. But there was no pressure foranything. I should be shouting from the rooftops. It was a great practice kiss. Maybe I would shout from the rooftops.
Maybe tomorrow, when I wasn’t so tired.
I had always imagined myself being the type to fall on my bed in a swoon-filled heap after I’d been kissed for the first time. Maybe I’d dance around in my room to an old pop song, reliving the touches and the feel of his lips on mine a hundred times over. Of course, my teen-pop-song-bedroom-mirror-dancing days had ended once I’d graduated high school, but the happy image was still enticing. My fingers should be itching to call Tessa or at least text…someone. But it was almost ten p.m. And technically, this date was supposed to be a secret.
I spit out the water before crawling into bed. Coincidentally, while it was Easton’s kiss that lingered on my lips, it was Jake I couldn’t get out of my mind. Had he been on the porch tonight? It had been dark, but I thought I’d seen a flash of white in the shadows.
A loud knocking at my front door caused my body to tense. It came again. I jumped out of bed and grabbed my baseball bat hidden underneath. It wasn’t until I heard Jake’s voice calling through the window in my room that I took a breath.
“Shelby,” his voice came again, this time with a knock at my window.
Worried it might be something to do with Sophie, I moved to the other side of the bed and yanked open the window blinds, revealing what looked to be an agitated cowboy on the other side. I dropped the bat and opened the window.
“Can I help you?”
He took me in for a moment, his eyes scanning quickly from my hair to my bare feet, and settled momentarily on the baseball bat lying on my bed. “Is that how you always answer the window?”
“Just when it’s you, apparently.”
“Didn’t you hear me calling?”
“Only after the first two bangs on my door.”
He looked sympathetic. “Oh, sorry.”
“What’s up?”
“Lesson time—as long as you don’t bring the bat.”
“What lesson?” I immediately glanced down at my silk pajama set and folded my arms across my chest as the chill from the night air infiltrated my room. Before my shopping trip with Tessa, I had always slept in basketball shorts down to my knees and an old tank top. And now, at the curious look in Jake’s eyes as he raked in the shorts reaching mid-thigh and the matching top, I became very aware of what little I was wearing.
“Your doorstep lesson. I saw the most disturbing things on my porch tonight, and I can’t sleep knowing there’s somebody like you left unchecked in this world.”
Immediately, my hackles rose. “What part?”
“Parts.”
“I wasn’tthatbad.”
“If you were a dog, I’d just as soon shoot you.”