Page 58 of Unbreakable Love

What she said wasn’t wrong, but we could have had it so much worse. I still remembered the days before the men who hurt her hadn’t completely destroyed her, before she turned to booze and probably worse to handle herself. But we’d had this argument before. No amount of defending Mom would make a lick of difference.

“Fine. I’ll live my life. Happy now?” I might as well have stuck my tongue out at her for as pouty as my words came out.

“No, but I will be once I use the bathroom, change into pajamas, and we move on from this, and you start telling me about this town and all the shit I’ve heard the last couple of days.”

“Pass on that last one.”

“Ugh. You’re no fun.”

She stomped past me and into the guest room while I laughed.

We were grown adults, still young maybe, but adults all the same and when we were together, we still acted like kids.

A heavy, quick succession of thumps hit my front door and I hurried to it. There was only one person who could show up at my house this late at night. One person whose knock would sound so angry.

Still, I was small, and this week’s news had reminded me how unsafe I could be, even here, so I peeked through the narrow window next to my door and threw my door open.

Gavin was pacing my front porch, his back to me, hands in his hair. He wore short sleeves and no coat and had to be freezing. Goose bumps immediately pebbled down my arms as the cold, icy wind slammed into my face and my sock-covered toes curled into the rug at my feet.

I crossed my arms over each other and rubbed them to heat my own body. “Is everything okay?”

He spun, looking as frazzled and bedraggled as he had from the back.

“I’ve been reminded lately that life is short. And difficult. And we should live without regrets.”

“Okay…”

“I haven’t been mad at you because of anything you’ve done, and I haven’t been rude to you because you deserve it.”

Well, this was not at all how I thought our conversation would go the next time I saw him. I shook my head. “I’m not sure I understand.”

Gavin groaned and swiped a hand down his face. His body was tight, muscles bulging on his arms, and his chest heaved with frustration. “I’ve been pissed and confused because for the first time since Monica disappeared, I felt something and haven’t handled that uncertainty well.”

“You make that sound like a bad thing.”

“I’m terrified. But I want to try something.”

“What?”

“This.” He took one large stride and was right in front of me. His hands were at my cheeks. His fingers, cold from the frigid night, made me shiver before they warmed against me, and as his thumb brushed down my jaw, a tremble rolled through me that had nothing to do with the temperature.

“It’s been a while,” he said and chewed on his bottom lip.

“For me, too,” I admitted. Years since I’d felt a man’s kiss. Fumbling early on in college before I decided it wasn’t worth it. But this was different. Gavin was different.

“You can tell me no.”

There was no way I was doing that. No way I was denying myself that. I reached up and wrapped my hands around his wrists. “I won’t.”

A small, weighted chuckle escaped his beautiful lips and then he was leaning forward. His head dipped to the side. I tilted mine to the other.

And then his lips, surprisingly warm, pressed against mine. My eyes widened in surprise at that first brush and then melted closed as he kissed me deeper. Harder. He teased my bottom lip and a whimper escaped my mouth before he sealed his lips over mine and prodded at my lips with his tongue.

I opened, felt that first glorious brush of his tongue against mine, and leaned in.

“Pen—oh! Sorry!”

Gavin jerked back, gaping at the stranger in my doorway, and my sister, with wide, humored eyes, burst out a laugh.

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