Page 24 of Five Alarm Kiss

“What?”Laurel spun around to confirm her worst nightmare. “Oh, no,” she whispered, gripping the harness she wore like it had the power to render her invisible. Unfortunately, it didn’t. Jake smiled and lifted his chin in greeting.

Cranberries!He’d recognized her.

He started her way, only to be stopped by a beautiful blonde who’d descended the ladder behind him. She skipped up to link her arm through his.

Is that his girlfriend?

Laurel’s stomach clenched at the thought of Jake having a girlfriend, but it twisted into a pretzel when it dawned on her that he had a girlfriend, andshe’d kissed him. Not once, but twice! Worse than that, he’d kissed her back. Part of her wanted to call him out, but the other part didn’t want to cause a scene. Still, the girl should know her boyfriend was scum. Cheating on someone was lower than low. It was cruel and disrespectful. If you wanted to sleep with someone in the apartment you shared with your fiancée the night before your wedding, fudging have the decency to call it off first!

Closing her eyes, she exhaled a shaky breath. She didn’t miss Ethan, but she did miss feeling like she was enough. He’d taken that from her. She’d slowly been building her confidence back up, and had made a lot of progress, but every once in a while, something would kick her back a notch. Like right now.

Laurel decided she had to tell Jake’s girlfriend. She deserved to know he’d kissed someone else.

You kissed him first.

But, in all fairness, she hadn’t known he had a girlfriend. He, on the other hand, obviously did, but had kissed her anyway.

Despite the fact that thought made her queasy, her mind was made up. She’d tell his girlfriend, but she’d prefer to do it in private. She didn’t want to embarrass the poor woman in front of an audience, and as angry as Laurel was right now, she didn’t trust herself to be tactful if Jake was there.

She needed more time to think of the best way to break the news as kindly as possible, but Jake and his girlfriend were only about twenty feet away.

Not ready to have the conversation yet, Laurel held her breath and jumped. The trolley dug into her butt as she zipped along the cable, the downward angle and her weight speeding up the momentum.

Skye’s excited “Yes, Laur!” echoing behind her, Laurel let out a little shriek when a tree to her left flew past way too close for her liking. Her heart was in her throat. The cable could snap at any moment, but even scarier… how the heck was she going to break the news to that poor, unsuspecting woman?

Laurel was so distracted, she forgot to engage the brake until she saw the guide frantically waving at her. She yanked hard on the handle, causing her legs to jolt forward like a kid on a swing who’d pumped too high. Thankfully, the guide wrapped his arms around her legs, preventing her from swinging higher. Once she was stabilized and standing on the platform, he disconnected the trolley from the cable. She quickly climbed down the ladder and stood behind the support beam of the platform, cautiously peering around it. From this vantage point, she couldn’t see Jake or his girlfriend.

A few moments later, Skye slid down the cable to stop gracefully, the way they’d been taught.

“What was that all about?” Skye asked once she’d descended the ladder.

“What do you mean?” Laurel started walking toward zip line number five. Everyone from their group was impatiently waiting on them, since they couldn’t ride the next line until the second guide showed up... and he’d been waiting on her. Wincing, she mouthed a silent “sorry.”

“The sudden burst of fearlessness,” Skye clarified.

“What’re you complaining about? You wanted me to go.”

“True,” Skye agreed. “I just wasn’t expecting you to vault off the platform like John McClane jumping off Nakatomi Tower. Plus, kiss number three with Mr. Not Some Guy is back there.” She hooked her thumb over her shoulder in Jake’s direction.

“He has a girlfriend!” Laurel shouted before she remembered their audience. Grabbing Skye by the elbow, she dragged her a few steps away from their group. “A girlfriend,” she whispered through clenched teeth. “He kissed me, and he has a girlfriend. ”

“Who says he has a girlfriend?” Skye asked.

Laurel pinned her with an are-you-serious glare. “The blonde on his arm, that’s who.”

“Well, if she’s his girlfriend, they must be in a threesome because she’s hanging on the other guy now.”

“What?”

“The one without the glasses. They were sucking face.”

“They were?”

“Pretty sure I know what sucking face looks like, Laur.”

“Hey, you guys need to stick with the group.” Their guide was standing at the base of the next zip line, annoyance etched on his face.

“Great bedside manner,” Skye quipped.

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