Page 28 of Deliver Me

Mia barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Lilly had never been good at keeping a secret. “It’s nothing, she’s upset right now because I’m not seeing James anymore.”

“That’s all?” Kennedy’s face fell, disappointment wiping the excitement away.

“No,” Mia sighed. “I guess she probably wanted me to tell you about Gabriel, too.”

“The prison guy?”

“Yeah.” Mia glanced around to make sure no one was listening nearby. “It’s really nothing but …” She paused, nibbling her lip as she tried to figure out how to explain what had happened between them.

“But?” Kennedy pressed.

“But I might have feelings for him,” Mia mumbled. “Feelings that he might also have about me.”

“So, he’s your boyfriend?”

“I don’t know.” Mia glanced around again. “Things are complicated and it’s hard with him being in prison.”

Kennedy frowned and hesitated before asking, “Are you two not …”

“Not what?”

“Sexting? Phone sex? Sexy letters?” She was clearly appalled when Mia didn’t seem familiar with any of those things. “You know?”

“I reallydon’tknow? Do people really do that?”

“Definitely,” Kennedy said, a perplexed mix of shock and pity on her face. “I can’t believe you’renotdoing that. He’s hot, right?”

“He’s attractive,” Mia said, but she was blushing profusely. It hadn’t been long since she and Gabriel had talked about any kind of feelings between them, but what if he did expect her to do those things? “The guards read all of our letters and record all of our phone calls,” she muttered weakly.

“If they want to listen to or read your sexy shit, let ‘em,” Kennedy continued with a shrug, clearly unbothered by the thought.

The last bit carried in the small room, and Mrs. Newberry glared at them. “Language, please, ladies.”

Kennedy gave her tight smile as Mia leaned in and whispered, “Have you … you know?”

“I can’t date, remember? That’s the closest I’m gonna get to a real girlfriend until I can move out of my parent’s house.”

It made sense, but it had never occurred to Mia that even Kennedy had more sexual experience than she did because her parents were so controlling. What had she been missing out on all this time?

The conversation lingered in the back of her mind as she waited for Gabriel to call that weekend, unable to stop turning over everything Kennedy had told her …

“Gabriel?” she asked, interrupting him as he asked about her day.

“Yeah?”

“Have you had sex before? I know you were young but …”

“I’ve had sex before,” he interrupted, and she knew that somehow this was one of those mysterious things connected to what had happened to him that he would be reluctant to talk about.

“Do you …” she hesitated before pressing on cautiously, “Do you think it’s wrong for people who aren’t married to have sex?” She’d said she wasn’t going to demand answers about his past, but she didn’t want to drop the subject entirely.

There was a long pause, and she could almost feel the thoughts swirling inside his mind as he tried to figure out how to answer that question. “I don’t think so,” he said finally. “Especially if they care about each other.”

“I care about you,” she told him huskily.

“I care about you, too,” he said, but there was a note of hesitation there, a hint of confusion. He obviously couldn’t see where she was going with this conversation, and she was too shy to announce suddenly that she thought she might want to try having a long-distance sexual relationship.

“If you weren’t in prison, you’d be kind of like a boyfriend, right?” she asked instead.

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