Page 20 of Married in Misty Mountain

“Time to shower,” I say, backing into the bathroom.

“Yeah.” She nods, giving the slightest pout. “You do smell like horses.”

This woman has me stiff as a flagpole and laughing simultaneously.

Well, I’d better get over whatever she’s doing to me.

A nice cold shower is exactly what I need.

Chapter Nine

Shenna

Hurley takes a long time in the shower, and I’m fully invested in this movie by the time he comes to bed.

Dressed in shorts and a tee-shirt, he flings the sheets down, crawls in, and faces the wall, away from me.

He still seems wound up very tightly, though I thought the shower would relax him a little bit.

“Everything okay?” I ask.

“Fine,” he says a little too quickly.

I turn back to the movie, a cute Hallmark story about a prominent city lawyer who goes to a small town to settle a late client’s estate and falls in love with the local innkeeper who once stood her up for prom. Or maybe she turned him down when he asked her to prom. I’m not sure, but I know it has something to do with bad blood related to prom. I’m not following very closely because I’ve been preoccupied with something.

I click the TV off. “So. That kiss.”

There. It’s out there. It’s better to air things out instead of leaving questions unanswered.

Hurley yawns. “What about it?”

“Was it…was that…acting?”

He doesn’t answer for a long moment.

“I shouldn’t have kissed you so hard.”

“But you did.”

“I was trying to make it look convincing,” he says.

Now, why does that statement sound absolutely scripted and hollow?

“Oh,” I say, feeling a little hurt.

He exhales loudly, like an old dog settling in for a long nap.

“It’s just that…”

“Hm?”

“Was it…was it a good kiss? Like, did I do it right?”

“What? Shenna, you can’t be serious.”

“I just want to know if…if I was convincing too.”

Hurley rolls onto his back and stretches his arms up over his head, his tricep muscles bunching far too attractively. My gaze travels up and down his beefy inner arms as he lies there, hands tucked under his head. Soft hairs peek out from his short sleeves, and I get a whiff of spicy deodorant. “I don’t think anyone suspected anything was amiss. Feel better now?”

---