Page 98 of Hello Stranger

I felt Skylar take it in: the way my hip rubbed against his, the way my arm tightened around his torso, the impact of my temple as it made its landing on the curve of his shoulder.

That was all she needed. “Ah.”

Guess it worked.

It should have been enough. Really, it was plenty. I’d made my point, right?

Joe had rescued me so many times—and now I’d rescued him back.

But it felt better than I would’ve expected. Both the hug itself—touching him, slipping over close and pressing against him in so many places like that, setting off emotional sparks I didn’t see coming—but also the rescue.

The brain system that reads people? It revved right up at that moment. I could feel Joe’s relief at what I was doing. I could feel how grateful he was. It was palpable. His tension eased. His breath slowed. Even the feel of his arm as it came up around me in response was like a grateful caress.

Suddenly we were a team working together to pull off this moment. The two of us against the world. Or—more accurately—against Joe’s ex-wife.

The point is, I didn’t stop at the side hug.

While Skylar and Hot Tub Guy were still taking us in as a couple, I could justfeelJoe’s brain replaying the betrayal all over again—almost like I was feeling it with him. And I just couldn’t resist the challenge of trying to take that pain away.

I didn’t think it through, that’s for sure.

I didn’t think at all.

Joe wasn’t the only person around here who could be pathologically helpful.

And at that I reached out, grabbed the collar of Joe’s shirt, pulled him down toward me, and kissed him.

By the way, his lips? In that moment? As I went in for the landing? I could see them just fine. Zeroing in on the lips was easier, in fact, than trying to take in a whole face. It felt like a relief.

It was meant to be a peck, but at the moment of impact, I heard Skylar make an astonished little gasp.

And that spurred me to keep going.

To push in closer, in fact. To go bigger.

And deeper. And softer.

I shifted my hand up to the back of Joe’s neck to hold him in place—not sure how he’d react to the shock of it all. The odds were fifty-fifty that he’d jump away, likeWhat the hell?

But he didn’t jump away.

The opposite, in fact.

In a remarkable feat of surprise improv, as soon as he realized what I was doing, he went with it. He brought his hand to my back, pulled me tighter, softened his mouth, and kissed me right back.

Just like that, it went from fake to… something else.

We didn’t even need a hot tub.

I don’t know how long that little kiss lasted. Three seconds? Five? A hundred? All I know is, when it started, we were both entirely focused on the couple standing across from us… and by the time it ended, that focus had shifted.

Skylar and Hot Tub Guy were forgotten.

That is, until Skylar coughed and said, “Okay. Well. Great seeing you.”

It broke the kiss, but nothing else. Joe didn’t even look over or loosen his arm around me or say goodbye. He just stared into my eyes until after they were gone. And I was too dazed to even mind.

Then, in unison, we snapped out of the trance. We broke eye contact and stepped back.

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