Page 32 of Until Forever

He tripped over his words for a moment, then laughed. “Oh, nevermind. Don’t listen to me. I don’t know what I’m rambling on about. That’s my whole point, really. All of this has me twisted up in my head. Sometimes I think…,” He trailed off as his eyes drifted over me, particularly my breasts. “I think I just need to get out of my head and feel good for a little bit, you know?”

I sat up slowly and crossed my arms. If he was anyone else, I would have called him out for ogling me. But this was Claire’s husband. Even if he didn’t always show it, he had to love her. Because if he didn’t, I had to kill him. Especially if him not loving her translated into him hitting on me over the kitchen table while she was sleeping in the next room.

The nausea I felt before came lurching up again, and I knew I had had enough. I jumped to my feet and walked over to put my glass in the sink.

“That all sounds rough, Chris,” I offered half-heartedly. “You should talk to someone about it.”

Someone, as in anyone but me, I thought.

“Listen, I just remembered I left something at the marina. Since you’re here and Claire’s resting, I’m going to pop out and get it. This was a great talk, though.”

I bolted from the kitchen and snatched up my bag as quickly as I could. In one afternoon, I was forced to flee both my work site and my own home. Where the hell was I supposed to go to get away from these men and all of their crap?

As I stepped back out into the heat, I paused for a moment, furrowing my brow. I wasn’t crazy, right? Chris had just been staring at my boobs, talking about things like just wanting to feel good. He was hitting on me! It was just another thing I was going to have to try and swallow down to keep going.

Of course, I hadn’t left anything at the marina, but I was way too uncomfortable to stay locked up in the house with him while Claire was asleep. I knew if I went to Jake’s, the odds of running into Keith or Molly, who only ever wanted to talk about Keith, were high. Besides, I needed to clear my head—Not drink in a sad, dark bar and get stuck with all of my thoughts. With the sun setting, the heat was finally becoming more bearable. I decided to take a walk around the square downtown and try to get a handle on everything.

But the more I walked, the more lost and confused I felt. I didn’t want to keep thinking about Keith or his kiss, and I didn’t want to have to admit to myself or anyone that my best friend’s loser husband was possibly hitting on me. What I wanted…more than anything…was to go back to California and forget there was any reason for me to be in Silver Point in the first place.

But if I wasn’t making it up and Chris really was just hitting on me, Claire needed me around more than ever. And not just because of the disaster that already happened with her accident, but because of the impending one that was obviously about to happen with her marriage.

14

KEITH

Despite the blistering heat that was slowly fading, but not fading quite fast enough, I decided to walk to the hardware store instead of driving. I didn’t even really need to go to the store. I mean, I always needed something from the hardware store, but the only thing that made it pressing was to get away from the work site for a bit and clear my head. I couldn’t just go back to work after that kiss or after Lana stormed out the way she did.

So, I walked. Thinking as I went—I could only remember maybe one time in my entire life when I regretted kissing or doing anything physical with a woman. I wasn’t entirely sure if this time with Lana was another one for the books or not.

It was hard to really regret it, considering the burning heat of need it sent shooting through my body. It was electric and unlike anything I had ever felt before. It reminded me of the big storms that would roll through during the summer, lightning and thundering in big magnificent clouds that hung heavy over the fields. It was always such a beautifully terrifying and powerful sight, and now that same storm felt like it was rolling around inside of me.

And it was something that I had wanted since the moment it almost happened the first time. No, it was something I had, at least in part, wanted since Lana came back to town. Actually, if I was being honest…It was something I had always wanted to happen between us. It just hadn’t been at the forefront of my mind because it seemed so impossible. Usually, I did a good job of not torturing myself by obsessing over what was so far-fetched to obtain.

But that didn’t make any of this rainbows and sunshine. That stormy feeling she inspired inside was new to me, and it was frightening. In addition to all that uneasiness, I knew everything would be weird now. She’d hate herself for letting it happen, wouldn’t she? That was why she stormed out of there like that. Then again, if that was the case…why did it happen in the first place? Why did she tease me like that when I told her I was on the edge…and then why didn’t she pull away?

I went through town and then the hardware store in a daze, my head spinning with a relentless round of pointless questions. Trying to figure out what was going through Lana’s head at any given point in time was about as useful as putting a screen door on a submarine.

Of course, the obvious solution could have been to just ask her what she was thinking. I always tended to assume I knew, and I usually ended up wrong. I only avoided asking because I thought she wouldn’t tell me the truth, and that was probably no better off than all my other assumptions about her—like that she would never strip to underwear and let me kiss her, much less kiss me back.

My frustrations over it all left me a grumbling, muttering mess as I stormed out of the hardware store, not even entirely sure what I had bought. I barged out the door so fast that I ran smack dab into someone passing by on the sidewalk.

“Excuse me. So sorry,” I blurted without even looking up at first.

But when my eyes did raise, my mouth dropped open just as wide as the person staring back at me. There she was again—Lana Miller. The queen of showing up at the worst time possible and getting in my way.

“Oh, it’s you,” she replied, dropping her gaze down to the sidewalk between us.

“It’s me,” I smirked, rolling in the irony of it all. Of course, we’d run into each other right then and there when all either of us wanted was to get some much-needed space.

“What are you up to?” I asked. Making small talk was better than awkwardly darting in the other direction without saying a word.

She looked up to the sky with a big sigh, looking everywhere she could but at me. “Um, I don’t know yet. I just…I needed to get out for a bit.”

I nodded slowly, noticing she looked a little upset. Was it over our kiss or something else? Either way, it occurred to me that this little run-in might have been a blessing in disguise or a sign of some kind. I had only just been thinking that I needed to stop making so many damn assumptions about her and just ask her what she was thinking. Maybe this was my chance.

“Well, I think I have an idea for something we could do…if you’re up for it,” I told her.

Her lips parted, and I was positive she’d turn me down. But before her reply could roll off her tongue, she hesitated. I watched her think it over for a moment and was completely clueless as to which direction she’d fall.

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