Sherryl Woods - Moonlight Cove

He sat down hard in the chair next to hers. “I see.”

“Gram seems to think we should get our stories straight.”

He stared at her blankly. “What stories?”

“The ones where we deny it meant anything or try to convince them that our lips locked by accident,” she said with a shrug. “Anything to keep them from jumping on this and starting some kind of matchmaking frenzy.”

“Why do I think it’s probably too late for that?” he asked bleakly.

“Because you know the O’Briens. We’re nothing if not eager to meddle.”

“So what’s our story?” he asked. “Any thoughts?”

“I’m all for trying out the accidental lip-lock theory,” she said.

Will had the audacity to laugh. “No one who saw us that night is going to buy that. The first kiss, maybe, but there were two.”

Jess shivered. “I remember.” The second had been even more potent than the first. “Maybe they don’t know that.”

“Maybe instead of worrying about them, we should be focusing on what the kisses really meant,” he suggested, looking directly into her eyes in a way that disconcerted her.

Jess shook her head.

“Why not?”

“I’m not ready to start analyzing what happened,” she said.

“You’d rather pretend that nothing did?”

“I’d like to try,” she admitted wistfully. “But I’m pretty sure that’s going to be impossible.”

Will tried to conceal a smile but didn’t quite pull it off.

Jess scowled at him. “Don’t let that go to your head. I’m just saying it’s not so easy to un-ring that bell.”

“I wouldn’t dream of trying,” he said quickly.

She gave him a plaintive look. “Why did you come here today?”

He held her gaze for a long time before he said, “For your grandmother’s chicken and dumplings, of course.”

“You know Kevin cooked, right? It might not be the same as Gram’s.”

He laughed. “It’ll be close enough, I imagine. And it’s bound to be better than anything in my freezer.”

Jess felt guilty at even hinting that he shouldn’t have come. “Sorry. I’m being selfish. I’m just not ready to deal with any of this, I guess. Whatever this is.”

Instead of trying to define it for her, he plucked a white rose from the arrangement of hydrangeas and roses and held it out to her. “I don’t think Nell will miss it.”

She frowned, ignoring the flower. Maybe it was a sweet gesture, but suddenly she wasn’t in the mood for sweet gestures. “Thanks, but even that’s likely to arouse questions, Will. Just take the flowers inside and get them into water.”

He studied her quietly. “Jess, do we need to talk? We could leave and go somewhere else, if you want to.”

“What could we possibly need to discuss?” she said, not entirely sure why she was so annoyed. Nothing about this encounter had gone the way she’d expected it to. Truthfully, she wasn’t even sure what her expectations had been.

Will looked justifiably confused. “I’m not sure exactly what we need to talk about. I just know that you seem angry all of a sudden.”

“I’m not angry,” she said. Hurt, maybe. Confused, for sure. But not angry. Had that blasted kiss meant nothing, after all? Will was all about honesty and being direct, but he hadn’t said a single word to indicate that the kiss had affected him at all. She’d opened herself up—well, a little, anyway—but all he’d done was make light of what had happened.

Though he didn’t look as if he believed her denial about being angry, he simply nodded and stood up. “Then I’ll see you inside.”

After he’d gone, Jess sighed. This was going to be a whole lot harder than she’d anticipated. It was as if the kiss had unleashed all sorts of unexpected emotions, and now she was supposed to stuff them back inside and pretend they didn’t exist, not just in front of her family, but in front of Will, too.

A part of her wanted to march inside and throw caution to the wind, but she knew better, at least in this setting. Because if she did what she wanted to do and kissed Will in front of her entire family just to see if the experience was still magical, there would be no turning back.

And though she might not know much these days, she knew with every fiber of her being that she wasn’t ready for that.

Will didn’t have too much time to worry about Jess’s odd mood once dinner was over. They’d barely finished dessert when Susie appeared at his side.

“We need to talk,” she announced, her usually animated expression dejected. “Outside.”

Will glanced across the room, saw that Jess was slipping out through the kitchen and knew that she wasn’t likely to welcome him chasing after her. He forced a smile for Susie. “Sure,” he said. “Want to go for a walk on the beach?”

Though the fall day was surprisingly hot, there was a good breeze off the water. They fell into step and walked along the narrow strip of sand in silence.

He glanced over at her eventually. “You going to tell me why you wanted to talk to me?”

She sighed. “It’s Mack,” she said, then added in frustration, “It’s always Mack. The man is going to drive me insane.”

Will couldn’t keep himself from chuckling. “I think the effect is mutual.”

Susie waved off the comment. “Come on. Mack’s oblivious, and lately it’s been even worse than usual.”

“What do you mean?”

She paused and faced Will. “Can I be honest with you?”

“Of course.”

“And you won’t go running to Mack?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Okay, then,” she said, and drew in a deep breath. “I’m crazy about him. I have been for years.”

“Now there’s a news flash,” Will said before he could stop himself. He met her gaze and smiled. “I’m sorry. You’re not telling me anything I haven’t known before.”

She sighed. “I figured. I guess I knew it wasn’t a secret, but I kind of hoped I could pretend seeing him was no big deal. That way, if he walked away, which he’s eventually bound to do, my pride would still be intact.”

“Why are you so certain he’d leave you?”

“Because that’s what Mack does,” she said pragmatically. “He leaves. He thinks he’s just like his father, the sleaze who left before he was born. He’s spent his whole life proving it to himself by dating one woman after another and dumping every one of them. I think there were even a few along the way that he actually liked, but he didn’t stick around long enough to see if the relationship would work. I watched him do it all through high school and college. Even though I had feelings for him, I vowed it wasn’t going to happen to me.”

“So you decided to be his friend,” Will concluded.

Susie nodded. “Men might leave women, but they usually keep their friends. Just look at you, Jake and Mack. You’re like the three musketeers or something. I wanted that kind of relationship with Mack, one that would last. I figured if it was easy, with no demands or expectations, maybe he’d relax.”

“And finally notice you?” Will suggested gently.

Susie nodded, her expression miserable. “A while back, when Shanna first came to town and got involved with Kevin, she told me she thought Mack was crazy about me. I actually started to get my hopes up. I figured, hey, if an objective observer noticed something, then maybe it was true.” She sighed. “But nothing changed. Now I don’t know if it ever will. It’s like we’re locked in this pattern and we’re both too scared to risk changing it.”

She gave him a hopeful look. “Do you think it’s possible to ever break out of the friend mold? Or have I doomed myself by making such a big deal of the fact that I’d never date Mack?”