Good With His Hands (Good in Bed #1)- Lauren Blakely Page 0,24
signal. What’s our plan if the cops show up? Do I leave you behind, or toss you on my shoulder and run like hell?”
“You better not leave me behind,” she protests, matching my tone. “But I’m not sure I’ll need carrying. As I’ve proven tonight . . . I’m very fast.”
“Yes, you are,” I murmur, offering her a hand so she can hop down from the O. “And I’d never leave you behind, my criminal friend.”
But I am leaving her behind.
Only, I have to stop thinking of it that way. Ruby’s trying to live her best life. I’m trying to live mine.
It just so happens, mine will be across the country.
And that’s going to have to be okay.
As we walk away from the museum, I rub my palms together. “Okay, renegade. Tell me the plan.”
She spins around, walking backward. “The plan is to meet me in SoHo tomorrow afternoon,” she says, then gives me the cross streets.
“And what will we do? Break into an art gallery? Steal a bowl of overpriced oats at a café? Jaywalk?”
She shrugs like a sexy imp. “You’ll see. It’s a surprise.”
Considering the kiss was something of a surprise, I have a feeling I’ll like this one as well.
Maybe too much.
10
Ruby
Dear Claire,
* * *
Tonight . . . I kissed Jesse. Yeah, that Jesse. Your Jesse. Our Jesse.
* * *
And it was amazing. Mind-blowing. Take the best kiss you’ve ever had, multiply it by five and raise it to the sixth power, and you’d still fall short of just how high he ranks on the kissing scale.
* * *
And yeah, I know. He’s your brother.
* * *
I can hear you gagging and swearing me to silence on all things Jesse’s-lips-related as I write this.
* * *
But I think you’d be laughing too.
* * *
At least, I hope you would be.
* * *
I hope you’d be happy for me and wouldn’t mind that I added something unexpected to your “something new” challenge.
* * *
You were so right, Claire. I needed this.
* * *
I needed a shove out of my comfort zone. I was so scared of that list at first, but now it feels right. And so does kissing Jesse, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to more-than-kiss Jesse the first chance I get.
* * *
But don’t worry. It’s just a friends-with-benefits thing. No one’s heart is going to get broken. We wouldn’t do that to each other. We need each other too much.
* * *
We need each other to hold on to you. There are too many memories to carry in one brain. One heart.
* * *
I miss you so much, my soul sister. I wish you were here to give me your blessing. I wish you were here . . . period.
* * *
Missing you and loving you and always will,
* * *
Ruby
* * *
I finish the letter and sit back in my desk chair, tears stinging my eyes.
But I don’t cry. I let the wave of sadness and anger wash through me.
I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to think of Claire without getting pissed off that so much of her life was stolen from her, from me, from everyone who loved her.
Then, I let the melancholy flow away.
I hold on to the love I feel when I remember the way Claire and I were together. The way we shared everything. Deep down, I know she wouldn’t mind me sharing the details about her brother with her, though she would absolutely insist I kept all the smutty information to myself.
Smutty . . .
With a grin reserved for girl time and girl talk, I reach for a framed photo of the two of us. A cell phone shot, naturally, the two of us peering into our room at the allegedly haunted bed-and-breakfast. We both have our eyebrows raised, looking skeptical, giving our best no way are there ghosts here look at the creepy room.
Sometimes looking at this photo makes me ache. Tonight, I choose to smile.
Because I have the memories of that friendship. True, I never expected I’d be writing letters to Claire that she’d never get to read.
But then, life can be unexpected.
Tonight was unexpected too.
Well, liking the mushrooms was unexpected. That I enjoyed kissing Jesse was all kinds of expected.
And in the very near future, I might well have smutty memories to cherish featuring Jesse Hendrix and me.
A giddy grin stretches across my face as I fold the letter. I slip it into the drawer where I keep all my letters to Claire