Just One Kiss - J. Saman Page 0,15

were kissing her lips like you’d never have that shot again, before walking away.

It almost feels like we’re stuck in some kind of unfinished business purgatory.

Because for me, that kiss didn’t end when I walked away.

That kiss lasted me all through basic training. That kiss lasted me through a deployment and then even some time after. And not just because the kiss was incredible, which it was, but because of the girl. Her. The one I secretly pined over for three years before I finally worked up the balls to act, knowing nothing could come of it.

I was leaving and she was destined for things bigger and better than me.

But she kissed me back. Like she wanted it just as badly as I did, and that nearly ruined me. The regret for not acting sooner when I should have nearly destroyed me.

Still, I can’t make myself ask those questions, even if to cut the somewhat awkward tension. I’m afraid of what the answers will do to me.

How learning about London Canterbury will feel knowing she’s leaving the moment the snow clears and that I’ll likely never see her again.

“What do you do up here, Miles?” she finally asks, breaking the silence the way I haven’t been able to. “Are you a farmer? You said this was a farm.”

“A farmer?” I laugh at the words. “No. Not a farmer, though I do own a tractor. I’m an artist. I make glass and metal pieces.”

She pauses, her spoon in mid-air as she turns to study me, her eyebrows at her hairline. “For real?”

“It’s actually why I bought the land. I turned the old barn into my workshop and now it’s also a gallery where I sell pieces from.”

“I saw a sign for that on the highway. Before I crashed that is.”

“Yeah. Um… my ex had that part done. She’s the one who turned half the barn into the gallery.” And in truth, it was a genius move. I get a lot of foot traffic and sell pieces directly that way.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. You were always drawing and painting and sculpting.”

Now it’s my turn to be shocked.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” she asks.

“I just didn’t realize you saw that.”

She laughs, taking a sip of her water. “Miles, we had like almost every class together our junior and senior year. I took that art class I nearly failed that almost ruined my GPA. That and we had independent study together for all of senior year.”

An independent study in creative writing I took for the sole reason that she was taking it.

I nod on a heavy swallow. I remember the art class, but that was class. That was controlled. Did she ever see some of the sketches I drew when I thought I was being so covert? I even still have some of them in a box in the basement somewhere.

Her. I sketched her. All the damn time. Like a creeper. A man obsessed.

She was my muse.

“I guess I didn’t know you were paying attention.”

Her eyes meet mine and something in them, in the knowing look she’s giving me, has my heart jumping up in my chest. “When it came to you, I was always paying attention.”

Chapter Six

MILES

Helping London over to the sofa, I set another log on the fire, stoking it a bit to kick it back up. “Can I run up and grab you one of the heavier pills?”

She scoots back, getting herself comfortable and gives me a sheepish look. “I feel like I’m taking advantage.”

“Not even a little. Stop worrying about me. I wouldn’t help if I didn’t want to. One or two?”

“One. Definitely one.”

I laugh at her horrified expression. Jogging up the steps, I walk into the guest room and then straight on into the bathroom, finding the bottle on the counter I have left over from when I had my wisdom teeth out in the fall. Beside her body lotion that I don’t have to open to know smells like flowers and vanilla. Soft, feminine, and sweet. Like her.

I grab a pill from the bottle and close it back up, taking one last deep inhale because I can’t help it, and then running back down. I hand her the pill and she takes it with water, thanking me once again.

I sit on the opposite side of the couch, about to ask her if she wants to watch a movie or some television when she says, “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure?” It comes out