my arm, but I felt it in an entirely different area.
I cleared my throat and tugged my arm away before the pressure building behind my zipper became noticeable. “I’m fine.”
She paused for a moment, searching my eyes. I did my best to assure her with silent persuasion that I was actually fine.
“Okay.” She relented and her face relaxed. “I’m going to get back in there. I’m relieved that I was able to get Hank talking. Mia had warned me that he was the strong, silent type. She said he was basically the Sawyer of the Comfort clan. And since he’s the only single male, I wanted to make sure he felt comfortable opening up to me. He was a hard nut to crack, but I think I was able to build a little bit of a rapport with him.” She lifted her hands and crossed her fingers with excitement before she turned and headed back inside the bar.
As I watched the sway of her hips as she hurried back inside, I knew that no matter how much I tried to deny it, there were a few undeniable facts.
First, I’d wanted to do an endzone dance over the fact that the reason she’d been showing Hank extra attention was to get him to open up on camera and not because she’d been interested in him.
Second, warmth had spread in my chest when she’d asked me if I was okay with earnest sincerity. I liked that feeling. I wanted more of that feeling.
And third, I was sinking fast in Josie quicksand and I feared the more I fought it, the farther she’d suck me down.
My mom was right to be concerned. I was in trouble. Deep fucking trouble.
Chapter 16
Josie
“If you want something, ask for it, darling. It’s really as simple as that.”
~ Josephine Grace Clarke
The naked person I saw staring back at me from the bathroom mirror was unrecognizable. I’d just stepped out of the shower and instead of immediately grabbing a towel and covering myself up, I’d walked up to the mirror. With my head held high and my shoulders back, the reflection I saw was a confident woman, not a scared girl. For the first time that I could remember, I wasn’t trying to hide. I wasn’t trying to make myself as small and invisible as possible, and I had one person and two words to thank for that.
Jackson Briggs and ‘fuck ’em.’
As cliché as it sounded, today felt like the first day of the rest of my life. After the interview with the Comfort brothers, we’d driven back to Savannah and checked into a hotel by the airport. The entire ride back from Firefly Island to the hotel, I’d been trying to figure out a way to thank Jackson for what he’d done for me. But I hadn’t been able to come up with anything.
I couldn’t put it into words, but if I could bottle the liberation that single conversation had given me, I’d be a billionaire. I’d call it Empowerment. I wished that every woman could spray Empowerment on themselves and experience its benefits. I’d never felt stronger or more self-assured and powerful as I did right—movement caught my eye in the mirror.
“Ahhhh!” I screamed bloody murder and jumped up onto the counter when I saw there was a creature in the corner of the bathroom.
It was at least half a foot long, had a long curly tail, and large pinchers. Before I had a chance to classify what it was, Jackson, who was staying in an adjoining room, burst into the bathroom looking primed and ready for a fight. He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of gray sweats. His upper body looked like it had been chiseled by Michelangelo himself.
“Are you o…” His words trailed off when he saw me sitting on the cold marble counter with my hair dripping wet, naked as the day I was born.
My arms flew to cover myself up and alert him of the imminent danger at the same time. I was in, what I could only assume was, a very unattractive pretzel position when I managed to point in the direction of the offender. As mortified as I was sure I’d be later at my current predicament, right now I had bigger problems.
Jackson’s eyes followed to where I was indicating. His large, bare feet crossed the tiled floor calmly, as if he didn’t have a care in the world, toward the sci-fi looking, curly-tailed, lobster-insect. I sucked in a scared