Confessions of a Girl-Next-Door Read Free Page B

forty-eight hours ago was that she had to get away.
    She caught up to Nate and glanced sideways at his stern profile. He wasn’t exactly glad to see her. But it was her own emotions that gave her pause. She wasn’t sure how she felt about seeing him again.
    Once upon a time, she’d thought … Mentally, she shook her head. It was foolish torecall those dreams. They’d been unrealistic then. Now, they were unfathomable. Once again, she felt the grip of destiny tighten around her like a vise. There was no escaping it. Not completely, anyway, even if she hoped to find respite for a few days or a week. Holly groaned.
    She didn’t expect it to be heard over the wind, but Nate turned and asked, “Something wrong?”
    “No.”
    “No?” His brows rose.
    His wry expression and disbelieving tone came as a bit of a surprise. Back home no one would have dared to question her—well, except for her mother, who browbeat Holly regularly over the most minute of things. Holly needed to be perfect. Or at least give the illusion of perfection at all times. Interestingly, coming from Nate, she rather enjoyed it. She’d much rather he treated her as an equal, even one with whom he was angry.
    They reached the house, a cedar-sided bungalow that she remembered from her visits to the island as a girl. Back then, he’d lived in it with his parents, and she’d always been welcome inside for a bite to eat or to watch the telly on a rainy afternoon. Hismother, she recalled, had been amazingly tolerant of such things as sandy feet and soggy swimsuits.
    From the outside, the place looked much the same except for a newer and larger deck that wrapped around to the side entrance. Hank beat them up the steps and shucked off his shoes before opening the squeaky-hinged screen door and going in. That left Holly and Nate standing on either side of the welcome mat.
    Nothing about Nate’s demeanor at the moment was very welcoming.
    “This is too much of an imposition,” she began. It definitely was too much of something.
    “It’s fine,” Nate insisted. “No big deal.” He toed off his soggy shoes and pushed them against the side of the house next to Hank’s battered sneakers.
    “I’ll pay—”
    “It’s only one night, Holly … Hollyn … Princess ….” He shoved his damp hair back from his forehead in agitation. “What am I supposed to call you?”
    From his tone, she imagined he already had a pet name or two in mind. “Holly is fine.”
    She
wanted
to be just Holly again. That was, after all, why she’d made this rash trip in the first place.
    He looked doubtful, but nodded. “I insist you stay, all right? As my guest.”
    His words might have been more reassuring had they not been issued through clenched teeth. But any retort she might have offered was lost when he reached for the back of his damp T-shirt and pulled it over his head.
    Holly swallowed hard, but that didn’t keep her mouth from watering. As a teenage girl, she’d admired Nate’s form. He’d been wiry then, lean and several inches shorter than the six foot three she judged him to be now. He’d shot up, filled out. Quite obviously, he worked out. A sculpted abdomen such as his was no happy accident of genetics.
    “Your turn.”
    His words startled her. She felt her cheeks grow warm, though it wasn’t only embarrassment that caused the building heat.
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “Your shoes. If you wouldn’t mind, take them off out here.”
    Half of his mouth crooked into a wry smile as he draped his shirt over the banister.He was enjoying her discomfort, enjoying that she was as off balance now as he’d been while wading through the surf earlier.
    Holly glanced down at her feet. The shoes he’d tried to spare damage with his chivalrous offer to carry her ashore were not only wet, but also covered in sand and other natural debris from their trek over the beach.
    “Your mother never minded the sand.”
    “She did, but she was too polite to say so. Regardless,