Free The Everafter by Amy Huntley Page A

mean, the way you grabbed my arm. Then when I looked down at you, I noticed your chest had all these intriguing freckles. Guess I thought it’d be pretty cool to go out with them, and maybe even with you, too. I mean, it’s not like I had fun with you at the rehearsal dinner or anything,” he teases.
    “Ohmygod. I can see why you wanted to plead the Fifth. You and Dana had just broken up and you were probably on the rebound, looking for freckled chests to pass the time with.”
    “Um…no. I didn’t want to answer the question because I thought you’d be embarrassed about tripping on the way up the aisle. You know, that plus the whole dress-and-barfing-later thing?”
    Intelligent? Me? Not so much.
    Still…the rebound issue is a valid point. And I remind him of that.
    “Maddy,” he tells me, “ I broke up with Dana. She didn’tbreak up with me. I’d been thinking about it for a while anyhow. And the last fight just seemed like, you know…the end. I’m not on the rebound from Dana. For me, our breakup was a slam dunk. I knew exactly what I was doing when I broke up with her, and it was what I wanted.”
    This sounds great, but I’m still stuck on the fact that Gabe dated the same girl for two years. That’s practically like being married. Gabe probably knows everything there is about having a relationship, and I know…nothing.
    Gabriel shifts in the seat and says, “You know, there’s a place we haven’t looked for your keys yet.”
    “Where?”
    “Right here.” Suddenly Gabe’s whole body is within inches of mine. He puts one arm on each side of me and reaches into the crack between the seat back and cushion, as if searching there for my keys…
    But then we both seem to get distracted, and—who cares about keys?
    He’s kissing me.
    And it’s fantastic…The warmth of his lips against mine, the way our bodies are leaning into each other, the feel of his shoulder beneath my hand. I don’t know how long this goes on, but eventually Gabe breaks the kiss. My lips suddenly feel lonely as he leans back. He holds up his left hand and dangles my keys in front of my face. “Had a feeling these would be back there,” he says in a husky voice. There’s an edge oftriumph in it. Because of the keys? Or the kiss?
    I don’t care.
    “C’mon,” he says, and pulls away from me. Still holding my keys, he turns toward his open door, and just before I get my own door open, I hear him say, “No way.”
    I turn back toward him. “What?”
    He has one foot out of the car, but now he’s looking around, even digging in the crack behind his seat. “You won’t believe this, but now I can’t find my keys.”
    I burst out laughing. I’ve lived my whole life in the Land of People Who Misplace Items, and finally I have company there. I know I shouldn’t take delight in Gabriel’s predicament…. I should feel empathy, having just had the same experience myself. But instead, I’m satisfied to finally know I’m not the only idiot who can lose a set of keys from her hand in less than three minutes.
    “It’s not funny,” he says, but he’s also smiling.
    I start helping him look for the keys…the floor on my side…the crack behind my seat (in case he lost his keys while looking for mine), under my seat…
    “Aren’t you going to look under my seat?” he asks.
    I stare into his eyes for a moment. The quirk at the side of his mouth is back. A challenge.
    What the heck? I think, and then I sprawl across his legs, reaching beneath his seat, my breasts pressed against his thighs.
    “I don’t see—” I start to say, but Gabe is gently turning me over so I’m lying across his lap. He brushes the hair away from my face, leans down, and kisses me again. Then he loosely wraps the ends of my hair around his wrist. I turn my face into his hand and kiss his palm, feeling against my lips the lines that track across it. I wonder if my name is etched somewhere on his lifeline.
    I turn my head back to make eye contact