Free Exhale by Jennifer Snyder Page B

feel that way about you. I’m sorry.” My voice cracked.
    “Fine,” he said in a monotone. “I get it.” He tossed his hands up between us in surrender and slowly walked away backward. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.  You’re gorgeous, Kat, never forget it.”
    I let out the breath I had been holding when he finally turned his back to me and shifted my gaze to Missy. She still stood in the same place. I’d expected to see a sour expression on her face, but there wasn’t one. Instead, as our eyes locked, she shook her head and softened her stare.
    I closed my eyes and turned to walk away. I knew Derek had been right when he said that Kyle finding out about us would crush him, I just didn’t know how right he’d been until that moment. I headed in the direction I had seen Derek go moments before, my heart feeling like a piece of it had broken. I had always known Kyle liked me, but I had never thought that it was more than that, that he loved me. I pinched my lips tight to keep them from trembling, as I quickened my pace, hoping I could reach Derek before he decided to come find me.
     
     

 
     
    CHAPTER TEN
     
    A tear slid down my cheek, I wiped it away and cleared my throat as soon as I spotted Derek’s silhouette in the distance. This was it, Derek had to tell Kyle, and after this night, nothing would ever be the same again between the three of us. It would all change and I could only hope for the better.
    “There you are. I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to be able to get away from Kyle,” Derek said, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck.
    I opened my mouth to reply but nothing came out, tears constricted my throat.
    “What’s wrong?” His eyebrows drew together as concern sharpened his features. “Are you upset or something?”
    I nodded and wiped my nose with the back of my hand as I stopped directly in front of him. “Kyle just kissed me.”
    Derek’s jaw tensed. “What?”
    “He kissed me,” I repeated, even though I knew he had heard me the first time. My cheeks were on fire and my stomach flip-flopped all over the place as I waited for some sort of a reaction from Derek.
    He dropped his eyes to the white sand we stood on and stared at it with the most confused expression on his face, as though he were trying to figure out what it was and how it had gotten there.  A warm breeze blew; ruffling his hair and making him appear even more bewildered.
    “You said you were worried about whether or not I thought kissing you was a mistake, that you wondered if I wanted this as much as you did…I guess the true question here is do you want this?” Derek’s eyes lifted until they met mine. I noticed how pained they were, how worried. “We look exactly the same, Katie. You know us both better than anyone else. We all three pretty much grew up together—” He cut himself off. Silence built between us, letting me know that he did not intend to finish his thoughts.
    “I don’t understand what you’re getting at,” I said, shifting on my feet and folding my arms across my chest. He shifted his eyes out to the ocean and shook his head slightly as he shrugged his shoulders at the same time. “Are you sure it’s me that you want?”
    “Yes,” I answered without hesitation. It had always been him.
    He let out a deep, gratifying sigh.  His eyes made their way back to mine, and then one of his hands came up to brush across my cheek. “Positive?”
    “One hundred percent,” I smiled.
    Derek’s lips descended upon mine then. He wrapped his arms around me, surrounding me in his scent, as he pressed his body closer to mine. The beach, the kiss with Kyle, his confession, all of it faded away to nothing. Nothing else mattered except for this kiss. This moment.
    Slanting his mouth across mine just so, Derek flicked his tongue against my bottom lip, demanding access to the deepest parts of my mouth. I parted my lips and tilted my head up toward him more. His tongue slid against