Free Waylaid by Ruth J. Hartman Page A

hand. How did Graham have the ability to catch me on fire from one simple touch? All he had done was hand me an ice cream cone and his skin had touched mine. Added to that, though, was the way his dimples showed on his cheeks when he smiled. As if no one existed in the world but me and him, and that he wouldn’t want it any other way.
    “Mind keeping a hold on mine while I drive?”
    I blinked. Hold his what? Heat ran across my face. Addy! He meant the ice cream!
    “Something wrong?” His hand stopped midway to the ignition of his truck as he stared at me.
    “Um, no. Everything is great.”
    “Okay, then.” He raised his dark eyebrows and put the truck in gear. He pulled out of the Dairy Barn parking lot and onto the road.
    I didn’t know where we were going and didn’t really care. A glance at the dashboard clock told me it was already ten p.m. On a school night. My mom would have a cow.
    Frankly, though at that moment I didn’t even care. I was eighteen and graduating in a few weeks. What could she do to me? I took a lick of my chocolate ice cream. When I turned, Graham was watching me. Watching my mouth, to be exact. I swallowed hard as the ice cream slid down my throat.
    Holding his vanilla cone toward him, I hoped to calm down my racing heart. “Do you want to take your ice cream now?”
    “Nope.”
    “Then why did you buy it? Don’t you like vanilla?”
    “Love it.”
    “So, how will you eat it if you don’t hold the cone?”
    He watched the road, but darted a quick glance at me. His eyes squinted at the corners. “I dunno… was kinda hoping you might feed it to me.”
    “Oh.” Yeah, I could definitely do that. “Sure.” I leaned toward him as far as the seatbelt would allow and held out the cone. When he opened his mouth to take a bite, I moved it away about three inches.
    “Hey.”
    I giggled and moved it back to him. Even with the fan blowing, the night was humid and the ice cream was starting to melt. A drip was running down the side of the cone and fast approaching my hand. “Uh-oh.”
    He stuck out his tongue and licked some of the drip from the side of the cone. A little bit ran onto my hand and I started to pull the cone away so I could grab a napkin.
    “Wait.”
    I stopped and he stuck out his tongue again.
    He wouldn’t…
    My heart practically stopped beating as I watched Graham run his hot tongue across the skin between my thumb and first finger. Heat pooled in my stomach and my face grew hot. I think I’m in trouble… Good trouble.
    He focused back on the road but he was smiling. Something was going on between us that I didn’t really understand. But I knew one thing – I didn’t want it to stop.
    I jumped when some of my own ice cream ran down my other hand. I thought about asking Graham to get it for me but wasn’t quite that brave.
    So I licked it off. When I glanced up, he was watching me. Even though it was dim in the truck except for the dash lights, I was sure that his eyes darkened.
    Everything in me wanted to lean over and kiss him. But he was driving. Not a good idea, Addy . Maybe I could get him talking about something. Then the crazy thoughts swirling through my head might take a hike. At least for now. I didn’t want them to leave forever, but it might be hard to explain that the reason for Graham wrecking his truck was that I had kissed him while he was driving. I also wasn’t sure how I would explain being covered in ice cream.
    “So, Graham, I really had fun watching you play ball tonight.”
    “Even when that jerk Jones wouldn’t leave you alone? Sorry about that.”
    “I didn’t like it, but it’s not the first time a jerk has tried something.”
    He glanced over at me. “I’m sure that’s true, with your looks”
    “Is that a compliment?”
    “Oh, yeah.”
    I bit my lip. Just him saying he thought I was attractive did something funny to my stomach. In a good way. “Thanks.”
    “Just telling it like it is.”
    Warmth crawled up my cheeks.