Free First Time: Ian's Story (First Time (Ian) Book 1) by Abigail Barnette

didn’t try to run away from you when you
tried to murder a defenseless octopus, I won’t run away
now.”
    I didn’t get the feeling either of us were
running from each other any time soon, so I just told her. “My
father used to call my mum that. It’s very common.”
    Though, I’d never used it with anyone else
before. I’d called Gena “Peach”. Maybe that was a sign. Or maybe
Penny bringing the nectarines instead of peaches was a sign.
    I thought about Penny and the fortune cookie
from our date before. Clearly, her superstitious nature was highly
transmissible. There was something in the Bible about soothsayers,
but there were a lot of things in the Bible I didn’t listen to,
Catholic or not. It couldn’t hurt to ask, “So, you’re
superstitious. What about, besides fortune cookies?”
    “ You know, horoscopes.
Numerology. I believe in signs.” She shrugged. “So do you, right?
Signs from God? Isn’t that a Christian thing?”
    “ It is. I wouldn’t say that
I listen to them. But yes, I have had times when I’ve thought maybe
I was being pushed in a certain direction.” Toward you, for example . “Sometimes,
when something illogical is happening, you have to look for a
pattern to make things make sense.”
    “ Yeah. I know that feeling.”
She tried to suppress her smile, but it broke through, radiant, and
I had no doubt we were talking about the same thing. What we were
doing was absolutely illogical. I should have been wracked with
guilt and embarrassment at being interested in a woman so much
younger than me. I’m sure she was wondering why she wanted to spend
time with me. The mutual attraction between us was obvious; the
reasoning behind it was not. If ever there were a time when signs
from mysterious forces were required, this would certainly be
it.
    “ So, horoscopes, then,” I
said to lighten the moment. “I’m a Cancer, and you’re
a…”
    “ Scorpio. My birthday is
actually October thirty-first. I was crushed when I realized that
the cause for all the dressing up and candy collecting wasn’t a
celebration of my birth, but something that had been going on for a
really long time.” She shook her head with a little sigh at the
ridiculousness of it.
    I chuckled and tilted my head, frowning at a
shadow that didn’t seem quite right. “Well, that explains why
you’re superstitious. What do the stars have to say about us?”
    “ What, like, romantic
compatibility?” When I nodded, she went on, “Scorpios and Cancers
work together really well, actually. I mean, you’re probably
stubborn and opinionated, but I’m stubborn and opinionated, too.
But both signs have a lot of energy relating to family and home.
Our relationship would probably be pretty intense.”
    “ Is that a bad
thing?”
    “ No, it’s not a bad a
thing,” she assured me. “I’m Mars. You’re the moon. Your sign is
all about the loving and nurturing in a relationship, and mine is
about the romance and the passion.”
    “ You can’t claim exclusivity
there. I’m dead romantic when I put my mind to it.”
    “ I can tell.” The corners of
her eyes crinkled when she smiled. “This is probably the most
romantic thing anyone has ever done for me.”
    “ I’m not going to take too
much credit, because this is really the bare minimum.” Titanic had done artists
huge favors in the drawing-equals-romance department, but I’d never
considered it a grand sweeping gesture. I’d wanted to draw Penny,
anyway. I handed the sketchbook to her. “Here, all
finished.”
    It took effort not to ask what she thought,
or immediately make excuses for its quality. Downplaying my skill
was something I was trying to overcome. Instead, I watched her
expression, perhaps more intently than when I’d actually been
sketching her.
    Her lips parted; she took a breath. Her eyes
moved quickly over the page, and her hand came up to touch her own
cheek, as though she were comparing it to what I’d drawn. “Oh my
God. Ian…I