Free Loving Ben (The Camerons of Tide's Way #1.5) by Skye Taylor Page A

might become something more than friendship.
    Maybe it was CJ’s fault. He was a little overprotective, and maybe he had some objection to his friend taking that kind of interest in his kid sister. A few weeks back, when Meg still didn’t have a date to her senior prom, she had hinted at asking Ben to escort her. CJ had scoffed. She was just a kid, and Ben was a man. Like she didn’t know that already. But before she got up the courage to approach Ben, CJ had engineered an invite from another friend’s kid brother.
    What a disaster that had been! Not that there was anything wrong with Mike Kennedy. Mike was ripped and very good-looking. He was gentle and smart with a fun sense of humor, too. But they had nothing in common.
    Meg was into hunting and guns and basketball and cars. Mike was president of the National Honor Society, a member of the math and chess clubs, and spoke three languages. She hung out in her brother’s auto mechanic shop. He hung out in online workshops and seminars.
    Mike had been a surprisingly good dancer, though, and Meg might have had a far better time if only she had been able to stop wishing it was Ben holding her in his arms and swaying to the slow music. In between dances, they just hadn’t known what to talk about. The silences had gotten progressively more awkward.
    When Mike had walked her to her door at the end of the evening, he’d kissed her good-night. He’d been good at that, too, and she had unexpectedly enjoyed being kissed by him. She had clung to his shoulders and leaned into him, kissing him back. But there had been no fireworks.
    Ben had never kissed her except for a peck on her cheek like the kind she got from CJ and Stu. But she was sure there would be a whole sky full of fireworks if Ben ever kissed her like she was his type of woman. She thought of the model with the bright red lips. Had Ben kissed her?
    Meg hunted through the bag of makeup she’d borrowed from her friend Margie and found a tube of cherry red lipstick. With careful determination, she layered it on, pressed her lips together, and checked the mirror. There! Now I have pouty, kissable lips .
    She shimmied into the new dress, reached behind herself, pulled the zipper up, and then turned to check her reflection in the full length mirror mounted on the back of her bedroom door.
    “That’s more like it!” she whispered, pleased with the view. The pale green fabric swished about her knees and hugged her slender waist. She drew her fingers across the bare skin exposed by the strapless neckline. Should she wear the pearls that CJ and Stu had given her for her sixteenth birthday? Or the slender chain with a heart-shaped pendant that dangled enticingly above the cleavage created by her new bra?
    “Which would Ben like best?” She held up first one item then the other. A picture of the model flitted through her mind again. The model with the pouty lips and a low-cut neckline. Ben’s type . Meg put the pearls back into their velvet bag and clasped the chain around her neck.
    SOMEHOW, THE night wasn’t going quite as planned. Meg was the guest of honor. After all, it was her birthday. But she’d seen very little of Ben. It was hard to attract a man’s attention when he was never around.
    Surprisingly, Mike had showed up in spite of the way things had gone at the prom. He brought her a lovely pair of earrings as a gift, but they left her feeling embarrassed and guilty. Embarrassed because the gift seemed too personal and guilty because Meg turned down his invitation to spend the following day with him at the beach.
    He took it well, though, and a tiny part of her wished she hadn’t been in love with someone else. Maybe they could have found some common ground if she’d given him a chance. She liked him, but after today, Meg didn’t expect to ever see Mike again. She was joining the Marine reserves and heading off to boot camp before returning to Tide’s Way to attend the nearby junior college between training