Free I Waxed My Legs for This? by Holly Jacobs

to work this out.
    “Carrie, I’m not going to give up and go away so you can quit stalling.”
     
    Carrie sighed, looking very prunish. Even though the bathroom door was locked and Jack couldn’t see a thing, she sank a little deeper in the tub.
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she hollered back. “I’m just taking a bath.”
    “Come on, Carrie. It’s three o’clock in the morning. Come out here and talk to me.”
    “I will when I’m done,” she called, then swished the tepid water with her foot.
    If she was lucky, when she pulled the plug to drain the water she’d go down with it. A burial at sea was preferable to facing Jack. She’d taunted him about their high school kiss…no, mouth-to-mouth. She challenged him, which is why he’d kissed her.
    A kiss she’d deepened.
    She was horrible.
    The situation couldn’t be any worse.
    She’d kissed her best friend with all the pent-up frustrations of a woman who wanted him in a decidedly, unfriendly sort of way.
    He knew now. There was no way he couldn’t know.
    When Sandy had walked out, Carrie had watched Jack grieve and throw himself into his job. He’d not only lost weight, but seemed to have lost himself as well.
    This trip had been a means to get him away from the memories, to help him start to heal.
    She hadn’t planned on taunting him and making him feel he had to prove himself by kissing her.
    Then she went and made the hot kiss hotter.
    She’d just ruined a lifelong friendship over a rampant case of hormones. She was despicable. Pathetic. Lower than a worm.
    She sank farther in the tub. She’d seduced her best friend with a week in paradise.
    Well, there was only one thing to do.
    She jumped out of the tub, tossed on the bathrobe the resort so thoughtfully provided and opened the door. Jack was on the patio staring at the sky.
    Never one to back off from an apology she knotted her belt and marched up to Jack. She patted his back.
    “I owe you an apology,” she said when he turned.
    “You’re right you do. The chem lab wasn’t a kiss.”
    She waved her hand in the air. “Oh, maybe it wasn’t, but that’s not what I’m apologizing for.”
    Jack took a step toward her. “It’s not?”
    Carrie shook her head, taking a step backward, needing to keep some distance between them.
    “I, uh...”
    He took another step.
    “Stop that,” she said in what she’d intended to be a yell, but had come out a breathy sort of whisper.
    “Stop what?” Jack asked. There was something in his eyes that she’d never seen before, and it would have scared Carrie out of her socks had she been wearing any. As it was, the bathrobe she’d knotted around her waist suddenly felt as sheer as silk instead of the sturdy terry cloth she knew it to be.
    Jack reached out and put his hands around her waist.
    “You’re stalking me like some wild animal on the prowl. Stop.”
    “I’m not...” He paused and then grinned. “Okay, maybe I am.”
    “Why?”
    The question stopped him short and his playful smile slipped a notch. “Something happened tonight.”
    “Something that never should have happened,” she said. “We’re friends and that...”
    “Kiss,” he supplied when she paused. “That kiss, Carrie.”
    For years she’d maintained the mouth-to-mouth was a kiss, but Carrie wasn’t about to call what they’d done tonight a kiss. The mere thought made her nervous. “That momentary lapse of sense should never have happened. We’re friends. That’s all. It was a mistake.”
    “Tonight was unexpected, but I don’t think it was a mistake.” Jack reached out and put his hands around her waist. “You’re a beautiful woman inside and out. What happened was special to me.”
    “You’re stalking me again.”
    “No. I’ve caught you. And I want to try another lapse of sense, if you don’t mind.”
    “And if I do mind?”
    His hands were no longer on her waist, but tracing the belt to the knot. He tugged at it.
    Carrie knew she