Free I Waxed My Legs for This? by Holly Jacobs Page B

watched the dark clouds rolling in off the ocean. The weather suited her mood. Dark and troubled.
    She watched him jogging toward her and her heart gave a little skip. She squashed the emotion, having become accustomed to ignoring the longing after all these years. However, having experienced a taste of what loving Jack could be like, the feeling only intensified.
    “Good morning,” he said easily as he reached her rock. “Got room for someone else on there?”
    There was enough room, barely, but it would require them to sit awfully close. Too close. Carrie shook her head. “Why don’t you take that one next to me?”
    What looked like disappointment flitted across Jack’s face, but he sat on the stone she’d indicated.
    “You’re up early” was all he said.
    She shrugged, unwilling to admit she couldn’t sleep with him so close. Her dreams hadn’t helped.
    “So, are we just going to pretend that last night didn’t happen?”
    “If you wouldn’t mind,” she answered, ever the hopeful optimist.
    “And if I do mind?” he asked gently.
    “I’d still rather not talk about it. I do owe you an apology, and I offer it now, but couldn’t we just chalk it up to an aberration?” Carrie was desperate. It was too soon for him. He was still mourning the loss of Sandy.
    Someday, after he’d healed, she would make a move. But not now. Not yet.
    Jack looked at Carrie. There was a quiet desperation in her that he’d never seen before. She had as much as admitted to him that she’d had a crush on him once upon a time, but he’d been too young, too inexperienced to recognize it.
    And then there was Sandy.
    Sandy Baker, flight attendant, every guy’s fantasy. And she’d chosen him. Four years they had been together. Somewhere along the line he fell into the habit of thinking he loved Sandy. But, nine months ago when she’d moved out of their apartment, they’d both admitted what they had wasn’t love. It was merely comfortable. And yet, they’d never gone further than living together. With Sandy’s job as a flight attendant she was gone for long stretches of time.
    It took Sandy’s injury to force them to examine their relationship, or lack of one.
    They had nothing in common.
    Their parting had been easier than either had thought possible. That was what had been eating Jack for the past few months. That maybe he wasn’t capable of truly loving a woman.
    And now?
    He was pretty sure what he was looking for had been under his nose all along. 
    He thought he’d loved Carrie as a friend.  And he did.
    But if last night was any indication, that love could be something more.
    Maybe it already was.
    The idea made him smile.
    But it was obviously scaring Carrie to death. The last thing Jack wanted to do was scare her, to hurt her.
    He found himself saying, “If that’s really what you want.”
    Carrie just nodded, but still didn’t look at him.
    Jack reached for her and she pulled away. Convincing Carrington Rose Delany that they could be more than friends was going to take some work. Convincing her that the something they could be was even better than what they had been was going to take even more.
    “Mrs. Richardson called after you left,” Jack said, keeping his distance.
    “Oh?”
    “I hope you don’t mind that I told her we’d have dinner with her and Herb tonight.”
    “Dinner?” she asked absently.
    She watched the water as if she expected some cousin of the Loch Ness monster to appear at any minute.
    “Yes, Carrie. Dinner. You know, that meal that comes after lunch.”
    She nodded and he beat down his frustration and added. “We’re meeting them at seven. I hope that’s okay.”
    Again, just a nod.
    “Are you just going to keep nodding your head at everything I say?” he asked.
    She shrugged this time.
    “You know, we’re going to have to talk about this sometime, don’t you?” he tried.
    “Talk about what?” she asked, feigning ignorance.
    Jack sighed. Dealing with Carrie was