Free Wanderlust: A Holiday Story (A Heroes and Heartbreakers Original) by Kitty French Page B

child.
    “You don’t mean that,” she chided gently, knowing he adored her gangly-limbed little sister almost as much as she did. The wistful look in his eyes told her that yes, he understood, and that no, he didn’t mean it, but that hell, he wished it were different.
    Ruby’s decision to stay was based on obligation, and Ford’s decision to leave was based on not having any obligations. His parents barely noticed whether he was there or not as long as there was whisky in the bottle; they were a small, dysfunctional family with a deep, mutual disrespect for each other, and Ford was desperate to put as much distance between himself and them as possible. The only real family he’d ever known was here amongst their close-knit university group; now that it was drawing to a close, he was forced to find his next star to follow.
    “But yes.” She swallowed hard and met his gaze. “In answer to your question, yes. I’ll miss you, Ford.”
    He sighed heavily and cast his eyes down, and Ruby found herself marvelling at the sooty length of his lashes against his tanned cheek.
    The look in his eyes when he lifted his gaze back to hers stopped the breath in her chest. He’d never looked at her that way before, Jack Daniel’s or not.
    “Ruby, I’m only going to say this once. I fucking love you.”
    He took the glass from her hand and slid it on the picnic table, which was just as well as there was every chance it would have slipped from her suddenly shaking fingers.
    “And because I leave tomorrow and might never see you again, I need to do this once too.”
    Ford leaned his body in until Ruby’s back pressed against the wing of the chair and took her face between his big warm hands.
    “I’m not asking to kiss you. I’m telling you that I’m going to.”
    And then he did, and it was a kiss that packed the punch of three long years of suppressed feelings. They’d danced around each other since the day they’d met at seventeen, too young to fully understand the fine line their relationship walked between friends and romance. They adored each other, that was a given. Loved each other, even, but they’d never strayed over the boundaries, and if Ruby had really taken the time to consider it, she’d have known that the barrier was hers, not Ford’s. She’d kept him at arm’s length because her feelings for him scared her witless.
    Ford tipped her head back to open her mouth up under his, letting his tongue slide between her parted lips. He tasted of Jack Daniel’s, of lust, and of sweet, sweet longing, a combination so heady and powerful that Ruby could only cling to him and kiss him back.
    For a few precious, life-changing seconds, they let it happen. The glide of his tongue over her lips. The stroke of her hands over his shoulders. The slide of his body against hers. The dual bang of their hearts. It was the kind of kiss that romantic songs were penned over, the kind of movie-worthy kiss that made women around the world sigh with envy.
    “Want me to stick around, Ruby red?” Ford’s voice was hoarse when he finally lifted his head from hers, his eyes scanning her face.
    There weren’t any words to express how much she wanted to say yes, but to hold him where he didn’t want to be would be like clipping the wings of an eagle.
    “Go on, puss in boots. Go and find some place where the streets are paved in gold.”
    Ford pressed his lips against her forehead then for long, endless moments, and the scent of him imprinted itself on her heart.
    “I’ll send you a postcard.”

Chapter Two
    He didn’t, as it turned out.
    Ford left for Europe, and it was as if he’d fallen off the face of the earth. No postcards, no letters, no phone calls. It hurt Ruby’s heart to think of him, to know he was out there living his dreams without a second thought for her back in England. She had no call on his time, yet still she’d hoped, expected even, to hear from him. The kiss they’d shared had turned their friendship into