Finally My Forever by Brooke St. James Page A

pressed, seeming genuinely concerned and interested.
    "I found my boyfriend in his bedroom with a pistol—what was left of him, anyway."
    He sunk his face into his hands and breathed out through his teeth. I was smiling sadly when he looked at me again. "Carly, I'm so sorry for you."
    "It's okay," I said. "It's been four years, and like you said, it gets better with time."
    I paused and he just stared at me, shaking his head. "I can't imagine," he said.
    "Sure you can," I reminded him. We stared into each other's eyes for several long seconds, sharing a beautiful, unspoken empathy.
    "How long did it take you to start dating again?" he asked.
    I laughed nervously and began stammering. "What, me? Oh, I didn't really, I haven't really dated per say."
    His mouth curved up in a genuine grin, which made color rise to my cheeks. "Please don't tell me it's been four years and you're still not able to move on," he said.
    "It's only been a year for me, and my friends and family are trying to set me up with every available woman in Texas. I don’t think I'll be able to hold them off much longer."
    I smiled. "I could have moved on by now. I've just been really busy with school and everything."
    "So you've kissed a guy since then, you just haven't been in a serious relationship," he said, as if stating a fact.
    "I didn't say that, necessarily."
    "Please don't tell me you haven't kissed a man in four years," he said staring at me.
    "Okay, I won't tell you."
    "But you have, right?"
    "Why are you asking me that?" I said, smiling and shaking my head at him incredulously. I knew I was blushing; I could feel the heat in my cheeks.
    "I'm asking you because I can't imagine you depriving yourself of a man's kiss for four years because of what your boyfriend did. It'd be a crime."
    "I don’t know if I'd call it a crime."
    "It would be. You're a beautiful woman. Somebody's missing out."
    I'd never been called a woman. Come to think of it, I wasn't sure if any guy had referred to me as beautiful before. Sure, my parents and grandparents had, but that didn't count. I found it hard to breathe regularly, and I had to sigh just to catch my breath. I stared up at him with a half-smile.
    "Well you just said yourself that you didn't feel much like kissing Gina or anyone else for that matter."
    His eyes roamed over my face, making me feel like my lungs weren't functioning at all. I could not get a good breath of air, and my stomach was tied in knots.
    "I feel like kissing you right about now," he said.
    He seemed completely serious when he said it, but I couldn't stop a nervous giggle. "Quit playing," I said, pushing at his broad chest.
    He pinched my sweater and pulled on it a little, tugging me toward him. I stayed where I was standing, not taking his bait, and he took a small step closer to me.
    "I think it's worth a shot," he said. "You know, just to see if we're still capable of doing it right. Like a science project."
    I laughed. There was so much commotion going on around us. Children were laughing and playing tag, and people were walking by having conversations. I felt like I was in a dream.
    "We don't do that kind of science in my class," I said.
    "Then we'll call it something else."
    "What?"
    "At this point, you can think of it as doing me a favor," he said. He shrugged. "We can just pretend it never happened afterward if you want, but I think it'd be good for both of us to give it a try—just to see if we can still do it."
    I could tell he was serious by the way he was staring at my lips.
    This was definitely a dream.
    I literally pinched my own leg as we stood there, and to my own astonishment I felt the pain of my thumbnail digging into my thigh.
    "Well it's not really something we could just do right here in front of everybody, now is it?" I asked, still brushing it off like he was joking.
    "Is that a yes?" he asked.
    I glanced around before smiling up at him with a you're impossible expression. "I guess it's a yes, pending a spot where your