Love on the Lifts by Rachel Hawthorne Page A

squeal.
    â€œOh, it’s cold!” she cried.
    â€œWell, duh!” I muttered.
    She was wearing a bathing suit. And Brad was…was he in his boxers?
    She pranced across the deck, laughing all the way, until she slid into the hot tub. Brad followed her, raised up on his toes.
    â€œAh, man!” he yelled, just before he got in the tub.
    More laughter, giggling, then silence as they started kissing.
    â€œDon’t look at them,” Joe ordered.
    â€œIt’s a little hard not to, if I’m talking to you. They’re right in my line of sight.”
    â€œThen close your eyes.”
    Instead I rolled them. “They don’t bother me.”
    â€œGood. Because I’ve been thinking about something for most of the night.”
    I focused on his face, trying really hard not to see past him to where Brad and Cynthia were acting like kids. Yeah, that was it. Kids. Totally immature. Laughing, kissing…
    â€œWhat were you thinking?” I asked.
    â€œThought I’d make a deposit into the Kate-have-a-good-time fund.”
    I laughed lightly, appreciating that he was trying to make me feel better. “How much? Five? Ten?”
    He shook his head. “Ah, Kate. Like I told you earlier, I’m strapped for cash. I’m talking trade.”
    He put his hand on the back of my neck, and I had this crazy thought that his fingers should have felt like ice, but they didn’t. They were warm.
    He pulled me toward him as he leaned nearer, then his lips were on mine and I wasn’t thinking at all.

Chapter 13
    T here are some things in life that you simply expect.
    Like when it snows, you’ll get cold, and when you’re at the beach, you’ll get wet, hot, and sandy. You expect to get gifts at Christmas and presents for your birthday. You expect the sun to come up in the morning and the moon to come out at night. You expect your brother to get on your nerves and your best friends to stick up for you.
    You expect life to throw some disappointments at you. You hope it’ll throw a few surprises your way.
    Joe’s kiss was a surprise. Totally, absolutely.
    Not so much that he was kissing me. I think in the furthest, farthest corner of my mind, Isuspected that he might really like me. That I was the girl he was interested in, the one he’d asked to the movies, even though he’d said it wasn’t a date.
    So the fact that he was kissing me wasn’t that much of a surprise.
    What was a surprise was how very good he was at it. At moving his mouth over mine until I wasn’t thinking about anything or anyone. I’d been kissed before. I wasn’t a complete novice at dating, but Joe took kissing to a whole new level. It was hot and intense, and I imagined the snow around us was probably melting.
    And that was fine with me, because I was melting, too, melting right into his arms.
    Through the passionate haze, I heard distant voices—not Brad and Cynthia—and a door slam shut.
    Joe must have heard it, too, because he pulled back. All I could do was stare at his shadowy face and wonder what he was thinking. If the kiss had been as overwhelming for him as it was for me.
    Light suddenly surrounded us as someone inside hit a switch in the living room, and Iwas vaguely aware of the back door being slid open.
    â€œHey, what are you guys doing out here?” Leah asked.
    â€œCounting stars,” Joe said.
    I was certainly seeing stars. I was downright dizzy. And breathless. My lips were tingling.
    â€œIs the party over?” I asked, stupidly.
    â€œYeah.” Leah stepped out onto the deck and gazed off in the direction of Cynthia’s condo. “Are they in the hot tub?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œThat’s insane. It’s freezing out here.”
    No, it wasn’t. I was quite warm, as a matter of fact.
    â€œJoe was thinking about getting in ours,” I said, inanely, anything to deflect attention away from the fact that I might