I Waxed My Legs for This? (7 page)

They should all be white-haired and using canes by now.

Mrs. Richardson beamed. “And did you two come celebrating something significant?”

“Just a vacation,” Jack said, even as Carrie said, “Well, yes, we’re celebrating.”

“Celebrating?” Mrs. Richardson said.

Jack kicked her, but Carrie continued, “Yes, you see Jack just finished a big case.”

“Case?”

“He’s a lawyer. Most of the time he’s stuck in an office working on boring contracts and other boring paperwork, but this time he was in court. Anyway, he won the case and we decided to get away and celebrate.”

Mrs. Richardson actually clapped her hands. “How wonderful.”

She turned to the silent Herb and said, “I always told you that Jack and Carrie were meant for each other, didn’t I, Herb?”

Dutifully Herb silently nodded. Mrs. Richardson gave him a smile that she might have bestowed upon a well-behaved student

“Why, I knew even before I walked into the classroom and caught you two.” She shook her fingers at them both, making Carrie feel as if she was back in school again. “You know, I should have given you both a detention for carrying on like that in class.”

“Like what?” Jack asked.

Carrie smiled. She knew exactly what incident Mrs. Richardson was referring to. She’d been right and now Jack would have to admit it.

There was nothing Carrie liked more than being right.

“Why, that time you and Carrie were kissing in the chemistry class. And with everyone watching to boot. That was really quite naughty of you, you know.”

“We weren’t kissing,” he said firmly.

“Jack, don’t you think you’re a little too old to lie to a teacher?” Carrie shot him a saccharine smile.

“We weren’t kissing,” he repeated.

Mrs. Richardson shook her finger at him again.

Jack’s voice rose, as if saying it louder would make his kiss turn into artificial respiration. “She blew up the lab, remember? I was just giving her mouth-to-mouth.”

“Oh, I’ll say you were giving her mouth-to-mouth. Why you had the girl flat on her back in the middle of the classroom floor, the entire class watching as you kissed her as if your life depended on it.” She nudged Herb. “It was so romantic I just couldn’t give them detentions.”

“Her life did depend on it. She’d blown up the lab and I was afraid she was dead.”

Almost fifteen years later, Jack could still remember the wave of fear that had swept through his body when he thought Carrie was dead. He’d felt an echo of it last night when he thought he’d lost her in the ocean.

“If you say so,” Mrs. Richardson commented in such a way that Jack, Carrie and even the silent Herb knew she didn’t believe a word of it. “And I guess it really doesn’t matter, because I knew you’d end up married and, why, here you are.”

“But we aren’t,” Jack felt obliged to point out.

Carrie kicked him and gave him the evil eye, but he ignored it, as usual. “We’re not married. We’re just—”

“You’re not married?” Mrs. Richardson asked. “After all these years you’re still just living together?” There was censure in her look.

“No, I mean, we’re not...” He gave Carrie a helpless look.

She didn’t know why he would think she would save him, but his look said he did. Carrie took pity on him and supplied, “What Jack means is that we’re not a couple. We’re just friends traveling together. You see, I was supposed to come here with Ted, he was my boyfriend.”

“Oh, dear,” Mrs. Richardson said, patting Carrie’s hand. “Men are pigs. What did he do?”

“He ordered the fettuccine,” Carrie said, obviously warming to the subject. “And, he didn’t kiss as good as Jack, though Jack never kissed me again after that lab incident. You know I spent a perfectly good year practicing so I’d be a better kisser next time he kissed me, not that he ever did.”

Mrs. Richardson glared at him. “As I said, dear, men are pigs.”

Carrie nodded her agreement and poor Herb just shot Jack a helpless look.

“It wasn’t a kiss,” Jack said once more, though he didn’t believe either woman was listening.

“I’ve witnessed a lot of kisses and participated in even more, and let me tell you, it was a kiss,” Mrs. Richardson said in her most teacherish voice.

That was it, Jack thought.

He was a patient man—he had to be a patient man to put up with Carrie—but even a patient man had his breaking point

“I’m telling you both, that wasn’t a kiss, but this is.”

Jack reached over to the seat next to him, gave Carrie a little tug and pulled her into his arms.

THE MINUTE HIS LIPS touched Carrie’s, Jack realized he’d made a mistake.

He hadn’t kissed anyone other than Sandy for a very long time, and when they broke up, he couldn’t even imagine kissing another woman.

But, from what he remembered, it was natural to have things stirring when he kissed a woman. But what stirred this time had very little to do with sex. Okay, what was stirring had a lot to do with sex, but kissing Carrie also stirred something else.

He felt like a romance novel even as he thought that in addition to sex, kissing Carrie stirred something in his heart.

That was the part that had been missing when he kissed Sandy.

Finding his heart was involved while he kissed Carrie was a shock.

Jack lost himself so completely in the kiss that he realized he’d never truly be free again.

When Carrie wrapped her arms around him and deepened the kiss, Jack knew the absolute truth of it—he wanted her.

The sound of someone clearing a throat shook Jack out of the land of possibilities and back into the karaoke bar.

“I beg your pardon, Jack. The chem lab was mouth-to-mouth,” said a very humbled Mrs. Richardson.

“Wow,” Carrie said.

She shifted out of his arms and scooted her chair as far from him as she could, until she was practically sitting in Herb’s lap. “I owe you an apology, too, Jack. Mrs. Richardson was right, either the chem lab was mouth-to-mouth, or you’ve been doing some practicing since our lips last met.”

Then she said to Mrs. Richardson, “Could I borrow your husband for a dance?” Her eyes practically begged for permission to escape.

“Herb would love it,” Mrs. Richardson said.

As Carrie used Herb to make her escape, Mrs. Richardson leaned over and said to him, “I might have been wrong about the chem lab, but if you think you and Carrie are just friends, you’d better think again.”

Jack watched Carrie swaying in Herb’s arms on the dance floor and couldn’t have agreed more.

Carrie on the other hand, studiously practiced not looking at Jack. Dancing with the still-silent Herb was a big plus, she didn’t have to make social chatter, but could use the time to think.

One of them needed to think. And because it was obvious Jack hadn’t been thinking, it would have to be Carrie this once.

Only, Carrie didn’t know what to think.

Nor could Carrie really concentrate for the rest of the evening as she conversed with the overly talkative Mrs. Richardson. The woman was as much of a blessing as her husband was, and it was with a heavy heart that Carrie bid them both good night.

Jack and Carrie were silent as they walked to their room. “Carrie,” Jack said while he opened the door.

“Sorry,” she blurted. “When a girl’s got to go, a girl’s got to go.” She practically ran into the bathroom and slammed the door.

“You’re going to have to talk to me at some point,” Jack bellowed.

Carrie just turned on the tap for a bath. “Sorry, I can’t hear you over the water. We’ll have to discuss it later. Why don’t you just go to bed?”

Silence was her only answer. Maybe she’d manage to avoid him for tonight. There was tomorrow, of course, but she was going to let tomorrow take care of itself and just thank her lucky stars for the reprieve, no matter how short-lived it might be.

After hearing the tub being filled for a second time, Jack called, “I’m still waiting.”

“Okay,” Carrie yelled through the closed door.

Okay?

Nothing was okay about this evening.

He’d kissed Carrie. Not some friendly little peck on the cheek. Not some indulgent big-brother type kiss. No. The kiss was carnal and wild. A kiss he’d like to repeat...if he could repeat it with anyone but Carrie.

She wasn’t the type of woman he fantasized about.

And she certainly wasn’t someone he kissed, not like that.

No one kissed a friend like that.

But he had.

And even worse than that, he’d liked it.

A lot.

So now what?

Did he apologize?

Or did he repeat it?

Jack couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so confused. And if the fact Carrie was hiding out in the bathroom was any indication, she was just as confused as he was. They had 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 should run, she should scream and shout. It wasn’t right, she knew that. Carrie didn’t want Jack on the rebound. She just wanted him to see her as more than a little sister, and slowly, maybe he’d see her as a woman, someone he could learn to care for.

“We shouldn’t,” she said, with absolutely no conviction in her voice.

The knot gave way and Jack’s hands moved beneath the robe. “Shouldn’t what?” he said, his lips moving to her shoulder.

“You’ll hate me in the morning,” she said with despair. “It will change everything.”

That finally stopped him.

Jack’s hand went under her chin and tilted it upward until she was forced to look at him.

“It doesn’t have to,” he said with certainty.

What had changed between them? Jack couldn’t figure it out.

Ever since he’d waxed Carrie’s legs, there had been something between them he’d never suspected before.

And when he’d brought his tipsy best friend from the airplane to the hotel? The feelings he’d entertained hadn’t been friendly, they’d been hot.

He’d been relieved when she’d kicked him out and undressed herself. He’d thought he could walk away from those feelings.

But now, standing here with her, only a robe separating them, Jack knew he couldn’t escape these feelings. They were growing stronger minute by minute.

He wanted her. Wanted her in a way he’d never wanted anyone else, not even Sandy.

What had changed?

“But it will make things different,” she said. “If you, if we... Jack, if we do this, things can never go back to what they were.”

“Maybe they’ll move forward instead?” Moving closer, Jack feathered kisses down her neck.

Holding Carrie, kissing Carrie felt right. It felt as if after years of searching he’d finally come home—home to Carrie.

“I don’t know if this would be moving forward. I don’t know if it’s what I want,” Carrie said, though she knew it for the lie it was.

She just didn’t know if it was what
he
wanted. He needed more time to recover.

He didn’t believe a word of what she’d just said. And the look he gave her told her more clearly than any words he could have used.

“You’re sure that
no
is your answer?” His hands dropped from her body and Carrie almost wept from the pain the loss of contact caused.

“It’s the only answer I can give,” Carrie said, reknotting her belt.

“Well, if that’s it, then that’s it. Good night, Carrie.” Without another word, Jack turned and walked into the room, threw the comforter and a pillow onto the floor and crawled into his makeshift bed.

Carrie stood on the patio, watching the ocean for a long time. Tonight was a memory akin to the chem lab kiss-that-wasn’t. It was a memory that she’d hang on to for the rest of her life. And hard though it was, she was sure she’d made the right decision. She couldn’t allow herself to use Jack that way.

She wouldn’t do it. He didn’t realize how precarious his emotions were. He was on the rebound. It had been months since the breakup, but rather than healing, he just seemed to plod forward. It broke Carrie’s heart, knowing he wanted something he could never have. The fact that he wouldn’t talk about Sandy only reinforced her belief in his grief.

Tomorrow she’d try to get him to forgive her and put their friendship back on track.

Her fingers brushed her lips.

No, after having been really kissed by Jack, there was no way she’d ever mistake his mouth-to-mouth as anything but.

Hours later, she tiptoed into the room and crawled in bed, with her bathrobe still knotted in place. Her dreams that night were filled with sweet fantasies about her life if only Jack had loved her.