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KIM BALDWIN. “Yeah. I had kind of decided that you probably were attracted to me and I’d just not picked up on it
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“Yeah. I had kind of decided that you probably were attracted to me and I’d just not picked up on it. But I wanted to be sure. That’s why I asked you if you’d ever met somebody special.”
“Ah.” Talk about clueless. How could I have been so incrediblyblind? Am I that out of practice in the romance department?
“I hoped it would prompt you to be honest with me, if you did feel something for me,” Erin said. “I was disappointed you didn’t.”
“I’m sorry. I was afraid it would freak you out and make you start acting weird around me.”
“Well, I got depressed after that. Kind of shut myself away for a while, wondering what I was going to do. And then I got pissed at you for not being honest with me.”
“Which is why you were so angry at me in the locker room, and didn’t answer my messages.”
“Yeah. I guess I wasn’t done stewing about it,” Erin said. “You sure have left me all stirred up and f ustrated, I can tell you!” The blush returned.
Gable laughed. “So what made you come to the pharmacy?”
“Well, I got to missing you somethin’ F erce. I played back your phone messages a jillion times just to hear your voice.”
“You did?” Gable’s heartbeat F lled her chest. She felt light-headed.
This had to be a dream. Erin saying these things to her. Lord, pleasedon’t let me wake up.
“And I put your note on my refrigerator and read it about every two minutes! Anyway, I decided I was throwing away the best friend I ever had, and that I might have acted too hastily,” Erin continued. “I was just so sure that you did feel something special for me that I had to F nd a way to tell you how I felt, and really give us a chance.” She smiled. “Sorry it took a few days to work up the nerve to say anything, and even then I had to resort to song titles.”
“Thanks for being brave.”
“But I have to warn you, Gable. I want you like crazy —it’s all I can think about! But it’s still really scary to me.” Erin looked away.
“I’m a mess with relationships anyway. And I don’t know how to…
well…how to be with a woman, you know? I mean…” Her eyes met Gable’s. “I don’t want to disappoint you.”
Gable relished the words. She wants me like crazy! She took Erin’s hand in both of hers. “Erin, I’ve not been great at relationships either. If
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it makes you feel any better, I’m probably just as terriF ed and nervous as you are. I mean, I don’t want to disappoint you, either.”
“Maybe we can just take this one step at a time, then?” Erin asked.
“We can do that.”
“But not too slow,” Erin added with a grin. Her blush deepened. “I mean, my fantasizing muscles have sure been getting a workout lately, and I’m afraid if we wait too long I might spontaneously combust!”
Gable laughed, but her body felt suddenly overheated too. “I’ll let you set the pace, then,” she said. “How’s that?”
There was a short silence, and then Erin met Gable’s eyes. There was mischief there, replacing the embarrassment that had tinted her cheeks. “In that case,” she said, “I’d like to make a date with you for Saturday.”
“Saturday?” Gable whined. “That’s F ve whole days away.”
“You didn’t let me F nish,” Erin said. “I’ll see you before then, but I’d like to make a date for Saturday as in…a date. As in, your next day off? When there’s plenty of time?” Erin moistened her lips, and Gable’s body heated up another ten degrees.
“Plenty of time?” she repeated weakly.
“Mmm-hmm,” Erin gazed into her eyes with heart-stopping candor. “I want our F rst time together…like that …to be really special.
Unhurried.”
“You mean?” Gable stuttered, as Erin’s face moved an inch closer.
“Is that too soon for you?” Erin moved another inch closer, then two. Three.
Gable shook her head vigorously as her pulse quickened.
Erin grinned. “You are so slow to take a hint sometimes, Gable.
Will you please kiss me?”
She barely got the words out before Gable covered Erin’s mouth with her own, their lips meeting in a sweet, soft kiss. She wanted so much to remember that moment that time seemed to stand still. The kiss was tentative at F rst, a gentle pressing together—then barely apart for a millisecond to reposition before they came together again, this time with much more certainty.
No one’s lips can be this incredibly soft.
Gable extended the tip of her tongue to caress Erin’s lips—slowly, languidly. Memorizing every centimeter of that oh-so-inviting mouth.
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