Page 105 of Forbidden to Fall

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“James…”

“I am. I’m just…waiting.”

I cut in front of him and put my hands on his arms to stop us in the path. “Waiting for what?”

His eyes searched mine in silence, then he broke his gaze away, turning his head to the side. “For you to change your mind.”

My brows pinched together. “What?”

He still didn’t look at me.

“Change my mind about what, James?”

His jaw flexed a couple of times before he spoke. “About me.”

I blinked, my grip on his arms slackening.

Was he under the impression that I’d invited him on this walk tonight to let him down easy?

“James.”

He kept staring off somewhere beyond the river.

I took his face in my hands and gently guided it so our gazes locked.

I debated what to say to help him understand. To reassure him.

In the end, I went on my tiptoes and pressed my lips to his. I kissed him to say everything I didn’t know how to put into words.

Slowly, his body relaxed, his arms wrapped around me, and he kissed me back. Tenderly. Almost gratefully.

The stress of the day melted off my shoulders, and I threaded my fingers through his hair, anchoring us together.

But we couldn’t kiss forever.

Especially not when a group of teenagers started whooping at us down the trail.

We broke apart, but rather than showing my warm face, I buried it in his chest.

He laughed softly into my hair, his left arm around me tight.

“Hey,” a kid said. “Aren’t you that guy from the parking lot? At the mayor’s party?”

I knew that voice. It was Ethan, the maple glaze monster, on what sounded like an electric scooter.

I gripped James more tightly and made sure my face was totally hidden.

Curse this red hair.

The group whizzed past, apparently not interested enough in the answer to Ethan’s question to slow down. Thank heaven.

“Are they gone?” My voice was muffled in James’s shirt.

“Nope.” James kept a tight hold on me.