Page 106 of Forbidden to Fall

I listened carefully, but the only sound was the river. “Now?”

“Nope.”

I pulled back enough to sneak a peek. There was no one anywhere nearby.

He laughed and dropped his arm.

I stepped back and looked at the figures as they disappeared around the bend. “Probably should pick less public spots for these moments going forward. So far, it’s been Main Street and the river path.”

“So, there is a going forward?” The question was more serious than joking.

I blinked. “I sure hope so.”

His eyes searched mine. “That wasn’t a goodbye kiss?”

I pulled back more. “Not for me. Apparently, I did a bad job, because that was not the message I was trying to send. The opposite, in fact. Why are you smiling like that?”

He was grinning—a goofy, can’t-stop-myself grin—but he reached a hand over and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “I just really didn’t want that to be the last time I kissed you.”

“It won’t be. It can’t be.” It was a promise to him and a reassurance to myself. “But I don’t know what to do about my brother.”

“I know. I don’t either.”

It was quiet for a few seconds.

“I get that this”—he motioned between us—“is complicated and has a lot of potential consequences. But there’s a really big part of me that just…doesn’t care. I just want you.”

I swallowed, grateful he was saying it so I didn’t have to. “Me too.” I took in a big breath and let it out. “But we can’t just⁠—”

“No. We can’t.”

“So, what, then? What do we do? I don’t know how to do this without hurting Ryan.”

James’s brows pulled into a deeper v. He stared at me for a couple seconds, then shut his eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s kind of hard to focus on anything when I’m looking at you.”

“Yeah. And even harder when we’re kissing.”

He opened his eyes.

“It kind of feels like we’ve been in first gear for a while, and now we’re switching. On a hill. And we know how that went.”

He smiled ruefully. “We survived.”

“Barely.”

“Look, Sadie, like I told you—I could kiss you all night. But I can also hold off on kissing or even touching you as long as I need to if some space will help us figure out how to handle things with your brother. Would that help? Dialing it back physically?”

I swallowed.

It would. I knew it would.

I just hated hearing him suggest it. Part of me worried that if we dialed it back, we might never dial it back forward. James wanting me was too good to be true. Too good to last.

But ignoring the ramifications of our feelings for each other wasn’t a real option, and I had a feeling it would come back to bite us if we didn’t take the time to do this right.