The Marriage Contract by Kim Hartfield

Author:Kim Hartfield [Hartfield, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Published: 2018-12-16T00:00:00+00:00

Thirteen – Poppy

A month after our last visit, I was about to step on a plane for my first time in San Francisco. I’d been overwhelmed when Leah had offered to pay for my trip. Even if the money was nothing to her, which seemed to be the case, the gesture meant the world to me.

As much as I’d wanted to see her again right away, we’d chosen to wait a couple more weeks for me to come. I’d taken the afternoon off work so we could have an extra evening together, and she’d been working overtime so she wouldn’t have to worry about SpotBot at all for the weekend.

Now I stood in line at the departure gate, clinging to the bag I’d packed. I hadn’t been on a plane in ages, since my senior-year girls’ trip to Cancun. I wasn’t a fan of flying. In fact, I didn’t even own a passport anymore.

I nodded to the flight attendant as I stepped onto the plane. As soon as I found my seat, I threw on my headphones and closed my eyes. Hopefully I could nap through this flight.

Of course, it wasn’t that easy. Four hours of gripping the seat handles later, I opened my eyes again.

“Afraid of flying?” the kindly-looking older woman next to me asked. “It’ll get better.”

“I hope you’re right.” I stood up and slung my duffel bag over my shoulder.

“You don’t have to travel often, do you?”

“No, but I might.”

How would I handle the distance if anything more were to happen between me and Leah? I could deal with a few hours of white-knuckling once, but would she come visit me too? How long could we maintain an interstate relationship?

I was getting way ahead of myself. She and I had barely kissed – even if we did know each other inside and out, and that single brief kiss had implied a whole lot of possibilities. I didn’t know for sure if she was interested in a relationship, considering she’d never had one before. I wasn’t even sure what I wanted, myself.

As I found a taxi, I replayed our last few interactions for the millionth time. Her semi-confession about her feelings for me, and my immediate reaction that it could never work. The pain in her eyes in the morning, and the new light I’d suddenly begun to see her in. The difficulty of saying goodbye, the temptation to lean in and kiss her… the sparks that’d leapt and soared between us the instant her lips met mine…

I’d definitely enjoyed the kiss – more than enjoyed, I’d been blown away – but was that enough? Did that mean we had the passion Kerry and I had lacked? I wanted to say yes, but maybe it’d just been so exciting because it was our first kiss. Maybe my latent attraction to her had built up over the years to make it amazing, but once we had a second and third kiss, the thrill would be gone – and then I’d lose my best friend.

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