Painless

Chapter Seventeen

            I snorted. “Yeah, right. You’re telling me you never hooked up with her at all during the summer we were there?”

            “Not once. I was there to train, not date. Wasn’t that why you were there?”

            This caught me off-guard. I’d been sure that everyone was hooking up with everyone that summer. Well, except for me. But that’s what happens when everyone else is so much older than you. You sort of fall into the kid-sister category and therefor were completely off-limits.

            “Well, yeah, but everyone was sniffing each other’s butts that summer. I just assumed you were, too,” I mumbled. “You’re a good looking guy, I’m sure all the girls were after you.”

            “That doesn’t mean that I was after them.”

            “Fair enough,” I said, my cool façade beginning to fade.

            Carson took a few steps into the room, eyes straight on me. “You think I’m good-looking?” he asked, tucking his hands into his pockets bashfully.

            Uh-oh. Somehow he’d gotten me to divulge more than I’d intended to.

            “Well, you’re not completely unfortunate looking,” I stammered. “But that’s beside the point. Let’s just forget it all and move on, okay?”

            “That’s the problem,” Carson said, closing the distance between us. He was standing close now, but wasn’t touching me. I was surprised to find that I sort of wanted him to. “I’m not sure I want to move on.”

            My heart began to race and I felt myself leaning in toward him, as if an invisible force field was pulling us together. “What are you saying?”

            “I know this is unprofessional and I wish I could just turn it off, and I probably should. But ever since I first saw you, I knew I wanted to…know you. And then your mom put me on this assignment, and I almost told her no, because I knew I might not be able to do my job…”

            “You should have said no,” I practically whispered, knowing what was going to happen if I didn’t stop things right now.

            But do I want to stop it?

            “You’re probably right,” he said after a moment. Then he took a step backward and the electricity that had sparked between the two of us dimmed. “I should do the right thing and walk away.”

            “Yeah,” I said, letting out the breath I’d been holding in.

            After staring at me for a few more seconds, Carson opened up the door to the room and then held it open as he waited for me to leave. So, I got up and walked over, lingering just a bit too long as I passed him to escape the room.

            After that, I’d thrown myself into research mode just to get my mind off of what had happened. Luckily there was plenty to do, and before long, I’d discovered that Christopher Kind’s parents were indeed alive and well, and living just a few towns away from my house. To say I was surprised would’ve been an understatement. When I’d told Carson that we were heading back to where we’d started, he made it clear that Benji would be heading back to my parents house the minute his health declined. Basically, the smallest cough or sniffle meant Benji’s part in our investigation was over.

            And I wasn’t ready for him to leave yet. Partly because of what had happened between us in his hospital room but mostly because it would’ve left me alone with Carson.