But in that moment, that breaking of contact, the woods came rushing back in. Colorado. December.Five years later. Charlotte froze, her nose pressed to Brighton’s lovely throat, reality a cold splash of water.
She let go.
She let go so suddenly that Brighton stumbled backward, the arms once holding her close no longer there.
Charlotte backed up, her breathing coming even faster than when they were entwined, panic replacing all arousal.
“I’m sorry,” Brighton said. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips swollen and pink. “I…I don’t know what happened.”
Charlotte said nothing. Couldn’t. Didn’t want to talk about it, knowing Brightonwouldwant to talk about it. She always wanted to talk about everything, every single feeling she ever had.
Well.
Every single feeling except one—whatever secret emotion had sent her fleeing from their wedding five years ago.
The bitterness swelled back to full strength. Charlotte wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, made sure Brighton saw her do it. She watched Brighton flinch, then flatten her lips into a thin line to hide it. Charlotte scooped the hat from the ground, dusted off the snow, and slipped it on her head, smoothing over the tangles Brighton’s fingers had left in her hair. She was methodical, calm, using these movements to slow down her heart, to get her brain back in control.
“I’m heading back,” she finally said, and turned away from Brighton without another word.
Except when she turned, there were only trees. She turned again—more trees, more fallen snow covering any tracks they’d left on the forest floor. She had no idea which way they’d come from. She glanced at Brighton, who was only looking at her, then closed her eyes and sighed.
She was lost in the Colorado woods with her ex-fiancée, because of fucking course she was.
Chapter 14
Brighton’s mouth buzzed with thatpost-kiss feeling, her limbs liquid, her brain jumbled and still slotting the pieces of what had just happened into place.
They’d kissed.
Lola and Bright.
Bright and Lola.
They…Hadn’t they?
She blinked the scene back into focus, the woods and the snow, Lola ten feet away from her now, turning in a circle with her hands on her hips.
Like nothing had happened at all.
The snow fell harder around them, a curtain between her and her ex.
“Lola,” she said.
“Do you remember which way we came from?” Lola asked, not looking at her.
Brighton blinked again, then finally registered what was happening—no tracks in the snow, trees all around, no clear path or trail.
“Well, do you?” Lola asked, finally stopping her circling to glare at Brighton. To most people, she would’ve sounded calm, but Brighton heard the tinge of panic in her voice, the slightest tremble.
“Um, well,” Brighton said, glancing around too.
“Helpful,” Lola said, huffing a sigh.
Brighton gritted her teeth. Lola got bitchy when she was stressed—always had. Granted, it wasn’t like she’d been anythingbutsince they’d arrived in Colorado, except for the last few minutes, when she’d felt like the old Lola, soft and sweet, that impenetrable armor she wore for the world dropping away for Brighton, just like it always had.
The kiss…she now understood the phraseIt just happened, because that’s what kissing Lola just now had felt like—an inevitability, a tug of magnets finally close enough to snap together. One second Lola was reliving that awful day, revealing details Brighton had never known, had been too ashamed to even ask her mother about, and the next, Brighton’s hands were on Lola’s face, pulling her closer, closer, closer.
And, god, it felt good.
