"Gutsy girl."
"Seriously gutsy. The clencher?" She gave him a tight smile before continuing. "Zoey then dared me to kiss a stranger in an elevator. We rode the elevator for an hour, looking for the perfect guy and waiting for me to work up the nerve to actually do it. Most of the guys had wives or girlfriends or were much older. She couldn't understand why I was so reluctant. She would have done it in a heartbeat.
"Finally, two good-looking high-school-aged guys got on the elevator. One was really tall. There was no way I could plant a kiss on him then dart off the elevator. So I chose the shorter one."
"You just kissed him—on the lips, I assume—then bolted?" Damon let out a little laugh. "You didn't talk to him or even find out his name first?"
"I told you I was young and stupid. Fifteen to be exact." Grace shook her head as she looked out across the lake. "The whole thing backfired on me."
"How?"
"Well, Zoey and I were ready to step off, but then I turned and kissed him. Yes, on the lips, just a quick peck really.” She frowned and shook her head. “Needless to say, he was shocked, but he recovered a lot faster than I expected and pulled me back in as the doors closed." She sucked in a sharp breath. "He pressed the button for the next floor and pushed me up against the wall and proceeded to make out with me until the door opened again."
"Oh, wow." Damon's brows hiked up as anger shot through him.
"I'd never been kissed before. So not only was my first time not meaningful, it turned into French kissing with a little..." She cleared her throat. "...fondling thrown in."
"Now I see why you don't tell anyone that story. I bet Zoey laughed about it. She reminds me of Howie."
"Yeah, she was actually jealous."
"She was jealous that some guy...took advantage of you?"
"She was crazy like that." She shook her head again. "I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I did it anyway. I got what I deserved."
"Yeah, I guess you did."
A look of hurt flashed through Grace's eyes then shutters seemed to drop down as she masked her emotions. She turned away and studied the shoreline.
Damon couldn't understand what just happened. Had he said something wrong? One minute, Grace was finally opening up; the next, she wouldn't even look at him.
"When we first met in the elevator, you told me you weren't very adventurous, but it sounds like you were as a teenager." Damon prodded, desperate to get back the Grace that confided in him.
"No. Zoey was the adventurous one, and she always dragged me along." She looked down at her clasped hands. "The things I did were reckless and stupid." Her voice was full of self-recrimination. "And they had dire consequences."
She's talking about more than being assaulted in an elevator. But what?
HavingDamon confirm that Grace got what she deserved in that elevator—never mind that it was true—hurt.
How would he respond if she told him everything? That as a sophomore, she went to a party, got drunk, and made out with a senior boy who raped her? Would he say it was her fault, like many of her so-called friends did? Would he call her a slut or an attention seeker?
Would he judge her for choosing to give her baby up for adoption when the father wanted her to have an abortion? Or would he think she was wrong for not letting her dad and his new wife raise her baby?
Grace didn't tell people about her past because most of them criticized the choices she made as a sixteen-year-old girl who felt so lost and alone.
"Hey." Damon took her hand. "I'm not sure what I said or did that upset you, but I'm sorry. Please don't hold my cluelessnessagainst me." His reference to their conversation the first day they met brought a smile to her face. "I don't want it to ruin our last day together."
"Me either."
If they were going to have a future together, she needed to tell Damon everything. But it didn't need to be right now. If she told him a month from now in an email, then she wouldn't have to see the judgment or disappointment on his face.
Coward.
"Did I tell you about that time Daniel, Riley, Paige, and I decided we were going to canoe all the way across the lake to the grocery store on the other side just to buy candy?" Damon set his oar on the water and motioned for her to grab hers. "We were only a couple hundred yards from the pier at our cabin when the wake of a large motorboat capsized us."
Grace gasped. "Were you guys okay?"
"We wore life jackets, so we were fine. Uncle Blake spotted us out beyond the buoys that marked the off-limits area just before we capsized. He and my dad rode out on the jet skis and made sure we were okay. Then Uncle Blake towed the canoe back to the cabin while my dad watched us swim back."
