I moved before I could think.
My hand shot out around her arm, and I yanked hertoward me just as a shriek formed on her lips and moments before her balance was lost completely. Instead of hitting the ground, she crashed hard into my chest, knocking the air out of me as we went down into the grass together.
Her shrieks turned into a groan as she landed squarely on top of me.
For half a second, all I could register was the weight and warmth of her. The soft rush of her breath against my neck.
Then she froze.
I opened my eyes, the breath returning to my lungs, to find her staring down at me. Her eyes were wide with surprise, her cheeks flushed with something I wasn’t sure I wanted to name. One small hand braced against my chest like she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to push me away or stay exactly where she was.
We were inches apart.
Too close.Waytoo close.
“I told you to take my hand.” I tried to force a light tone into my voice despite the way my pulse had kicked up into something embarrassingly and completely inappropriately fast.
She groaned and scrambled up. Her hand pushed against me, her decision made as she tried to get up. But her feet slipped in the mud again, and she crashed back down on top of me with a grunt moments before the others rejoined us.
“What happened?”
“Are you okay?”
“I hope we’re not interrupting anything.”
“Oh, we aredefinitelyinterrupting something.”
Jess squeezed her eyes shut and sucked in a breath like she was waiting for the earth to open up and swallow her whole. “You are definitelynotinterrupting anything,” she said. “I slipped.”
“And I caught her,” I added, grinning, because apparently I had a death wish when it came to Jess Anderson.
She shoved my chest, a little bit harder than necessary to get up, and I let her go as Chase grabbed her arm and helped her to her feet.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Chase asked.
“Fine,” she said a little too quickly as she brushed dirt from her pants and straightened her pack.
I pushed myself up from the ground and dusted off my jacket. When I looked at her again, she was already trying to pull herself back together. With that polished smile back on her face, the only indication that anything had happened at all was that a few stray curls had slipped from her ponytail.
If you asked me, and nobody had, I liked her looking a little less than perfect. It was cute.
Not that I’d ever say that out loud.
Or that I had any business thinking it.
When I looked at her again, her chin was lifted and her shoulders squared, as if it had never happened.
Same old Jess.
Polished, put together, and completely unrattled.
Our eyes met for a second longer than necessary.
I cleared my throat and tipped my head. “Guess some things never change, huh, Dots?”
She frowned. “You didn’t have to say that.”
“Yeah.” I chuckled. “I did.”
