Hadley Arrington is the career-driven editor-in-chief of her university’s prestigious newspaper. Jack Diamond is a laidback student whose good looks have made things even easier than they need to be. She’s the girl who came out of nowhere and kissed him in the rain. He’s the boy who made her do something crazy.
“Yeah,” I said. I looked up at the sky, too. That was even easier than looking at his hands was. Flirt, I reminded myself. You think he’s cute. So flirt.
“It seems like a lot of shit like this has been happening all week,” he mused.
“Rain? Or people raining on your parade?”
“My tailgate,” he amended, grinning. The rain picked up.
“Yeah.” I needed a drink. Or a funny story to tell. I tried to open my beer, and found that my hands were scraped and shaky. He took it, wordlessly, cracked it open and handed it back to me.
“Thanks.” I said. “I know what you mean. About the rain.”
“Yeah? Who’s ruined your week?”
I smiled. I looked up at him. His eyes were just as soft now. And I hadn’t hit my head. That was a real thing that his eyes were actually soft. “I don’t know. Nobody. Myself. The Cairo bureau. In Egypt. Sorry, you’re not stupid. I’m sure you know Cairo is in Egypt. Anyways, this woman named Suzanne works there and she…well, it’s kind of her fault. Actually, I don’t think it’s her fault. It’s totally my fault. She was really nice about it. But, yeah, rain.” I looked at him again, unable to shut up, maybe because he didn’t appear to be totally horrified. He just looked like he was listening. Although, I was horrified. “Sorry, I’m drunk. I mean, all that’s true, but I’m also drunk, and my life is kind of a mess. Or, it feels like a mess. I guess it’s not actually a mess. I just thought I knew exactly what to do to get exactly what I wanted, and I never really considered that maybe it wouldn’t work out. And then, like, the second it didn’t work out, I just immediately talked myself out of believing I ever even wanted it. And I feel like I was so sure of everything that it would be embarrassing to admit that things didn’t work out like I planned. You know? I was always the sensible one. And if it turns out I wasn’t sensible—and that I just deluded myself into thinking I was—I would feel like such a fraud.”
I caught my breath. “I mean, I kind of am a fraud, I’ve realized. So, I’m pretending that it’s all good. And so far nobody’s noticed. But I’m a mess. You can probably tell. I’m a drunk mess. You’re way too polite, by the way. You should make a face or something before I say anything really embarrassing.”
“I don’t think you’ve said anything embarrassing,” he said quietly.
“Right. Well, that’s because you have no idea what I’m talking about. It makes no sense.”
He grinned and cocked his head. “It makes some sense.”
“Doesn’t make any sense.” I shook my head and took a sip of the beer.
“No. It does.” He stepped closer. “I mean, I don’t know about Egypt or Suzanne, but I get that feeling. Not knowing why you’re doing what you’re doing? And feeling like a fraud? I get that way sometimes, too.”
He was so goddamn handsome. And there was something gentle about him and I was cold and drunk and it was raining and I hadn’t gotten the job and for once I felt really like I didn’t have anything to lose.
He met my eyes and smiled, sheepishly. “I mean—”
I stepped forward and kissed him.
Suddenly and impulsively.
Because I wanted to. Because I had nothing to lose. Because I believed, for once, there wasn’t anything to lose here.
I saw his eyes dilate before I shut mine tightly. He lifted me off the ground and I wrapped my legs around his waist and he kissed me back.
I knew I had been kissed before. Except for suddenly I was sure I had never been kissed at all. Not really. Not like this. It had never been like this.
I heard someone make a hooting noise, but mainly I just heard the rain falling and the people running around us and the soft sound of his breathing.
Mainly I just felt the way he kissed me and the firmness of his jaw and how he so obviously knew exactly what he was doing.
After a moment, he lowered his mouth to my neck and I threw my head back, letting his warm, soft lips press against the sensitive place underneath my chin while the cold water ran down our faces. I shivered. From him or the water I couldn’t tell.
We both jumped slightly at a wild crack of thunder. He set me onto my feet, laughing. I opened my eyes and looked at him. He stood with his hands open and at his sides, a wide smile on his face as he watched a bolt of lightning split the streaming, gray sky.
I looked up, too, at the lightening crackling across the sky like a scar.
He put a hand on my hip. “Hey. You’re something, you know that?” He breathed.
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