Friends could share a sunset, and it not be considered romantic.
Even if they’d shared one in the past that had ended in a kiss that had forever changed his life.
He swallowed the lump clogging his throat.
He glanced at Chelsea. Her face held a dreamy expression that made him want to take her hand in his, made him want to lean over and kiss her lips now, tonight, to see if she tasted as sweet as he remembered.
He shook his head, clearing his unwanted thoughts. “Let’s go back to the house. We’ve both got to be in the office early tomorrow morning.”
She looked at him in confusion, then with resignation. “OK.”
Without another word to him or another glance toward the sinking sun, she turned and headed for the house at a brisk pace.
Jared watched her. He hadn’t meant they had to run to the house, but perhaps she’d realized the danger of them being on the beach alone with the sun going down and that’s why she walked like the devil nipped at her toes.
Actually, the surf did. Right up to her ankles and kept coming, darkening the edges of her rolled-up pants. In her haste she didn’t notice an unexpectedly powerful surge. He saw what was going to happen as it unfolded before him. He jogged through the water to catch her, and caught her arm just as the water careened around them, drenching them both from the waist down. Unfortunately, he hadn’t gotten a good footing before trying to rescue her and lost his balance. They both went down.
“Jared.” Her eyes were huge when she sputtered at him from where they sat with the water pulling away from them.
At some point during the fall his hands had grasped her waist, pulled her to him to cushion her. He hadn’t consciously done so, but his mind worked overtime as her wet body pressed against his. He didn’t risk looking down because the sun hadn’t gone low enough for him not to be able to see her wet shirt stuck to her chest. Already he was aware of the effects of the cold water on her body. Acutely aware.
Instinctively, he lowered his head, intent on kissing her, licking the salty water from her skin. He realized his error at the same moment Chelsea gave a little shake of her head.
What was he doing?
He let go of her, and jumped to his feet.
“If you wanted to go for a swim,” she teased, obviously trying to lighten the moment, “I’d have let you borrow a pair of Will’s trunks.”
Appreciating her efforts to ease the strain of the moment, he laughed. “So much for my attempt to rescue you from getting soaked.”
She glanced down at her plastered-to-her-body clothes. “That was a rescue attempt? I thought you were having American football fantasies and had mistaken me for a wide receiver.”
Water dripping from his soaked clothes, Jared held out his hand. “Actually, football fantasies sound better than admitting to my clumsy rescue.”
She placed her hand in his and allowed him to pull her to her feet. “Did you play football, Jared?”
“I played every sport. I actually went to college on a baseball scholarship. Had I not torn my rotator cuff in my sophomore year, who knows where I would have ended up?”
Shock shone on her face. “Medicine isn’t your first love?”
“Medicine is my life.” As he said the words out loud he realized just how true they were. After Laura, he’d shed every aspect of his life with the exception of medicine and a few close friends like Will.
“Is sports how you got this?” She ran her finger over the scar above his left eyebrow. Her finger heated his skin, searing into his flesh.
“Basketball fight my freshman year of high school,” he admitted.
“Fight?”
“Don’t ask,” he warned, grinning. “Just suffice it to say that we won on the court, and off.”
When Chelsea’s hand slid back into his, he didn’t pull away, although somewhere in the deep recesses of his brain a voice warned that friends did not hold hands on twilit beaches.
Still, being friends with Chelsea felt…nice.
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHELSEA floated through the next week. Their shared sushi and walk on the beach gave her hope that she and Jared really could put the past behind them and be friends. They’d had a nice meal and an enjoyable time. The conversation had been great. They’d laughed and joked. When on the beach he’d gone to kiss her, she’d stopped him because she didn’t want to ruin their tentative friendship. Jared would have beat a hasty retreat had they kissed. Then where would their friendship be? Kaput, that’s where and, despite how she longed for his kisses, she wouldn’t risk him going back to avoiding her. The tension between them was her only source of contention at work, and she’d do whatever was necessary to resolve the problem.