USA TODAY bestselling author, Maureen A. Miller worked in the software industry for fifteen years. She crawled around plant floors in a hard hat and safety glasses hooking up computers to behemoth manufacturing machines. The job required extensive travel. The best form of escapism during those lengthy airport layovers became writing.Colin moved, shaking Stella from her daydream.
“Come on. Stay close,” he instructed.
Close. There was no problem with that command. There was no way she was being left behind in this subterranean abyss.
As they started forward, her toe clipped Colin’s heel causing her to stumble and plant a palm on his back for support.
“A little too close,” Colin muttered over his shoulder.
Stella’s hand snapped back. It wasn’t the first time she had inadvertently touched her best friend’s older brother.
In high school, she had taken many fishing trips with the Wexlers. It was common for them to spend the night out at sea so that Jill’s dad could reach the best fishing spot. The cabin was tight on the STARKISSED, and normally Colin would sleep on the bench seat beside the kitchen table while the three females monopolized the v-shaped bed.
On one occasion she, Jill, and Anne Wexler retired into the cabin for the night, while Colin and his father remained up on deck. Stella and Jill took the bunk on one side of the V, and Anne slept on the other. At some point the boat pitched slightly on a wave and Stella rolled off her tight perch into the gap between the mattresses. Expecting to hit the floor she instead landed on something pliant. Something strong. Something that smelled like the sea and Irish Spring.
Stella was a junior at the time. She had already been kissed and maybe pawed a little, but she still had very little knowledge of what a man felt like. Now she was pinned to a wide chest with her legs twined between his. Planting her palms on the carpet, she clambered for balance. Heat rushed to her cheeks and it seemed every move she made to dislodge herself only made matters worse.
Colin didn’t say a word. Powerful arms hefted her back onto the mattress and just like that, his silhouette climbed through the hatch and back onto the deck.
Ever since that incident she had a tough time looking him in the eye. It wasn’t just because of the awkwardness of the situation. The truth she concealed was that she had a big-time crush on her best friend’s brother.
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