Momentous Kisses: Love in Sandy Beach by Jessica Gray Read Free Book Online

place.”
    Russell gave his apartment a cursory glance and shrugged. “It works.” He paused for a moment and then told her, “You never told me how you got my address.”
    “Toni gave it to me.”
    “Ah.” He nodded, blood rushing through his ears. What did she tell my sister?
    Allison took another sip of her water and then set the glass down on the side table. She took a deep breath and then looked up at him. He watched her biting her bottom lip, apparently in an attempt to gather her courage. With a swift nod of her head, she tensed her shoulders and looked right into his eyes. “Russell, I haven’t been able to forget you like we agreed.”
    Hearing her put a voice to what he’d been going through was the last thing he expected. Part of him wanted to hop up and down with joy she’d been feeling the same way, but the bigger part recited all of the logical reasons why a relationship between them wouldn’t work.
    He looked at her, and suspected there was more she hadn’t told him yet. She hadn’t come all the way down to Chicago just to tell him that. Had she? Judging by her nervousness there was more to her visit, and he was dying to find out what exactly. “Continue.”
    Allison didn’t leave him wondering for long. 
    “I came here to test something out,” she said, folding her hands together so she wouldn’t wring them.
    “A test?” Now she was talking in riddles. That just didn’t make sense.
    She nodded. “Yes.” After a pause, the words tumbled out of her mouth almost faster than he could process them. “I thought maybe I’d stay with you for the week and if at the end we are still of the opinion that a relationship won’t work, then we just forget it. I mean, I could leave with the good feeling that at least we tried. No regrets. We’d never have to wonder ‘what if’. If at the end of the week we think we might work together, we can talk about the details then.”
    Russell was baffled. Totally baffled. He looked around, half expecting his in-laws showing up and laughing at the prank, but no, her determined face taught him she was dead serious about this test. He tried to contain his laughter, barely managing it as he replayed her words in his mind. Her idea was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.
    He spied her suitcase and knew she’d come here expecting he would agree to this crazy idea of hers. She continued to talk without a pause while he tried to form a response, and finally he stopped her chatter.
    “Allison, stop. Are you sure you want to do this?”
    She nodded her head and he sighed, “I’m not sure if this is a good idea or not.”
    He was about to say no, but then she smiled at him. Her wonderful, lighthearted smile that had originally drawn him across the room to her side. It was as if the sun was suddenly rising in his apartment, and he felt a warmth spread throughout his body.
    Against his intention, he found himself agreeing to her request. “If you’re sure, I guess we could try it.” He thought it was a bad idea, and agreed for a single reason: so she’d see herself it wouldn’t work out. Whom am I kidding? I agreed, because her smile captured me. This is such a bad idea.
    Still, he hoped after a day or two she’d find out a relationship with him wasn’t in the cards and both of them could happily pursue their own lives again.

Chapter 9
    A stone the size of an airplane fell from Allison’s heart when Russell agreed to her suggestion. She’d been paralyzed by fear he was going to send her away. When he’d first opened the door, the sight of him had sent her body into overdrive and short-circuited her brain. She had barely recovered, when he returned with the glass of water and sat in the chair next to the couch. The smell of his aftershave wafting in the air fired up a chain of memories in her body.
    How would she be able to live with Russell day in and day out, if she lost it every time he entered the room? One thing was for certain, she needed to