Read Online Confessions of a Girl-Next-Door by Jackie Braun - Free Book Online Page A

a long day,” he agreed.
    “Yes. Very.”
    He waited until she was at the base of the steps to turn out the lamp. Enough light spilled from the open door of his bedroom at the top of the stairs to keep them from tripping.
    It was odd, walking up to his bedroom with a beautiful woman at his side and knowing they would part ways at the top of the steps and nothing would happen but sleep. Or sleeplessness, as the case likely would be for him.
    He’d entertained overnight guests of theopposite sex before. He was a grown man, after all. And he’d hardly lived as a monk.
    But this was different. This was something … more. He might not like it, but that was a fact. He’d accepted that earlier when they’d kissed. The mere memory of it would haunt him, just as memories of a suntanned teenage girl had haunted him for the past decade, whether he’d wanted to admit it or not.
    At the top of the steps, she turned, as he’d known she would, starting to the opposite end of the house after offering a polite smile and the appropriate good-night wish. Words stuck in Nate’s throat, jumbled up on his tongue.
    I’m glad you’re here.
He nearly said it. And he
was
glad. In spite of everything and all of the conflicting emotions seeing her again had prompted, he was.
    But instead of telling her so, he stepped into his bedroom and closed the door. After stripping off his shirt and shorts, he stretched out on the cool cotton sheets, eyeing the shadows cast from the lamp on the nightstand, as his mind tried to make sense of his thoughts.
    He’d gotten over Holly. A long time ago,in fact. It hadn’t been easy those first couple of summers, but then he’d gone off to college, dated other girls both on the island and elsewhere. Even if none of those relationships had lasted long or held any deep meaning for him, it wasn’t as if he’d been pining. He’d figured the feelings he’d had for Holly had only felt so intense because he’d been young and in love for the first time.
    That had made sense.
    Now, here she was again. Back on the island after all of these years. She’d been in his life for mere hours, already upsetting its careful balance in ways he couldn’t begin to fathom. And while Nate wished he could say that he’d been right, that immaturity and imagination had been responsible for those inflated feelings of the past, he knew he would be lying.
    She was special.
    Nate the boy had loved Holly the girl. After the kiss of a couple hours ago, he knew that Nate the man could very well wind up in a similar predicament.
    If he allowed it.
    He didn’t plan to allow it. After all, just like before, she would be leaving. In meredays, she would go back to a life that Nate wasn’t part of and never could be.
    No, he wouldn’t make the mistake of falling in love with Holly twice.

CHAPTER FIVE
    N ATE awoke just before dawn, not that he’d slept much knowing that Holly was just down the hall, stretched out between the sheets he’d spread over his boyhood bed.
    Oh, the irony, given the many fantasies he’d entertained of her there back when they both were teenagers, when his hormones had been churning on high.
    Between her nearness and Hank’s buzz-saw snoring, Nate barely had managed a few hours of shut-eye. Add to that his anxiety over the extent of the storm’s damage to the resort, and it was no wonder he was suffering insomnia. At first light, he dressed and prepared to head out.
    Hank was still sleeping. The noise coming from the other man’s room confirmed as much. Nate glanced down the hall. Before he could stop himself, he was at Holly’sdoor. He leaned in close and listened. The only sound he could hear was breathing and it was coming from him. She was probably dead to the world, a casualty of jet lag. He started to step away, then stopped. Even though it made absolutely no sense, and he knew he was being unforgivably rude, he slowly turned the knob, pushed the door open a crack and peeked inside.
    Just as he’d