A Stiff Critique (33 page)
Authors: Jaqueline Girdner
“Hi, Wayne!” Carrie and Travis added their lesser shouts from behind me.
Once I got to him, I threw my arms around his sturdy chest and held on, inhaling the unique scent that was Wayne and only Wayne. He was home. I hadn’t let myself realize how far away he’d really been until that moment.
When I turned my face up toward his, he bent down to kiss me. The airport disappeared in the heat of his soft lips.
But Carrie and Travis didn’t.
“Ye gods and goddesses,” Carrie teased from behind us. “Do you think they’re stuck like that?”
I turned to her, ready to scream. I wanted to be alone with Wayne. As soon as possible. If not sooner. And then I saw the blush that Carrie and Travis shared. Were they embarrassed by our…our ardor? Of course, I answered myself. Their own kisses were much too near in the future to allow them to be unfazed by ours.
“Wayne Caruso, this is Travis Utrelli,” Carrie said, making a formal introduction.
Wayne and Travis shook hands and then we each waited, in various states of inadequately suppressed lust, for someone else to say something.
“How are things?” Wayne asked finally, his low, rough voice an extra prod to my poor, over-stimulated libido. “Did you find any dead bodies while I was gone?”
I was sure it was a joke. Well, almost sure. But I still couldn’t find the words to answer him. Not now. Apparently neither could Travis or Carrie.
The smile left Wayne’s face slowly. Then his brows dropped over his eyes like curtains.
“You didn’t, did you?” he demanded quietly.
“Hey, man,” Travis said, a sudden grin on his face. “Kate told us you write short stories. We’ve got an opening in our critique group. Wanna join?”
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