you is a bad idea,” he whispered.
At least they were on the same page.
“But I want to,” he continued. Definitely on the same page. “It’s all I can think about. And I don’t have to wonder what it’ll be like. I know kissing you is like pulling a royal flush in a high-stakes game. It’s a total rush and nothing will ever beat it.”
Warmth curled through Delaney and she felt the soft breath of his sigh over her face. She placed her hands on his chest and felt his body stiffen under her touch. She could push him away. She should push him away.
Instead, she ran her palms over the soft wool of his sweater and up to his shoulders. A slight nudge, pulling him in, was all it took. His mouth covered hers and the sweetness of it tugged at her heart.
His lips were gentle and she shivered when his tongue danced over her bottom lip. He was savoring her, and she reveled in the sensations that swept through her. No matter what her mind said, her body and her heart knew this kiss. Nobody had ever made her feel the way he could with a simple touch of his lips.
Delaney’s fingertips bit into Brody’s shoulders as he deepened the kiss, but she still didn’t pull away.
She knew she should. Letting herself get too close to Brody Rollins would bring her nothing but a second helping of heartache, and yet there was something about his kiss that felt so right. His tongue danced over hers and she leaned into him as his hand slid up her back. Her body remembered this—the feel of his touch—and wanted more.
It was the sound of the door handle jiggling that finally gave her the strength to break away.
Good lord, a quarter of the town was just a few feet away and here she was, making out with Brody in the custodian’s closet like a teenager.
“Delaney?” It was Alice, one of the other volunteers, and Delaney slipped out from between Brody and the shelves as the door opened.
“I’m in here. What do you need?”
Alice’s gaze bounced between Delaney and Brody a few times, and Delaney was dismayed when she saw understanding dawn in the other woman’s eyes. This would be a nice bit of gossip for everybody to chew on for a while. “Sorry. We’re running low on paper towels.”
She grabbed a few rolls, balancing them in her arms, and then gave Delaney a quick smile on her way out. “I’ll just...go. Take your time.”
Delaney wondered if she’d meant that to sound as suggestive as it came out. “Just grabbing some bleach, rags and buckets. We’ll be right out.”
When the door swung shut behind Alice, Delaney had to stifle a groan. Even if she hurried, half the people in the gym would know she’d been kissing Brody Rollins in the supply room before she got out there. The news would trickle through to the other half whether she was in the gym or not.
“I probably shouldn’t have done that,” Brody said quietly.
“I didn’t exactly put up a fight.”
“No, but now everybody will be talking and...I’m sorry.”
She grabbed two buckets and put a cleaning rag and a plastic gallon of bleach in each one. They’d fill them with hot water from the kitchen. “At least it’s only a matter of time before you get to leave. Again. So you won’t have to hear it.”
“Delaney, come on.”
“At least this time you have to sign yourself out so, as long as I’m manning the clipboard, I’ll know you’re going this time.”
He put his hand on her shoulder, making her stand still. “I don’t know how many times I can apologize for not telling you in person I was leaving.”
“Screw the note, Brody. Has it occurred to you I’m having a little trouble with the fact you didn’t ask me to go with you?”
He didn’t know how to make her understand. “If I’d asked you to go, you would have wanted to think about it and make plans and...I don’t know. Sort through all your stuff and come up with a whole pile of stuff you wanted to take.”
“Like any normal person would.”
“If I’d had to wait for you, I would have lost my courage. I drove out of here in a beat-up car with a duffel bag of clothes and two hundred bucks in my pocket because right then, at that moment, I was more afraid of staying than leaving.”
“Fine. Just don’t lie to me—or to yourself—and say that right then, at that moment, I factored into your decision at all.”
He blew out a breath, then took one of the buckets from her. “You sure know how to take the blush off a good kiss.”
That was the point. “I have work to do.”
She left the supply room and hurried into the gym before he could say anything else.
They worked in silence, washing down almost every touchable surface in the gymnasium with the diluted bleach mixture. He took some good-natured ribbing from some of the guys about his bright yellow rubber gloves, but Delaney tried to ignore the rich sound of his laughter. She tried to ignore the way he stopped to talk to people now and then, rebuilding old bonds he’d severed so unexpectedly.
But no matter how much she tried to focus on the past and wrap herself in a security blanket of old hurts, her gaze was drawn to him time after time. More often than not, he’d catch her looking and his expression would be pensive, as if he were trying to gauge her mood. And she was keenly aware that most of the people in the gym with them were watching them watch each other.
Probably making little tsk sounds under their breath. Poor Delaney. That Rollins boy broke her heart once and now she’s going to let him do it again. Foolish girl.
That thought finally ignited the anger and resentment his kiss had cooled and she held on to it throughout the rest of the day. Even when he helped her clean up after they’d served supper to the crowd, she managed to be polite and appreciative, but decidedly detached.
But when they dimmed the lights and everybody around her started drifting into restless sleep, Delaney lay awake, staring at the ceiling because every time she closed her eyes, she relived that kiss again.
And ached for another.
CHAPTER FIVE
TUESDAY MORNING CAME early, thanks to the kids who couldn’t sleep in when away from their homes. Or maybe kids never slept in. Brody didn’t have a clue, but he knew these kids were up and at ’em like a horde of two-legged, overeager roosters.
Brody sat on the floor, his back up against the wall. He felt trapped and restless and, from all reports, the freak storm wasn’t abating any. He’d already powered up his phone to deal with some email, including responding to the message from his office manager, who thought her boss being stuck in a school gym was the funniest thing that had ever happened.
He’d helped serve breakfast, with nary a word from Delaney. Then he’d suffered through watching her lead the kids in a fun but energy-burning morning exercise. It had been torture, watching her bounce and shimmy, but it would be worth the physical suffering if the kids napped later.
Brody was nodding off himself, his head against the hard gym wall, when Sandy nudged him with her foot. He took Noah and, after nestling him in one arm, used his free hand to help guide his sister into a sitting position.
“I turned my phone on for a few minutes and I had a voice mail from Mike.”
Her voice had a serious undertone that immediately concerned him. “He’s okay, right? Did he go off the road?”
“No, he’s fine. But I had asked him to stop by and check on my parents—our parents, I mean—and their power went out Sunday night shortly after ours did. Ma had the burners on the stove lit, trying to stay warm.”
“They’ve been without heat for two nights?”