Beyond Repair by Kelly Lincoln Page A

crouched down, and she pulled me in for a hug. “Have a fun day.” I kissed the top of her head. “Love you.”
    “I know. Can I color now?”
    “Go for it.” She headed toward the table, and I walked to her teacher. We greeted each other, and I told her about Mia.
    “I just noticed her voice sounds a little funny, but she says she feels fine. Call me if she mentions anything, okay?”
    Mrs. Myers agreed, and I gave a little wave as I headed to my car.
    Instead of driving home, I pulled my phone out of my bag. Mia was probably fine, but it never hurt to try to diagnose an illness on the internet.
    I did a search on strep throat because there someone in Mia’s class had that every other week. Hoarseness was not a side effect. I searched for symptoms of laryngitis next:
    The main symptom of laryngitis is hoarseness.
    Bingo.
    If you have laryngitis, then you can remedy it through home treatment. Rest your voice, use a humidifier or vaporizer, and drink plenty of fluids.
    We could do that for today and see if it got any better before I called her doctor. I made a mental note to dig the vaporizer out of the closet later and drove home.
    * * *
    I was surprised to see Chris’s truck when I pulled into my driveway. Even more shocking was him leaning against it. I drew my breath in. He always looked good, but for some reason, the worn jeans and old t-shirt with the work boots were really doing a number on me. He straightened as I pulled up, and my memory drifted to the night before. I shifted my weight in my seat as I flashed back to feeling his mouth hot against mine and immediately tried to put the thought out of my mind. He ran his hand over the top of his head, making his hair stick up even more as his body tensed and he looked down.
    This couldn’t be good. I opened the door and slowly stepped out. “Hey.”
    He moved his gaze from the ground and back toward me again. “Hi.” His chest rose and fell as he stepped closer. “I wanted to talk to you. About yesterday.”
    Oh . I could only nod at him, disappointment flowing through my veins as I realized what had happened. He was emotional last night, kissed me when he wasn’t thinking clearly, and now he regretted it. How could I have been so stupid to think that a guy like that would want a train wreck like me? And her kid?
    He rubbed the top of his head again and let out a breath of air. “If you felt sorry for me, and that’s why you kissed me …” He stopped talking as our eyes met.
    I was shocked he thought I kissed him because I felt sorry for him. “Hold on. What?”
    “I was just thinking this morning about what happened. You found me crying, I told you some pretty depressing stuff, and then I came back and just went for it without asking how you felt.”
    God, he had just as many issues as I did. I jumped in. “I haven’t kissed anyone in fi—in years.” The words flew out of my mouth before I realized what I was saying, and I barely caught myself from revealing too much. “Trust me; it wasn’t because I felt sorry for you.”
    He blinked. “Years?”
    “Yes. Not since before Mia was born.” Since a few months before Mia was conceived, actually. But I kept that to myself.
    He studied my face for a moment. Maybe to see if I was being sincere. Or he could have just been thinking about what a loser I was because I hadn’t kissed anyone in so long.
    “I kissed you because I wanted to.” I stepped closer to him, closing the small distance between us. I wanted to say more—tell him what a beautiful person he was, that he was the only one I was attracted to, trusted, and could see myself falling for.
    But it was too much for me to acknowledge right now. The feelings that were forming, the flipping in my stomach, and the flush of heat I felt every time I saw him; I needed time to adjust to everything.
    I had many fears from what Pierce did to me, but my history with relationships sucked, too. There were many bitter memories I hadn’t thought of in