“Seven years.”
I hadn't realized Holly had approached. “Wow, you're counting too,” she interjected.
I glanced between them, relieved to see that Mae was still at the table. Holly’s grin was sly. “Ready to go?” she asked Nate.
“Just waiting to pay. You need me to take care of your check?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I’m going to use the bathroom.”
He dipped his head, giving her a lingering kiss before she walked toward the restrooms.
Nate laughed softly. “Watch out for Holly. If she decides she wants to set you two up, she'll make it happen.”
“I don't think Mae wants to be set up with me, of all people.”
I glanced over my shoulder to see Mae shrugging into her jacket. While Nate was paying, I left my pizza on the counter and went to the restroom. When I returned, Holly and Nate had left, and Mae was nowhere to be found.
“Dammit,” I muttered to myself, grabbing the pizza box and hurrying out to the parking lot. She was stopped beside a car, fishing her keys out of her purse. She was conveniently parked right beside mine.
“Mae!” I called.
She turned. “What?” she muttered as I stopped between our vehicles.
I opened my passenger door quickly and slid the pizza in.
“Look, this is a small town, and I'd like to be friends,” I said quickly.
“We're friends. It's fine.” Her tone was careful, and her eyes landed somewhere around my cheek.
“Is it fine?”
She blinked up at me, and it felt as if a charge lit the air between us.
“Sure.” She shrugged. “I think it's fine. It's been years. It was college. Whatever.”
I rested my hand on the top of her car. “Mae, I honestly don’t know what happened.” Frustration churned inside me because I felt as if I were shadowboxing here, and I had no idea what I was facing.
It was just dark enough in the parking lot that I couldn’t tell, but I could’ve sworn Mae’s eyes glittered with tears. Her lashes swept down, and she took a shaky breath. When she looked back at me, her expression was careful. “At that party, I saw you with Sharon.”
I stared at her blankly, picking through my recollections. It took a minute, but I recalled Sharon flirting aggressively that night and even trying to kiss me. “When she made a move on me? Mae, nothing happened. Nothing.”
Mae’s mouth twisted in a weary smile, and bitterness chased in her eyes. “She made a move on any guy she thought I liked. That was her thing. We were only roommates for a semester. I didn't like that many guys, anyway.”
This still didn’t make sense. “Mae, you vented to me about her. You have to know I’d never do that.”
We stared at each other, and Mae shivered slightly. I didn’t know what Mae wasn’t telling me, but this wasn’t why she stopped talking to me. She lifted her keys and tapped the fob. Her engine started up. “I want the car to be warm when I get in,” she explained.
I hadn't realized I’d instinctively stepped closer to her. “I don’t think you’re telling me everything, but maybe you will someday.” A part of me was frustrated, almost angry, but I knew her well enough that I knew she was uncomfortable with something. Pressure wouldn’t solve it. Not now, not here, in a parking lot in the winter.
She took another breath before dipping her chin, just barely, to acknowledge my comment.
“How have you been? I’m sorry about your grandmother.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
We were standing there, staring at each other, while her car engine hummed. I thought I wanted to kiss her. Actually, I didn't think I wanted to kiss her. I really fucking wanted to kiss her. The need was fierce.
She opened her mouth to say something, and reason and thought fled me in the chilly darkness. I closed the distance between us in a flash. She was cold after all, but her lips were warm. She let out a surprised sound when I brushed mine over hers.
I thought this would be when she shoved me away, but she didn’t. Her mouth opened underneath mine, and I couldn't resist sliding my hand in her silky, honeyed locks. I angled my head to the side and slipped my tongue into the warm sweetness of her mouth. It had been a full seven years since I kissed Mae, but it felt like just yesterday as the sensations from back then came rushing back.
Sweet hell. Her lips were soft and plump, and her tongue glided against mine in a searching tease. It felt as if lightning sizzled through my entire system.
Headlights arced across us, and she jumped back, breaking the kiss abruptly. “Oh!” Her hand flew to her chest.
Even though there wasn't much light out here in the parking lot, I knew her cheeks were pink, and I wanted to kiss her again. Her shoulders rose and fell with her rapid breathing, and it felt as if the air around us was crackling with electricity.
“Mae,” I began just as another car turned into the parking lot.
“I have to go,” she said. Moving swiftly, she opened her car door and slipped in.
She lifted her hand in a quick wave while I tried to absorb the sensations rioting through me. I watched as she drove away, her taillights glowing red down the road after she turned out of the parking lot. An icy gust of wind blew, nudging me out of my stunned haze. I climbed into my SUV and blasted the heat because it was freezing.
I drove home, my thoughts turning over what Mae had shared about her college roommate, the one who'd made such a bold pass at me. Since I’d ignored her, I hadn’t thought much of it beyond that I meant to tell Mae it happened. Honestly, if she hadn’t been Mae’s roommate, if I hadn’t been best friends with Mae and secretly in love with her, I wouldn’t have even remembered that pass or that girl. It had been at a crowded party, the cacophony of people around me hazing out everything else.
I still knew Mae wasn’t telling me everything. I sensed it in my gut, down to my bones. It hurt that she wouldn’t just tell me. Fuck.
Chapter Five
Mae
“So, this data is yours,” Scott said, gesturing his hand in a small arc.
We were seated at a U-shaped desk, which had an array of computer monitors lining the surface and encircling us. I felt my lips curling into a smile.
“This is awesome.” I let out a happy sigh.
Scott chuckled as I glanced toward him. “Isn't it, though?”
Scott Rogers was another professor here at the university. While he wasn't my boss, he’d been assigned to show me around. I worked in environmental and marine sciences with a focus on oceans.
I loved it. Having grown up in Alaska with fishing as part of my childhood, I cared deeply about making sure we had sustainable fisheries. Water comprised approximately seventy percent of the Earth’s surface, and the oceans held more than ninety-six percent of that water. It was critical for them to stay healthy.
Alaska was one of the last frontiers as far as fisheries went in North America. It was one of the few places with well-protected fisheries, yet it was a constant battle here.
My grandfather had lived his life fishing. Summer days spent on the rivers and going out fishing in the ocean were some of my favorite childhood memories. Yet climate change was real. It was coming fast and furious here in Alaska. Glaciers that were once visible from the highway in Alaska had receded out of view with so many more changes galloping toward us.