Sometimes lies are sweeter than the truth.
Beauty is alluring; it can disguise the ugliness beneath. But scarred beauty is even more potent to a girl who vowed never to let her heart be broken again. It was an easy vow for Candy to keep until she met Jonah, an arrogant boy with a face that would be too perfect if not for the scar that marred the skin beside his eye.
That imperfect boy earned her trust and won her heart, but the ties that bind people together are fragile, especially when lies are told. Trust is also fragile, and once broken, doesn’t heal like a heart. Trust has to be earned again, and Jonah desperately wants Candy’s trust back.
But Candy has more than Jonah to worry about. Her father is in trouble, and she intends to help him whether he likes it or not. People tell her he’s a bad man, and that may be true, but he’s not all bad. Deep down, she understands his brand of badness because she’s so much like him.
When Candy finally learns the truth, she’ll have to grow up fast, let go of old grievances, and realize that being vulnerable doesn’t make her weak. In fact, opening herself up may be the very thing that makes her whole again.
I pulled on the bathroom door and walked out into the small hallway, straight into Jonah.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice laced with concern.
I closed my eyes, searching for calm. “I’m fine.”
“What happened back there?”
Sighing, I took a step away to get some distance from him. “My fingers got squeezed in the ball return machine. It was stupid.”
“Let me see.” He held his hand out, waiting for me to place mine in it. I hesitated a moment before laying my fingers over his palm.
“How did it happen?”
“I got distracted.” When I tried to lower my hand, Jonah wrapped his long fingers around my wrist and held on.
“By what?”
I couldn’t help glaring. Was he serious?
He just looked at me, waiting, like we hadn’t all seen Parker practically give him a lap dance out there.
“What was that?” I blurted.
“What was what?”
“Are you kidding me? Parker was trying to feed her boobs to you for lunch, and you didn’t seem to hate it.”
His brow creased. “Is that what distracted you?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, it was a little distracting. What are you doing? I thought you couldn’t stand her.”
Jonah smiled. “Are you jealous, Candy?”
I had just opened my mouth to deny it when his satisfied smile caused a light bulb to go off in my head. “Were you using her to make me jealous?”
His smug expression faded. “Maybe I was trying to get your attention. But I didn’t mean for you to hurt your hand.”
“All that,” I said, waving my arm in the direction of the alleys, “was to get my attention?”
“Just because you stopped caring about me doesn’t mean I stopped caring about you. I know it was juvenile, but I’m losing you and I don’t know what to do about it.”
My pulse quickened at his words, even though they made my heart feel heavy. When Jonah said he cared about me the first time, it made my breath catch. Hearing him say it now, my reaction wasn’t any different. It gave me butterflies and made my insides turn molten.
“I didn’t stop caring about you. I stopped trusting you.” I licked my lips that suddenly felt dry. “We should get back.”
The harsh set of his jaw told me he didn’t like what I’d said. His eyes stayed on mine as he moved closer, crowding me, making me step back until the wall stopped me.
“If you still care, we can get that trust back.”
Emotion was driving him. I could sense it simmering beneath his skin.
“I do care. But I can’t forget.”
“Maybe I can make you forget.”
He surprised me by pressing his body into mine, and I could feel his warm breath on my face. Threading his fingers into my hair, he cradled the side of my head in his palm. It felt so good that I leaned into his touch, and my eyes fluttered closed.
“Look at me, Candy,” he whispered.
When my gaze collided with his, I saw a storm brewing there. The next moment his lips were on mine.
I sucked in a harsh breath, instinctively pressing my hands against his chest. I didn’t let myself kiss him back, even though I wanted to. It wasn’t until his hands gently cupped my cheeks, urging me to move with him, that I finally gave in, unable to help myself.
Jonah groaned, pressing even harder into me. His lips were soft but insistent, and when his tongue slipped into my mouth, I brushed mine against it. The kiss deepened, and my head spun. I’d nearly forgotten how strongly I responded to Jonah, wanting to get closer no matter how close we were, like our bodies needed each other.
It would have been so easy to get lost in his kiss and let everything else disappear, but my thoughts wouldn’t let me. Despite how perfect this felt, it wasn’tperfect. All it would do was hurt me more, because despite what we felt for each other, one kiss changed nothing.
“Candy, please,” he murmured when I went still.
“I can’t,” I said breathlessly.
“Tell me why.”
“You know why.”
Jonah exhaled heavily and lowered his forehead to mine. We stood there, each of us breathless, the passion of our kiss lingering between us. He shook his head from side to side before he pushed off the wall and away from me.
Immediately I felt cold, not just by the loss of his heat, but also by the chilly look in his eyes. “I don’t like regrets,” he said. “I never wanted you to be one.”
Debra Doxer was born in Boston, and other than a few lost years in the California sunshine, she has always resided in the Boston area. She writes fiction, technical software documents, illegible scribbles on sticky notes, and texts that get mangled by AutoCorrect. She writes for a living, and she writes for fun. When her daughter asks when she’ll run out of words, her response always is, “When I run out of time.”
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