All Or None

Chapter 15

🔹Leah🔹

The smell of Bennet assaulted my senses. He wore a subtle cologne that made my stomach clench. Combined with the heat I felt emanating from his body it was no surprise that my heart rate felt like a herd of stampeding horses.

Not wanting to make him feel awkward about lending me his jacket (since I could see his effort for patience in the firm set of his jaw) I quietly stepped closer to his out stretched hands and put one arm through each hole. The warmth blanketed me and I couldn't remember ever being more thankful for some sort of protection against the chilly wind. It was stupid of me to only wear a dress during the evening on a beach anyways. If I shivered from the cold I had no one to blame but myself. Bennet reluctantly coming to my rescue made up for the way he so obviously had brushed me off earlier.

I swooped up my hair from under the
collar and unexpectedly found myself tangled up in his arms. Instead of making the situation awkward he surprised me by wrapping his arm around my shoulder and pulling me in further. I could feel his broad palms rubbing against my shoulder in a gesture that offered warmth while his deep voice asked quietly.

"Feeling better?"

How could such a casual question make my stomach flutter?

I looked up to tell him yes and was completely floored by the smile that beamed down at me. Never in all my years of knowing Bennet had he ever smiled at me even remotely so charming. He seemed genuinely happy to have his arm around me and I blurted out a raspy response through dry lips.

"Yes, thank you."

Licking my lips to ease my increasingly parched mouth I was confused even further when Bennet's eyes narrowed in at the offending body part and then flared in response. Without anther word he pulled his arm off of my shoulder and just like that the spell was broken.

Clearing his throat he ran his hand through his hair and as if he was speaking to a stranger he offered me the use of his jacket for the rest of the night.

I nodded in bewilderment and then turned in the direction of the hand that tugged at my arm.

"Hey Leah, let's go see that sunset we were talking about."

Turner stood in front of me and pulled me toward him in a casual gesture that inferred interest and familiarity all at once.

Faintly recalling talking to him about how much I loved the sunsets at the beach I figured that would probably be the number one thing to uplift my mood and settle my spirit. Nature always had a way of calming me.

I gently stepped toward him and nodded an "okay" in agreement. As if to conclude the earlier familiarity he was trying to establish between us he held onto my hand and lead me toward the shore line. I looked back at Bennet for confirmation and saw he was already engrossed in conversation with a pretty red head that had just joined the group, my mood dropped even further at the sight. The funny thing is that from her earlier body language I could of sworn that the same red head was interested in Turner. That's why I was surprised he would ask me for a walk at the same time suggesting a common topic of conversation that made our whole previous interaction seem much more intimate then it actually was.

Sighing, I resigned myself to the unexpected way the evening had already been going and walked to a sitting spot to see the sunset.

After getting me alone Turner let go of my hand and began on a topic that was  completely neutral. I felt relaxed with him and could see us having a similar friendship like the one I shared with Wes. The conversation flowed into many topics and stupid jokes and I realized Turner was just what I needed to get my mind off things. In particular, Bennet.