Page 61 of No Judgements

“Oh,” I said, as he piled another heavy slab of glass into my arms. “Yeah, thanks. That would be great.”

“Don’t mention it.”

I wondered why he was being so nice to me. It couldn’t only be that he wanted to get into my pants. There were girls all over the island throwing themselves at him who were much prettier than me, and who’d made it clear—within my hearing—that they’d be willing to fulfill his every sexual fantasy, whereas I was pretty obviously a ball of nervous uptight neuroses. Why wasn’t he hanging out with one of those other girls? It was unlikely that all of them had evacuated.

And I was fairly sure the vast majority of them weren’t going to make him follow them around, break into apartments, and rescue their landlady’s son’s guinea pigs, either. There had to be easier ways for him to get laid.

Shortly following the words “Don’t mention it,” he pulled out the final louver.

“There,” he said, looking with satisfaction at my landlady’s now gaping window. “Are you ready?”

“For what?” I lowered the heavy pile of glass to the soft dirt at my feet. Several geckos scampered away, anxious not to be squashed.

“To climb in there.” He nodded at the window while interlacing his fingers, preparing to give me a boost.

I took a wary step backward. “Me? Why doIhave to do it?”

“Because I’ll never fit through there.” His dark eyebrows furrowed. “I thought you were the one who was so worriedabout saving your friend’s guinea pigs. Are you backing out on me now?”

“No.” I threw a nervous glance at the darkened window. “I’ve just never broken into anyone’s apartment before.”

“Oh, but you were fine with me doing it? What, are you worried about what the gossip sites are going to say when they find out—Judge Justine’s Daughter Caught Breaking and Entering?”

“Shhhh.” I instinctively glanced around.

He laughed. “Uh, sorry. Do you think there are paparazzi hiding in the bushes?”

Embarrassed, I shook my head. “Of course not.” I swallowed and laid a hand on the windowsill, pointedly ignoring his cupped fingers. “I can do it myself.”

“Oh, you can?” He lifted an incredulous eyebrow. “Excuse me. I thought you might need a little boost.”

“No, no.” I shook my head. “I’ve got this.”

“All righty, then.” He straightened and stepped back, watching as I struggled to lift myself through the window, which turned out to be higher from the ground than I’d thought. After several unsuccessful attempts to push myself over the sill, I finally turned to look at him.

“Perhaps,” I said, blushing, “I might need a little help.”

“Yeah,” he said, pushing himself from the side of the building where he’d been leaning, watching my struggles with some amusement. “I was wondering when you were going to ask. What’s the trouble, exactly? You don’t trust me not to drop you? Or you’re afraid of falling even more deeply and irrevocably in love with me than you already are?”

My blush grew even deeper as I glared at him.

“Gee, I don’t know. Maybe I’m just not in the habit of having to rely on tool jockeys who drink beer for breakfast and are too lazy to think up individual names for their dogs.”

He hooted. “Ouch! Lazy? Is that really how you think of me?”

“It is.” I wasn’t going to mention how precisely he’d nailed it—that I’d already lost control of myself around him and kissed him twice. I didn’t want to go for a third time, much less lose my heart to him, even though I was starting to worry it might be too late. “Look, can we talk about my trust issues later? For now I just need to get in there.”

“No problem.” He cupped his fingers again for me to slip my foot into. “You’ve got other issues, too, just to let you know, but we’ll let those slide for now.”

I hesitated before laying a hand on his shoulder. “What?”

“Well, I’ve just found that people are rarely comfortable admitting theirrealproblems during self-analysis.”

He straightened up so I was face-to-face with him. “Oh, really?”

“Really. So it isn’t only that you don’t trust me. It’s something else.” I found myself staring at his lips. They looked so highly kissable. “Don’t worry, though. We’ll get to it, eventually.”

I shook my head. Because of course he was right. It wasmyselfthat I didn’t trust... around him.