“But…why?” Ashley murmured, looking genuinely shocked. “We’re fighting wars. You could die.”
“You look like you care,” Brian answered, somewhat surprised to see her react so emotionally. He could count on one hand the times he’d seen her lose her composure.
“Of course, I care,” she answered, her voice high-pitched.
And suddenly, tears welled up in her eyes.
When she scraped away the tears from her face, she looked as surprised as he was to realize she was crying.
Brian moved closer, wrapping her into his arms.
“It’s nice to see that you really care,” he whispered softly into her ear.
“To tell you the truth, I’m kind of surprised myself,” she muttered.
“Why are you crying? I don’t even know for sure if I’ll be enlisting or not.”
“Because I know you will,” Ashley answered. “Your dad was never very convincing when he was talking about you going to college. I think he knows you’re not going.”
“I never really thought about it like that myself. Dad has always known I’ve wanted to be an Army Ranger.”
“Wait a minute,” Ashley murmured, pulling away. “That’s even more dangerous. Isn’t it?”
“I’d have to get qualified and make it first,” he answered.
“Oh, you will. You’re like that, you know.”
“What? Stupid?” he mumbled.
“No. Determined,” she answered softly.
“I know one thing. I’m determined to make you understand that someday, we’re going to be together. I knew it the first time we met.”
Strangely, she looked at him calmly. “You were the first boy I noticed when we moved here, but then you started picking on me.”
Feeling cocky, Brian grinned. “You just weren’t ready for me, Babe.”
Ashley rolled her eyes but didn’t disagree.
Chapter Four
She’d never had a clue that Brian wanted to enlist, and it was strange. Ashley had found out more about him during the last few days than she had since they’d met. The information he’d known about his ancestors was really fascinating too.
It’s funny how Dad never discussed his past, although Mom talked about Ashley’s grandparents quite a bit. Both her grandmother and grandfather had passed away within a year of each other before Ashley had been born. Mom had said Grandpa had been so in love with Grandma that he’d gone into a decline after her death from cancer.
Mom and Dad had met at the insurance agency they both worked at in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and had married after dating about a year.
They’d moved a few times, living in San Diego for a while, and then Milwaukee, before finally ending up here in Crystal Rock, where Dad had established his own real estate company and had flipped houses.
Brian was on his way across the lake to return her home, when Ashley started thinking about the town of Crystal Rock. She was really going to miss this place, she realized. When had she started thinking of Crystal Rock as home?
Pretty quickly after moving here, she decided. Michelle and Ashley had become instant friends when Michelle had approached Ashley on the first day of school, introducing herself.
Which was something that rarely happened. Ashley had always had somewhat of a superiority complex, and she’d never really understood why she couldn’t help being difficult.
Maybe because of the fact that she was an only child and had been given everything she wanted from the moment she’d been born? She really needed to work on tamping down her arrogance, she decided. After all, she would have to make new friends at college, and it was something she’d never been good at.
Brian slowed down, approaching the dock where he would drop her off. But much to her surprise, after he shut down the engine, he tied up the boat, stepping onto the pier.
He reached for her hand, and after hesitating a moment, she let him hoist her beside him.
“I take it you want to come inside?”
“I do,” he answered. “I’d like to see your room.”
Ashley halted, her jaw dropping down. “My room?”
“It’s not what you think,” he murmured, gently pushing her forward toward the staircase. “I’m just curious about what really goes on in that brain of yours.”
After studying him suspiciously, Ashley made her way up the staircase.
“You’ve been inside before,” she said, unlocking the back door and glancing around. Mom still hadn’t returned home. Hopefully, everything was okay.
“I’ve been inside the kitchen and down in the basement when you’ve had parties, but I’ve never been upstairs,” he said, glancing at the staircase.
“There’s not much to see,” she said. “But come on. I’ll show you.”
“Your house is a lot like ours,” Brian murmured, following Ashley as she strolled along the hallway into the room at the end of the hall.
“I noticed that too, the last time I was at your house. I think if I were looking for my own home, I’d love to have something old and interesting,” Ashley admitted.
“Something like the Spooktacular house?”
Ashley laughed, motioning him through the doorway into her room. “Spooktacular, huh? That’s an appropriate name.”
Brian grinned, walking into the room.
What was he looking at, she wondered as he moved through the room? He was studying her bookshelves pretty intently, as well as the items she had laying on the dresser and desk.
He gave her a crooked smile. “You still have that bear I won at the fair last summer.”
She shrugged. “You did give it to me.”
Brian cocked a brow and grinned. “And that drawing of me?”
“So what?” she murmured. “The artist did a good job.”
They’d gone to the state fair last summer along with Jason, Jeff and Michelle, and all of them had had caricatures drawn while they were there.
“I’ve still got yours too.”
Her eyes went wide. “I thought you threw it away?”
“I only pretended to,” he said, looking sheepish. “I was trying to understand why you wanted mine. I thought maybe you were going to pin it up in the school cafeteria and add a mustache or something worse and throw darts at it.”
She stomped her foot. “Do you really think I’m capable of something like that?”
He snorted. “In a heartbeat.”
She grimaced, reluctantly admitting, “You’re probably right. I haven’t always been a nice person.”
He shrugged, staring directly into her eyes. “There’s one thing I’ve noticed.”
“What?”
“Except for Kat, who you were targeting because you saw that Jason was interested in her, I’ve never seen you behave like a bully or insult people. Younger girls look up to you.”
“We moved a lot when I was young. I never made friends, but Crystal Rock has been different,” she said. “There was something about Kat that told me she could hold her own. I actually liked her, so, deep down, I knew she was a real threat when it came to Jason.”
“But Jason had already broken up with you,” Brian said.
“Being with Jason was always so…uncomplicated,” she answered, scrunching her nose.
Brian looked hesitant. “In other words, you two haven’t…?”
“Nah.” She turned away, suddenly embarrassed. “You know, you actually hurt my feelings that night of the fair.”
“It was a beautiful drawing of you. That’s why I wanted it.” She felt Brian’s hands on her shoulders, and his lips brushed her face as he murmured, “I think we’d better move downstairs now.”
“I think you’re right,” she answered unevenly. “Did you find out what you wanted?”
“I did. You’re not into frilly things, because you don’t have a canopy bed or girlie colors like pink.”
“I had all of that—when I was like ten, but I liked purple and not pink.” She grinned, looking at him curiously. “What else?”<
br />
“You like to read, and not light novels or romance. You have actual literature on your shelves. The Hobbit. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Of Mice and Men. That’s some heavy reading. You have an ipod but no television, so you listen to music a lot more than I realized. You like gaming, but not enough to let it clutter your room,” he said, walking with her into the hallway through the bedroom door.
“Right again. Because we moved so much when I was young, I’m in the habit of decluttering. Plus, I’m an only kid. Since there’s no one to squabble with about games or what I want to watch on TV, I’m better off having those things downstairs in the family room where they won’t distract me while I study.”
“As the oldest, I can relate to that,” Brian said dryly.
“I’m thinking about studying American Literature in college,” she admitted brusquely.
Brian looked surprised. “What would you like to do when you’re through with school?”
“Teach. At the college level, I think. I’ll have to decide whether I want to do it while I’m there.”
“There’s a lot more to you than meets the eye, Ashley Mitchum,” he said softly.
They just stood, staring into each other’s eyes, until the door leading into the kitchen from the garage sprang open.
But Mom didn’t pay much attention to the two of them and was wearing an extremely troubled look upon her face when she walked inside the house.
“Mom,” Ashley said, walking over and grabbing one of the plastic bags she had in her hand. “Is something wrong?”
Just then, her mom must have noticed Brian, and looked surprised when he approached and reached for the large bag of groceries she was holding in her arms.
“Thank you, Brian. I’m surprised to see you here today. Don’t you usually work at the Dragonfly Pointe Beach during the day?”
“Only in the mornings, Mrs. Mitchum. And I’m not really doing much lifeguarding right now. We’re getting ready for fall, since school will be starting within a few weeks.”
Still appearing concerned, Mom was looking at Brian and Ashley strangely.
“We just got back from Mike’s a few minutes ago. Brian took me out for lunch.”
Looking slightly surprised, Mom suddenly seemed more troubled.
Turning towards Ashley, Brian said, “I’m going to go home and do a few chores around the house for my dad. How about we all go out for our last Friday night together, Ash? I talked with Jeff and Jason about it earlier.”
But Ashley still had a feeling Mom was hiding something important and was worried about leaving her alone.
“Would that be alright, Mom? I wasn’t sure if you wanted to go shopping in the morning or not?”
Mom looked puzzled, but then she shook her head as if trying to clear the cobwebs before heaving a sigh. “We can talk about what we’re going to need to do tomorrow. Go and be with your friends tonight. I think you should go out with everyone since you won’t be seeing much of each other after this week.”
“Okay,” Ashley said, looking at her mom again uncertainly. “I’m going to walk with Brian down to the dock. Be back in a minute.”
“Take your time,” Mom murmured. “I’m going to get dinner started.”
Ashley walked outside with Brian and they didn’t talk until they were downstairs on the dock near the cruiser.
“I wonder what’s happened? Something’s definitely wrong,” Ashley murmured.
“She was acting pretty oddly,” Brian said. “It wouldn’t have anything to do with me, would it?”
“She was acting weird before she was even inside the kitchen,” Ashley admitted. “She did act strange when she saw it was you who was there with me. But whatever it is, it’s probably not anything to do with us. There’s something going on at work.”
“My mom’s been acting a little differently lately too. She’s been kind of nervous,” Brian admitted. “Since she’s your mom and dad’s secretary, maybe it does have something to do with the business. I hope nothing awful is going down.”
“Me neither,” Ashley said, biting on her lip.
“Try not to worry,” Brian said reassuringly, gathering her in his arms. “We’ll figure it out.”
She could kiss him and everything else would fade from her mind. Tingles ran down her spine as his fingers tightened on her shoulders, the sharp hungry gleam in his eyes telling her he felt the very same need.
His hand moved through her hair, cupping the back of her head, tilting her face towards his. It seemed like things were happening in slow motion, and when his mouth touched hers a spark of heat ran through her.
She closed her eyes, sinking into the kiss, letting herself do nothing but feel its power. Her senses were alive with a strange new feeling. She didn’t feel sad or angry or even guilty, she just felt good.
Incredibly good.
By the time Brian had started up the engine of the cruiser, she was finally snapping out of her trance.
Looking cocky, Brian winked before revving up the engine, heading out across the lake.
Chapter Five
When Brian pulled the cruiser into the boathouse twenty minutes later, he found his younger brother Eric inside, rearranging the fishing equipment hanging along the wall.
When Brian shut down the engine, Eric started cranking the boat up onto its rack.
“What’s up?” Brian asked dryly, stepping onto the pier from the cruiser.
Eric wasn’t normally in the habit of putting things in their place.
Grimacing, Eric answered, “Mom and Dad were arguing about something private and Dad sent me outside. Something weird is going on around here.”
Walking outside from the boathouse and hiking up the steep staircase beside Eric, Brian said, “Something strange was going on with Ashley’s mom too. Ashley and I were wondering if it might have something to do with her family’s real estate business.”
Eric paused on the staircase. “Ashley? You mean you two finally got together?”
Brian rolled his eyes. “Yeah. But shut up about it. Will you?”
Eric muttered, “What’s it been—like five years since you’ve been crushing on her?”
After reaching the top of the staircase, Brian didn’t answer as he picked up his pace toward the house.
Catching up with him, Eric mused, “I could never figure out what it was about her that made her special enough that you didn’t want to go out with anyone else.”
“There’s a lot more to her than meets the eye,” he answered, walking into the house, where he could hear Mom and Dad arguing.
Eric walked inside behind him and they stood and listened.
“How long?” Dad was asking. “And what about the boys, and college?”
Brian couldn’t hear Mom’s reply.
Eric shrugged, looking as puzzled as Brian.
Brian heard Dad ask, “So when does this farce begin?”
And again, Brian couldn’t hear Mom’s answer.
“They’re not exactly arguing,” Brian whispered. “It sounds more like a loud discussion.”
“I agree,” Eric admitted softly. “Well, it sounds like they’re done. Let’s go see if they’ll tell us what’s going on.”
But both Mom and Dad were tight lipped when they walked into the kitchen, and Dad talked with Brian as if nothing was wrong.
* * *
Brian really couldn’t believe he and Ashley were together. It all seemed a little too good to be true, when she walked into the kitchen at her house where he was waiting a few hours later.
But there was a light in her eyes that he’d never seen before. Would he be able to keep her happy? If he ended up enlisting in the Army, it would be so much tougher to communicate and stay in touch.
Brian cleared his throat, because she was looking pretty damned hot tonight with her hair pulled high in a ponytail and wearing a short purple sundress that clung to her figure like a second skin.
She had about the longest legs of any girl he knew, and she w
as wearing heels tonight along with a little bit of makeup.
“You look great,” he murmured, standing from the table.
Ashley gave him what was definitely an impish grin. “Not too much makeup?”
“Just the right amount,” he answered, grinning back at her.
Ashley frowned, glancing around the kitchen before peeking into the living room. “Where’s my mom?”
“She said that she had something to do in town and wanted you to lock up when we left.”
Ashley picked up her purse from where she’d laid it on the table and peeked inside. “Okay. I guess I’ve got my key. She must have had to show a house. It happens a lot on Friday nights and Saturdays.”
Brian pursed his lips as they headed for the back door. “I’ve seen her around town a time or two. Doesn’t she usually dress up for something like that? She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt when she left.”
Ashley paused with her hand on the doorknob. “She’s sure been acting strangely. And so has my dad, come to think of it. I’ve hardly seen him during the last few weeks. He’s been coming in late at night and leaving early in the morning. Of course, early is before eight o’clock, since we’ve been out of school. I’ve been sleeping in until at least nine.”
“I haven’t seen much of my mom this summer either,” Brian said, as they walked outside toward his truck. “I figure she’s working a lot of overtime in the office.”
Ashley halted, checking out the convertible in the driveway. “I can’t believe your dad let you drive the Camaro.”
He opened the passenger door for Ashley, sweeping his arm inward. “Occasionally, he gives in.”
Stepping inside, her smile transformed into a frown as she sat down in the seat.
“No,” Brian murmured, laying his index finger gently over her mouth. “I’ve never taken another girl on a date before in this car.”
“How did you know that’s what I was thinking?”
“It’s easy,” he answered, slamming shut the passenger door. “I can read you like a book.”
That Incredible Kiss Page 4