First Kiss Last

by Sara Miller

  Sky nodded decisively.

  “Yes,” Leah willingly agreed to the change in plans, “We’re all going.”

  Liam let out a whoop of delight and Cade laughed. Even Sky smiled. It was a start.

  ♦

  Climbing into Cade’s truck, Sky complained about having to sit in the backseat with her brother. She scowled when her father assisted Leah with a boost to her butt. Sky pouted when Cade turned on a country radio station and rolled her eyes as Liam continued to talk about his new favorite animal, the capybara. But other than those awkward moments, Leah enjoyed the ride. Especially since Cade held her hand the whole time.

  As they waited to get their tickets, Cade took her hand again. Liam held her other hand, bouncing up and down with anticipation. Sky was still less than thrilled. She stood several feet apart, slightly turned away, arms crossed over her chest. Leah saw the visible strain on Cade’s face.

  The line moved forward and they got their wristbands and map. When they made it out the other side of the ticket building, Leah took it all in: a giant corn field, a picnic area, and a giant catapult far off to one side. She heard a rumble and turned to see an approaching tractor. So they have hayrides too, she thought.

  Everyone rushed around happily. Truth was, Leah had never been to a corn maze and wasn’t sure why walking through a corn field would be exciting. But the Emerson family and many others seemed really into it. Even Sky dropped her attitude. She was smiling and scanning the crowds. Maybe this would work!

  “So what first?” she asked Liam, her ally.

  “Corn maze! Then donuts and cider. Yum! Sometimes we do the hayride, but not always.” He bounced, pulling on her arm. “Let’s go, let’s go!”

  Leah winced. Thankfully Cade and Liam did not notice. Unfortunately, Sky did. She smirked. Leah felt annoyed. Not really wanting her along was one thing, but happy she was in pain was another.

  The girl ran hot and cold but maybe it was just a teen thing. Leah wished Sky was not with them and instantly felt bad. She sighed.

  “What?” Cade asked, squeezing her other hand.

  Sky’s eyes widened, smirk now gone.

  “Nothing. I just think it’s nice you have this tradition and I’m glad to be here with you.” She looked up at Cade and smiled. Most of her answer was genuine but the “nothing” part had been a lie and from the look on Cade’s face he knew it. He shifted his gaze momentarily to his daughter, then back to Leah.

  “I’m glad you’re here too.” He kissed her lightly. There was a noise from Sky’s vicinity but they ignored it.

  “Can we go now?!” The patience of a six year old only lasted so long.

  “Yes, we can! Everyone got a crayon?” Cade asked.

  “Uh . . .” Leah stared at Cade in confusion. “A crayon?”

  “I’ll go get her one.” Sky’s voice sounded as if she was auditioning for a role as a martyr. She jetted off toward the ticket building before anyone could get a word out.

  “You gotta have a crayon, Miss Leah,” Liam’s little voice was earnest. “Because when we get to the special spots in the maze, we put our paper on the sign and rub our crayons over it and it makes a picture. Longways, like this, right Dad?” Liam held out his own green crayon, demonstrating the technique.

  “That’s right, bud, good job,” Cade nodded.

  Liam grinned proudly before continuing. “And the pictures give us clues to solve the puzzle. If you don’t have a crayon, you can’t help us solve the puzzle! You do wanna help, don’t you?” His big brown eyes looked up at her hopefully.

  “Of course I do,” she nodded.

  “Yes!” Liam whooped and danced around. Leah laughed at his enthusiasm.

  “Show her, Dad,” Liam pointed to the paper his dad was holding.

  Cade handed Leah what she had assumed was just a map of the maze. Instead, she discovered several pages. In addition to the map on the back, the pages held nine squares waiting for the rubbings Liam had explained, plus a fill-in-the-blank section—all designed to reveal a secret word. The entire activity revolved around a train theme. Glancing at the map, she realized the maze was in the shape of a train engine, complete with puffs of smoke.

  “Wow,” Leah was impressed.

  “Here she comes!” Liam exclaimed, jumping up and down at his sister’s return.

  Leah handed the papers back to Cade, thankful she understood what the crayons were for.

  “Got it?” Cade asked.

  “Yup.” Sky approached Leah and extended her arm, fist closed. Leah held out her hand and watched as Sky dropped the ugliest nub of crayon Leah had ever seen into her waiting palm. It was less than an inch long, had no wrapping left, and was a puke shade of yellow.

  “Thank you,” Leah forced a smile, determined to be polite. She slipped the bit of crayon into her pocket before Liam or Cade could see it. Sky ignored her thanks and turned to her father.

  “Um, Dad?” Sky’s voice was sweet, too sweet. Leah saw Cade stiffen, his guard up. “I saw some of my friends,” she pointed at a group of three girls behind her who smiled and waved. “They are getting ready to go on the hayride and I was wondering, can I go with them? Please?” She bit her lip and waited.

  “Sky . . .” Cade shook his head.

  “She has to go with us, Dad! It’s tradition!” Liam whined.

  “But Dad—”

  “Hey, what’s that?” Leah interrupted, pointing at the giant catapult in the distance.

  “Huh?” all three Emersons spoke at once. In the midst of their family squabble, it was almost as if they had forgotten she was there. Liam was the first to recover. He looked toward where she was still pointing.

  “Yeah, what is it?” Liam wondered. “I can’t see!”

  Leah picked him up and they watched as the contraption swung and something flew through the air.

  “Did you SEE THAT?!” Liam hollered right in Leah’s ear. Cade dropped her hand and took Liam from her. “What is it, Dad? Can we go check it out while Sky goes on the hayride with her friends? Plee-ee-ase?”

  Cade eyed Leah. She smiled as if he wasn’t busting her for orchestrating the whole thing. She continued to smile and blinked several times, feigning innocence. He laughed.

  “Okay, but we’ll still do the maze together after. All of us. Deal?” He set Liam down and eyed both children. They quickly nodded their heads in agreement. Cade handed Sky some cash. “Is your phone charged? No boys. Text me as soon as you’re back, we’ll meet right here.”

  Sky nodded, took the cash and turned to meet her friends. She threw a “thank you” over her shoulder as she ran into her friend’s arms. Together they squealed.

  “Girls,” Liam said with disgust. Cade and Leah both laughed.

  “Come on,” Leah said, “I want to see that trebuchet up close!”

  “Treb-you-what?” they both said, matching looks of confusion on their almost- identical faces. Leah laughed.

  “Trebuchet,” she repeated. “It’s a machine used back in medieval times. For throwing really big rocks.”

  “I thought you didn’t know what it was?” Cade accused, amusement in his tone.

  “Just because I know the name of it, doesn’t mean I know what it’s doing here or why.” She turned to Liam, “Let’s go find out!” Liam took her hand and eagerly pulled her toward the contraption.

  She glanced over her shoulder to make sure Cade was following. He shook his head, smiling. He gave her backside a good once over before moving to join them. Leah turned forward and put an extra sway in her hips for his viewing pleasure. She heard him chuckle.

  Cade caught up to them quickly. His hand on her back, he leaned in and whispered, “Well-played, hun. Well-played.”

  Chapter 14

  “You should have seen it, Sky!” Liam’s voice was loud with excitement. “We picked the biggest, grossest pumpkin there was. It was like THIS big!” he stretched his arms as wide as he could. “Only it was kinda flat on one side ’cause part of it was rotten. And they put
it in the treb-treb . . .” he struggled with the word before giving up and rushing on, “the catapult thing! And I got to pull the lever! And it went WHOOSH through the air!” he flung his arms up and leapt in the air. “And then it came down and splattered EVERYWHERE! Aw, it was so gross and so awesome and you missed it!”

  Leah enjoyed listening to Liam tell the story. Better yet, she enjoyed watching Sky hear it. The girl was not as uncaring as she presented herself. She’d gotten down to Liam’s level and her blue eyes danced with merriment at her brother’s animation. Leah saw Cade gaze at his children with pride. This was their real family dynamic.

  “Can we go again, Dad? I want Sky to see!”

  “Aren’t you ready for the maze?”

  “Yeah, but Da-ad . . .” Liam’s tone turned to a whine.

  “I can see it next year,” Sky jumped in. “Okay?”

  Liam opened his mouth to protest, so Sky tried again, “It was fun doing something new, wasn’t it?” Liam nodded, warily, and Sky rushed on. “I had a lot of fun spending time with my friends too. But now I’m ready to do the maze, like we usually do. Just us.”

  “And Miss Leah too, right?”

  “Yup, Leah too.” Sky didn’t meet anyone’s eyes as she spoke.

  Hearing Sky willingly include her gave Leah a glimmer of hope.

  Cade squeezed her hand.

  “And we can do the catapult again next year?” Liam confirmed.

  “Next year for sure, bud,” Cade said.

  Liam whooped, fist in the air and raced off toward the maze entrance.

  “Hey, wait for me!” Sky called, running after her brother. Liam giggled as he bobbed and weaved trying to escape his sister. Sky laughed as she caught him up and spun him around.

  It was a charming scene. Cade was grinning just as broadly as his kids were. Leah wished she was truly part of this family. Determined to enjoy this time with them for what it was, Leah smiled as Cade pulled her into the maze.

  Forty-five minutes later, Leah was hot, sore, and thirsty. Even though there was a steady breeze, the sun baked them. Her back and wrist both ached from her fall but she did not want to ruin the fun. They were still missing several stops on the map and the children were excitedly dragging them from turn to turn.

  Cade had let the children lead the way. It resulted in many wrong turns and backtracks. While it was fun, she was more than ready to sit down and have the promised snack.

  “Hey kids, run ahead and see if you can find the next marker.” Cade waved them off and took Leah over to a small bench. The tall corn stalks created a bit of shade and Leah sighed with relief.

  “Sorry, I should have warned you. They don’t like to follow the map.”

  “I like seeing them so happy though. Sky would—” she caught herself and stopped before she said something offensive.

  “Yeah, she’s been a bit much lately. I guess being a teenage girl is hard.”

  “It is. I remember.”

  “I remember you as a teenage girl too,” he smiled. “I remember I wanted to kiss you every time you smiled.” He kissed her lightly. “I remember I wanted to kiss you when you didn’t smile too.” He kissed her again. “You were so sad sometimes and I . . . I didn’t know what to do.”

  “Cade . . .” she smiled up at his sad face, put her hand to his cheek and kissed him. It started lightly but it kept going, growing and building, burning between them. The sounds of other people in the maze and the wind through the corn began to fade away. Leah tried to reign it back in, tried to remember they were in a public place.

  “Get a room!” someone called loudly from above. All the sounds came rushing back. Leah and Cade both swiveled around following the sound of giggles. Sky and Liam stood several yards away on a raised bridge.

  “Hey, you two, how’d you get up there?” Cade laughed, pulling Leah to her feet.

  “It’s not far, just around the next couple turns,” Sky pointed vaguely. “We found the spot. Hurry up!”

  “Yeah, hurry up!” Liam parroted.

  “Yeah, hurry up!” Leah joined in, pushing on Cade’s back. They could still hear both kids laughing as they rounded the corner out of sight.

  Cade retaliated by spinning and pulling her close for another quick, hard kiss. His hands slipped into the back pockets of her jeans, pulling her extra-close.

  The kiss ended too soon. Cade grabbed her hand to pull her along. Distracted by the kiss, she did not move as soon as he tugged and her wrist took the brunt of the force. She hissed as she sucked in her breath sharply.

  “You are hurt!” Cade glared down at her with annoyance and concern. “And not just your wrist either. You aren’t tired from walking, you’re sore from falling.” He crossed his arms, waiting.

  “Well, not hurt-hurt. But yes, I’m sore. Sorry.” She looked down at the dirt path. Kicked at a few stray kernels of corn. Wonder how they got there: human or critter? They seemed to be strewn everywhere.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Cade’s voice was gentle as he raised her face to his.

  “I didn’t want to wreck it. Sky is finally happy and we are having fun and—” He cut her off with a kiss.

  “You kept your own pain quiet for my kids’ happiness. What am I going to do with you?” He kissed her again and took her arm, tucked it through his and led the way.

  Sure enough, the kids had found the next marker. Cade brought out the map and Liam used his green crayon to rub the etching onto their paper. Leah inwardly sighed, thankful there were only two more left.

  “Okay, I hate to say it but I think we should use the map. We’ve backtracked more than ever this year and I’m ready for donuts. Whaddya say?” Cade sounded casual but Leah knew he was doing this for her.

  “Mmm, donuts,” Sky’s voice sounded dreamy. Her answer was obvious.

  “Donuts sound really good to me too,” Leah agreed. “And I’m thirsty.”

  “Mmm, donuts and cider,” Sky repeated, her eyes closing in reverence.

  Liam looked from Cade to Sky before throwing his fist in the air and yelling, “Dooooooo-nuuuuutssss!”

  The whole group laughed. Clearly, that answered that. Cade checked the map and found the quickest route to the next marker. He led the way and did the crayon rubbing himself.

  Leah studied the map with Cade. The last marker was quite far away. When Cade made the announcement, everyone groaned at the discovery. As the children debated whether or not to skip the last marker, Cade continued to study the map. When he looked up, there was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

  “Oh no,” Leah laughed, “I remember that look.”

  “Uh-oh. Dad, what are you thinking?” Sky asked, probably already guessing.

  “Look,” he pointed at the map. “It’s not too far if we . . .” He looked around to make sure they were alone before whispering, “cut through here and here.”

  Cade looked at Leah. Leah looked at Sky. Sky looked at her dad and smiled. “Let’s do this,” Sky said. “I’ll go first. Don’t come out until I say it’s clear.”

  They scanned the path and when they were sure they were alone, Sky ducked under the barrier tape and disappeared. Cade lifted the tape as high as it would go. Leah took Liam’s hand and they entered the corn. She glanced back and saw Cade take one more look around before he followed. Leah had to admit that being sneaky and breaking the rules with Cade was fun.

  After they returned to following the path, they found the second cheating spot and repeated the procedure. They were all having fits of giggles by the time they found the final marker.

  “Okay, Sky, last one. Let ’er rip!” Cade held out their almost completed sheet. She took out her dark purple crayon and held it over the paper.

  “Come on, Sky. Hurry up! Donuts!” Liam demanded.

  Sky still hesitated. Finally she turned and wordlessly handed her crayon to Leah.

  “I’d be honored, thank you,” Leah’s voice was quiet with emotion. She took the crayon and rubbed it on the paper creating the last ma
rk. She handed the crayon back to Sky.

  Leah watched as Liam whooped and danced around chanting “donut” over and over. Cade grabbed Sky in for a side hug, squeezed her tight and kissed the top of her head before releasing her. Sky went to her brother and corralled him along the path.

  Cade and Leah stood silently for a second. Before they could follow, they heard giggling and hurried footsteps coming up behind them. Three little girls rushed past. They were linked arm in arm. Leah looked around for their parents but there was no one in sight.

  Just before the girls hit the next turn in the path, the middle girl looked back. Caught off guard, Leah stumbled. Cade steadied her.

  “You okay?”

  “Yes, I . . .” She looked again but the girls were long gone. “I must have stepped funny.” It wasn’t really a lie, she told herself. She had stepped wrong when she thought she saw her niece. But Emmie could not be here. She would not be here without her Mom and sister. Leah shook her head. “I’m fine, really. Just tired.”

  “Okay, come on, let’s get you outta here.” Cade gave her a quick kiss and grabbed her arm to lead her safely out of the maze.

  Emerging from the path out of the maze was sweet freedom. They all cheered. Leah was surprised when the children did not run off toward the concession stand. Instead, they stood back and waited. Leah wasn’t sure what for.

  “Picture time!” Cade announced. Leah quickly concluded this was another part of their tradition. He pulled Leah over to the kids and stretched his arm out to take a selfie. She smiled and looked at their image. Cade looked as handsome as ever. Sky had picked Liam up so his head would be higher in the photo. His round face was smiling ear-to-ear, his cheeks pink from the sun. Sky also smiled but Leah thought it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  “Say, corn maze!” Cade took a picture. “Say, donut!” He snapped another one, then a third that caught them all laughing.

  “Let me see your phone.” Leah took the phone from Cade. “One more.” She took a full shot of Cade with his kids. They were smiling and happy. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the corn stalks created a wholesome backdrop. “Perfect!” she smiled at her handy work.