by Ellen Devlin
The third kiss wasn’t quick. His lips pressed to hers and gently opened as he moved his hand to cup along her jawline, and she opened her lips to his. He tilted his head and stepped closer to her, bringing his other hand to her waist. The kiss was soft, slow, and gentle.
Tom felt her hand on his chest and was sure she could feel his heart racing. He had not meant to do this. But that first kiss had felt so damn good. So right. And every second was making this more difficult to end without, well, without how things usually ended. He had started getting hard by the third kiss.
She had given him no indication that she was interested in jumping in bed. She was still giving him no indication that she was interested in anything other than this kiss that was melting his brain as if he were eighteen instead of thirty-two. He certainly wasn’t going to try to take advantage of Paige’s best friend on a set-up first date. That seemed like a recipe for all kinds of disaster.
But her lips were soft. Her tongue was soft. Shit, when did tongues get involved? Did I start that or did she? Damn, I don’t want this to stop.
He had no idea how long they stood there in that slow, soft, amazing kiss. Tom finally forced himself to end it and moved his lips away from hers. He kept his eyes closed and took a few breaths to try to steady himself. He kept his hand on her waist to keep a little distance between them; if she pressed up against the bulge in his jeans, he was making no promises about his actions.
Liz swayed slightly, trying to force her brain to reengage. Every nerve in her body had been tingling since his lips brushed hers, and her heart was beating so fast she was afraid he could hear it. By the time he moved away, she was trying really hard not to act on the fierce instinct insisting that she should shove him against his car and kiss him deep and hard.
They stood for a moment, breathing hard, then managed to step back away from each other. “You okay to get home?” Tom asked, his voice husky.
She nodded, heart still racing, and gave him bit of a teasing sideways glance. She asked, “You?”
He ran a hand through his hair, took a deep breath, smiled, and nodded. He started to get into his car, stopped, turned back for a second, pointed his keys at her, and said, “Two nametags for you next time.”
Chapter Three
When Liz had arrived at their house in the morning, Paige had dragged her in and practically shoved her out the back sliding glass doors to the table by the pool, saying, “Tell me everything!”
“I can tell you that you’re an incredible pain in the ass. Until I have a cup of coffee in my hand, that’s all you’re getting out of me.”
With a sound of annoyance, Paige scurried off for the coffee, passing Chris as he came out of the house carrying his own cup. The week after the pool party had become a tradition for the three of them; Liz took at least a few full days off, coming over early-ish for coffee. They would spend time together—sometimes going out on day trips or an overnighter, sometimes just hanging out by the pool. Morning coffee was always for three, so this morning was no exception.
Paige returned with Liz’s coffee, and Liz took her time, making sure it was correctly prepared, with too much sugar and too much cream. Paige kicked her under the table. “Come on!”
Chris said, “Please let me know how much I have to apologize to you and/or Micky for whatever the hell happened last night.”
Liz’s face registered the comment with shock and turned to Paige. “You didn’t tell him. Seriously, Paige? I’m going to enjoy this. Deeply.” She turned back to Chris. “No apology due to me. I ended up having a great time. Tom is a lot of fun.” She heard Paige make a small victory whoop. “I will let you talk with Tom about whether any apology is due on that side.” She turned and looked pointedly at Paige. “And now,” she said, “I am going to absolutely love watching your wife explain to you exactly what she engineered last night.”
Paige said to Chris, “I told you, honey, it was just a little personal joke between Liz and me. I put a few nametags on Micky when I hugged him.” She shrugged. Chris raised an eyebrow and looked to Liz for input.
“Really, Paige? Really? Out with it. Do not spare the details. I certainly didn’t. Stop!” She put up her hand in protest as Paige looked like she was going to interrupt. “I swear if you say one word about embarrassment on my behalf, I will kill you. Every shred of embarrassment I have on this topic was burned away in a fiery crucible last night. Now I just want to see you explain this all to Chris. Go.” She sat back, gesturing from Paige to Chris with her hand.
Trapped, Paige told Chris the whole story. Liz watched his eyes get bigger, saw him valiantly trying to fight laughter at her expense, and heard at least one “Oh, sweet Jesus” under his breath.
Paige left off at putting the nametags on Tom at the restaurant, and Liz picked up the story. When she got to the part about the eyelashes, Chris finally lost it entirely, laughing so hard he was gasping for air. Paige was laughing with tears on her face but managed to ask, “What happened?”
Liz, who had stayed in storytelling mode to this point, broke a bit and giggled. “Exactly what just happened. We both started laughing so hard we had to leave. We walked around the corner and leaned against the wall until we could breathe again.”
After a few more minutes of coming down from a laughter high, Chris wiped his eyes and just said, “Holy shit, Liz. Only you.”
She smiled at him and said, “Ah, but your life would be dull without me.”
“So true.”
Paige chimed in, now that they were back to normal conversation, “What happened next? Did you guys go anywhere after dinner?”
“I drove him around DC to look at the monuments.”
Paige smiled and said, “What does that mean? Is that a new euphemism that I don’t know about? ‘Looking at monuments?’” She used air quotes and gave her friend a knowing look.
Liz looked at her and said very slowly and plainly, as if Paige needed special help with comprehension, “It means I drove him around and we looked at the monuments.” She returned to her normal speech habits. “I don’t want to know what weird shit you two are getting up to in your personal life.”
She left out the part about the kiss. That amazing, unbelievable, please-let-this-never-end, my-toes-are-curling kiss. Paige would be so disappointed when nothing went beyond that way-too-hot kiss; Liz suspected Paige had already decided they would make a perfect couple. Besides, she really wasn’t sure she wanted to share it, as if talking about it would suddenly break the spell. She hadn’t felt this way in a very long time, and she just wanted to quietly enjoy it while it lasted.
Chris looked up briefly from his coffee. He had mostly stopped listening when he heard them slip into best friend banter. “You really did end up having a good time, right? Micky behaved himself?”
Liz smiled inwardly, loving Chris for providing her with this perfect opportunity. She paused, trying to time her comments with Chris’s next sip of coffee. “Of course,” she said. “He was a perfect gentleman.” Wait for it…“And he rated my ass an eight!”
Chris choked, glared at her, coughed coffee onto his shirt, tried to breathe through his nose, and finally swallowed. He wiped his face off. She heard him say, “God damn it, Liz,” under his breath as he headed toward the house to change his shirt. She was pretty sure she caught, “Every fucking time,” as he was closing the sliding glass door.
Paige sighed. “You two are ridiculous.”
“It’s fun. It gets harder to do every time. He’s gotten very cagy. But that was five in a row. I’m on a roll. That’s my best streak ever.”
“You keep score? Seriously?”
Liz stared at her. “Of course. What’s the fun otherwise? I try to make him spew out his coffee when we’re all here. He tries not to. There are rules.”
“Rules.”
“Well, they’re all in my head. We’ve never actually discussed this. It’s my game. My rules. Leave me my pathetic amusements, Paige.”
Paige turned the topic b
ack to Tom. Again. “Did he ask for your phone number?”
“What? Oh. You are relentless about this. No, he didn’t.”
“Did you ask for his phone number?”
“No.”
“Did you offer him your phone number?”
“No.” Paige looked at her strangely. “What? I don’t think either of us was particularly worried about never seeing the other person again, seeing as we have best friends in common. I assumed I would be seeing him around.”
“So you guys aren’t, say, planning on going to a museum or the zoo?”
Liz paused. “Oh. Shit. I’m sorry, Paige.”
Every time Paige had introduced her to a new person in town, sometimes someone from the team, sometimes a new teacher from her school, or a new neighbor, Liz had always, always, invited the person out to go to the zoo or a museum. It was just something she did, and Paige was rather astounded that she had not done the same for Tom.
“Damn it, every single conversation with this guy seems to involve me apologizing for inconsiderate behavior.” Liz sighed. “I guess now I need his phone number.”
“I’m pretty sure this isn’t considered thoughtless behavior by anyone’s standards except your own, you idiot,” said Paige. “I was just really surprised. You do not have to do this. I promise, Liz. Don’t do this for me.”
Liz smiled. “I’m not. I’m doing it for me. You know I love going to the zoo. And we really did have a good time last night. He’s smart and funny. Still too damn good looking, though.”
Chris poked his head out of the sliding glass door, wearing a different shirt. “Liz, Micky just texted to ask for your phone number. Okay to give it to him, yeah?”
“Yup. I was just getting his from Paige. Thank you for asking, though. I appreciate it.”
Paige kicked her under the table again. Liz said, “Shut up.” She tried to ignore how Chris’s announcement had made her stomach flip around oddly.
She got Tom’s number from Paige’s phone and put it into her own, took a deep breath, and called it. No point in waiting. This stuff never got better with age. She tried to ignore Paige watching her every move.
He picked up quickly and said with a note of surprise, “Liz?” His voice was deep, and sent that odd flipping sensation into overdrive.
“Hi. I’m sitting at Chris and Paige’s house. I’d just asked for your number when you texted and asked for mine. I took it as a sign I should call.”
“I’m really glad you did.” He had just finished entering her name into his contacts when it had popped up ringing. He could feel a smile on his face he suspected was much larger than was warranted by a simple phone call.
“In keeping with what seems to be a theme with me these days, I’m calling to make amends.”
“I can’t imagine what for.”
She smiled and tried to ignore Paige shifting to get a better look at her face. “When Paige introduces me to friends of hers who are new to the area, I have a long-standing tradition of inviting them out to go to a museum or the zoo. She pointed out to me this morning that I did not do that for you.” She turned to face Paige as she added, “Which I am going to blame on the whole nametags incident, by the way. Threw me way off my game, so this is actually your fault, Paige. Oh, man, my day just got a whole lot better realizing that.” Tom laughed on the other end of the line. “Seriously, though, any interest? Museum or zoo, your choice. You are absolutely allowed to say no. I will not be upset. It’s the offering that was the important part to me.”
Tom said, “Well, I was actually calling to ask you if you would like to go to a movie sometime. As a kind of apology for the intense awkwardness. If that makes any sense.” He paused, suddenly wondering if he was making any sense or making things worse. She had been awkward because she thought he was attractive, so he’s apologizing? Nice, Micky. Smooth.
“Sure. Any time.” Because it won’t be at all distracting to be sitting next to you in a dark movie theater. There was a pause in the conversation, and Liz closed her eyes, lost for a moment in the memory of their kiss.
She caught his next sentence a few words in. “…beautiful today. Are you free now? I would love to go to the zoo.”
Tom held the phone up away from his mouth and cursed quietly to himself. Sound desperate much? He hadn’t stopped thinking about kissing her since he had walked away last night, but this was ridiculous.
“Hang on a second.” Liz muted the phone and turned to Paige. “Please answer this question without additional commentary: Would you mind if I bailed on our plans and went to the zoo today?”
Paige made a joyful squeak. “No! Not at all! Go forth! Have fun!”
“All right, shut up already.” She unmuted the phone. “I have double checked, and I am free for the day. I’m all yours!” Shit! So not what I meant to say!
“Great, I’m looking forward to this!” They finished making plans to meet and hung up the phone. Tom sat down on the couch in the house he shared with two other guys on the team, put his head back, and closed his eyes.
Paige’s best friend. She is Becks’ wife’s best friend. It doesn’t matter how amazing that kiss was. He opened his eyes again.
Shit. I can’t even lie to myself.
Chapter Four
They had a wonderful time at the zoo. Liz always enjoyed taking people there, and Tom had fun being with her. She was enthusiastic about…everything, it seemed to him. He seriously didn’t know what to make of this woman. She was showing him around the zoo with the excitement of a kid.
“Oh, the pandas!” She told him about the pandas and the arrangement that the Smithsonian has with China, and when they moved on to a different part of the zoo, she got just as enthusiastic about the next animal. And so on.
In between, she asked him about life in Montreal, snow in Minnesota, the differences between college hockey and the NHL…certainly all things personally relevant to him, but nothing personal or intrusive. He found himself telling her about all sorts of things, one topic running into the next with an ease he found surprising.
He turned to her after telling her about poutine and said, “You can’t really be finding this interesting.”
“Why not?” she replied, looking completely serious. “I’ve never been to Montreal. I’ve certainly never eaten poutine.” He looked at her curiously for a moment, but they were arriving at the next animal exhibit.
“Do you know details about every animal in the zoo?” Tom asked with a laugh, after Liz told him joyfully about the small-clawed river otters.
“It’s a sickness.” She laughed. “I like learning stuff. About things. All kinds of stuff about all kinds of things. Think of me as a font of mostly useless knowledge. Although it occasionally does come in useful, like on trivia night. Or zoo visits.”
They had decided to call it a day and were heading toward the lower parking lot and their cars. “So what you’re saying is I definitely want you on my team if I’m playing any kind of trivia game, or Jeopardy, or anything like that.”
Liz turned toward him, stopped, and looked at him intensely for a moment. “Yes. In all seriousness, we will kick their asses. Word games too. I have also never been on a losing Pictionary team. My competitive side is small but highly focused.” She smiled. “And if you decide to be my adversary in any of these things, consider yourself fairly warned.”
They stopped as they reached Tom’s car. It was mid-afternoon, and they’d eaten lunch at the zoo a few hours earlier. There was no real reason to continue to be together, and yet, neither one of them was making any move toward leaving.
On sudden impulse, Liz asked, “Would you like to hang out at my place this evening and watch a movie? The latest Avengers flick is available for rent, and I’ve been looking forward to seeing it. I missed it when it was out in the theaters. I’ve got a big screen, nice speakers, a comfy squishy couch, footrest, beer, and popcorn,” she said, ticking off the important points on her fingers. She felt her heart racing a little.
T
om felt a small leap in his chest at the idea of seeing her again so soon. “Sounds good to me,” he replied. “Avengers, though? Really?”
“Yeah!” Liz sounded excited. She stopped and looked suspiciously at him. “Why, do you not enjoy superhero movies? Because I’m afraid this evening might be over before it even starts if that’s the case.”
Tom put his hands up in a defensive gesture. “No, that’s not it, I promise,” he said, laughing. “I like them as much as the next guy, I guess. I’m just not used to…” He paused and looked at Liz.
She crossed her arms and lifted one eyebrow.
“You know,” he continued, “it’s not often that women are really into…”
The corner of Liz’s mouth curved up in rather dangerous-looking smile, although there was a twinkle in her eye.
“I am sorely tempted to make you finish that sentence and then make you stand there in awkward silence.” She paused briefly to emphasize what awkward silence would sound like. “But since you’re still new here, I guess I’ll let you off the hook. However, this has made me realize I need to know some things about you.”
“Okay,” he said, not sure what he was getting into.
“Star Wars,” she said.
Tom just looked at her. “What about it?”
“Star Wars,” she repeated with emphasis. “Yes? No? Seen any of them? Seen all of them? Like them, hate them? I need information.”
“Oh. Right. Yes, I’ve seen them. All of them. Like them, not in love with them. Before we get too far into this conversation, please remember that I’ve lived and breathed hockey my entire life, so don’t judge too harshly.”
“Fair enough,” she conceded. “Point taken. But you do like superhero movies, right? I don’t actually want to bore you this evening.”
“Yes, I do,” he said with a smile. I’m pretty sure I won’t be bored.
“Okay, then,” she said brightly. “This should be quick and painless. Marvel or DC Comics?”