Never Let Me Forget (Summer of First Kisses Book 2)

by Michelle Pennington

  Of course, she could smile and looks sweet when she wanted to so maybe they never saw it.

  “Somebody hide the dessert tray. The chubby girl’s here.”

  Thunder boomed over the roof of the restaurant, making her words seem more dramatic and menacing than they otherwise would have been. For the first time, however, a comment that ordinarily would have cut me deep only sounded juvenile and lame. “Maybe you should go find it, Lori. It might make a woman out of you.”

  I walked away, not really caring how she reacted to that. I was done. So done.

  “There she is,” Tyra said as I walked into the kitchen while tying my apron on. “How are you doing? You look ready to pound anyone who looks at you wrong.”

  “Not anyone. Only very particular people.” I looked across at Calvin and Anthony who were already busy filling tickets that were coming in. “Looks busy out there for a Monday night.”

  “It’s the weather,” Anthony said. “We always get hit hard when it’s raining. Get ready to hustle it, girl.”

  “I’m ready. Hey Calvin, any recommendations tonight?”

  Calvin looked up and grinned. He and I had gotten to know each other better, and Dante was right. He wasn’t mean—just socially awkward. And funny enough, the three cooks were the only people in the restaurant I didn’t feel self-conscious around. They were my people.

  “The seas were rough today,” he said, “So the boats couldn’t get out deep enough for tuna. I’ve got some steaks from the deep freeze but try to push the amberjack, would you?”

  “You’ve got it.”

  I checked in with the hostess and got to work. As I went to get drinks for a table, I saw Dante on the other side of the restaurant, bending over the four pretty college-aged girls at one of his table. His smile glinted as he lingered longer than necessary taking their order. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I had no doubt he was flirting with them. He knew how to work his charm to get better tips. This wasn’t the first time I’d witnessed it, and he’d been open about it when he was trying to convince me to work here. But it bothered me tonight.

  I stopped by the bar to let Jeremy know I needed a watermelon Margarita and a pina colada.

  He raised an eyebrow at me as he finished cracking open a couple of beers for some guy sitting at the bar. “Wow. It’s not just storming outside I guess.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “There are sparks of lightning in your eyes tonight, beautiful. I kinda wish I’d put them there.”

  “No, you don’t. They’re sparks of anger.”

  “Oh, I know. There’s nothing sexier than an angry woman though.”

  I walked away, not taking Jeremy any more seriously than I ever did. But his words returned again and again to my mind. The thought that something about me, anything about me, was sexy felt like a balm to my wounded soul. When I walked past the bar again later, Jeremy looked up and winked at me, even though a very attractive woman had draped herself over the bar in front of him. Huh.

  With my confidence back on the rise, I got word from the hostess that she’d just seated three men in my section. “And you’re welcome,” she said, her tone hinting that she’d done me a favor.

  When I saw them, I knew what she meant. Every one of these guys had to have been athletes. They all had broad, stocky builds and a cocky assurance that somehow didn’t detract from their attractions. As I came up, I gave them what I hoped was an alluring smile.

  “Welcome to The Captain’s Kitchen. My name is Sadie and I’ll be your server tonight. What can I get you to drink?”

  This was the weird part because even if I’d been old enough to drink, I wasn’t interested in it, but I still had to sell it. One of the wait staff that was over 21 would have to serve it to them, but it was my job to take the order. Luckily, Jeremy had been teaching me a thing or two.

  “Hey, Sadie,” one of the guys said. He had close-cut dark hair that was longer in the front so he could spike it up and a sunburn. All of them were sunburned. “Bring me whatever you have on tap and some of your peel and eat shrimp.”

  “It’s spicy.”

  He winked at me. “I can handle it.”

  I laughed. “I bet you can.” I took drink orders from the other two and went to drop them off with Jeremy.

  “Don’t look now,” he said, “But they’re checking you out.”

  Looking back over my shoulder, I saw that they were watching me. “Huh. That’s weird.”

  Jeremy’s brows scrunched together. “Why?”

  Shrugging, I said, “That just doesn’t ever happen to me.”

  “Whatever.” He turned to grab some glass tankards off the shelf behind him. “I check you out all the time.”

  More than anything, I wanted to sit him down and make him tell me why—to figure out if he was sincere or just being nice. But I had work to do. So, later. Maybe on break.

  The three guys at the table were super fun to work with. They kept joking around and teasing each other, and sometimes me. Their faces lit up every time I’d approach their table and several times I caught the one with dark hair watching me when I was at other tables.

  As I stood at the soda fountain refilling a coke for another table, Dante came up behind me. “Looks like I’m going to win my bet today.”

  The bet. How had I forgotten that? And why didn’t he look happy about it?. Dante was the type of person who celebrated victories like he’d scored the winning touchdown at the Super bowl.

  “There hasn’t been an exchange of numbers yet.”

  “There will be.”

  He held a drinking glass up and refilled it with Mt. Dew. His arm brushed against mine. I would have jerked away, but my hand was holding a brimming full glass of Coke.

  “Guess we’ll see.” I turned away, completely aware that his eyes were on me.

  Seriously, what was the deal? On a day when I’d been at my lowest, all of these guys were paying attention to me. The universe sure had a sense of humor.

  A few minutes later, I took the three guys their bill. “Thanks a lot,” I said. “I hope you enjoyed your dinner.”

  The dark-haired guy grinned. “Of course. Good food, good beer, and a good view.”

  Normally when people talked about the view at Captain’s, they meant they enjoyed looking out at the ocean through the big open windows along the beach. But because of the rain, the windows were closed. And anyway, he was looking at me.

  Was this where I was supposed to say something flirtatious? Probably. With a tip and a bet in the balance, I definitely should. But as flattering as it was, my heart just wasn’t in it.

  “I’m glad to hear it.” I took their cards and went over to run their payments through. When I took their receipts back, I smiled and said, “Hope you all come back soon.” And then I left, worried that if I lingered at all, they might read more into it than was there.

  It was time for my break then, so I headed to the bathroom. At least I wasn’t as hot and sweaty as usual because of the shift in the weather, but after I’d saved my bladder from exploding, washed my hands, and fixed my ponytail, I wondered where to take my break since the rain made the deck a bad idea.

  Wandering back into the kitchen, I caught Tyra’s attention. “Where should I go for my break tonight?”

  “You can go back into the stock room. There’s a little table in the back. Want anything to eat?”

  I was hungry, and it seemed like the perfect weather for something hot and filling. “I’d love a bowl of gumbo.”

  “You’ve got it.” Tyra grabbed a big bowl and filled it with steaming gumbo, put some crackers and a couple of rolls into a basket, and handed it to me. “Enjoy.”

  “I will. This might be my favorite thing on the menu.”

  With my lunch in hand, I left the kitchen and headed to the back. As I went through, the busboy was clearing off the table. He waved me down and held out a business card. “One of those guys left this for you.”

  Well, well
, well. I took the card between my pinky and ring finger since my hands were full. “Thanks.”

  My emotions surprised me a little. I was only slightly curious as to which one had left it and somewhat pleased that someone had found me curious after all. Mostly, I was glad to have lost my bet with Dante. After all, it would have been a terrible one to win. But I sure wasn’t going to rush right over and let him know.

  With my mind so focused on wondering what Dante’s reaction would be, I wasn’t paying much attention to where I was going and ran right into someone.

  “Ow. Hot!”

  I righted my bowl of gumbo the best I could and looked up at Jeremy. He had his shirt pulled away from his skin since it was covered with thick hot broth. “Oh fuzz bucket. I’m so sorry.” I rushed over to the table and put my food down and pulled some napkins out of the dispenser that sat there with some condiments. Rushing back over, I wiped his shirt.

  “Careful, it’s going to burn me again.”

  “It’s cooled down, but here…” I put my hand up inside his shirt to shield his skin while I wiped it.

  “At least I get a good angle from here.”

  I looked up and realized that he was looking right down my shirt. “If I didn’t feel so bad right now—”

  “You’d kick me in the junk, I know. I’m taking advantage of your guilt.”

  Footsteps sounded between the aisles of canned goods. I looked over just as Dante came in. When his expression shifted into hard-as-stone anger, I realized how close Jeremy and I were standing, while I was tugging on his shirt and looking up at him.

  “Dante, wait,” I called as he left. I ran after him, catching up to him just before he went out to the dining floor again. “Are you mad at me?”

  His eyes burned like frost. “No, why would I be?”

  “You looked angry.”

  “If you want to hang out with him, go for it. You’re just making everything happen in one day, aren’t you? You got your phone number and if I hadn’t interrupted, you would have gotten your first kiss too, huh?”

  “I wasn’t going to kiss him.”

  “Oh no? Well, he was going to kiss you. And that’s what you’ve been wanting anyway, right? Your first kiss? Congratulations, Sadie.”

  He stormed off then, and from the look on his face and the set of his shoulders, I knew there was no calling him back this time.

  Feeling like I’d somehow destroyed something I didn’t even have, I walked slowly back to eat my food—not that I felt like it anymore.

  Jeremy sat in one of the chairs, eating one of my rolls with his shirt off. He looked up and shook his head. “I couldn’t help but overhear.”

  I wasn’t in the mood for this—even if he did have the abs of a Greek statue. “It would have been hard not too.” I sat across from him and crumbled crackers into my gumbo.

  “You’re ruining that.”

  “Disagree.”

  “Do you have a thing for that guy? I mean, I know a lot of the girls do even though I can’t see how when I’m around. Your crush is different though…”

  “Where are you going with this, Jeremy?”

  “I can help you.”

  “With what?”

  “Whatever you want. But first, you need to tell me everything.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Jeremy wanted to help me make Dante jealous.

  “You can’t make someone jealous who doesn’t want you,” I’d said.

  “Exactly. Let’s see if we can. And have some fun trying.”

  I hadn’t agreed to it right away. I felt like I needed someone's help. I needed my girls.

  It took some doing, but I managed to find a brief window of time the next afternoon when Kat, Piper, and Liv were all free. And following my gut, I asked Brittany to come to my house too.

  “Thanks for inviting me,” she said when I opened the door for her later.

  “I’m just glad you came. I need all the help I can get figuring this out. The others are already here in my room.”

  For just a moment I felt a little self-conscious about my house. I mean, it was nice enough, but compared to her beach-front mansion, it was underwhelming. She never so much as looked sideways at it though and she sat down on my rug with a cheerful smile because every spot on my bed was already taken up by my friends—and London, who at the moment was blissed out from Kat petting her.

  With nowhere else to go, I sat next to Brittany. “Okay, I’m calling this meeting to order.”

  Kat laughed. “Isn’t that Piper’s job? She’s the bossy one here.”

  Piper elbowed her. “Shut up.”

  I waited until they were quiet. “Well, I’m the one who needs help.”

  “With your first kiss?” Piper said, leaning forward to see me better.

  Nodding, I pulled the card I’d gotten from the guy at the restaurant out of my pocket and dropped it on the rug in front of me. “I got a number from a really hot older guy. He flirted with me the whole time I waited on him at the restaurant last night.”

  I don’t know whose eyes were bigger, Kat’s or Piper’s. Liv watched with an intrigued expression on her face, but it was Brittany who surprised me. She reached forward, picked up the card, and tore it in half.

  “Next,” she said. Her firm, decided tone made me laugh.

  “What?” Piper asked. “What if she liked him?”

  “I didn’t. And I think you guys can guess why. But before we get to that, check this out.”

  I pulled up the picture I’d taken with Jeremy the night before, still in all his shirtless wonder with his arm around my shoulder. He’d insisted on taking a selfie with me last night. I was okay with it, but after he’d sent it to me, I wondered who else he’d sent it to.

  When I turned the phone around, I got exactly the shocked reaction from my friends that I’d expected.

  “Give me that,” Piper said. “I think I need a closer look.”

  “Who is that?” Kat asked, moving London off her lap so she could look over Piper’s shoulder at the picture.

  To my surprise, Liv answered before I did. “That’s Jeremy Butler. He graduated four years before us. He was one of my brother’s friends. And, um, he is not an option.”

  I looked up at her cool expression. Liv was never easy to read. “Why?”

  She shrugged. “He’s like a Venus flytrap if you know what I mean.”

  “Yeah, I think I do. Don’t worry. I only ever considered him as a means to an end. He knows I like…” I took a deep breath. There was no denying it now.

  But before I could speak, Brittany’s soft voice filled the expectant silence. “Dante.”

  Kat grinned. “Like, officially this time? I mean, there was obviously something going on between you two at Brittany’s party the other night, but I didn’t know if either of you were admitting it yet.”

  “I am. Because I need help. Sometimes Dante is giving out obvious signals that he’s into me, but he also doesn’t treat me anything like he treats his usual girlfriends. But he does seem to be jealous of Jeremy, which is why he offered to pretend we were a couple to see how Dante reacts.”

  Liv shook her head. “No way. Sounds like he’s trying to put a move on you without you realizing it. Or otherwise have an excuse to put his hands on you without you kneeing him in the junk.”

  Piper got off the bed and paced in front of my closet. “We can make this situation with…what’s-his-name—”

  “Jeremy,” I filled in for her.

  “Yeah, Jeremy…work for you. Maybe you don’t have to actually do anything with Jeremy. What if you just make Dante think you guys kissed?”

  “So you think making him jealous is a good idea?”

  Piper nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I think the problem is that you guys started out as friends, so it’s hard to take things to a different level.”

  Kat shifted and frowned. “Why don’t you just try talking to him. I have to admit that if Tate hadn’t made a move on me, we might never have gotten together.
All those years I liked him and I never said anything. Now I wish I would have.”

  “Yeah, but it’s the not knowing that makes it hard,” Liv said. “If you’re wrong and they don’t like you, it could ruin everything.”

  Piper came over and sat on the rug across from me. She put her hands on my arms, which were resting on my knees, and squeezed. “What makes you think Dante might like you?”

  I bit my lip and thought about it for a minute. “Well, he looks at me a lot and hangs out with me more than he does the rest of you. He brought me breakfast yesterday and tried to make up with me. He hugged me, but it didn’t feel like a friend hug, you know?”

  “That’s all good,” Piper said, a spark of excitement in her voice. “Anything else?”

  “He’s protective of me.”

  She snapped her fingers. “That’s perfect. If what Liv said about Jeremy is true, not only would he be jealous, but he’d be worried about you getting hurt.”

  “Dante already warned me about him.”

  Kat gave a happy little squeal and hugged the pillow she held. “It does sound like he likes you.”

  Brittany chuckled. “It didn’t take me too long to figure that out. His eyes go all soft and warm when he looks at you.”

  Piper nodded. “Yay! That’s decided then. Sadie’s first kiss is going to be Dante.”

  Even though it was far from being decided since he would have something to say in the matter, Piper’s words still sent a fluttering rush through me that was all the answer I needed about what I wanted.

  Piper looked around at Liv. “Then we just have one more to go. And since it’s only the beginning of July, we still have most of the summer to get Liv kissed too.”

  Brittany flung up a hand. “Hold on. What’s this about first kisses?”

  I answered before Piper could. “After graduation, Piper found out that Kat, Liv, and I hadn’t kissed anyone. She decided we all had to make it happen before the end of summer. Kat got kissed by Piper’s older brother Tate a couple of weeks ago and now they’re dating.”