And so it was that on Thanksgiving Day morning, Tierney, Celeste, and Nikki baked, cooked, and visited in the kitchen while Rome, Alec, and Mr. Novak prepared for the “after‑dinner festivities,” as Nikki referred to them.
“And then,” Celeste began with a sigh, “then…Alec pressed his lips to mine for the very first time. I thought I was going to die because, seriously, I swear I couldn’t breathe for a minute!” Celeste explained as her mother smiled and continued to knead the dinner roll dough.
“How romantic!” Nikki sighed. “I love hearing about a couple’s first kiss…as long as it was a good kiss, that is.”
Tierney smiled. “I guess it wouldn’t be much fun if the first kiss were a bad kiss, right?”
“Eww, no!” Nikki mumbled.
“But my first kiss with Alec,” Celeste began, “it was magical! And, Tierney, Alec is a great kisser, by the way.”
Tierney laughed.
“Too much information?” Celeste asked.
But Tierney shook her head. “Not at all,” she answered. “I’m just so glad he finally manned up and kissed you!”
“Me too,” Nikki interjected.
“Mom!” Celeste exclaimed in a giggle.
But Nikki shrugged. “Well, it’s true. If you want to know the truth of it, I’ve been wanting that boy to kiss you since the day I met him, Celeste.”
“Mother!” Celeste scolded, although it was obvious she was wildly delighted. Gasping then, Celeste said, “Oh, Mom, you have to tell Tierney about your first kiss with Daddy. It was so romantic!”
“Oh, I’m sure Tierney doesn’t want to hear about that, honey,” Nikki mumbled.
“Of course she does!” Celeste assured her mother, however.
“Of course I do!” Tierney chirped with sincere excitement.
“You will love this story, Tiers,” Celeste assured her friend. “It’s, like, the best first kiss story ever!”
Tierney smiled as Celeste’s contagious excitement overtook her as well.
“Well, I was sixteen,” Nikki began, “and Eddie was the guy every girl was in love with, you know?”
“Oh yes,” Tierney assured her, thinking instantly of Rome.
“Anyway, I had been admiring Eddie from afar, as it were…just like every other female on the face of the earth that had ever seen him,” Nikki continued. “Well, it was Halloween…”
Tierney’s smile broadened. She looked to Celeste, who winked at her with understanding. Tierney guessed she was about to find out why the Novak family did Halloween in such unmatched style.
“And a bunch of kids from high school had planned this Halloween party out at the old asylum north of town,” Nikki explained.
“An insane asylum,” Celeste whispered aside to Tierney.
“It was a really creepy place,” Nikki continued. “You know the type. You see them all the time in movies and stuff. Turn of the century type thing…the last century, that is. It closed down in, like, 1927 because of ‘strange happenings’…yadda yadda yadda. Anyway, to this day, I’ve never seen any place that was spookier. So naturally, the kids at school decided that was exactly the place to have a Halloween party.” Nikki paused, smiling as she silently reminisced a moment.
“We spent all day decorating with fake cobwebs, making refreshments, root beer…the works,” Nikki explained. “The guys set up this haunted house tour—really freaky, by the way—and everyone was stoked about the party. Some people had dates and stuff, but I just went with a bunch of my girlfriends.” Nikki smiled at Tierney. “You know, the old safety in numbers thing. I was pretty freaked out about going to the old asylum at all, let alone on Halloween. Anyway, me and my friend arrived at the party.” She laughed. “I was dressed as Princess Leia, of course.”
“Of course,” Celeste sighed. She looked to Tierney, adding, “Mom and Rome…they’re, like, Star Wars freaks.” She shook her head. “In fact, ask Rome anything about, like, life and stuff, and he finds a way to relate it to Star Wars.” Celeste shrugged. “It’s hereditary or something. I mean, I spent my first three Halloweens dressed in an Ewok costume.”
“And so did Rome,” Nikki laughed.
“Sorry, Mom. Keep going,” Celeste mumbled as she fluted the edges of a piecrust.
“Well, I walked into the asylum, dressed as Princess Leia, and right away I noticed this guy dressed as Batman, right?” Nikki continued. “I didn’t know who it was, of course—because Batman always wears a mask when he’s Batman. Anyway, there was this Batman guy, and for some reason, I just couldn’t take my eyes off him. Of course, nobody could, but there was something—I don’t know—like, magnetic about him that night.” Nikki sighed, smiling at the memory. “So the night wears on, people start dancing—which is kind of morbid, now that I think about it, dancing in an old insane asylum. But anyway, people are dancing when all of a sudden, Batman walks right up to me! Me—plain old Princess Leia! Batman walked right up to me and asked me to dance.” Nikki smiled and sighed again. “I’ll never forget that moment…or the song. Batman asked me to dance to—”
“ ‘True’ by Spandau Ballet,” Celeste couldn’t keep from interjecting.
“Ooo! I love that song!” Tierney exclaimed.
“I know, right?” Nikki added. “This much is true-hoo…this much is true-hoo-hoo,” she sang.
Looking at Celeste, Tierney joined in as Celeste and her mother repeated, “This much is true-hoo, this much is true-hoo-hoo…I know, I know, I know this much is true!”
“I love that song,” Celeste giggled.
“Yeah, me too,” Nikki sighed.
“So? You danced with him, and…” Tierney prodded.
Nikki sighed and smiled again. “I did. And I still had no idea who it was. I mean, in my innermost thoughts, I was wishing it was Edward Novak, but I knew it was probably just some other guy. Still, the longer we danced, the more I began to wonder if it really was Eddie. It was weird. It felt like Eddie Novak to me, even for as dark as it was and the fact I couldn’t really see his eyes well because of the mask.” She paused again, plopping the dinner roll dough into a greased bowl to rise.
“Well, when the song ended,” Nikki continued, “the hot Batman didn’t say a word to me. He just took my hand and began to lead me to the corner of the room, right? I wasn’t sure what to do. I mean, I wasn’t at all sure it was Eddie, but I didn’t feel afraid or anything, so I just went where he led.”
Elias Potts intruded on Tierney’s thoughts for a moment—but she pushed him away, focusing on Nikki’s story.
“So once we’re out of pretty much everyone’s line of vision, sexy Batman gently pushes me up against the wall, right?” Nikki explained.
Celeste giggled and whispered, “I love this part!”
“Then sexy Batman says to me, ‘Nikki, I have been in love with you since you were a freshman, and I’m telling you right now that I’m going to marry you someday…no matter what I have to do!’ And then, Batman reached up and pushed back his mask…and I nearly dropped dead when I saw that it really was Edward Novak!”
Tierney smiled as empathetic butterflies took flight in her stomach. It was a truly romantic story! She understood why Celeste loved it so much.
Nikki giggled. “Of course, I was standing there with my mouth gaping open like a hooked bass.” She shook her head. “I must’ve looked like such an idiot. But the next thing I knew, Edward Novak was kissing me!”
“Closed or open mouths, Mom?” Celeste asked, winking at Tierney.
Nikki grinned. “Closed…at first. And then, wham! It was awesome!” she answered.
Tierney squealed in unison with Celeste, delighted by the story of Mr. and Mrs. Novak’s first kiss. It was the stuff of old movies—of teenage romance novels—of dreams.
All three women laughed and blushed, gasping when Mr. Novak suddenly appeared from the adjoining family room, commenting, “And what are you girls up to? It sounds like a henhouse in here.”
Tierney blushed, feeling as if she’d just
been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. But Celeste simply rushed to her father, throwing her arms around his neck in an affectionate embrace.
“Oh, Daddy!” she giggled. “I can just see you…all dressed up as Batman and putting the moves on Princess Leia!”
Mr. Novak smiled. “Oh, that story again, huh?”
“We were just exchanging ‘first kiss’ stories,” Nikki explained.
“Were you now?” Edward Novak asked. He kissed his daughter on the cheek and then stepped out of her embrace as he began to stride toward Nikki. “Hmmm. Maybe we should have a reenactment, huh?”
Nikki giggled as her husband pushed her up against the wall and kissed her, open-mouthed and very, very passionately.
“I see they’re at it again,” Rome mumbled as he entered the room. Tierney watched him walk to the refrigerator and open it up to begin scrounging around inside. Her heart fluttered and her stomach flip-flopped as she watched him. He was so handsome! He was so romantic! He was so, so, so the only man she wanted to spend forever with!
Retrieving two pieces of cold pizza from the refrigerator, Rome winked at Tierney before heading back into the family room. Just his glance would’ve set her heart on fire, but his wink nearly melted her. How could it be that a man could wink and send shivers running up and down her spine? Other men had winked at her, but there was something in Rome Novak’s wink that was different. It was flirtatious, implicative, dazzlingly attractive.
Edward finished kissing his wife, snitched a piece of leftover piecrust pastry from the pile next to the pie Celeste was working on, and followed his son back into the family room.
“I can imagine it, you know,” Tierney said as she returned to dicing the onions meant to be sautéed for the stuffing. “Batman and Princess Leia…a smoldering kiss shared in an old, abandoned insane asylum on Halloween night. It must’ve been so romantic.”
“Oh, it was,” Nikki sighed, still blushing from her husband’s affectionate attention.
“I love that story, Mom,” Celeste said. “Thanks for telling it again. I can never hear it too many times.”
“It was your favorite when you were little,” Nikki reminded, “though I always left out the part about the asylum being for the mentally ill…at least until you were old enough that I hoped it wouldn’t give you nightmares.”
All three women laughed, and Tierney moved to chopping celery stalks next.
“So?” Nikki asked then. “What about you and Rome, Tierney?”
Tierney looked up to see both Nikki and Celeste staring at her with expectant, knowing smiles.
“M-me and Rome?” Tierney stammered.
“Yeah,” Celeste answered. “Tell us about your first kiss with Rome.”
Tierney gulped and looked to Nikki. How could she possibly tell Rome’s mother about their first kiss? His mother?
“Uh…um…you mean the one at my bridal shower or the first real one, after I moved here, I mean?” Tierney ventured.
“Oooo!” Nikki and Celeste exclaimed in unison.
“Definitely both!” Celeste giggled.
“Yes, definitely!” Nikki agreed.
Tierney felt herself blushing. How could she possibly recount two of the most wonderful moments of her entire life to the mother of the man who had created them?
“Don’t be shy, Tierney,” Celeste encouraged. “Mom and I both know Rome can’t keep his lips off of you,” she giggled.
Tierney blushed, and Nikki said, “Just pretend I’m one of your other friends…instead of Rome’s mom.”
Tierney smiled and laughed a little. “Well, that’s easier said than done, I’m afraid.”
“Just tell us the one at your bridal shower, Tiers,” Celeste suggested. “We’ll let you off the hook after that.”
“Okay,” Tierney agreed. Inhaling a deep breath—for it was a hard thing to discuss in front of Rome’s mother—Tierney began, “Well, I was at my bridal shower…feeling sick to my stomach and like I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life.”
“Mm hmmm,” Celeste prodded.
“And someone—I don’t even remember who—someone rolls in this giant box. It was wrapped in shiny red paper with a black velvet bow, and when I read the card, everyone was sure that a male stripper was going to pop out of it.”
“Well, I wouldn’t put it past Rome to strip down to his panties at least,” Celeste giggled.
“I’m sure your brother does not wear panties, Celeste,” Nikki corrected.
“You know what I mean,” Celeste clarified. “His boxer briefs or whatever. That’s what I meant.”
“Anyway,” Nikki urged Tierney to continue.
“Well, I read the card from Alec, telling me that he’d sent one classic Latin lover with a very special message,” Tierney explained. “And then I pulled this handle thing to open the box, and there he was—Rome, all dressed up like some perfect lover that had stepped right out of my imagination.”
Nikki and Celeste were both smiling at Tierney with grins as wide as the Amazon River.
“And?” Celeste asked.
“And…and I couldn’t believe it,” Tierney admitted. “Someone started some music, and Rome and I…well, we danced.” She smiled at the memory, goose bumps breaking over her arms just as if it were happening all over again. “Rome assured me that he was not a stranger, at least to Alec, and then he told me what Alec had sent him to tell me.”
“That you shouldn’t marry that Dillon guy,” Celeste couldn’t keep from answering.
“Exactly,” Tierney affirmed.
“And then?” Nikki prodded.
“Well,” Tierney began again, “Rome told me what Alec wanted him to…added his own thoughts, as well. But I was afraid, afraid of making my mother angry, of running to a life that was so unfamiliar. Rome knew it—I know he knew it—because then he told me he thought I needed something more to convince me…something other than Alec’s message. Rome kissed me slowly at first—you know, like he didn’t want to freak me out…even though I was totally freaked out already. But all of a sudden…all of a sudden I was kissing him back, and we were…were like totally, you know…”
“Making out?” Celeste offered.
“Kind of…yeah,” Tierney admitted. “And I realized that in all my life, I’d never felt anything like that. And I just wanted him to kiss me forever. I wanted to kiss him forever. And I knew that if a complete stranger could make me feel that way…then it would be so very thoroughly the wrong thing to do to marry Dillon. When the kiss ended, Rome said one last word to me, and I…I…”
“What was the word?” Celeste asked in desperation when Tierney failed to finish her sentence.
Tierney looked up to see both Nikki and Celeste staring at her with wide, wondering eyes. “Run,” she answered. “He told me to run. And I did, thinking that would be the last time I ever laid eyes on that classic Latin lover who had changed my life…in more ways than he would ever know.”
There was silence for a moment as Nikki and Celeste seemed to be taking it all in. But at last it was Nikki who spoke first.
Smiling, she exhaled a sigh of satisfaction and said, “That is the best first kiss story I have ever heard in my entire life!”
“Actually, me too,” Celeste said. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m still reeling from the first time Alec kissed me. But that is such a crazy, wonderful story, Tierney. I love it!”
Rome smiled as he leaned up against the family room wall. Oh, there were certainly some benefits to knowing when to hang around and eavesdrop, even if it were a tacky invasion of privacy. Still, hearing Tierney tell the story of the first kiss she and Rome had shared—hearing the emotion evident in her voice—it gave Rome more courage and determination where she was concerned, even more than he’d owned a moment before.
Closing his eyes, Rome thought back to that first kiss—the one he’d nearly had to force on Tierney. Yet he hadn’t had to press her for very long before she’d accepted and then reciprocated a kiss that usua
lly only happened between a man and a woman who were seriously involved with one another.
Damn, he was glad he’d kissed her that day.
Chapter Eleven
Tierney had never enjoyed a Thanksgiving more—never. Helping to prepare dinner was not only educational where cooking was concerned but also wonderfully entertaining and fun. Nikki, Celeste, and Tierney had begun by sharing first kiss stories, and from there the conversation only became more engaging. Tierney couldn’t remember a time when she’d giggled, laughed, and even wept so much. It was marvelous.
And Thanksgiving dinner? Well, Thanksgiving dinner was like nothing Tierney had ever tasted! There certainly was a vast difference between home-cooked food and catered or restaurant food—no matter how high-end the caterer or restaurant was. The turkey was moist and tender, and Nikki had seasoned it with butter, salt and pepper, and herbs. Tierney had watched with interest when Nikki had stuffed the turkey’s body cavities with chopped onion, celery, apples, and fresh sprigs of thyme, rosemary, and sage. Nikki had explained that their family preferred the stuffing be served separately so as not to taste so much like turkey. The Novak family preferred the purity of the cornbread and seasonings, with only a little water added for moisture and consistency. And when Tierney tasted Nikki’s stuffing, she understood why! The flavors of the fresh herbs Nikki Novak used were so comforting and delicious that Tierney nearly ate herself sick on just stuffing alone.
One Classic Latin Lover, Please Page 17