The Kiss That Launched 1,000 Gifs

by Sheralyn Pratt

  Ash motioned for her to wait, then went to their prize bin, digging around a bit until he found a DVD of baby signs and walked it back over to his visitor. “My niece was born a spitfire. She’s always known what she’s wanted, and that hasn’t changed. Right now she’s on track to get her Bachelor’s degree by the time she’s eighteen.” He pointed to Chelsea. “But she started out a screamer. Signing helped tone that down. A lot.”

  He held out the DVD and the woman reached out for it. “Really? It made that much of a difference?”

  “Definitely. Megan was frustrated that we couldn’t read her mind. Once she picked up on signing, she replaced a lot of her crying with signs. It’s worth a shot.”

  “Thank you,” the woman said, flashing a shy smile. She held out her hand to him. “I’m Kara.”

  “Ashton,” he said, giving her hand a shake.

  She tucked the DVD in one of the stroller’s compartments. “It’s good to finally meet you. I hear you sometimes on the radio. Then when I heard you were in my neighborhood, I figured I needed to take a walk anyway, so… here I am.”

  When the vibe quickly changed from cordial to coy, Ash thought to check Kara’s ring finger. No ring.

  No ring?

  The woman had a ten-month-old daughter and no man backing her up? Grace could talk her progressive politics all she wanted, but when it came to raising kids in teams, Ash wasn’t budging on his stance. Sure, there were times when single parenting was unavoidable, but it was always miles from ideal. Single parents needed help. Fawn and Megan had taught him that.

  Ash had no doubt that Chelsea was being taken care of by Kara, but who was taking care of mom? Who had Kara’s back? If a promo DVD was enough to get Kara blushing, then Chelsea’s daddy was seriously off the ball.

  Ash forced a smile onto his face. “Well, we’re glad you stopped by.”

  Just then, an old truck in the parking lot fired up, its old engine squealing loudly before it turned over. Chelsea’s eyes flew open in the stroller, startled tears immediately filling her eyes.

  “Oh, no,” Kara muttered, glaring at the truck before gripping the stroller to make her escape. “That’s my cue. Nice meeting you.” She turned the stroller to make a dash for it before the crying set in—the movement ramming her into a man who was approaching the tent with a large soda. When she made impact, the soda fell on the stroller, raining crushed ice and brown liquid down onto Chelsea.

  “I’m so sorry!” the man said, grabbing his cup and looking down at the baby helplessly.

  Ash didn’t stop to think before moving around the table and quickly unbuckling the now-screaming child. His movements were more of a reflex than a plan, and he quickly realized that Kara hadn’t been kidding.

  The kid had pipes.

  But Ash knew it was key to get Chelsea out of the puddle of sticky fluid before it seeped too far into her clothes, and Kara was still babbling apologies to the man she’d run into while trying to find baby wipes to clean up with.

  “I’ve got her,” Ash said to Kara before turning to the intern of the day. “Find us paper towels to absorb all of the soda out of this seat, will you?”

  The kid nodded and ran to the hot dog booth as Ash turned his attention back to Chelsea.

  “Did you get nasty, high-fructose corn syrup in your pretty hair?” he cooed to her as he brushed all the ice off the baby in his arms. “And on your pretty flower? I’m so sorry.”

  The baby went from outraged to confused, her cries faltering. Lucky for Ash, though, the confusion was laced with curiosity. Chelsea wasn’t afraid of him. That was good. He kept talking, bouncing Chelsea lightly as he did so.

  “I would hate to be woken up with a Big Gulp to the face, too, so I don’t blame you for being upset. I’d be screaming if I were in your shoes.”

  Strangely enough, Chelsea chose that moment to ramp the crying down and settle on staring at him through teary eyes. Well, if talking to her was working, Ash wasn’t about to let go of a good thing.

  “I have this theory that you’re a super smart kid,” he told her, as if it was their secret. “I think you know a lot of words, even if you can’t say them yet. That’s why I gave your mom a DVD of baby sign language. But I don’t want you to let the name of the DVD throw you off, okay? They’re not just signs for babies. Adults use the signs, too. Baby Signs is just the name of the DVD to help market it, but it’s actually useful stuff you can use the rest of your life.”

  Chelsea blinked at him, mouth slightly open as she no doubt processed the fact that a stranger was holding her. Ash couldn’t let her think too hard, though. If scream-crying was this baby’s go-to, then off balance was right where Ash wanted her.

  He kept talking. “The DVD is going to teach you and your mom a bunch of nouns that will help you get things you want without crying. Lots of things, like milk or your teddy bear. But first, why don’t we clean up your pretty dress and your pretty hair?”

  He glanced over to Chelsea’s mom to see if she’d found the baby wipes and found Kara staring at him. In fact, several people seemed to be staring at him, all their faces unreadable except Frank’s, who held up the signal that they were ninety seconds from going live.

  The intern came back with a stack of paper towels six inches thick. “Will this be enough?”

  Ash nodded toward the stroller. “Let’s find out. Get what you can.”

  The baby in his arms was now graduating from staring at him in wonder to giving his face exploratory touches. He looked at her, letting her hands go where they wanted to until he heard the click of a phone camera.

  “I’m sorry,” Kara said, checking her screen to see how the picture turned out. “But I kind of had to capture this moment. My daughter covered in soda and not crying? It may never happen again.”

  Ash smiled. “Small miracles, right? We take them where we can get them.”

  Kara smiled back as she used the baby wipes to get some of the sticky off of Chelsea.

  Ash held out his hand. “If you want, I can’t get what I can off while you do the seat. I’ll need to hand her off to you in about sixty seconds, but I’ve got her until then.”

  Kara nodded, handing over several wipes before kneeling next to the stroller and rubbing it down as best she could.

  Ash wiped down Chelsea’s hands and arms, talking as he moved up to her face and trying to make cleaning her a bit of a game. When he cleaned her ear, he actually got a smile out of her. Then Frank motioned that they were at thirty seconds and Ash tapped Kara on the shoulder.

  “Sorry. I’ve got to run.”

  “Thank you,” Kara sighed, looking stressed. “This has been mortifying, but… memorable.”

  He grinned. “That’s par for the course when a baby is involved.”

  Kara laughed and reached out for Chelsea, who screamed ungratefully as she was passed into her mother’s arms. Kids could be traitors like that.

  “I’m going to run down the street as quickly as possible now,” Kara said, buckling the now-howling Chelsea in and aiming the stroller toward the sidewalk. “Thanks again for the DVD.”

  “Anytime,” Ash said, giving her a wave goodbye before checking out the damp stain Chelsea had left on his shirt. It was soda that had seeped from her clothes into his. No biggie.

  “Fifteen seconds,” Frank called out, and Ash noticed that the charity president was standing next to the mics with Grace. All in all, their guest didn’t look too fazed that a screaming child was the lead-in to her radio debut. Good. Tragedy averted.

  “Coming,” he said, grabbing a water bottle and splashing some of it down his shirt to dilute the stick of the soda as he walked up to his mic. He held out his hand to their guest. “Allison, right?”

  The blonde nodded, shaking his hand as her eyes glanced the direction Kara and Chelsea had sprinted away in. “Yeah.”

  “Good to meet you,” he said.

  “You, too.”

  “Five!” Frank called out, and Ash took a slow breath to get focused a
s the last commercial finished playing out.

  “Welcome back,” Ash said when the mic light blinked on. “This is Battle of the Sexes, once again joining you live from the local charity Small Steps.” Ash flashed a smile at Allison to let her know she was headed into the spotlight. “Grace and I are here with the mastermind behind this incredible charity, Allison Brown. Allison, I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t even know about your charity before today.”

  Allison leaned in to speak into the microphone. “The good news is that you’ve heard about it now. It’s so great to have the two of you out here today spreading the news about our upcoming Small Steps fundraiser.”

  “Of course,” Ash said. “I was looking over your list of events coming up this Thursday night, and it looks like your crew at Small Steps knows how to have a good time. You have a concert set up, booths, food, a silent auction, and more. It’s sounds like a great night out for all ages!”

  “That’s the hope,” Allison agreed, warming up to the mic. “We want it to be a memorable night where 100% of the profits go to put shoes on homeless children both locally and abroad.”

  “I love it,” Ash said, glancing Grace’s way to see if she wanted to take the next talking point. She jumped in without missing a beat.

  “Am I reading this number right, Allison?” Grace said, glancing down at her notes. “Small Steps has donated over 15,000 pairs of shoes in the few years you’ve been a charity?”

  “That’s right. And we’re looking to really add to that number this year! That’s why we have so many events at the fundraiser. We have Neon Trees coming for a concert, great items in our silent auction, we have dunk tanks for public figures—”

  “Oh, you should sign Ashton up for that,” Grace interrupted. “I bet a lot of listeners would love to give him a dunk.”

  Suddenly the two women were sharing conspiratorial grins as Allison added, “Or see him sitting around in his swim trunks.”

  Ash rolled with it. “Anything for a great cause.”

  To his surprise, Allison’s eyes narrowed. “Anything?”

  The woman had something in mind. Ash could see it in her eyes, but he plowed in anyway. “Sure. If there’s something I can do to help Small Steps raise a few extra bucks this Thursday, I’m in.”

  Allison looked back and forth between him and Grace, biting her lip nervously. “Well, my staff and I were actually talking about the two of you—”

  “The two of us?” Ash interrupted, glancing Grace’s way. “Me and Grace?”

  “Yeah,” Allison said and Ash saw Grace tense up.

  “I like the sound of that already,” he said, pretending not to notice Grace’s reaction. “Grace, you’re up for helping charity, right?”

  Grace’s smile became a bit strained, but she said the only thing she could say. “Of course. What were you and your team thinking, Allison?”

  Allison suddenly looked a bit diabolical. “Well, avid listeners of your show have heard that it may or may not be renewing, is that right?”

  Ash and Grace shared a glance of silent deliberation before Ash spoke for the both of them. “Well, we certainly hope that’s not the case. We love this show.”

  “My staff and I do too,” Allison said. “Which is why we thought it would be fun to do something that lets fans show their support for renewal by making the two of you do something together that people would pay to see.”

  “Please don’t say karaoke,” Ash teased. “Have you heard Grace? A singer she is not.”

  Grace sent him a competitive look. “And definitely not a calligraphy contest. I think we’ve established that Ashton would defeat me in a battle of prim penmanship.”

  Ash shook his head and bit back his retort as Allison said, “No. Those two things actually didn’t come up. We had a lot of ideas, but in the end we all agreed on one stunt we thought would put the most shoes on children’s feet.”

  “Is it weird that I just got a little nervous?” Ash asked.

  “It’s not just you,” Grace replied as she assessed the other woman. “We might just want to back away from this situation slowly, Ash. It might blow up in our faces.”

  Ash? It was the first time in two years Grace had not used his full name. The surprise had Ash missing a beat in his response—a beat Allison was more than happy to fill.

  “Oh, it’s not that bad,” she said. “But me my staff and I would pay to see it, so we think others would too.”

  Ash and Grace shared another look. He could see the caution in her eye, but before he could figure out what to do with it, Allison finished her pitch.

  “We think it would be fun to have you two kiss for charity.”

  Ash was still looking at Grace when her mouth literally fell open. “Excuse me?” she said a bit gracelessly.

  “I’m in!” Ash said right after.

  Allison looked over at Ash and beamed. “I knew you would be. We were thinking that if listeners donated $1,000, the two of you would kiss on stage at the event.”

  Ash couldn’t help it. He laughed out loud and pulled Allison into a side hug. “That sounds like the easiest thing I’ll ever do for charity. Way to hook a brother up, Allison.”

  Grace looked like someone had farted and she was afraid to breathe it in.

  “What do you say, princess?” he teased. “You willing to kiss a frog for charity?”

  She recovered quickly. “Of course. But a thousand bucks?” she scoffed. “Aren’t we underestimating the generosity of our audience here? And wouldn’t we need to be a bit more specific with what that thousand bucks is actually getting them?”

  “Good point,” Allison said. “I mean, we could do something like making every $1,000 become one second the two of you have to kiss. Were you thinking along those lines, Grace?”

  “One second?” Ash balked. “That doesn’t even really constitute a kiss, does it?”

  “See?” Grace said, motioning to him. “This is why we need to be specific. Managing expectations.”

  Allison laughed and looked at Ash. “You’re more excited than I thought you’d be.”

  “To kiss a pretty woman?” Ash said, sending Grace a friendly wink to let her know he wasn’t completely objectifying her. “Um, yes, please! Any day. All day.”

  “I, on the other hand, am totally doing it for charity,” Grace said. “But I’m still game. And I totally believe that we can do better than a thousand bucks for one second, but I guess that’s up to our listeners.”

  Allison gave a quick, exuberant clap. “So you’re both really in?”

  “For a good cause?” Ash said, smiling Grace’s way. “Totally.”

  Grace nodded. “If it will put shoes on the feet of children, why not? But we have to at least reach $1,000, or it’s all off. That’s my deal.”

  Ash grinned from ear to ear. Oh, they were going to reach $1,000 all right. He’d make sure of it.

  “I guess we’ll see if Allison’s right,” Ash baited into the mic. “For every thousand dollars donated, Grace and I will kiss for one second. You have forty-eight hours to whip up a thousand bucks for charity, everybody. Make me a happy man, will you? Five dollars? Ten dollars? It all adds up, so give what you can today.”

  When Ash showed up for volleyball practice that night, Brad gave him a nod in greeting, the corner of his mouth curving up in a smirk. “Loving the billboards, man.”

  “Shut up,” Ash said, dropping his bag.

  Brad laughed. “I would have thought that hanging half-naked pictures of yourself up around town would help you with the ladies, but I’m hearing that now I’m expected to dish out so you can see some action.”

  Ash grew still. “You’re hearing what?”

  Brad held up his phone, a smug grin on his face. “Got a text all about it. Kids need shoes like you need kisses, or something like that.”

  Ash rolled his eyes. “Ignore it.”

  “Too late,” he said, tossing his phone in his bag. “Already texted ten bucks to the number when I saw the chic
k you’ll get to lock lips with. She’s hot, man. Is she single?”

  Ash felt himself tense. “Why? You want my seconds?”

  Brad laughed. “Dude, she is literally kissing you out of charity. We both know she’d kiss me for free.”

  “Her boyfriend might have thoughts about that,” Ash said as he started to strip down to his board shorts.

  “Huh. Figures,” Brad said. “But at least I can follow her on Instagram now. The woman knows how to rock a dress. Does she dress like that at work?”

  “Yep,” Ash said, putting an unnecessary amount of focus into untying his shoes to get ready to hit the sand.

  “Well, then you definitely have a better view at work than I do. I work with all dudes, and none of them dress like that.”

  “But you’d like it if they did?” Ash said, all innocence.

  Brad glared at him. “Not what I meant.”

  “If you say so.”

  Brad let it go, putting his stuff to the side and starting over to the volleyball court. “Don’t worry, man. You’ll get your thousand bucks and get to kiss the girl. That should turn your frown upside down.”

  Ash sent Brad the bird, earning a laugh before he sat down to take off his shoes and socks. Yet once he was ready to hit the sand, he stalled. Rather than getting up, he sat where he was as it settled in that Brad was right. Grace would literally be kissing him for charity, which meant it wouldn’t mean anything. Not to her. For Grace, it would be a couple seconds of personal contact and then back to business as usual.

  How could Ash get excited about that?

  Yes, the kiss had seemed like a great idea when he heard it pitched, but now that it was actually a thing? Now that it was all but certain that he would be kissing Grace in front of a crowd that would almost certainly have cameras?

  How was he supposed to play that?

  One thing was fairly certain. He wouldn’t be able to kiss her the way he wanted to. It would have to be a kiss for the crowd, not for them, and Phillip would probably be standing in line of sight and overseeing the whole thing. So how could he kiss Grace without really kissing her? What could be posted to YouTube and not come back to haunt him?