by Candis Terry
“Sounds perfect,” he said. “I have plenty more amazing things I can show you.”
Beneath him, with her breasts pressed against his chest and her heart beating in time with his own, she smiled. “I can hardly wait.”
Neither could he.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
In the early morning, James came back to pick up Kelly on his way to work and drop her off at the Sugar Shack, where she’d left her car. While she had wanted him to stay in the big lodge house with her, he’d explained that he needed to get home and keep an eye on Alex. Though what they had shared the night before had been new and exciting and wonderful, and she’d wanted to keep him all to herself, she admired his dedication to his little brother. Some would tag Alex Harley as a lost cause, but she knew James never would. And if she was in his size-thirteen shoes, neither would she.
She had imagined things might be awkward between them this morning, but they’d flowed as naturally as if they saw each other every morning and had scream-out-loud sex every night. He’d been sweet and attentive. He’d carried her duffel bag down the stairs and had questioned what was inside. She could only tell him it was the first step into finding her hidden talent. She couldn’t reveal her plans to anyone until she was ready. Until she’d made someone smile. She was close, and she’d come far, but it wasn’t time yet for everyone to know what she’d done on her summer vacation.
James had dropped her off at the Buick, kissed her once, twice, okay, maybe six times and then gone off to serve and protect the good people of Deer Lick. Kelly dumped her bags into the backseat and then went inside the Shack to snag a breakfast muffin.
When the back door closed behind her, applause erupted. Kelly looked at Kate, her dad, and Edna Price all gathered around the coffee pot.
“Bravo.” Kate applauded loudly.
“What’s going on?”
Edna Price’s wrinkly face broke into a broad grin. “You’d have a better answer than us,” she said with a wink of a rheumy hazel eye.
Kate walked over to the wall and did her best Vanna White in front of the two very large chocolate handprints at about head level. Kelly groaned. So much for keeping her private life private.
“No sense calling 9–1–1 to fingerprint the culprit.”
“Oh, you are so funny, Kate.”
“You’re just in time.” Edna filled a cup of coffee for Kelly. “We were about to celebrate.”
“I’m afraid to ask what for.”
They all simultaneously lifted their cups in a toast. “To the death of Sister Serious.”
“May she rest in peace,” her father chimed in.
“Dad!”
“Sorry, sweetheart. It’s your sister’s fault. I’ve been hanging around her too much.”
Edna whooped. “Oh, come on, hon. Your sister got outed in front of the whole town when Buddy Hutchins announced her and Matt had been doin’ the dirty on the floor of the bakery.”
“Eew. Buddy Hutchins was watching you?”
“Could have been worse.” Kate shrugged. “Could have been doing it in the back of the Buick. Know what I mean?”
“That’s it.” Kelly tossed her hands up. “All I came in for was a breakfast muffin. Unless you want me to autograph those chocolate handprints.”
“They aren’t yours to autograph, sister dear. I’ll wait until James comes in for his tuna sandwich. Dad? We have a Sharpie around here somewhere, don’t we?”
“Yep. Got a whole pack of them in the office next to those you-know-what shaped cake pans of yours.”
Kelly shook her head. “I am so out of here.” She marched to the display case and removed a cinnamon apple muffin.
Kate came up beside her. “Sorry. I know we shouldn’t be making fun at your expense. I know how you feel about . . . are you laughing?”
“No.” Kelly took a bite of muffin to conceal her smile.
“You are too.” Kate folded her arms across her pink apron. “What’s so funny? You need to spill right now, Kel, or I’m taking that muffin away.”
She shoved another bite into her mouth and washed it down with a drink of coffee.
“Come on,” Kate whined. “Sisters share.”
“I’m not sharing.”
“You have to. It’s in the rules.”
“What rules?”
“The sisters tell all rules. I told you everything about Matt.”
Kelly lifted an eyebrow and sipped her coffee, enjoying every second of making Kate squirm.
“Okay, almost everything. Just tell me this . . . did you have fun?”
“I had fun.”
“Is he as good as he looks?” The gold flecks in Kate’s green eyes flashed like coins in the sun.
“Well . . .” If Kate truly wanted her to kill off Sister Serious, there was no time like the present to bust a move. “You know how much I don’t like talking about this kind of stuff.”
“I know.”
“But if you swear you’ll keep it to yourself.”
Kate drew an imaginary X across her apron. “I swear I won’t tell a soul.”
Kelly took a small bite of muffin and chewed to make her sister jitter with anticipation. “Promise?”
“Yes! I promise.”
“Okay.” Kelly leaned closer to Kate’s ear. “He has a really huge— Oh, wow. Look at the time. Gotta go.” She spun on the heel of her cowboy boot. “Bye, Daddy. Bye, Mrs. Price.”
“Paybacks are a bitch, Kel,” Kate threatened with a laugh.
Kelly gave her a little wave and pushed open the back door. For perhaps the first time in her life she didn’t feel like the joke was on her. She made the joke. She owned up to the joke. She liked the joke. A lot. And there was a lot more to come.
Two hours later Kelly stood inside Twinkie the Clown’s bathroom and inspected herself in the tall mirror hooked to the back of the door.
“Okay, Sprinkles, when you come out I want Kelly to step aside,” Twinkie said from the other side of the door. “Show me the fun!”
Kelly smiled at the sound of her alter ego’s name. Sprinkles. She liked the sound and the fact that it loosely tied into the Sugar Shack. She stood back and did a little curtsy, then she made several faces and laughed out loud at how her brightly painted eyes and dotted pink nose reacted. At Twinkie’s suggestion, she’d created the flesh-tone-based look all on her own. First on paper, until the design spoke to her inner goofball, then by trial and error. Still a little creeped-out by a full clown make-up job, she’d kept hers to a minimum. More Patch Adams than Stephen King’s clown from It. The process had taken her four tries to get perfected. Now the rainbow of accent colors came to life.
She’d taken an old pair of jeans and shredded them at the knees. Then she’d added a pair of pink cowboy boots and a red-and-white dress. The dress barely came to the tops of her thighs and was fitted at the bodice then flared out in the skirt with layers of crinoline to keep it floaty. Around her neck she’d fashioned several necklaces with carnival-colored rhinestones and jingle bells. And on top of her hair, which she’d washed, let dry into its own naturally curly style and then tucked up in a waterfall of curls, she wore a tall lavender top hat adorned with a purple ostrich feather and a big red cabbage rose.
She looked silly. And she wondered what the associates in the prosecutor’s office would say if they could see her now. More importantly, she wondered what the children in the hospital she was about to visit would think.
She took a deep breath, pushed her old self aside, and let Sprinkles come out to play. She opened the bathroom door and jumped into the world of make-believe. Minutes later she’d received the applause and approval from her brightly costumed peers. After a little rundown on the order of things—because even as goofy as clowns appeared, they did keep things in a somewhat orderly jumble—they all jumped into Twinkie’s Volkswagen and headed for Mercy Hospital.
They’d just turned onto Main Street when who should drive by in his very serious patrol car?
James looked
their way and gave them a smile that melted Kelly’s heart into a big lump of bubbly goo. Since she was in clown mode, he’d have no idea it was her. Playing the part of Sprinkles she leaned out the passenger window and melodramatically blew him kisses. Much to Kelly’s surprise he blew one back. She captured it in the air, and as they drove away, she clutched it to her heart in a silly ba-boom-ba-boom gesture. He laughed, and she figured that was a good sign of things to come.
On the way to the hospital they practiced their routine, and Kelly hoped with all her might that James Harley’s heart was just the first of many she would win over that day.
Days later James stirred the spaghetti sauce on the stove and prayed to the pasta gods for the meal to turn out edible. He’d never attempted more than heating up a jar of Ragu in the past, so putting together a sauce from scratch was quite the accomplishment. Hopefully he wouldn’t poison anyone. Sure, he could have taken the easy way out by opening a jar and saying he’d made it, but anyone with a taste bud would be able to tell it wasn’t homemade.
He didn’t want to disappoint Kelly.
He’d never made dinner for a woman before. He’d never been the type to go overboard to impress women or share much of his personal life with them. He’d kept them at a distance, appreciating whatever they chose to share with him, and then either he or they would move on. It wasn’t that he never thought about finding the right woman and settling down. He figured that would happen at some point in his life when he’d grown bored with being alone. Being with Kelly was different. When he wasn’t with her, he wanted to be. When he was with her, he wanted her to stay. He thought about her all the time.
So what was he doing?
He had a boatload of obligations, and she was in Deer Lick on a temporary basis.
He wanted more.
Was he getting too old for just a summer fling? Better yet, why would a woman like her ever choose to be with a man whose life was so cramped with responsibilities that he could barely make time for her? Or them? Or even himself?
She deserved better.
He wanted more.
Suddenly he’d become a greedy son-of-a-bitch.
For two days Rocky had been unable to watch Alex in the evenings and James had needed to stay home. Though it was wrong for him to feel as he did, James felt like a fly trapped behind a curtain. He could see what was going on outside in the world but he couldn’t taste it. And that was beyond selfish. He shouldn’t be thinking so much about what he wanted, he should be thinking about Alex. The kid needed so damned much. He deserved more than he’d gotten. He had his whole life ahead of him. But in the same sense, James realized, so did he. Since the day he’d been laid out on that hot pavement taking his last breath, he’d come far. He’d made huge improvements on his life. But there had always been something missing.
He thought of Kelly and how she made him want to be a better person. She was an amazing woman. In fact, she had been the one to suggest she come to his house tonight. Though the night would be anything but romantic with his surly little brother wandering from room to room, James missed her. So he’d agreed—albeit a little hesitantly about throwing her to the teen wolf. She’d laughed and pointed out some of Dean and Kate’s antics. She’d told him his family’s quirks couldn’t be any worse than her own.
He hoped she was right.
She’d even come up with an idea to both help and entertain that James had to admit was outside the box and intriguing. Unfortunately it had nothing to do with kissing or touching her.
At his feet Poppy and Princess sat like perfect little angels, waiting for him to drop just one meager tidbit. He’d already accidentally dropped several bites of sweet Italian sausage for them. How could he resist the look of adoration in those big brown eyes?
“That’s a helluva lot of work to do for a girl,” Alex grumbled.
“She’s a woman, bro, not a girl.”
“Yeah, well they’re all trouble if you ask me.”
The wooden spoon in James’s hand came to a stop in the middle of the pot. He looked up at the long, lanky teen lounging on the sofa and hitting a new level on the Xbox game. “You know, I used to think like you.”
“Yeah, what? Like two weeks ago?”
James heard the rumble of a car engine die in front of the house. “Did you shower today?” He turned the burner off from beneath the sauce and turned up the heat under the pot of water. The dogs gave up begging and went in the living room to perch their tiny paws on Alex’s lap.
“Why?” Alex gently stroked the dogs’ silky ears.
“Kelly’s bringing a guest. I thought you might like to make a good impression.”
“Yeah? Who’s she bringing? Her grandma?”
“Actually, someone you might know. Chelsea Winkle? She’s an honors student at the high school. Helps out at the Sugar Shack and Kate Ryan’s prom-gown shop? Nice girl.”
“I know who Chelsea is.” Alex popped up off the sofa. “But why is she coming here?”
“Dinner.” And to tutor you so you can graduate high school.
Alex glanced down at himself in a panic, then he disappeared into the hallway as a knock came at the door. The dogs scrambled and dove into their frantic yips and yaps.
“Where are you going?” James shouted.
“To take a shower.”
James smiled as he wiped his hands on a towel. Nothing like a woman to light a fire under a man’s ass.
The dogs continued to bark as James did one last glance around the room to make sure it still looked clean. “All right, girls, calm down.” He scooted the dogs aside with his foot, held open the screen door, and smiled at the little pink sundress Kelly wore. She looked great in those flimsy little things. She looked even better in nothing. “Welcome, ladies.”
Kelly came into the room and her green eyes lit up. “Wow. You cleaned up.”
“Trying to make a good impression. Is it working?”
Her eyes dropped to his mouth then came back up. “Yes. And it smells great in here, too.” She held up a large bowl and smiled with that luscious mouth he wanted to kiss more than he wanted to take his next breath. “I made a salad.”
Trailing behind, Chelsea held up a basket of bread. “I brought French bread.”
The dogs maintained their frantic barking while they simultaneously danced on their hind legs as if they couldn’t figure out whether they wanted to act tough or give in to the excitement of having guests. Since their entire behinds were wagging, James estimated the latter to be winning. “Come on, girls. Give our company a break.” Both dogs looked up like he was the world’s biggest party pooper.
“They’re fine.” Kelly said. “They’re just curious.”
“I love dogs,” Chelsea added, as she bent down to pet their heads. “I love their bandanas.”
“It’s the only way I can remember which one is which,” James said.
“The one in pink is Princess,” Kelly told her. “And the one in yellow is Poppy.” She looked up at James. “Did I get it right?”
He nodded, thinking there was little she didn’t get right.
“They’re so cute.” Chelsea gave them both another head rub. “I always picture guys having big bad dogs.”
“Are you calling my dogs girly?”
Chelsea laughed. “Totally.”
“I can live with that.” James led them both into the kitchen. “I guess spaghetti really isn’t summertime fare, but I don’t own a grill.”
“I love spaghetti.” Kelly set the salad down on the kitchen table. “Even cold the day after.”
“Me too,” Chelsea added with a long glance around the room. “Where’s Alex?”
“Taking a shower. He should be out in a minute if you want to have a seat in the living room.”
“You sure you don’t need any help in here?” she asked.
“I think we’re good.”
Kelly turned to him. “A shower?” Her delicate brows lifted. “Sounds promising.”
“I can guar
antee it isn’t for you or me. The second I mentioned Chelsea was coming here, he jumped up and ran into the bathroom.” James leaned in close and inhaled the sweet scent of her hair. “Mmmm. You smell great.”
“Thanks. I showered, too.”
And didn’t that just put all kinds of naked thoughts through his head? James looked down to where the dogs sat at attention at Kelly’s feet. “They usually don’t take to newcomers that quick.”
“It’s my secret weapon.”
His gaze dipped to the front of her sundress. He smoothed his hands down her arms and smiled. “And I give that dress my full approval.”
“The secret weapon isn’t my dress. And it isn’t for you.”
“Because I’m kind of easy, right?”
She laughed. “Kind of?”
He met her smile.
“I had to win over . . .” she pointed toward the floor and whispered, “Them. Last time I was here they wanted to bite me.”
“Only because you’re so tasty. What do you have hidden in that straw bag? A roast?”
“Beggin’ bits. Is it okay if I give them one?”
“They may nibble off your arm if you don’t.”
James watched as Kelly reached into her purse and pulled out the bag of treats. Both the dog’s tailless rear-ends wiggled. As Kelly knelt down, James did the total guy thing and glanced down her top.
Yeah, men were pigs. So what.
Then she began to baby talk to the normally ornery pooches and make kissy sounds and everything inside of him that was male wanted to grab hold of her, throw her down on the kitchen table, and take her. She broke off tiny bites for each dog and made them do tricks he didn’t realize they even knew.
Imagine that.
He wasn’t the only one she could conquer with just her hands. At that moment he became a little envious of all the attention his dogs were getting from her.