And Then He Kissed Me

by Kim Amos

  The thought jolted her. She pushed herself harder, trying to outrun her emotions. But they kept pace with her, refusing to be left behind.

  She pumped her arms. If she had feelings for Kieran, she just had to get them out of her system. She had to get him out of her system. Then she could move on.

  Right?

  A gust of spring wind swept across the track. She turned into it.

  Five years ago, she’d been a gym teacher, convinced that things were going to work out because anything except a happy ending was too hard for her to fathom. Now, she knew better. She could still believe that Mr. Right was out there.

  In the meantime, though, she’d take Mr. Right Here Right Now.

  As she raced toward the track, she craned her neck, searching for Alexis’s tall frame, and was surprised to see multiple shadows instead of just one. She pulled up closer to the metal bleachers and realized Alexis had brought company: Sonja Jorgenson and Caitlin Granlund, two more girls from the track team.

  “Ladies, what are you doing here?” Audrey asked, hands on her hips as she worked to catch her breath.

  “We heard Alexis was running with you,” Caitlin said, her blonde hair in braided pigtails, “and we wanted to come, too.”

  Audrey glanced at Alexis, hoping for some illumination, but the girl just shrugged.

  “I’m happy for the company,” Audrey said after a moment, “and you’re welcome to join me on Sundays. But on school days, you need save your energy for practice with Mr. Frace.”

  “We are,” Caitlin said. “We promise. We saw he was carrying around your old coaching notebook, and he’s gotten a little better. But even with the notebook, he’s still way different.”

  “Yeah, we totally miss you,” Sonja added.

  Audrey’s stomach knotted. She missed these girls, too. But she also believed Paul Frace would find his way—eventually.

  “Let’s stick to Sundays, then,” she said. “We’ll run together and push one another, and you’ll still be Paul’s during the week. Sound like a plan?”

  “Totally,” Sonja agreed, her wide eyes bright. “But if my mom ever comes, can we slow it down for her? Just for the first few runs?”

  Audrey tilted her head. “Your mom wants to run with us?”

  “Kind of. She wants to get in shape and I told her to come today, but in the end she got scared and stayed home.”

  Audrey knew Sonja’s mom, Faye Jorgenson, and liked that the woman always cheered for Sonja at track meets, and made sure to bring her daughter lots of extra Gatorade.

  “Tell your mom I’d be happy to run with her anytime if she’s interested,” Audrey said. “I could help her out. It would be fun.”

  “What, like a personal trainer?”

  Audrey blinked. She’d never thought about that label before.

  The idea left her a little breathless. “Sure,” she answered. “If your mom wants to get in shape, why not?”

  “When you’re done there, talk to my mom, too,” Caitlin added, playing with the end of one blonde pigtail. “She’s always like, ‘Oh, Caitlin, if only I could use all this exercise equipment we have at home,’ but she never gets her butt in shape enough to do anything.”

  Audrey trembled, but not from the cool morning. Could it be that there was a personal training niche in White Pine she’d never thought about?

  She took a breath, the idea filling her mind.

  “When you get home, tell your mom I’ll give her a call,” Audrey said to Sonja. “I’ll see if we can’t set up a schedule. You tell your mom the same thing, Caitlin.”

  She was amazed at the words coming out of her mouth. Was she really going to cold-call two parents and see if they wanted some training help?

  Then again, she’d already walked into a Harley-Davidson showroom and held her ground, in spite of being totally unprepared for the job. She’d also proved she could bring more than just her body to the gig, now that she had a whole host of ideas about how to reach more female customers.

  So why couldn’t she find a few personal training clients as well?

  “That would be so awesome,” Caitlin said. “My mom has been so annoying about getting in shape. If you finally get her to stop talking about it and do something, I would owe you big-time.”

  Audrey was about to tell the other girl she didn’t owe her anything when an idea flashed in her mind.

  “How about doing me a favor right now? Since I’m leading this running club and all?” Audrey asked.

  Caitlin arched a brow. “Like what?”

  “Like help out with the Good Shepherd Walk this year. I don’t want to do it, but I want to find a replacement.”

  “Isn’t that the walk where they have all the cakes and baked goods at the end?” Sonja asked.

  “They do,” Audrey agreed.

  “Doesn’t Elliot Singer go to that church?” Caitlin asked.

  “Totally,” Sonja said to her friend. “And I bet he’d be there.”

  Caitlin flipped her pigtails. “What would we have to do?” she asked.

  “Help put up flyers. Do the registration forms. They’re all paper and kind of a pain, but it’s manageable. Help get everything set up the day of. Make sure all the people doing the walk have water. That kind of thing.”

  “Sounds intense,” Caitlin said.

  Audrey nodded. It wasn’t the easiest of volunteer activities.

  “You know what else is intense, though?” Sonja asked. “Elliot Singer’s eyes.”

  Caitlin giggled. “And his abs. I got a glimpse of them in gym class once.”

  “I’ll help if you do it,” Sonja said.

  Caitlin’s white teeth flashed as she grinned. “All right, count me in.”

  Audrey almost burst into laughter. She never would have imagined that finding not one but two replacements would have been so easy.

  “All right, let’s get going,” she said, as much for the group’s benefit as her own. Part of her was worried the girls would change their minds if they dawdled too long. “Three miles, and we’ll do intermittent thirty-second sprints along the way.”

  She was already running before she’d finished the sentence. She was grinning to herself, and bouncing that much more with each step.

  * * *

  The girls were pushing themselves on the three-mile run, and Audrey felt a swell of pride toward her small group. The clump of runners crested a small hill to the south of the school, about a half mile from the finish. “You got this!” Audrey called to the girls to encourage them. “Not far now!”

  They were returning to town along the back roads, with farmland rolling all around them and dark tree branches cresting over the top of them. Audrey had clicked on her portable flashlight, even though the sky was pinking to the east. Better safe than sorry out here.

  As if in response, headlights popped up behind them, and the rumble of an engine sent a cluster of birds flapping into the weak morning light. “Everyone to the far side of the road,” Audrey said, flicking her flashlight beam so the car would be sure to see them. They were in the opposite lane, facing oncoming traffic, giving the car a wide berth. Still, she dropped behind the girls, so the flashlight beam would illuminate the entire group.

  The engine rumbled closer, and Audrey waited for it to pass. But the deep, vibrating sound remained right behind them. She turned her head and stared straight into two white headlights. She blinked, trying to clear the painful glare.

  “Girls,” she said, “stay together. Nobody race ahead right now.”

  “Who is that?” Sonja asked.

  “I don’t know,” Audrey said, slowing to a walk. The other girls did the same.

  Suddenly, Alexis was next to her. “Ms. Tanner,” she breathed, “I think that’s my boyfriend, Hunter.”

  “Hunter Haglund?” Audrey asked, remembering her brief encounter with him at the dealership. “What’s he doing out here?”

  “He—sometimes he follows me,” Alexis said, her eyes wide. As if on cue, the phone tuc
ked into her armband flashed with a message. “He texts me, too.”

  A thousand questions and concerns flashed through Audrey’s mind, but she pushed them all aside. Hunter was a good kid, she told herself. This was no big deal. “Listen to me carefully,” she said to the group. “I want you all to stay together on the side of the road here. I’ll go have a talk with Hunter. You stay put. Got it?”

  “Yes,” they replied in unison.

  The engine rumbled louder, as if Hunter were revving it. Audrey pivoted around to face Hunter’s car. The rest of the girls pressed themselves along the edge of the road, nearly losing themselves in the trees.

  All of them, that is, except Alexis.

  Audrey didn’t have time to tell the girl to step back. The car rolled up and inched to a standstill. Alexis stood next to her, trembling.

  She kept a protective arm on Alexis as the driver’s-side window on the shiny new Dodge lowered.

  The intricate dash and smell of new leather hinted at what an expensive vehicle it was. Inside the car’s elaborate interior, shadows snaked from Hunter’s chin to his eyes, emphasizing the hard lines of his face. He stared at Alexis then slowly, agonizingly, turned his gaze to Audrey.

  “Something we can help you with, Mr. Haglund?” she asked.

  Hunter didn’t reply, just returned his focus to Alexis. His sand-colored hair looked black, his eyes appeared bottomless. “I worry about you. You know I worry about you.”

  Alexis’s trembling deepened. “I was out for a run. Am out for a run. You need to stop following me like this, Hunter.”

  “I’ll do what I have to do to make sure you’re safe.”

  Audrey stepped in front of Alexis, pushing the girl behind her. “Safety is not what you’re doing right now, Hunter. You’re being reckless. You just endangered four women, and you need to knock it off.”

  Hunter’s mouth stretched slowly into a smile that was colder than winter. “Or you’ll do what, exactly?” he asked.

  “Turn you in to the cops for one,” Audrey replied. “Get a restraining order against you for two. How does that sound?”

  “You’re not a teacher anymore. You can’t do anything.”

  The budding branches of the trees overhead scraped together as if in agreement. Audrey’s blood heated.

  “Do not tell me what I can and can’t do, Hunter. If I see you around Alexis again, you are going to be in deep trouble. Do you understand me?”

  Hunter scoffed. “Trouble. Very funny coming from a motorcycle model.” He turned his eyes back on Alexis.

  “I love you, baby. I’ll see you soon.”

  Alexis shook her head, her dark ponytail swaying. “If you keep doing this, I don’t know if I can stay with you.”

  Audrey saw Hunter’s knuckles turn white around the steering wheel. “Please don’t say those kinds of things.”

  “She has every right to stand up for herself,” Audrey said, “and a breakup will be the least of your problems if you keep this crap up.”

  He glared at Audrey. “Whatever,” he said, starting to roll up his window. “I’ll text you soon, Alexis.”

  Audrey had just enough time to push Alexis a few feet back before the car tires squealed, fishtailing dangerously close as he sped away.

  The silence on the road was deafening after the car’s rumble was gone. Twigs snapped and grass rustled as Caitlin and Sonja came bursting out of the trees next to the blacktop. “Oh my God, why is Hunter being such a creeper?” Caitlin asked, her twin braids sporting thistles and bits of leaves. She stared at Alexis, then Audrey.

  “Is he following you?” Sonja asked.

  “He wanted to make sure Alexis was okay,” Audrey said, trying to diffuse the girls’ rising panic, “and went about it in an unorthodox way. It’s okay, everyone. We’re all right. We’ve got just a short distance left until the school, and then everything will feel a lot better. So let’s finish this thing, okay?”

  Her limbs were weighted with concern as she jogged, and questions started stockpiling in her mind. Was Hunter stalking Alexis? Did the poor girl feel in danger? Audrey remembered suspecting during their first run together that Alexis had something she wanted to talk about—and wondered suddenly if this was it. Was she looking for a way to get out from under Hunter’s thumb?

  The sky was ribboned in pinks and golds when they got back to the high school. Birds trilled and swooped all around them, and the morning would have been downright breathtaking if their stomachs and minds weren’t churning with anxiety.

  “Did anyone drive down here, or did you all jog down?” Audrey asked as they stretched their quads.

  “I drove with Caitlin,” Sonja replied.

  “Then can you take Alexis home, too?”

  “Sure, but what about you?”

  Audrey smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring way. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. You guys just get home safely.” They all nodded and started toward the parking lot, but at the last minute Audrey grabbed Alexis’s arm.

  “I’m going to drop by to see you at home later. We need to talk.” Audrey spoke the words knowing that visiting Alexis was going to cut into her date with Kieran. But the girl looked terrified. She was pale enough to pass out.

  Alexis nodded. “I’m sorry about this. I wanted to tell you before, I just didn’t know how.”

  “It’s all right,” Audrey replied. “No need to apologize. Whatever is happening is not going on because you did something wrong.”

  “It’s just that he texts me all the time. He says he’s trying to help me. But I’m getting scared.”

  Audrey gave the girl a quick hug. “We’ll get it sorted out. Just lay low and don’t talk to Hunter if you can help it. Does your mom know any of this?”

  Alexis’s panicked eyes flew to meet Audrey’s. “No, and you can’t tell her. She’ll be at work this afternoon so it’s fine if we talk, but I’m not supposed to even be dating boys, much less seeing someone seriously. Hunter and I have been together for three months now. At first, I thought he was so mysterious and I loved that—I loved him. But now, he’s just, he’s changed, and I can’t—”

  Alexis’s words were lost in a dry sob. Audrey’s heart erupted with pity. She put a comforting arm around the girl. “We’ll get it worked out. If you have to go anywhere today, try and go with other people, not by yourself. Promise me you’ll do that, okay?”

  Alexis nodded, and Audrey gave the girl’s shoulder a final squeeze. “I’ll see you this afternoon,” she said, making sure Alexis got in the car safely with Caitlin and Sonja.

  When they’d driven off, Audrey began her jog home, her mind and body both exhausted. All she wanted was a warm shower and to crawl back in bed for a few minutes before meeting Kieran.

  If Alexis was in danger, she had to help the girl. But her brain was so foggy she could hardly think about how. She blinked and pushed on—then told herself it was exhaustion that was causing her to think she saw Hunter’s Dodge disappearing around the corner ahead of her.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The thunder of Kieran’s Harley-Davidson echoed up and down Audrey’s street, shattering the Sunday silence. He almost felt badly for the roar of his engine, the way it rattled windows and door frames, except it was the only thing keeping the sharp barbs of truth from piercing his thoughts.

  He was going to have to explain the past to Audrey.

  He was going to have to come clean and pray she’d have him anyway.

  He was going to have to gamble—one final time—and hope his horrible hand could still net him a win.

  He cut the engine. The silence was deafening until the squawk of blue jays in a nearby tree pierced the air. Their blue-and-white wings darted against the bright midday sky. The sun was warm on his black leather jacket. He lifted the helmet from his head and breathed in White Pine’s clean air. In front of him, Audrey’s squat brick house was trim and neat. Bright tulips dotted a small landscaped bed off the front steps.

  It looked the same as i
t did the last time he was here.

  He braced himself against the realization that last time he was in that house, he had been in Audrey’s bed. Pictures flashed in his brain in high resolution, as if it had been minutes ago, not five years. Her glossy chestnut hair cascading across the pillows. Her limbs twining with his, leaving her scent everywhere on his body. The delicate spray of freckles across her skin had reminded him of brown sugar, and he’d run his tongue across them, tasting sweetness.

  He’d thought they’d been starting something. Until he’d taken Casey’s money and ended whatever it was that had just been beginning.

  His hands tightened around his helmet. There was no getting around the fact that he was going to have to tell her the truth. About his past. About Casey. About the reason for the way he’d left her.

  And he would tell her. He would.

  Just not right now.

  This afternoon, he was going to let them have some time together—the one luxury they hadn’t been able to afford, because he’d robbed them of it. But he would give it back to them now. He couldn’t scale much when it came to the mountain of mistakes he’d made, but today he could climb a few steps. He could hold out his palm and offer a handful of coins against the enormous debt he owed them both.

  He could give them the scraps of one unencumbered afternoon. A date, even though Audrey said she didn’t want one.

  She might not want one, but she certainly deserved one.

  He glanced down and noticed his hands were shaking slightly. An obvious tell. He closed his eyes, drawing in a slow, steadying breath. When all of him was still—save for his hammering heart—he walked the short distance to the front door, and rang the bell.

  * * *

  Audrey had watched Kieran from the kitchen. Past the living room she could see out the plate-glass window to the edge of the front walk where he was just—standing. Even at a distance she could tell he was studying her house like it was a series of pieces he was trying to fit together, and not a solid structure already in existence.

  She leaned against a wall to watch him, wondering what he was thinking. Without his helmet on, his rugged face was exposed to the sun. Her breath paused as the light hit his strong jaw, illuminating the stubble there. The cleft in his chin was a divot of perfection; his green eyes were glinting like pale ocean waves. No, not the ocean, she realized—the sea. They were the color of the water when light hit the backs of waves that rolled onto white sands. She could see it in her mind, even though she’d never experienced anything so exotic in real life.