Kiss Me Now: A Romantic Comedy

by Melanie Jacobson

  I cleared my throat to break the loaded silence that had fallen between us. “So you’re saying stalking mushrooms in the woods with a relative stranger isn’t even the weirdest thing you’ve done.”

  “Not by a long shot. But ‘relative stranger’? I’m not sure that’s accurate.” He leaned against the trunk beside me, resting his forearms on the mossy bark, and glanced over at me with a smile. His voice was low and warm, and the tone was so inviting that I knew I needed to change the subject.

  “What kind of cases do you normally work in DC?” I asked, turning to the screen again.

  “All the ones you’d expect. We’re in charge of a lot of oppo research.”

  I grimaced down at the phone. “Oppo” was meant to tank political campaigns or torpedo deals.

  “What’s that face?” he asked.

  “Nothing.” My cheeks warmed at being caught.

  “Something. Tell me.” He nudged me with his shoulder, an invitation to meet his eyes. It was a terrible idea, but I turned my head and did it anyway.

  “You don’t approve of airing dirty laundry?” he asked. “Maybe people shouldn’t do bad things so they don’t ever have to worry about them coming to light.”

  I felt weirdly vulnerable, staring into his eyes with him barely a foot away from me. I pretended to dust something from the cuff of my shorts as an excuse to break the connection. “No, I get that. I even agree. But it grinds you down after a while.”

  “Is that why you left DC?”

  How much did he know about why I left? It was hard to say. It sounded like he was thorough at his job, and when he’d been looking into me, he may have found enough clues to form a picture. But I doubted it was an accurate one.

  I picked my words carefully. “I left because after spending all that time in the metaphorical dirt, it’s refreshing to only deal with the literal kind.” I held up my fingers speckled with dark soil.

  “Maybe our work isn’t so different,” he said, crouching to pluck one of the beefsteak polypores from the bag at his feet. “We’re both hunting parasites.”

  I stared at the dull red mushroom in his palm, then met his eyes. “No, Ian. I think it’s important to remember that you and I are as different as we can be.” It was extremely important for me to remember that. Ian might be fun in the short-term, but when I did get school under control and had the time and energy to consider dating, I’d be thinking long-term. There was no long-term for us, not with him rooted so deeply in DC.

  “Are we that different though? Maybe we should build on what we have in common.”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  He straightened and stood in front of me, his thighs brushing against my knees. “Like how I like science too. But I’m more into chemistry.”

  I blinked at him. “I want to make fun of you for that incredibly cheesy line.”

  “But you won’t?”

  My breath felt shallow. “No. I may have had the same thought a time or two. And because I’m curious about where you’re going with it.”

  “I was thinking right here.” He reached out and brushed a finger across my bottom lip, a feather-light touch.

  It was sexy. Dang, Ian. “That seems like a good place to go.” It was a bad idea. Such a bad idea.

  His eyes darkened. “Does it?”

  I swallowed. “Yeah.” No. But not a single one of my molecules wanted to move.

  He stepped between my knees and my hand snaked out to grab the front of his shirt, gathering it in my fist and pulling him closer.

  “What happens next, science expert?” he asked, his voice low and a little rough.

  “You shut up and kiss me now.”

  He closed the short distance between us, his lips meeting mine, soft at first, but a wave of need swept over me out of nowhere, and I let go of his shirt with a slight gasp and started to pull away, shocked by the feeling.

  He watched me, his eyes heavy and dark, waiting to see what I would do next. I should jump down from the trunk and take myself home. Instead, I slid my arms around his neck. He drew me close and kissed me again, and I had the sensation of melting as I returned it. This time when he drew away for the tiniest second, I protested, but his mouth covered mine again, his lips warm and sure as they nudged mine apart to explore.

  Every rational thought disappeared as I wrapped my leg around his waist and his hand slipped beneath my knee like he wanted to keep me there. I pulled him against me tighter, kissing him back with the same boldness.

  The woods grew quiet except for the sound of blood rushing in my ears and a few soft appreciative sounds from Ian. I protested again when he pulled away slightly, but it was only to press kisses along my jaw, and I let go of him, leaning back on my hands to give him better access to my neck.

  “I had no idea,” he said quietly before pressing a soft kiss to the hollow of my throat. He tugged lightly at the neckline of my shirt so he could trail kisses along my shoulder.

  “No idea...?” I couldn’t focus.

  “No idea that you would taste this good.” More kisses. “Feel this good.” He slid his other hand beneath my other knee and pulled lightly, sliding me even closer. But as much as I wanted to surrender to him, the soft scrape of the trunk against the back of my thighs brought me to my senses.

  This was...no. This was not the right time, and it was definitely the wrong guy.

  “Wait,” I said, straightening and pressing against his chest. He stepped back immediately.

  “You okay?” His eyes and voice were concerned.

  “No. I mean, yes. I’m fine. I...this isn’t a good idea, that’s all.” I slid down from the trunk.

  “Did I do something wrong?” Now he sounded confused. I got it. I was confused too.

  “Nothing. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just that...” That I have never had the sensation of wanting to drown in someone, and I’m a little freaked out. “That’s not what I brought you out here for. I think...” I looked around, disoriented, until I caught sight of my tote. “We should get back to biology. Meaning mushrooms!” I hurried to add when I saw the glint in his eye.

  And I scooped up the bag and almost sprinted for the trail, not even checking to see if he was following.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Ian

  Brooke shut down again. I could almost feel it like a physical sensation, a wall going up between us. Kissing her had felt like the one time I’d gone skydiving, but now it was as if that jump had ended in a crash landing.

  The blood still surged in my temples, and I took a deep breath to settle my body down as I followed behind her on the trail. “Should we talk about that?”

  “No.” She crouched by a stump to examine it for mushrooms. “We definitely aren’t going to talk about that.”

  “Got it.” I could use some time to process the fact that I’d just made out with Gran’s hot neighbor in the woods, and she had blown my mind. I picked my words carefully. I didn’t want to make her feel like she had to retreat even more. “Change of subject. You grew up near DC?”

  “Yeah. Virginia suburb. You?”

  “Not really. Baltimore.”

  She looked up at me. “Baltimore is almost as close to DC as McClean is.”

  “Yeah, but it’s more its own city than a lot of suburbs are.”

  “I feel like I should defend McClean against that slander, but it’s true, to be honest. The whole point of McClean is for everyone who works in DC to have a fancy zip code. Even PTA races are about social climbing and networking. Baltimore isn’t like that?”

  “No. My parents are both ambitious, but it’s not really about politics. My mom teaches at Johns Hopkins, my dad is a vice-president at an electronics company, and I’m the only one who even ended up in DC.”

  “But you are in DC. You didn’t escape the vortex. It eats up everything around it.”

  “Not true. We even have our own baseball team. That’s how you know it’s a real city and not a suburb.”

  She snorted.
“Tell that to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.”

  I picked up a stick and pointed it at her like a sword. “I will duel for Baltimore’s honor.”

  She grinned and pushed the stick aside. “If you love it so much, why don’t you move there?” She said it in a schoolyard taunt voice, but I answered her seriously.

  “I guess I feel needed in DC.”

  “I had you pegged for a cynic, not an idealist.”

  “Someone has to take out the trash.”

  “Is that what it feels like you’re doing?”

  I shrugged and sat on the fallen log she was peeling mushrooms from. “On a good day.”

  “And on a bad one?”

  I sighed. “On a bad one, I remember coming to the capital for field trips in grade school and thinking we live in the best country on Earth. I wanted to be part of things. Work in the important buildings. Maybe work for the FBI catching bad guys. Or give important speeches or something. And it’s depressing to realize there are so many of the bad guys. A lot of them pretending to be the good guys.”

  She gave a small smile. “I miss Capitol field trips. Wandering through the Smithsonian when you’re a kid and being too dumb to appreciate the history but stoked to get out of school. I always liked that I got to buy lunch in the museum cafeteria, and I could spend the money on chips.”

  “Let me guess, your favorite was the natural history museum?”

  “Bingo.” She tilted her head to study me. “Yours was...the National Portrait Gallery?”

  “For sure. Love me some boring paintings of old dead people.”

  She laughed, and I was glad to feel us slipping back into a comfortable groove. “Okay, what was your actual favorite? Air and Space?”

  “That one was pretty cool, but mine’s the International Spy Museum.”

  “Okay, James Bond.”

  “What do you mean, ‘okay’?”

  “I mean you made that up, or I would have heard of it.”

  “No, it’s real,” I said, laughing. “Google it. It opened when I was in high school.”

  She waved her hand, like, Yeah, right. “If it’s not on Google, you owe me. You can pay up with coffee from Bixby’s every morning next week.”

  “You got it. Too bad I won’t be buying you any coffee.”

  She stared at me with a slightly more serious expression. “Spy museum, huh? I should have guessed that. So why not join the FBI or something?”

  “I meant to,” I confessed. I plucked at the bark on the log. “That’s why I got my law degree. The FBI loves lawyers and accountants. But I guess I got impatient waiting for a chance to do my investigating, and I fell into it at the firm. And now...”

  “Now?” she prompted, looking up from the mushroom she was examining when I didn’t finish my thought.

  But I wasn’t going to, because how was I supposed to say, Now I don’t think they’d want me because I’ve had to skate an ethical line for so long that I’m not sure I haven’t crossed it a few times. I wasn’t going to say that. I could barely make myself think it.

  I pivoted. “And now it’s time for you to tell me how field trips to DC led an aspiring scientist to politics. Was it the field trips that planted the seed so that later you’d think, ‘I can solve this with the law’? What was the arc?”

  “It’s partially that, yeah. They do a good job of making you think you can make a difference when you grow up.”

  “And you did. Why do you think you ended up in politics when a lot of us think the same thing and never do?”

  “I’m driven, I guess. A problem-solver. I saw a problem in the vape regulations that cost me a friend, and I wanted to fix it.”

  “And you did.”

  “And I did.” But she didn’t smile like she was proud of it. “Being driven isn’t great if you’re going the wrong direction.”

  “How is it wrong if you did good in the world?” This was the piece I didn’t understand about her story, and it made less sense to me the better I got to know her. She seemed like someone who would stay and fight, not run.

  She caught her bottom lip between her teeth, and it made me want to do the same thing to it, lean over and kiss her. But I didn’t want to be that guy who didn’t listen, so I glanced up to her eyes instead. For a split second, I caught a flash of vulnerability in them that made me wonder if she would finally tell me the whole story of leaving DC. I wanted to be worthy of her secrets. Instead, she sighed. “There’s more than one way to do good in the world. Despite Pantygate, this week has helped me feel more useful and optimistic than I have in a long time. The kids are good eggs.” She stood and held out a hand to pull me to my feet.

  Instead of letting go once I stood, I reached out to take her other hand too.

  “Brooke,” I said, when she kept her gaze on our clasped hands instead of meeting mine. Slowly, she looked up. The forest quieted, and all my senses tuned to her. The light smell of her shampoo tickled my nose over the earthy loam. My own heartbeat sounded loud in my ears. “You can talk to me. I want you to know that. But right this second, I’ve got something more on my mind than talking. If you’re okay with that...”

  I didn’t even know what I would have said next, but it didn’t matter because Brooke took a step toward me and rested her hand lightly against my chest. I didn’t need any more permission than that, and I pulled her against me, finding her lips again, not sure if I was taking or giving a kiss this time. Brooke’s body made me shiver with need everywhere we touched.

  I’d kissed a lot of women, but none had been like this. The heat sprung up between us with the suddenness of a flame finding kindling. I explored her mouth as she threaded her fingers into my hair. I shuddered as it sent sparks down my nerve endings.

  That seemed to break the spell, and she stepped back with a startled, “Oh.”

  I stared at her, now just out of arm’s reach. “Oh.” There was nothing else to say. For me, it was a word of understanding. I’d just found the woman meant to be in my arms. Why had she stepped away? “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, fine.” But her hand fluttered to her hair to smooth it, though I hadn’t kissed her long enough to mess it up. I should fix that. I reached for her again, but she took another step back, and I dropped my hand immediately.

  “You sure?”

  “I...yes. I’m good. But I should...” She waved toward the tote on the ground. “I think that’s enough for my classes on Monday. I should get them home and prepped so they’re ready for class.”

  “Brooke...”

  “I really should get a hori hori,” she said, with the forced brightness of chatter. “That’s what real mushroom foragers use. It’s a knife. For foraging. Mushrooms.”

  A wash of color crept into her cheeks. What should I do here? She was obviously distressed. Would it help more to address it? Or let it go until later? I decided to follow her lead. “There’s a tool for everything, I guess.”

  “Well, not picking out the shells if you mess up cracking eggs.”

  “Fair enough. Invent it and make all the money.”

  “Nah.” She settled her mesh bag into the tote and didn’t protest when I took it from her to carry it myself. “Money is overrated.”

  Her bright tone had faded, and I wondered if she was thinking of whatever had earned her the settlement from Rink. I hated that I had summoned his shadow.

  “I like money,” I said, “but sure, call it names and hurt its feelings. See if it cares.”

  She rewarded me with a half-hearted smile, but it was something. “Race you to the car,” she called, but the last part was over her shoulder as she stole a head start.

  “Cheater,” I said, taking off after her. I let her keep the lead until the last ten yards, then made sure we reached it in a tie.

  “You let me win,” she accused, grinning.

  “No, I let you tie.”

  She gave me a light smack on the arm.

  I caught her fingers, but before I could debate the wisdom of drawing h
er close again, she tugged them loose and darted around to the passenger side.

  “Let me in, big bad wolf,” she demanded.

  I wiggled my eyebrows at her. “What does that make you? Goldilocks?”

  She rolled her eyes. “That’s bears. You need to take my biology class.”

  “Red Riding Hood?”

  “Mmm, closer, but not quite. Snow White,” she announced.

  “There’s no wolf in Snow White.”

  “Sure, there is.” She tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “Remember how she charms all the animals? That’s me and you. I charmed you even though you came back to Creekville thinking you were the one hunting a wolf. I tamed you.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “You better watch yourself. You’re taking a hori hori to my fragile ego.”

  “Oh, your ego can withstand worse than a hori hori. It needs more like a chainsaw to cut it down.”

  “I’m offended.”

  “No, you aren’t. Want to know why? Because I still haven’t made a dent in your ego.”

  I grinned at her and disarmed the car alarm, rounding the car to open the door for her. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking I don’t bite,” I murmured into her ear before she scrambled to safety inside.

  Chapter Twenty

  Brooke

  I acted as normally as I could on the drive home, answering Ian’s questions about the high school and my house projects, but inside it was a pure freak out. I just made out with Ian Greene in the woods.

  It was the most awesome bad idea I’d ever had.

  But it was still such a bad, bad idea.

  Ian insisted on dropping me off even though I told him he was being silly, and I could walk over from Miss Lily’s.

  “Would you like her to actually murder me?” he asked, turning into my driveway.

  “I mean, I don’t not want her to murder you.”

  “Ha. You’ll get your wish if I don’t use my best manners with you.”

  “If you get out of this car to open the door for me, I may find my hori hori.”

  “All right, all right,” he muttered good-naturedly as I climbed out of the car. I waved as he backed out and drove the five seconds to Miss Lily’s driveway, then let myself into the house, collapsing against the door.