Kissing Kendall

by Jennifer Shirk

  Hell, if he couldn’t touch, the least he could do was look.

  “Hey, Brad,” she said in greeting. She slung the hammer over her shoulder and cocked her head. “Did you stop by to say hello, or are you here to cuff me?”

  Cuff her? That image brought him up short.

  He swallowed hard. Oh, yeah, he thought, allowing his eyes to rake over her slender figure. I sure would like to cuff her and take her—

  The radio on his hip went off and the dispatcher’s voice broke him from his Kendall-induced trance. For the best, he supposed. His imagination could only get him into trouble. He reached down and lowered the volume when he realized the call was already being responded to. Then he looked back up at her, hoping his earlier expression hadn’t revealed his dirty thoughts.

  He managed a weak smile. “Cuff you? Yeah, that’s a good one. I don’t plan to…unless you’re using that hammer for nefarious reasons I don’t know about.”

  She looked at the tool in question and grinned. “No, actually. That table over there has a wobbly leg. I was hoping to hammer it in more securely.”

  “Oh, well, allow me,” he said, holding out a hand and wiggling his fingers at her. She willingly gave up the hammer, then led him over to the upside-down table.

  “Hey, Georgie was sure surprised last weekend.” He grabbed some nails that were set out on the floor. “I hope she had a good time at her shower.”

  “She had a wonderful time. Although I’m not so sure if she had a good time because she got a bunch of great gifts or because she was excited to work on her matchmaking skills again,” she said with a giggle.

  Brad paused, shooting her a dubious glance. “Matchmaking skills? Oh, jeez. She’s at it again, is she? Who’s the chump on her hit list this time?” he asked, swinging back the hammer.

  “Me.”

  At that, the hammer slipped and made direct contact with his thumb.

  “Dammit!” He threw the tool down and began shaking out his hand, clamping down his tongue on every choice word he had ever learned in the boy’s high school locker room.

  Kendall sprang out of her seat and rushed over to him. “Oh, my gosh! Brad, are you okay?” She placed a hand on his back, peering over his shoulder and trying to get a better look. “Are you bleeding? Is it broken? Do you need some ice?”

  He saw stars, and the pain pulsed through his thumb so badly he hoped it would fall off and end his misery, but he waved his good hand in a gesture of dismissal. Taking a deep breath, he quickly assessed his thumb. It was already beginning to bruise, but once he was sure nothing was broken, he turned back to her. “What did you say?” he breathed out between clenched teeth.

  “I asked if you needed some ice. Are you sure it’s—?”

  He shook his head. “No, back up. Before all that. Did you say Georgie is matchmaking…for you?”

  Kendall bit her lip. “Yes.”

  “Pregnancy hormones or not, I can’t believe Georgie would do something like that. Granted, she doesn’t always understand boundaries, but this is beyond presumptuous. Do you need me to talk to her for you? Because one word from me and she’ll back off in a second.”

  “No, that’s okay.” She gave a light laugh, shaking her head and sending her ponytail swinging from side to side. “You don’t need to do that. I… Actually, I’m okay with it.”

  He blinked, the pain in his thumb completely forgotten. “You are?”

  She shrugged. “At first I was a little leery, but eventually Georgie convinced me that it was about time for me to move on with my life. And then when she went on and on to Dee and me about how successful she was in fixing you up, well…I figured, why not?”

  Why not?

  Why not?!

  He could give her more than a couple of good reasons why not.

  Brad couldn’t believe it. Kendall was actually ready to start dating again, was moving on with her life. Finally. Part of him was elated, wanting to break out in a hallelujah chorus, and another, fiercer part of him was ready to strangle his sister. Leave it to Georgie. Even when she wasn’t trying to butt into his love life, she managed to butt into his love life.

  He let a few beats pass as he collected himself, then finally spoke. “Georgie convinced you it was time, huh? So tell me, who exactly did she set you up with?”

  “Your friend Rick.”

  He clamped his lips together. Correction, that’s ex-friend Rick.

  Kendall seemed to date a lot of his friends. First Jake, and now Rick. Jeez, with friends like them, who needed enemies?

  But he smiled and folded his hands in front of him, hoping to mask the inner turmoil waging through him with deceptive calmness. “Well, that’s just…great.”

  “I’m glad you think so. We’re actually going out tonight.” She gave a shaky laugh. “I have to admit I’m a little worked up about it.”

  Worked up. Yeah, that made two of them.

  “I bought a new outfit,” she went on. “A cute little tunic with white leggings. Georgie thinks I should go with something sexier, but I don’t think I’m really the sexy type.” She blushed, not quite meeting his eyes. “What do you think?”

  He thought that if he weren’t on duty, he’d like to down a fifth of scotch. As it was, he was already drowning in his desire to demonstrate how sexy he found her in just jeans and a tank top.

  “Don’t listen to Georgie,” he said tersely. “What you bought sounds fine.”

  “Then there’s the whole issue of the good-night kiss…”

  Brad ran his good hand through his hair and turned away. He drew the line at discussing good-night kisses with her. He wasn’t in the mood for Kendall’s baked goods anymore, either. And if he wasn’t there to eat or to talk, there was no point in staying any longer.

  He picked up the hammer from where he had flung it across the floor and handed it to her. “I better get back on duty now. Sorry I wasn’t much help with that table.”

  Kendall’s smile faltered a bit. “Are you sure you can move your hand?”

  “It’s fine,” he murmured. And that much was true.

  His hand was fine, or, at the very least, would heal. His heart… Well, that was another matter altogether. He supposed he couldn’t expect her to stay single forever, but…Rick? Seriously?

  She looked up at him, her expression so lively, so beautiful, he actually started to feel happy for her. It was so good to see her moving out of the depression she’d been in. She deserved to be happy. Heck, Georgie probably did him a favor by setting Kendall up. This way he wouldn’t have to spend another precious second pining away for her. He could move on, too. And his heart would be fine.

  Now all he had to do was believe that and he really would be fine.

  “Thanks for stopping by,” she went on, brushing aside his thoughts. “If you see Georgie today, tell her thanks again.”

  The corner of his mouth twisted as he walked over to the door. “Oh, I’ll make sure to thank her,” he promised darkly. “Don’t you worry.”

  …

  Rick’s car slowly made its way along the curb and finally settled in front of her house, and Kendall nervously clutched her handbag, debating whether to invite Rick in or not. It’s not that she didn’t have a good time with him at dinner, but she didn’t want to rush things, either. They were still in the getting-to-know-each-other phase and she didn’t want to give him the impression that she was more interested than she was. Which, unfortunately, the more she thought about it, she wasn’t.

  That settled it. No invite.

  As soon as Rick put the car in park and turned to her, she took a deep breath, ready to politely end their date. “What in the world?” she cried instead, raising her hand to shield the glare of bright headlights coming up from behind.

  Rick squinted in his rearview mirror and shook his head. “I don’t believe this,” he muttered in frustration. “That’s Brad’s truck behind us.”

  “It is?” She turned around to look just as the lights of the truck shut off. Sure
enough, two seconds later Brad got out of his truck, slammed the door behind him, and began walking over to them.

  “This better be good,” Rick murmured, getting out of the car.

  Her heart began to race as she scrambled to get her seat belt off and jumped out of the car. What was Brad doing at her house at ten o’clock at night? She had told him she’d be on a date tonight. Was there an emergency? Was everything okay with Georgie and the baby?

  Brad stopped in the middle of the street, offering them both a pleasant smile. “Hey, guys. Lovely night.”

  “Oh my gosh, is Georgie okay?” Kendall blurted. “She didn’t go into labor, did she?”

  Brad’s face registered surprise, then he frowned. “No, I’m sorry—I didn’t mean to scare you by coming here so late. Georgie is fine.”

  “Then what are you doing here?” Rick demanded, folding his arms.

  Brad held up some rolled papers he had in his hand and shrugged. “Can’t tell you,” he said in a staged whisper. “It’s official, top-secret bakery business between Kendall and me.”

  Kendall glanced at her watch, even though she knew exactly what time it was. “Bakery business? Now?”

  Brad looked at her blankly. “Yeah. Why, am I interrupting something?”

  “Remember?” she said, jamming her fists on her hips. “I told you that Rick and I were going on a date tonight.”

  “That was tonight?” Brad pursed his lips together, looking as if he smelled old gym socks. “Hmm, wow, sorry again. But I’m sure you two were about done here anyway, right?” He met her gaze then, his expression turning serious and direct. “Do you really want me to go?”

  Kendall bit her lip, giving Rick a sidelong glance. As wrong as she felt Brad was for coming by and interrupting her date, she was actually a little thankful too. The awkwardness of saying good night to Rick wouldn’t be such an issue now.

  She looked up at Rick. “Well, I suppose our date is over…”

  Rick glared at Brad, then let out a defeated sigh. “Yeah, it is. Now, anyway.” He leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for a good time tonight, Kendall,” he whispered in her ear. “I’ll call you later.”

  She nodded, even though she wasn’t so sure she wanted him calling her later—or ever—but she’d explain that to him when he called. Now wasn’t the time.

  Rick gazed at her a long moment, then stroked a finger down her cheek. His touch sparked no reaction in her, confirming her initial thoughts about not going out with him again. She stifled a sigh. He was good-looking and nice and safe. Why, oh, why couldn’t she be even just a little bit attracted to him?

  He gave her one last smile, then, without saying good-bye to Brad, jumped back in his car and left.

  Kendall turned all her frustration at herself onto Brad, who stood there with wide eyes and exaggerated innocence. The Boy Scout routine did not look good on him. She folded her arms, giving him a disapproving look. “So you forgot I had a date with Rick tonight?”

  He shrugged. “What? It could happen. I’ve had a lot on my mind lately.”

  “Wow, you’re right. I can’t imagine shoving another single thought in a head as cramped as yours.”

  They stared each other down for almost a minute before Brad flung his hands up in the air. “All right, I didn’t forget. So sue me! I wanted to stop by and make sure you were okay. You may not know this, but Rick happens to date a lot of women. A lot of women. And you…I mean, no offense, but you’re a little out of practice in the dating department.”

  “Out of practice?” Oh, if that wasn’t a proverbial slap in the face, she didn’t know what was. Brad thought she was clueless—which was ridiculous. She didn’t know what had gotten into him, but he was actually treating her like…like…Georgie! Well, that was just great. He was treating her like his sister.

  “I don’t know what you were so worried about. What did you think was going to happen, Brad? Rick was a perfect gentleman all night. Something you should know, considering he’s one of your friends,” she said over her shoulder as she stormed up her walkway.

  “Hey, hang on,” Brad called, jogging to catch up with her. “You can’t tell me you actually have a thing for Rick, can you?”

  She stopped and whirled around. “Well, considering my date was interrupted before it was over, I never really got a chance to figure that out.”

  “I didn’t ruin anything,” he huffed. “Your date was over before it’d even begun. You would have known five seconds into meeting him whether there was chemistry or not between you two. So go ahead and have a second date—have a hundred dates for all I care! It won’t matter. You’ll come to the same conclusion I did.”

  Kendall tipped her chin in defiance. “And just what conclusion is that?”

  He flung to the ground the papers he had in his hand and stepped forward, close enough that she could practically feel his temper radiating from his body. “That Rick is not the man for you.”

  Her body tensed at the heat in his voice, but for some reason she continued to challenge him. “Ha, like you would know.”

  “I would know.”

  She glared at him. “What kind of man is for me then?”

  Brad’s gaze darkened and something new and intense flickered between them. He took another step forward. “You deserve a man who’ll take you in his arms.” Then in one forward motion, he pulled her to him and that’s exactly where she was.

  And it felt…heavenly.

  In his embrace, her thoughts all clogged together and she had a tough time even remembering how they had ended up entwined on her front porch in the first place. She looked up and noticed he was watching her intently, maybe judging her reaction to being held so close to him or whether or not he’d proven his point.

  His lips slowly traveled to her ear. “You deserve a man who makes your knees go weak.”

  She swallowed. Weak knees? Check. In fact, her knees were more than weak; they were downright overcooked noodles.

  Her heart pounded an erratic rhythm, but she cleared her throat, pretending not to be affected. “You seem to think you know a lot about what kind of man is right for me.”

  “I do,” he murmured. His lips were so close; they grazed her earlobes and were brushing along her jawbone in light wispy movements. “And I definitely know the right man for you is not the kind of man who’s going to settle for a mere good-night peck on the cheek at the end of your first date.”

  “He’s not?” she whispered, suddenly at a loss for breath.

  Brad’s lips began drawing closer to her mouth. “No, he’s not. Because the man for you has been dreaming about your mouth ever since he first laid eyes on you. So he won’t be able to handle one more second without knowing the feel of your lips beneath his own.”

  Kendall jerked her head back, knowing what he intended to do next. An embrace was one thing; a kiss was something else. She wasn’t sure she was ready for that.

  She met his smoky gaze and a little traitorous flutter of anticipation settled in her stomach. “Brad—”

  Then there was no more anticipation. No more waiting.

  She wasn’t sure who kissed whom first—their lips seemed to have met in one fluid motion—and now she clung to him, kissing him with all the demand his lips had for hers.

  Brad’s hands traveled up and got caught in the waves of her hair, holding her close as he continued to explore every inch of her mouth. The urgency of his lips overwhelmed her. She had never felt so wanted or so thoroughly kissed before in her life, and she gave herself freely to his passion. It had been so long since she’d felt this way. She had no idea what Brad was thinking, but she shocked herself at her own eager response to him.

  Her senses began to reel, and she swayed, falling back. Brad, obviously not wanting to break lip contact, followed her. But when her elbow hit the storm door, Deuce started barking, jarring them both back to reality.

  Their mouths broke apart, but Brad still held her in his arms as they struggled to catch th
eir breath. With each second of awkward panting, a little bit more of her sanity returned.

  What had they done? What had she done? Aside from making out on her front porch like a sixteen-year-old for all her neighbors to see. Her cheeks grew hot and felt ready to melt off her face. She closed her eyes and prayed for a way out of this situation as she heard Brad continuing to gasp for air and her dog barking in the background.

  She twisted in his arms, needing to distance herself, but Brad’s grip grew tighter. He always was a man who didn’t run away from problems. And he obviously wasn’t going to make this easy and let her escape now.

  She stopped struggling. “I should go check on Deuce,” she said, her face still burning in remembrance of what they had just done.

  Brad dipped his head to look her in the eyes. “Kendall…”

  Her stomach twisted. Oh, no. Please. Don’t tell me you’re sorry. Temporary insanity; overworked, underpaid; full moon in retrograde; anything but that he was sorry he had kissed her. She couldn’t deal with his guilt and remorse right now when she had so much of her own.

  “I wish I could say I was sorry,” he finished.

  “I know you’re— Wait.” Her head snapped up and she blinked. “You’re not sorry?”

  Brad reached out and gently cradled her face in his hands. “I am, but I’m not. I’ve wanted this, wanted to kiss you—really kiss you—for so long. Longer than I can remember.”

  “You have?”

  He dropped his hands and nodded gravely. “This isn’t some whim for me. I wanted it. And you obviously wanted it too.”

  She lowered her eyes, suddenly feeling overwhelmed. “I—I can’t think.” Although she had wanted to kiss him, she was still processing that in her mind and how she felt about it.

  “You may not want to hear this right now, but you should know that I’ve had feelings for you for a while. Even when you were with Jake. I’ve tried to ignore them. Then…I don’t know, seeing you with Rick…it just made me crazy and I reacted. But I want you to know, even though it’s not what I planned, I’m not sorry this happened. Not in the least. In fact,” he said, grinning wickedly, “I’d like to do more of it.”