Kiss Kiss

by Various Authors

  “You haven’t changed a bit.” She shot back and turned away with a coy flip of her hair. Astonished by her own behavior, Nicole felt giddy; she hadn’t flirted with anyone in years. With Aaron it came naturally, like breathing.

  “Neither have you.” She turned back to see his forest-green eyes looking her up and down from behind his dark lashes. Heat shot through her like lightning. She nervously tried to clear her throat as his mouth twitched with a smirk. His pointed to her White Stripes t-shirt.

  “Still listening to shitty music, I see.”

  Her eyes narrowed, but her lips curled in amusement at his taunt.

  “Not all of us are into lounge lizard crap like you are, Aaron.”

  “Ouch. You’re still so mean.” He held his chest as if she’d shot him, and she bit the inside of her lip.

  “So … Foster’s Farm. Quite an operation you have here.”

  “Yeah, we get by.” He shrugged, but it was obvious he was being modest. The farm was a flurry of activity and crowds of people swarmed the buildings. Lauren had told her that in addition to the trees and pumpkins and other assorted goods, he supplied all the organic herbs and eggs to every restaurant within twenty miles and had many residential customers as well.

  “We get by? So you’re married now?” She smiled in a vain attempt to mask her disappointment. Aaron laughed and shook his head as if she were crazy.

  “No. I’m in business with Mom and Dad. They still own the ‘big house’ and a quarter of the land. The rest is split between us kids. I bought the shack across the way.” He nodded in the direction of the old cottage where they had spent many nights as kids. ‘The party shack’ had been a mecca of cheap wine and bad beer. It brought a smile to her face imagining him living there. The fact that he was still single was particularly interesting, and she filed that bit of information away.

  “I bet you were able to pay for a remodel by cashing in all the bottles you found inside,” she joked, and he grinned appreciatively.

  “Want a tour?” He took one of her baskets, as if it weighed nothing. His intense gaze sent more tingling through her. She blushed and he seemed to notice, cocking an eyebrow.

  “I -I would love one. But I need a few minutes. I’m on the hunt for décor for Stone Valley. Avery has me decorating for the holidays.”

  “So it’s true. You’re back to stay?” His voice was casual. She nodded.

  “I bought the loft across from The Old Mill.”

  “Oh yeah? Great bones in that place.” He leaned in to take the other basket from her. For a moment, he was so close she could smell his musky cologne. The scent and his nearness made her feel like a caged animal. She realized she was holding her breath and exhaled a little too loudly, thankful for the noise from the other shoppers.

  “You should come by and see what I’ve done with it.” The words were out of her mouth before she had formed the thought.

  “It’s a date.” His tone was innocent enough, but she could see one of his dimples appear. In school, she’d given him a hard time about his dimples being a ‘tell’ and insisted he never gamble.

  “I’ll take these to the cashier. Finish shopping and I’ll find you.” He disappeared into the crowd. Nicole stood watching after him for a moment.

  “What just happened?” she muttered to herself. As she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, she realized her hand was shaking.

  “What the heck happened at the dinner party?” Lauren asked Avery as they leaned against the wooden fence. “I can’t stand the tension for one more second, so spill it.”

  “My family thinks I’m an old maid.” Avery continued to stare straight ahead at the kids petting the goats. “Well, Angela does.”

  “That’s ridiculous. Angela is such a cow. It’s so worth holding out for the right guy.” Lauren tossed some food pellets to the animals.

  “True. But you had to wait, what … four years to meet your Prince Charming?” Avery tossed her a sideways glance.

  “Avery … we both know you could have any guy you want in this town. If you don’t want any of them, maybe it’s time you expanded your search.” Lauren turned to look her in the face. Avery stopped feeding the animals and looked at her friend.

  “I think Jason’s poisoned me against men for a while. I want the whole package, but I’m not going to settle.”

  “Then don’t. But the only reason you would be this pissed is if you believed there was a grain of truth to what Angela said.”

  Avery thought about this for a bit as Lauren chased the kids who were running after a crazy-eyed goat. She wasn’t old, but she was at an age where her peers were having kids and she was beginning to feel left out. When she thought of dating again, it made her cringe. Going through the whole ritual of courting seemed tiresome. Yet, as she watched the three little towheads running around, she felt overwhelmed with envy.

  Ashamed for feeling vulnerable, she squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. She was a proud woman and thrived on challenges. Workaholic or not, if anyone could have their cake and eat it too, it was Avery Harper. Step one was to stay away from losers like Jason Gates.

  Remembering she was on Ike patrol, she jumped the fence and joined Lauren in the task of corralling the children.

  When Lauren and Avery finally rejoined Nicole, she was paying for her items.

  “Okay. We’ve done the petting zoo and picked out pumpkins, but Ike wants Mommy for the corn maze and the hayrack ride,” Avery informed her. She spotted Aaron as he approached them.

  “Hey. Are you taking us on a hayride or what, Old McDonald?” she asked Aaron, as if he had been a part of the entire conversation.

  “That can be arranged.” He gave Nicole a sideways glance that was almost undetectable.

  “Good. Nothing less than the best for Mr. Ike.” Avery picked up Ike who immediately reached out for Nicole. Avery watched Aaron look Ike over with amusement. His expression suddenly changed as if he’d been stung. His smile vanished and his eyes darted away. She realized she was witnessing the moment he recognized Ike’s startling resemblance to Ryan.

  As they approached the hayrack, Ike’s eyes lit up.

  “Train!” he exclaimed, causing Nicole to giggle.

  “No, honey. Tractor,” she explained. He repeated her and stuck his thumb in his mouth. They all climbed aboard. Nicole sat toward the front with Ike. They tooled around the massive farm and the kids shrieked as they saw various scarecrows and other Halloween paraphernalia. Throughout the ride, Aaron and Nicole continued to steal glances at each other. At first Avery thought she imagined it, but after about the third time, Lauren turned to her with a bemused look on her face.

  “What the shit?” Lauren started and after a dirty look from her daughter, continued, “What the heck was that?”

  “What?” Avery asked, already knowing the answer.

  “Them,” Lauren whispered, nodding her head in Nicole’s direction. Avery shrugged, but continued to observe them closely.

  The hayride long over and the corn maze behind them, it was time to pack the kids up and head home. Avery had expected to take Ike with her since Nicole had a car full of items for the clubhouse. This had been the plan from the beginning, but now she felt slightly leery about leaving Nicole to her own devices. It was silly, she told herself. It’s not like they were kids anymore. Aaron wasn’t going to roofie her apple cider. Yet there was the part of her that couldn’t see past the fact that Nicole was Ryan’s wife. Lauren honked at her and waved her hand bossily and she pulled out onto the road on impulse.

  “I guess you’re on your own, Nic,” she murmured as she took off down the road. A minute later her cell phone rang. It was Lauren.

  “Wow. Are you as weirded out as I am?” she asked.

  “I thought it was just me.” She looked in the rearview mirror at her brother’s little clone, whose eyelids were drooping.

  “It’s unexpected, but if you ask me, it works,” Lauren stated and then honked her horn. “Ugh! Stupid deer! I’m h
anging up now.”

  Avery hung up and tossed her phone in her purse. After brooding over the perception that Nicole was moving on with her life, her thoughts turned to how she wasn’t moving forward with hers and she decided that her sister was onto something. It was time to stop worrying about everyone and everything else, and time to focus on her own life.

  Aaron headed for Nicole, who was carefully arranging the last of her purchases in her Jeep.

  “Still want that tour?” Though he’d heard she was back in town, it was a jolt to spot her at the farm. Aaron recognized her from 50 feet away. Her hair had always reminded him of sweet honey butter and he would have been able to pick that body out of a line up. She turned to him and fixed him with her gorgeous gaze.

  “Sure.” Her full lips curved in a soft smile. He realized he was staring into her fascinating eyes and grasped for something to say.

  “Ike looks so much like Ryan,” Aaron blurted, immediately embarrassed by the loaded comment. Nicole glanced at the ground, then back at him.

  “Yes, he does.”

  Aaron cleared his throat, trying to remove the frog that threatened to choke him. He tried not to think about the way they’d left things. The way he’d been frozen out by Ryan, and by her.

  “Where would you like to start?”

  “I want the VIP tour. I would love to see what you’ve done with the shack.”

  Aaron nodded and her smile broke through the wall he’d actively tried to build between them. As they crossed the road toward his home, they made small talk along the way about his business. He found that all of Nicole’s flatteries made him feel surprisingly proud of what he’d accomplished. He’d often doubted his choice to return to Jefferson Point after earning his degree in business. He’d abandoned a successful career at a Fortune 500 company in St. Louis to come home and help when his parents were in danger of losing the family farm. In retrospect, the change had been good for him, and he was happy his business plans played a role in his family’s reinvigorated success.

  “Wow, this place looks completely different.”

  As they approached the cottage, he tried to remember what it looked like before he’d made the transformation. He’d taken their old drinking shack and remodeled it to be a quaint three-bedroom home. His German Shepherd greeted them at the door.

  “Castle, heel. Don’t worry, she won’t bite you.”

  “Hi, gorgeous.” Nicole knelt down to pet his dog, who accepted the attention enthusiastically. Aaron was floored. Castle usually growled at guests for a bit before deciding they could stay. The dog trotted off and plopped onto her mat by the fireplace. He ushered Nic inside and followed her as she wandered from room to room. Nicole proceeded into his kitchen, gushing about the backsplash and appreciating his choice in cupboards.

  “You’re such a girl,” he teased as she cooed about the window treatments. She narrowed her eyes at him and flashed him a mischievous smile.

  “I’m impressed. Ha! That’s where Avery puked her guts out!” She pointed to the floor in the corner of his dining room.

  “Thanks for the memories. I have to eat here.”

  After admiring the guestrooms, she turned the corner and went into his bedroom. Aaron grew increasingly warm and busied himself with the firewood by the mantle as an excuse to avoid going into the bedroom with her. He couldn’t help but think about the weekend he’d stayed with her in Chicago before she and Ryan got engaged. They’d been alone for days—Ryan was in med school and couldn’t get away. She was attending art school at the time, and he’d never seen her happier. She had dragged him to see one of her bands that, naturally, he’d never heard of. They’d partied a lot that night. Inebriated, Aaron had kissed Nicole. Things had gotten very heated and would have ended very differently if Nicole hadn’t put on the brakes. Two weeks later, Ryan told him he was proposing and asked him to be the best man. Six months later, they were married. He and Nicole had never spoken about the incident.

  She reappeared and her glowing face yanked him back to the present.

  “It’s stunning! Did you decorate this yourself?”

  “I had a little help.” Aaron shrugged. His thoughts immediately flipped to his girlfriend, Joy La Rue. She was an outgoing blonde he’d met in the city at a hair salon. He went in for a haircut and came out with her number. She was very bubbly and very generous in bed. After four sex-crazed months, Aaron didn’t know if things with her were going anywhere, but he did enjoy her company.

  “So there is a woman in your life...” She raised her eyebrow at him in a probing manner, and Aaron was about to respond when Nicole gasped loudly.

  “Oh…my God.”

  He turned to see what caused her reaction and saw her holding a picture from his desk.

  “Prom night! Ugh, I look hideous!” Nicole laughed. The picture was of Ryan, Nicole, Aaron, and his date. “She was that foreign exchange student from Norway. What was her name again?”

  “Anastasia Lundgren.” Aaron walked over to her side.

  “Yes! How do you keep track of them all, Aaron? A not-so-little black book?” Her playful dig was salt in an open wound. He was struck speechless.

  “We had a good time, didn’t we?” Nicole murmured and seemed immersed in her memories. Aaron vividly recalled Ryan bragging that he’d taken Nic’s virginity that night.

  “Some of us more than others…” Aaron eyed the picture studiously and tried not to smirk. Nicole shot him a look of understanding and with mock anger, slapped him on the arm. He feigned being wounded and she laughed that throaty laugh of hers that had always slayed him. He broke out in goose bumps. Whenever Nicole was down on herself, he’d fallen all over himself to make her laugh. She shook her golden locks and sighed. Putting the picture back on his desk, she looked around the cottage once more.

  “I should go. Ike is probably torturing Avery as we speak.”

  “Okay,” Aaron kept his voice neutral. Now that she was here the last thing he wanted was for her to walk out the door.

  “I really like what you’ve done here. The cottage, the farm … you’re amazing.” She took him by surprise with a friendly hug. He had an internal battle about what to do with his hands, knowing his instincts weren’t appropriate.

  “Thanks.” Temptation gripped him and he had the overwhelming urge to wrap his arms around her and taste her lips. He thought of Ryan and suddenly felt like a grave robber, which doused him like a shower of ice water.

  With Castle tagging along, he walked her back to her fire-engine-red Jeep and thought how well it suited her. He couldn’t help but ogle at her as she climbed in and rolled down her window.

  “Thanks for the tour. Come by soon and I’ll return the favor.”

  “We’re having a pumpkin carving contest Halloween weekend. You should bring Ike.” Aaron instantly felt ridiculous.

  “Ike … with a knife. Hmm…” Nicole shot back a joking smile. They locked eyes for a moment, and Aaron felt tongue-tied. She had reduced him to a nervous schoolboy without a word. Nicole turned away, pushing her hair behind her ears. She started the Jeep and her radio blared, playing a noisy Nicole-style tune.

  “I’ll see you soon,” she called over the music.

  Aaron nodded and moved away from the Jeep whistling for Castle. Nicole backed out and waved to him. He waved back and stood with his dog at his side, watching her go. For a moment, an intense and familiar sadness overcame him.

  As Avery pulled her car into her garage, she glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Ike was sound asleep. Gently, she removed Ike from his car seat and placed him on the couch. She hoped he wouldn’t wake; the kid needed a nap after all the running around. Seeing he was still zonked, she pulled her phone out from her purse to text Nicole. Much to her annoyance, she was greeted with notification of another missed phone call from Jason and a recent text message from him. Fighting herself and losing, she read the text message.

  Jason: Ignoring me? Call if you’re lonely.

  Making a disgusted face,
she deleted it and threw her phone back in her purse.

  “Creeper. I should change my number,” she thought aloud. She watched Ike sleep and was struck again by how much he resembled Ryan. She had the urge to wake him up so she could play with him.

  Forty minutes later when Ike woke of his own accord, she regretted that thought.

  “Cookie. Cookie!” Ike grumbled as he trailed behind Avery.

  “I have no cookies, Ike. How about a cracker?” Avery handed him one.

  “No. Cookie!” Ike yelled again and violently tossed the cracker to the floor. Avery sighed.

  “I hear my cookie monster.” Nicole entered the house. Avery wanted to kiss her.

  “Mommy!” Ike exclaimed, running to Nicole. She swooped him up and hugged him tightly.

  “Cookie!” he exclaimed dramatically. Nic pulled a cookie from her purse as if by magic. Ike snatched it and ran back to the television.

  “How’s Aaron?” The words were out before Avery could stop herself.

  “Successful and happy, evidently.” Nicole shrugged and Avery thought she looked disappointed.

  “So are you going to tell me your theory about Ryan and Aaron’s falling out?”

  Nicole looked at her tiredly and Avery sighed.

  “Fine. But this is the last time you get a pass. I want to hear all about this at the fish fry next weekend or I’ll ask him myself.”

  “Done.” Nicole promised. Avery intended to hold her to it.

  When Avery returned to work on Monday, she was delighted to see Nicole had finished decorating for fall. The results surpassed her expectations. Nic had managed to play off the natural stone and earthy woods of the building, while keeping the elegance the country club demanded. As she proceeded with her workweek, compliments poured in. Golfers, diners, and people holding meetings at the club raved to the staff and it all trickled back to Avery. Touring brides requested her number, in hopes that she would decorate for their events. She’d given out Nicole’s name and contact information several times by Thursday. Somehow the local paper had gotten wind of the entire situation and had come out to take photographs. She emailed Nicole about the response to her work. Nic replied that she was thrilled and that the paper was interviewing her.