Kissing Lessons (Kissing Creek)

by Stefanie London

  Hell, she didn’t even have a high school diploma. It wasn’t like taking one night class a semester meant anything more than something she needed to stay sane. She learned for her own personal enjoyment, and that was it. Him being her professor meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.

  Rules are rules.

  Deanna looked up at her, brow wrinkled and her blue eyes narrowed in sisterly worry. “Maybe your boss would give you one of those…inceptions?”

  “Exceptions?” Audrey laughed and shook her head. “No, baby, I don’t think that can happen.”

  It flitted across her mind for a brief moment that maybe she could switch classes—then it wouldn’t be as much of an issue, right? But she was 100 percent getting ahead of herself now, because all Ronan had done was show some polite interest in her.

  And look at you with those incredible blue eyes like you’re the only woman in the world.

  Wish fulfillment and maybe a hint of desperation; it wasn’t anything more than that.

  The parking lot was, to put it not so delicately, a shit show. It would take them forever to get onto the road. Thankfully, there was no need to rush tonight, since her dad knew exactly where they were. Baseball was an acceptable reason to be out of the house, and with Deanna in tow, Audrey wasn’t likely to be “whoring around,” as he’d insultingly put it.

  “I think I can see Big Red.” Deanna squinted and pointed ahead of them. “Next to that green truck.”

  “Good eye.” They made their way over but didn’t bother to get in the car. Audrey was happy to avoid going home for as long as possible. Plus, she feared her beloved vehicle was one love tap away from falling apart at the seams. She’d rather give it ten or fifteen before attempting to navigate the traffic.

  She listened to Deanna talk happily without taking a breath until the parking lot was finally clear. Seriously, the girl could keep up a steady stream of words. Audrey would put money on her being able to pass that SEAL test where they have to sit on the bottom of the pool and hold their breath for an eternity, since it was clear that Deanna’s lung capacity was better than most.

  “All right, munchkin. Time to scoot.” She unlocked the front door and dropped into the driver’s seat, reaching over to yank up the lock on the passenger side. “I need to get you home before you turn into a gourd.”

  This little game had started when Audrey had used the accurate quote and Deanna had demanded to know why it was always a pumpkin and not other types of fruits and vegetables. So now, every time she used the phrase, a new word was exchanged at the end.

  “Oh, gourd. That might be my new favorite.” Deanna slid into her seat.

  “Even better than durian?”

  “Possibly, but durian is definitely up there. And rambutan, too.”

  Chuckling, Audrey stuck her keys into the ignition and turned. Big Red made a weak-sounding sputtering noise and failed to turn over. Ugh. The old gal was struggling these days, and she’d made the kids late to school once this week already. Audrey really needed to get the car fixed, but her schedule had been fuller than normal, with extra shifts at Kisspresso to cover a coworker’s vacation. She’d literally hopped from one commitment to the next, with this baseball game being the only thing she’d done this week that wasn’t eating, sleeping, or working.

  Even studying hadn’t factored in. She was behind in her reading for Ronan’s class already.

  “Come on,” she muttered as she tried again. Yet Big Red whined and whined and failed to start.

  Deanna bit down on her lip. “It’s not working?”

  “It’ll be fine. She’s just…old and tired.” Audrey tried again. The car sounded like it had contracted a chest cold and wheezed its way through another attempt. But nothing. “Shit.”

  She slumped back in her seat, shutting her eyes for a moment to think of a solution. When she opened her eyes, a figure was striding toward them.

  Ronan.

  Hastily, before she could embarrass herself any further in front of him, she tried the car again. Nada. Biting back a curse, she balled her fists. Being without a car wasn’t an option. The area of town they lived in meant the kids couldn’t walk to school—it would take an hour and a half. At least. And even though the twins were old enough to drive, they couldn’t afford another car, so it was Big Red or bust.

  Kissing Creek had a few taxis and even a couple of Uber drivers, but on game nights they were always snapped up quick. They had exactly three mechanics, though only two did regular cars. The other mechanic specialized in motorcycles, since there were plenty of those around here.

  “Come on, you big hunk of rust.” Audrey tried again, groaning when the car failed her once more.

  “Maybe you flooded the engine?” Deanna supplied less than helpfully.

  “Do you even know what that means?” Audrey asked, trying to keep her tone in check. It wasn’t Deanna’s fault, and the teenager shook her head. “Then zip it.”

  Ronan had made it to her window now, and when he knocked, Audrey let out a sigh. She couldn’t ignore him, no matter how mortifying it was.

  She rolled down the window and pasted on a cheery smile. “Hey.”

  “Car trouble?”

  “At what point does it become trouble?” she quipped. “We’re having a slow start is all.”

  Ronan raised a brow. “By the sound of that engine, I don’t think you’re going anywhere tonight.”

  “Are you a mechanic as well as a professor?” She didn’t mean to sound snippy. “Sorry, this car has been giving me trouble all week. I’m a bit frustrated.”

  “Can I give you a ride home?”

  “No!”

  The word shot out of her before she even had time to think. And it didn’t have anything to do with being close to Ronan again or getting in a car with him. But him giving her a ride home would mean seeing where she lived, and that was a treat she reserved for absolutely nobody. It was one thing to be a little swoony and pink-cheeked in front of an attractive man. It was quite another to show him you lived in a dump.

  Her heart could not handle that level of shame. Not with this man.

  “I would hate to put you out,” she clarified, her heart thumping for all the wrong reasons. “Do you even have a car here?”

  “I’ve got one on loan from a family member. It’s parked in the staff lot on campus, so I can easily get it. It’s no trouble.”

  Outside, the sky was dark, with stars already beginning to twinkle. Deanna would be a mess tomorrow for school if Audrey didn’t get her home soon, because on days when she started at eight she had to drop the kids off by seven thirty, which meant leaving the house just after seven. Not an ideal situation for teenagers who liked to sleep as long as possible.

  “A jump start should get us going. I can call…” Dammit. She was so rattled she’d forgotten the guy’s name, despite the fact that he’d been fixing Big Red since all the way back when she was a kid and the car was driven by her parents. “The mechanic.”

  “It’s almost ten o’clock.”

  Audrey bit down on her lip. It would be rude to call a family home and drag someone out of bed when she had a perfectly good option in front of her.

  “But I need my car first thing tomorrow. I’ve got work early and school drop-off.”

  “We could borrow Mrs. March’s car?” Deanna suggested. “It sits there in her driveway all day long, and she’s always offering to drive us to school.”

  The older woman who lived next door didn’t have much, but her heart was made of solid gold. And she did always offer to drive the Miller family around, probably because she didn’t have any family of her own and they always took her Christmas cookies and stopped in to check on her.

  “Let me help,” Ronan said. There was that crinkled, lopsided, gorgeous smile again. “I promise it’s no trouble.”

  “You got a cape tucked
into the back of your sweater or something?” she asked softly.

  Ronan chuckled. “Nah, it’s totally self-serving. I was taking a shortcut back to campus and saw you guys waiting here, so I wanted to say thanks for keeping me company earlier. It’s not easy moving to a small town and being the new guy. So will you let me help you?”

  Audrey’s eyes flicked to Deanna, who made a show of yawning so obviously that her ploy to get her big sister and Ronan in the same car was entirely transparent. “Sure. That would be great. Thank you.”

  “Give me five minutes, and I’ll bring the car around. It’s getting cool out, and there’s no need for you to walk in the cold.”

  Audrey watched Ronan walk away, feeling giddy and sick all at once. When was her body going to get the memo that nothing would ever happen between them? That a man like him was nothing more than a fantasy to stop her lady parts from shriveling up and dying?

  That, like every other man who’d walked into her life, he would discard her at some point—whether it was the hunky Canadian who’d left her behind or the man who called himself her father and acted like anything but—and Ronan was no different. He’d made it clear that Kissing Creek was a stepping-stone on his way to the top.

  And Audrey wasn’t foolish enough to let herself be a figure in anyone’s rearview mirror.

  Chapter Nine

  One man became a millionaire by selling fake dog testicles made out of silicone.

  Ronan pulled his car into the parking lot shared by the baseball, swimming, and gym facilities, half expecting Audrey not to be there. But her beat-up red car sat there, the lone occupant of the otherwise mostly empty space, with two figures inside. He wasn’t sure why it had taken so much convincing for her to accept his lift, although he guessed that even in small towns women were reluctant to get into cars with men they didn’t know.

  But he and Audrey weren’t strangers.

  Maybe it’s because you can’t stop looking at her and she thinks you’re a creepy old man.

  Okay, firstly, eight years’ age difference didn’t exactly make him an old man compared to her. And secondly, he’d heard the intake of breath when he’d slid closer to her on the bleachers. He’d felt the shift in her energy, the way she looked at him when she thought no one was watching. He knew how to read people. And while Ronan might not be the best person in a relationship, he was aware enough to know when someone was attracted to him.

  Why are you doing this to yourself? You know it can’t go anywhere.

  Maybe that’s why she appealed to him. There was a strange and intriguing dichotomy with Audrey, in that she was both dangerous and safe. Dangerous, because being with her would at best tarnish his image and at worst ruin his career. But that was exactly what made her safe—the risk was too great, so he was forced to keep his distance.

  He pulled up beside Audrey’s car, and the two women joined him, Audrey sliding into the front seat and Deanna in the back. Deanna was tapping away at a phone, which he recognized as Audrey’s because it had a distinctive crack in the right corner of the screen. She wore a pair of white earbuds, the cord dangling over the front of her Flames T-shirt.

  “Thanks for rescuing us,” Audrey said.

  “No problem at all.”

  He pulled onto the street, and Audrey gave him the basic directions. The sky was pitch-black now, and the streetlights rolled past with measured frequency, lighting up the gold lengths of her hair for a moment before dropping them back into darkness again. His headlights swept across the quiet street. There was a lone person riding a bicycle, and most of the houses had glowing windows, but it was so still. So peaceful.

  “And uh…thanks for not blowing my cover before.” Audrey kept her voice low, though with the sound of whatever was blaring from Deanna’s headphones, she wouldn’t have heard a damn thing anyway. Ronan fought the urge to tell her to turn it down or else she might damage her hearing.

  Maybe you are an old man after all.

  “Your sister doesn’t know you’re taking my course?”

  “My whole family doesn’t, actually.” She glanced out the window—or maybe she was looking at the reflection shimmering in the glass. “We, uh…don’t have much money.”

  Ronan bobbed his head, unsure whether he should confirm that he’d picked up on that already. “Right.”

  “I work two jobs, plus picking up whatever extra bits and pieces I can, and everything goes to the family…except I put aside enough to take a single class every semester.” She glanced at him. “I know that probably seems incredibly selfish.”

  “That you save a little money to educate yourself? No, I don’t think that’s selfish at all.”

  She pointed ahead to the next street he needed to take. “As it is, my aunt pays half. She’s the only one who knows about it, and she’s always tried to encourage me to keep studying.”

  “Your aunt who owns the crystal shop?” For some reason, that surprised him, but he guessed that was his personal bias showing. She reminded him of his artist mother, who thought all schools were societal indoctrination camps.

  “Just because she believes in astrology and crystals doesn’t mean she undervalues education,” Audrey said. “It’s possible for belief and knowledge to exist side by side.”

  “Have you tried getting some official support for your studies?” he asked. “Many colleges have scholarships and other types of student-assistance programs. I’m not sure about Harrison Beech, but—”

  “I’m not eligible.”

  He steered onto another street as Audrey directed him. “Why? I’m sure if you can prove that you’re in a low-income house—”

  “I’m not eligible.” This time her words had a little more bite, and Ronan blinked. When he didn’t ask anything further, she sighed. “Sorry, I didn’t… I know I’m not eligible, okay? It’s not an option for me. Not at this college, anyway.”

  And if she was supporting the family, then Harrison Beech probably was her only option. Even though he didn’t know Audrey that well, he couldn’t imagine she would leave her siblings to go and study in some other town. Her loyalty and care glowed like the brightest star, and it was easily one of the most beautiful things about her.

  “They don’t have scholarships?” Ronan shook his head. “That’s ridiculous. Education should be available to everyone.”

  “They have scholarships. But I didn’t finish high school, so therefore I’m not eligible, because that’s one of the criteria.” Her gaze was glued to the passenger-side window now, like she couldn’t stand to look at him. “It’s fine. I made the right decision for my family, and I wouldn’t go back and change it, even if I had the chance.”

  Ronan didn’t consider himself an overly emotional person, but listening to the resolve and marble-like commitment in Audrey’s voice was like scraping a knife over his heart. This woman, who clearly loved knowledge and learning more than anything, hadn’t been able to finish high school.

  Of course he realized that she said she didn’t finish high school, like it was her choice. But Ronan could put the pieces of the puzzle together—dead mother, four younger siblings, no mention of a father figure…her choice wasn’t exactly a choice.

  “I love my family,” she added fiercely. “I would do anything for them.”

  “That comes across very clearly. They’re lucky to have you.”

  He turned down another street, and suddenly it felt like Kissing Creek was a world away. Instead of the rows of neat redbrick homes with gambrel rooves and tidy lawns, the houses here were smaller and simpler. Some were in a state of disrepair, with broken mailboxes and peeling paint. Others were tidy but plain. One house had a group of men standing out front, smoking and drinking with music blaring.

  “It’s a bit farther up,” Audrey said. She was smiling too much now—like it might distract Ronan from what he was seeing.

  “I’m not judging y
ou, Audrey,” he said.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  She’d shared a little of herself tonight, but each piece was like extracting a tooth. She was so eager to take information in, but she guarded information about her own life like a dragon protecting its gold. No doubt people in the past had judged her. He was well aware how money changed people—his mother had been a broke artist in the beginning, and she’d been softer, then. But the more money she made, the more fame she accrued in the art world, the more selfish and self-invested she became, always wanting more, more, more.

  “It’s there, next to the house with the yellow car.”

  Ronan pulled up on the side of the road and killed the engine. He wanted to say so much—to reassure Audrey that he didn’t think less of her because she hadn’t finished high school and because she didn’t live in the nice part of town. Frankly, her tenacity and resilience were better qualities than anything money could buy.

  But he got the feeling that trying to reassure her would only make her more uncomfortable, so he kept his mouth shut.

  “Thanks again for the ride,” she said, her hand drifting to his arm for the briefest touch. Yet as innocent and simple as it was, the gesture electrified him. It burned him from the inside out. Her olive-green eyes looked almost golden under the streetlights, and her features were sharpened by shadows. “You’ve got a kind heart, Ronan Walsh.”

  Unwilling to say anything that might ruin the moment, he simply nodded and watched as Audrey turned around to her sister, who’d fallen asleep in the backseat, phone dangling precariously from one hand. Deanna woke with a groggy shake of her head, and they bid him goodbye.

  He stayed in his car for a moment to make sure they got inside safely, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel and cycling the night’s events through his head.