“She came by my place. I’m not sure why. Before she could even get the words out, I kissed her. She kissed me back. It was all very consensual. We actually might have kissed more than once.”
“That’s so amazing. She’s probably still on cloud nine from that. She has been waiting to kiss you for a long damn time.”
“You keep saying that, but how do you know it’s even true?”
Mason shrugged. “Easy. All I gotta do is look at her when you walk into the room. She goes all loopy.”
“Well, now that I’ve kissed her a couple of times …”
“If you say you need to ghost her, you and I are gonna have problems. She is an important person in Half Moon Key. Mrs. Francis might string up your balls if you break Nora Ledger’s heart.” Jack huffed out a breath.
“Would you stop? I didn’t say I was going to ghost her. The opposite, actually. I just don’t know how to go about it.”
“How to go about what?” Mason asked, grinning like the wolf he was.
“I want to kiss her again. All the time. Forever. When I want.”
The other man threw his head back with a laugh. “Well, you leave that to me. In case you didn’t know this already, the people of Half Moon Key have a knack for getting people together. Even the people who don’twantto be together. Given that Nora has always been into you and that you want to kiss her? I think we can recruit a few of the womenfolk on our side.”
“Shit. Why do I feel like I just started a whole thing?”
“’Cause you did,” Mason assured him. “And we totally have your back. It’ll be fine, but also, it’s gonna be awesome. Trust me.”
So long as Jack could kiss Nora again, he didn’t think he cared very much how his friends went about setting them up.
He just really needed to kiss her again.
Soon.
FIVE
NORA
Nora scooped two large and generous mounds of chocolate orange ice cream into a waffle cone, only realizing too late that the child looking at her through the freezer chest was on the verge of tears.
“You wanted bubble gum, didn’t you?” she asked.
The kid gave a watery nod while his mother tapped his shoulder. “Use your manners. Say yes, please.”’
Nora didn’t want to point out that it was her fault, that the kid was being pretty damn polite even though he had almost been served a flavor that he had not ordered. Nora dropped the cone into the tub of chocolate orange ice cream and grabbed a fresh one. She scooped the bright blue and pink ice cream onto the new cone and even added a third to compensate for the mix-up. Of course, this kind gesture ended up really pissing off the mother, and she glared at Nora when she paid.
Nora waved goodbye to them, but she didn’t dare make a comment. In her head, though, shedidmake a comment.
If you don’t want your kid to have an extra scoop of ice cream, maybe don’t tell him to be kind to strangers who are ruining his fun treat.
“You!” the door banged open, nearly scaring Nora to death.
She gripped her throat, screamed in fright, and backed away from the freezer chest.
Jade rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue. “Really? I scared you that much?”
“Well, who walks into a shop that way?” Nora grumbled despite the fact her heart still thundered wildly in her chest.
“You know who walks into a store like this? A very confused friend. You’ve got someseriousexplaining to do, young lady.”
Nora frowned. “Young lady? Are you serious? What did I do?”
“You kissed Jack!You. Kissed.Jack.Jack Hayes. The man you’ve been pining for. How could you not text or call me the moment it happened?”