“Yes?” He opened his eyes, prepared to put space between them if she wanted him to.
“Is it okay to do this?” She leaned her cheek against his chest.
He smiled. “Absolutely.” After a few seconds he said, “We talked about going public at Monday’s lesson, but I forgot about church tomorrow. Should we do that instead?”
“No. Too many people will be there. If we do it on Monday, there’s only a handful. We’ll be broken up before the grapevine is in full swing.”
“Yeah. That makes sense. The fewer people that know, the better. Plus we’re just trying to stop my mother.”
“And Aunt Bea.”
He wondered if she knew she was nuzzling her cheek against him. He wasn’t going to point it out to her.
She pulled away and looked up at him. “The last thing we need is to be the topic of Maple Falls’ gossip.”
“Yes. That would be awful.”
His feet stopped moving. So did hers. He couldn’t take his eyes off her, and she wasn’t shifting her gaze away. He already knew the bliss of kissing Olivia, and more than anything he wanted to experience it again. Unable to stop himself, he leaned down. By some sort of miracle, she was tilting her head toward him.
“Oh. My. Gosh.”
Kingston jumped as the lights brightened to full strength. Olivia jumped out of his arms. He jerked his head to the doorway... and saw Anita’s and Tanner’s jaws hit the floor.
Chapter14
“You and my brother?” Anita clapped her hands in an eerie imitation of her mother. “I can’t believe it! Why didn’t you tell me?”
Olivia blinked. Somehow she’d managed to follow Anita to one of the spare bedrooms, and now, behind a closed door, her best friend’s giddiness was almost on par with Karen’s. How had this happened? One second she’d been about to kiss Kingston—or thought she was. She was ready to, despite every logical brain cell in her head screaming no, no, a thousand times no. But pure physical drive had won, or almost had. Anita had no idea she’d just saved Olivia from making a horrible mistake.
Another one.
Anita plopped on the edge of the queen-size bed, her cheeks aglow from pregnancy and excitement. She patted the empty space. “I want every detail.”
Olivia tried to gather her thoughts as she perched on the bed. Now what? And what was Kingston telling Tanner? Inthe back of her mind, she recalled Tanner saying they had shown up to surprise Karen, who had been bugging them to spend time with her. Nice for Karen, but their timing was horrible.
“I have to go to the bathroom.” She popped up from the bed. Before Anita could answer, she shot out of the room. She entered the hallway just in time to see Kingston duck into the powder room. She hurried and knocked on the door. “Hey,” she whispered. “It’s me.”
He opened the door, grabbed her hand, and pulled her inside. “Where’s my sister?”
“Spare bedroom. Tanner?”
“The den.” He glanced at the toilet. “Guess you and I had the same escape plan.”
She clutched her hands together and looked up at him. “What are we going to do? I don’t want to lie to them.”
“Me either.” He shoved his hands through his hair. “We don’t have a choice, though. And in the end, nothing changes—we’re breaking up, regardless of who finds out we’re together. No one needs to know the truth, though. We’ll let Mom take the credit for our romance. She certainly worked hard enough.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “It’s going to be okay, Olivia. I promise.”
She’d heard his promises before, and she hoped this time he was right. She drew in a deep breath. “Yes. It’s going to be okay—”
“Kingston?” Tanner’s voice sounded on the other side of the door.
“Be out in a minute!” he hollered, then walked to the toilet and flushed it. He turned on the tap, then quietly openedthe frosted shower-stall door and waved her to go inside. When she was hidden, he left the bathroom.
“What’s the dessert you brought again?” Kingston said.
“Apple fritters.” Tanner’s voice sounded more distant.
“I could sure go for one of those.”
