Because this tension ain’t for my ex.
All around us, patrons are clapping and cheering. Red pats my back while Delia shakes her head. Other regulars look at me like they’re not sure if they can believe their ears or eyes. And when I sneak a look at my dad, he’s wearing a smirk that tells me he doesn’t buy it for a second.
“Man, you get called up, and suddenly everything changes,” Red says. “Congrats, buddy! I didn’t know you were engaged! It’s about time,” he continues to Kayla. “I didn’t think he was ever gonna kiss someone again.”
I nod and shake his hand, but my brain still hasn’t recovered.
I can’t think when I can still taste Kayla on my lips—milk and honey.
“Yeah, thanks, Red. Uh, Kayla, can I steal you for a sec? In the back room?”
Kayla bites her lip but nods. “Of course.”
I gesture with my head which way we’re going, and she gets down from her stool and follows me past the shocked and awed patrons and into my dad‘s office in the back.
The second the door closes, she rushes to apologize. “I’m so sorry, Sean. What was she saying about some promise? I had no idea! I just couldn’t let her talk down to you for a second longer when you’re the kindest person I’ve ever known!”
Kindest person she’s ever known? That shouldn’t disappoint me like it does.
How pathetic is it of me that I was hoping there were real feelings driving that kiss? Not like we have some instant lovegoing on, but we have a connection. Even before that kiss, I knew it in my bones. But since that, we may as well be puzzle pieces for how we clicked.
I run a hand through my hair and let out a big exhale. “Yeah … you seem to already know, but Serena is my ex. I was helping her raise her daughter. But her ex stopped the wedding and said he wanted her back. Turns out they’d been cheating for months. So she left me and they went on the honeymoon I paid for. But a couple months later, she knocked on my door and told me she made a mistake. Tucker wasn’t as involved a dad as she’d hoped, and she went on and on about how Dakota cried for me every night. Serena begged me to take her back. And like an idiot, I let her kiss me. I thought I could lie down and take more and more punishment from her if it meant having Dakota in my life. But my dad and brother smacked some sense into me the next day.”
“Literally or figuratively?” Kayla asks with a sad smile.
“Both,” I say. “When Serena came by the bar later that day, thinking we were back on track, I told her I was done. And I may have made some little speech about how the next woman I kissed would be my wife. And she’s been holding that over my head for over a year.”
“Ugh. What is her problem?”
“She has to be everyone’s number one. She’s always been like that. Even if she didn’t like a guy in high school, she needed to make sure he liked her. Every couple months when she finds out I’ve gotten coffee with a woman or someone flirted with me at the bar, she comes by like she’s making sure everyone knows she already marked that territory and abandoned it,” I say. When she doesn’t respond, I add, “Me, I mean. I’m the territory.”
“You know, I got that.”
I shake my head, but I’m smiling. “She also likes to warn every woman away by telling them about my ‘little promise,’ as she calls it.”
Kayla crosses her long, thin arms and taps a finger on the opposite forearm. “Itisquite the promise …”
I groan and slump back against the desk. “Don’t I know it.”
Kayla hangs her head, massaging her scalp. “I’m so sorry, Sean. I had no clue. I never should’ve done something so rash. Go out there and tell everyone I’m unwell. Say I’ve been flirting with you nonstop, so you’re letting me think we’re together, because you don’t feel safe.”
“Uh, what?”
Her mouth quirks up in a half-smile. “I mean it! I’m not going to hurt you or your reputation just because I got a little protective! You didn’t need me to step in. I had no right to kiss you like that without asking.”
“Believe me, most men would have begged you to.”
A grin lights up her face. And then it falls slightly. “What do we do now?”
“Maybe we can say that you got a little carried away, but we could go out a few times. Put on a show for the town.”
I’m offering a fake dating plan, but something deep inside me screams a protest.
Don’t tell her you want something fake! Tell her you want to try for something real!
I swallow the protest down hard. And when she drops her head, I wish I could take back my words.
But then she lifts her head, and she’s smiling. “Right! That’s a great idea. We can put on a show. A few dates. And then when you ‘break up’ with me, we’ll stay friends and everything will be fine.”
