“Nothing right now. Just pick whatever you want, and I’ll show you.” River walked over to the flavor shelves, and Kennedy followed. “These are your options. Pick whatever you want. We’ll add it to the sugar before it hardens and mix it all in. Then, we pull it, and once it’s totally hard, we snap it into pieces and put it into bags.”
“I can really just pick whatever I want?”
“Yeah. We can make a small batch, and you can take it all with you, if you want. I don’t have to sell it. So, grab whatever you think will taste good to you.”
“How many can I mix in?”
“At most, I’d recommend two, but you can technically do whatever you want. The flavors will get muddled, but I did do a strawberry, watermelon, bubblegum once. It was pretty good. Too sweet to have more than one for me, but I could taste all the flavors.”
“Can I do something sour? I love sour candy.”
“I have a sour mix, yeah. Which one do you want.”
“Lemon lime.”
“Youreallywant sour, huh?” River laughed. “Okay… Your candy; your therapy; your choice. I’ll get the sugar going. You find the lemon, lime, and the one labeled ‘sour.’”
River walked toward the stove to get started, which was necessary because she needed to step away from Kennedy, who both lookedandsmelled so good that all River wanted to do was wrap her arms around her from behind and kiss her neck. She’s resisted, though, and she was proud of herself for doing that because it was really hard, having Kennedy there, telling her that she looked good and flirting with her. Still, she wouldn’t bring anything up again until Kennedy was ready because she wantedthemto happen. She wanted Kennedy to eventually go out withher, which meant she had to do everything she could not to scare her away.
CHAPTER 33
Kennedy
“Whoa! That’s way too much,” River said and took the plastic spoon from her.
“Really? It doesn’t seem like it’s that much at all,” she replied.
“You don’t need that much, especially for a small batch like this. I can’t exactly scrape it off, so I hope youreallylike sour candy.”
“I do,” Kennedy told her with a smile and then pulled off River’s hairnet. “It’s just for me. You don’t have to wear this if you’re not selling it.”
“I don’t want to get hair in your candy.”
“I’ll live,” she said and tossed the hairnet into the nearby trash can.
Kennedy wanted to run her hand through River’s short hair, which was a different shade of brown than her own. She really wanted to stare into those blue eyes and run her hands through the soft-looking locks right before she kissed her, but she turned away and dropped her smile. She’d been the one to say that they couldn’t do this because she wasn’t ready, and here she was, lasting a couple of weeks at most and flirting with River, who was being so sweet in showing her how to make candy. She knew River wanted more. Hell, Kennedy wanted more, too, butsomething was holding her back, and she didn’t know what it was.
Everything was pointing her in River’s direction. Cameron had seen it. Even Lacey could tell that there had been chemistry between them. It had been obvious to all of them, what had been going on that weekend, including Jessie, who had been so pissed at first when Kennedy had broken the news to her. Cameron had offered to be there for her when she told Jessie about the breakup, but Kennedy had requested to do it alone. She hadn’t been ready to see Cameron again just yet.
“Of course, you’re fucking not together anymore,” Jessie had said. “God, is it River? Wait. No, it’s both. It’s Lacey for Cameron, and River for you, right? Just tell me you didn’t sleep with her that weekend. Did you cheat? Did Cam?”
Kennedy had assured Jessie that neither of them had cheated, but that yes, she liked River, and Cameron was into Lacey, which had helped them realize that they didn’t want to be together anymore. Jessie had talked about the charity, the video issue, and told her that she’d figure it out. That had been it.
Now, Kennedy was watching as River began to move melted sugar around on the table using some kind of stick or spatula. She’d already divided it into two piles of liquid goo and had added lemon to one pile and lime to the other.
“Can you pick your colors?”
“Colors?” Kennedy asked.
“Do you want green and yellow or something else?”
“Oh, right. It’s not coloring it,” she said as she realized that the flavor mixes weren’t actually adding any color to the sugar. “That’s separate?”
“Yeah. Colors are on that shelf.” River nodded toward a shelf in front of them. “Pick whatever you want.”
“Can I go withnotgreen and yellow? Like, maybe confuse people by making it pink and blue? Then, they eat it, and it’s sour lemon lime?”
“Sure. Go for it,” River replied with a little laugh that Kennedy wished she could bottle.
