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Chapter Seven
Jaime
Monday morning is busy as I finish up a cheerful bouquet of daisies and roses to be delivered this afternoon to a receptionist at a law office. Payton, finished up with her morning deliveries, comes barreling through the back door at the same time Lexi comes swinging through the front.
“Tell me all about it!” Lexi exclaims as she tosses her purse up on the counter.
“What?” I ask, feigning indifference.
Honestly, I’m surprised that the news of my date Saturday night took this long to make its way through the Summer women. Usually when anything major happens in our family, word spreads faster than athlete’s foot in a locker room.
“Don’t play dumb with me, Jaime Marie Summer. You know exactly what I’m talking about.” The look Lexi gives me is stern. I can tell she’s not leaving without getting a detailed play-by-play of the entire date, start to finish.
“I heard she was making out with him on the porch,” Payton chimes in.
My face burns with mortification as I turn to face the oldest Summer sibling. “Where did you hear that?”
Even as the words leave my lips, I already know the answer: Grandma.
“A fairy told me,” Payton sasses with a grin that lights up her dark green eyes.
Lexi snorts a laugh. “A fairy. Right. You mean a seventy-year-old woman with eyes as sharp as an eagle. Come on, Jaims. You didn’t really think Grandma wasn’t waiting up to snoop on your date, did you?”
Of course I suspected Grandma would wait up to eavesdrop on my date, but when I returned home and didn’t see a single light on besides a lamp in the living room, and the rest of the house was quiet, I figured she went to sleep. Lord knows she’s not the spring chicken she was ten years ago when she was crashing our slumber parties and making surprise appearances when our dates would bring us home at night.
“Well, I had hoped,” I mumble.
“So? Tell me all about it!” Lexi exclaims once more.
“We went to dinner at Helena’s. It was nice. Your husband was there, by the way,” I mention to Lexi.
“Yeah, he mentioned he had another work thing,” she says, almost sadly. Her eyes match the tone in her voice, and I make a mental note to ask her more about that later.
“Anyway, after dinner, we went to Ice Cream Emporium and talked until they closed. That was it.”
“That was it? What about the make out session on the porch?” Payton asks.
“It was just a kiss,” I reply. My cheeks instantly turn a fabulous shade of embarrassment as I focus my attention on the bouquet I just completed.
“Just a kiss? According to Grandpa, Grandma thought she’d have to turn the hose on you,” Lexi giggles.
I thought she might have to as well.
“Are you going to see him again?” Lexi asks, her blue-green eyes sparkling with excitement.
“I don’t know. I mean we just went out three days ago. He said he’d call me, but I’m not holding my breath or anything.” I try for casual, but inside, I’m a ball of nervous energy.
I’m nowhere near ready to admit it out loud, but after the date Saturday night, I’m definitely hopeful that Ryan calls me and asks me out again, which in itself is just crazy thinking. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to want him, to like him.
My lips tingled for hours after he left, while I lay awake reliving that kiss over and over again. It was, without a doubt, the single best kiss of my life. The way he dominated me, took control of the moment and my body, left me with shivers of delight from head to toe, even now, three days later.
“Oh, he’ll call. You should have seen the way he was looking at her, Lex. I’m surprised the smoke detectors weren’t set off. Grandma is certain she’s already pregnant.”
My sisters giggle behind my back as they carry on as if I’m not even standing here. I busy myself cleaning up greenery clippings and stem pieces, silently wondering if Payton is correct. Will he call? Lord knows I shouldn’t want him to.
But I do.
In desperate need of a redirect, I turn back around and focus on my youngest sister. Lexi’s long, brown hair is full of honey highlights and tied in a messy knot high on her head. It’s her standard look, yet there’s something different about her. Her green eyes streak with shades of blue and lack the brightness they normally hold. Instead, they appear distant and filled with a sadness I’m not used to seeing from the baby of the family.
