Mistletoe Misses

Chapter 13

Maddox

A t the Sunday gathering later, Kendall finds me alone on the living room couch and plops down beside me. She takes me in, covering my entire body with her eyes. It’s great to see her usual sass hasn’t suffered while I’ve been away.

“I have to say, big brother, I didn’t expect to see you so relaxed with her here.”

“To whom are you referring, little sister?”

“Don’t give me that.” She smacks my arm with the back of her hand. “You know who.”

“Who else, right?”

Her forefinger taps the end of her nose. What does that even mean?

“It’s been a crazy few days,” I answer, hoping it’s the correct one.

She glares at me, her long lashes holding steady above dark eyes. Guess I failed. “And …” she urges.

“And what?”

“You tell me. You can’t say something like that and let it dangle.”

“Let’s just say we’ve passed a few hurdles and hit our stride, but we’re far from the finish line.”

There she goes, staring at me again. “That’s it?”

“I love you, Ken, but this is not the place for that conversation.”

Her eyes graze the room and mine follow. Within listening range, dozens of people are standing nearby. She knows as well as I do how the gossip train works in this town.

“You’re right, but you’re going to fill me—”

“There you are.” Jamie steps over the coffee table in one long stride and sits on it to face us.

“You still come?” I say in awe, reaching a hand out to shake his. Before the Sunday family gathering turned into a block party, Mom would let us kids invite a friend to give us someone to play with. Jamie’s been my best friend since kindergarten, which meant he was always here, growing up alongside me and my siblings. He’s more like a brother than a friend to us all.

“Every week.”

“Except the week I come home,” I complain, but he doesn’t seem the least bit concerned about my feelings.

“Sorry. You crawling out of hiding doesn’t trump an injured thoroughbred, but Ken Doll’s homecoming does.” He turns to my sister, and I brace for the rousing to begin. Rarely do these two take a break, and their comeback battles are always epic. “Glad to have you back. There’s no one to pick on at the farm. The cows have a terrible sense of humor.”

“What about that stupid goat of yours? He seems to have your intellectual prowess.”

“He’s too busy living the good life with his harem.”

“Like I said …”

“You must be thinking about all the boys you’re stringing along at that fancy school of yours.” He tosses back the beer he brought, obviously proud of himself. But I know my sister, and she’s not the least bit embarrassed by whatever he’s poking fun at.

Slowly, she crosses her legs and leans forward, threading her fingers around a jean-covered knee. “Jokes on you, Jameson. I don’t date boys. I much prefer men who know what they want and have the balls to go after it.”

Jamie’s jaw gapes open in retort, but nothing comes out. Instead, he stares at her with a dumb expression on his face. Tired of waiting for his equally dumb response, she rises off the couch and struts out of the room.

“What just happened?” I ask. Rarely is Jamie muted by anyone, especially women. He always has something to say to them.

He shakes out of his stupor to drain the rest of his beer. “What do you mean?”

“That weird exchange between you two. Have you—”

“What? She’s your little sister.”

“Exactly, and seven years younger than you with teen in her age.”

“Which is precisely why what you’re implying isn’t a concern.”

He’s saying the right things, but the words come out a little too shaky to be convincing. Kendall is stunning and doesn’t look or act like a typical teenager. The poster child for confident, powerhouse females, she’s too fearless for her own good.

I’m not surprised Jamie noticed. After all, he appreciates women a little too much and isn’t afraid to let them know. He’s more than earned his playboy reputation, but whatever he’s appreciating about my sister and her new no-longer-a-little-girl curves, better be kept to himself, including his playboy hands.

Those hands raise in protest, reading my expression. “Come on, man. It’s me.”

“I know. That’s what I’m worried about.”

◆◆◆

“There you are,” Nana says when she finds me, Cooper, and Aaron in the sunroom.

“Which of us are you about to embarrass?” Cooper asks, earning an eye roll from Nana.

“Boy, everything I do is for your own good.”

“Okay. What good are you doing this time?”

Her grin gives us a warning signal, and we all react instinctively. My abs constrict to prepare for the blow, Cooper slumps back in his chair, already defeated, and Aaron drains his beer.

“I signed you all up to volunteer at an event tonight,” she informs us. “It’s the biggest fundraiser the Spectacular has each year.”

The three of us groan in harmony.

“What is it?” Aaron snatches the beer bottle from my hand and gulps down half.

I snatch it back. “Get your own.”

“I’m empty and need the boost to get me through this.”

“Shut up, you two.” Nana’s finger waves back and forth between us. “Just arrive at the gazebo at six.”

Together, we check our watches. We have less than two hours to prepare.

“The volunteer coordinator will give you instructions. Do everything she says,” she warns. “The Spectacular is important to our town’s prosperity, and we all need to pitch in to make as much money as possible.”

“Why can’t you have that same attitude with the shop?” I fuss, hoping to gain some leeway in that department.

“I do. You just don’t like my old-fashioned ways.”

“No. I don’t like your—”

“Have fun tonight.” She pivots, walking off like she won, and I don’t even know what game we were playing.

“I don’t like this. She’s up to something,” Cooper says, as experienced in reading Nana as I am.

“Agreed.” I reach inside the nearby cooler and pass around fresh beers. “We better have fun while we can. Someone else can drive us there.”

Cooper raises his bottle for a toast. “To us. No matter what gets thrown our way, we always have each other’s backs.”

“And I have a feeling we’ll be needing that support tonight.”

“I got you, my brothas,” Aaron pipes in, his newly turned twenty-one-year-old at a frat party persona shining through in full color. Damn, I love that kid and hope he never loses his zest for life like his big brothers have.

◆◆◆

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Cooper grumbles when we arrive at the gazebo as instructed. “Where’s Nana?”

“You won’t find her, and she knows we have no way out now.” Trixie squirms in my arms from the sudden burst of tension.

“Hell, yeah,” Aaron says after noticing the kissing booth sign hanging above the gazebo’s entrance. He’s had more to drink and weighs less than Cooper and me, which means he hasn’t come down from our prepping activity back at the house.

“Ah, the Henderson boys.” A woman inside the gazebo clasps her hands under her chin and makes her way to us, her short, black hair bobbing above her shoulders with each step. “I can’t tell you how much we appreciate you signing up. You’ll be quite the draw.” Her brow wiggles above thick, red-rimmed glasses.

Another groan of complaint escapes Cooper’s throat.

“What’s the matter, Cooper?” she asks, frowning. “A few hours of kissing doesn’t sound like the bachelor’s paradise?”

“A few hours?” he screeches.

“Come on. I’ll get you set up.” Back to her peppy self, she waves a gloved hand and struts back to the gazebo, expecting us to follow. When two of us don’t move, she stops on the steps and motions again. Behind her, Aaron mimics her enthusiasm, almost drawing a grin out of me. Almost.

“If we don’t do this, we’ll have Nana to deal with,” I say to Cooper, talking through our sticky predicament aloud.

“You want to kiss strangers and women we’ve grown up with all our lives?”

“Hell no, but what choice do we have?”

“Plenty. We have skills no one else here has.” He gives me a side-eyed smirk, clearly more intoxicated than I thought, and I laugh. It’s nice seeing my brother relax for a change. He’s always been the serious one of us three boys.

Following his lead, I play along. “True, but we can’t use those on all the women who’ll want a sliver of us to satisfy their fantasies.”

“It is nice to be wanted,” he gets out before a chuckle. “Come on. Let’s get it over with.”

We climb the stairs, and Joanna—apparently, that’s our kissing booth pimp’s name—positions us around three square tables covered in green fabric and shaped like a U inside. She explains the two rules in greater detail than necessary—in summary, no tongue or touching the customers (other than lips and cheeks, of course)—and leaves us with, “Have fun.”

I set Trixie on a small blanket at my feet and settle in for an interesting evening. Thirty minutes before the booth opens, a line of customers begins to form outside the gazebo. With each passing minute, the line grows, snaking through Loving’s Park until I can no longer see the end.

“Where did all these women come from?” Cooper leans back to ask me.

“Who knows?”

From my vantage point, facing the entrance, many faces in line are unknown to me, but I recognize Jada and the mayor’s granddaughter, Harper. Guess she isn’t happy with our mistletoe misses.

With a sigh, I zip up my coat as a breeze presses through the gazebo, jostling the string lights lining the ceiling. They flicker and draw my attention, along with a few four-letter words. I shouldn’t be surprised a Christmas-themed kissing booth has mistletoe, but I’m caught off guard nonetheless. There’s a bunch hanging over each table with another in the center … exactly where I’d installed it on Carmen’s eighteenth birthday.

“What’s wrong?” Cooper asks, and I answer with a point to the offender. “Ouch.”

“Yeah.”

“Alright, ladies,” Joanna begins, taking her position at the entrance. “The kissing booth is now open. Make your donation with Veronica here.”

She motions toward my new friend sitting at a table by the steps, and I’d give anything for her stellar advice on how to get me through yet another uncomfortable situation. I seem to be stumbling into a lot of those lately.

“Enjoy!” Joanna says and steps aside to assume her hostess position at the steps.

Cooper sucks in a quick breath. “Shit.”

“Agreed.”

“Bring on the chicks,” Aaron says, rubbing his bare hands together like he’s about to eat his favorite sandwich.

At that, my and Cooper’s eyes roll with annoyance.

“Hey, Aaron, did you see Addie’s in line?” Cooper teases, and Aaron’s head whips around so fast I worry about him getting whiplash. “Who do you think she’s here for?”

“You see her? Where?”

“I doubt she came for you, given your history. She must have a crush on one of your handsome older brothers.”

“What happened to sticking together through this?” Aaron whines, his happy buzz sufficiently doused.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. Anyway, we’ll find out soon who she has eyes for.”

“Why do you care? I thought your beady eyes only saw Izzie.”

I snicker, causing Cooper to turn on me.

“You can’t laugh at that,” he demands. “Your one-track mind is worse.”

“My bad.”

“We should’ve brought the cooler,” Cooper grumbles under his breath.

I want to laugh, but my first customer, Harper Whitacre, has stepped up to my table.

“Hi, Maddox. Here we are again.” She flashes a timid grin. “Except this time, you can’t run away.”

“I didn’t run,” I quip, but we both know better. I most certainly ran away as I always do. For our third mistletoe encounter, she’s got me cornered.

She curls her forefinger in a come-hither motion, and I give in, leaning forward on the table to meet her waiting pucker. Her glossy lips barely touch mine, and I’m not complaining. She doesn’t either and moves to Cooper’s table with a giggle as he braces for impact.

Watching them, I wonder if he’s kissed anyone since entering the Army. If I had to guess, my answer would be no. He’s too loyal to the woman who holds his heart without knowing it. I’m sure my stellar example isn’t encouraging him to take the leap and get out of the friend’s zone. Look what happened when I tried it.

Our little brother takes the opposite approach. Aaron gives himself away without considering the consequences, never committing to anyone or anything—other than baseball. He’s an everlasting sparkler, burning his chances of ever finding something real with a reckless brilliance that overpowers the world surrounding him. I’m not sure which is worse—his oblivion, Cooper’s sacrifice, or my hypersensitivity.

Aaron twists in his seat, excited to see if Harper purchased a kiss from him too. She matches his goofy smile with her own giddy version and makes her way to him. In the full-steam-ahead F-it style he’s perfected, he stands for a better angle and lays a long, sweltering kiss on her lips, ignoring rule number one. Cheers erupt outside the gazebo as they slowly part and wipe each other’s lips with a thumb. Her arms pump high above her head, encouraging the over-eager crowd on her way to the exit.

Aaron drops into the chair, his usual arrogance taking over his face. “Who’s up next?”

“We’ll see if you’re just as eager when Addie comes to our tables and not yours,” Cooper teases, knocking Aaron’s excitement down a few notches, and I swat a warning across his shoulder.

“Let him have his fun before he ends up like us.”

We get through the next dozen customers without incident or tongues involved, and a quick inspection of the line tells me Jada is about three back from the donation table.

“Great,” I let out between customers, and Cooper leans my way.

“What?”

“Do you know Jada Miller?”

“I’ve heard the name. What’s the problem?”

“She’s coming up in line. I knew her late husband, and we spent some time together at the duck race. She thinks it was a date.”

“Was it?”

“Not to me, but she asked me to kiss her, and I couldn’t. Carmen was there too.”

“Look at you, proving you’re Ember Falls’ most eligible bachelor like everyone thinks.”

“Shut up.” I dismiss the ridiculous comment. “Kissing her seemed wrong then and certainly now.”

He shrugs. “You’ve kissed twenty women tonight.”

“I know, but this one is different. We’ve spent time together.”

“Are you and Carmen exclusive?” he lowers his voice to ask.

“No, but—”

“It’s just a fundraiser, Madds. Everyone here knows it doesn’t mean anything. You’re not leading her on or cheating on whatever you got brooding with Carmen.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Who knows, maybe she has the hots for me and passes you by.”

“We can only hope.”

To keep the nerves at bay, I don’t watch the line but count the women who enter the gazebo. Jada should be next, and when someone stops in front of my table, my eyes reluctantly raise up her coat to her face.

“Carmen?”

“Veronica is rooting for us,” she whispers. “And I made an extra donation for her letting me cut the line.”

Grateful for Veronica yet again, I make the snap decision to honor her by following the advice I ignored yesterday. A sudden boost of adrenaline has me shooting to my feet to do what young people do and have some fun. Without regard for our audience, I take Carmen’s hand and guide us through the tables and down the back exit to a chorus of boos . I thought about disappearing with her like this every time I saw her at the house earlier, but I let our nosy company stop me.

She didn’t tell me she’d be here tonight, making this surprise feel like the perfect opportunity to follow through on what I promised myself. I won’t let an audience or my rollercoaster thoughts hold me back. There’s only one way to figure out how I feel about us …

At the first tree we come to, I gently push her back against it and break all the rules. The rules of the kissing booth and the ones I put on myself, preventing my heart from relinking with Carmen’s. My hands grip her waist as our lips clash through a kiss I’ll never forget. This is how free our first kiss yesterday should have felt. While I enjoyed every millisecond of that kiss, I’m uninhibited and unrestricted by pain with this one, and I never want it to end.

My heart races in my ears, drowning out the world. I can’t think of anything except all the ways I’ve wanted to savor her since she became mine all those years ago. Only this time, she’s not telling me to save my passion. Quite the opposite in fact. The verbal and physical cues I’m receiving from her are encouraging me to take more, touch where I want, and explore like we’re somewhere private. My blood heats a few degrees as she tugs me closer by the collar of my jacket, and our lips part on a deep, satisfied hum that originates in my toes.

I have no idea why it’s taken me so long to do this. The voltage we generate is inescapable, and I’m tired of running from it. Tired of living without this exhilaration, this passion, this woman.

“God, Maddox,” she says on an exhale, the hot air grazing my already steaming skin and sending the equivalent of sunrays through my veins. It’s twenty degrees out here, but with the way her body melts into mine, the park feels more like a tropical paradise.

“I don’t want to kiss anyone else but you.”

“Music to my ears,” she purrs, her lashes gliding open to find me in sensual slow motion. The undisguised hunger in her cobalt eyes does something to me, and I almost resort to dragging her to her apartment like a caveman.

Reading my mind—or I look as one-track minded as I feel—and says, “Come over tonight.”

The thought of holding her through the night flashes a vivid image, and my body shivers with greed. There’s no ambiguity in her offer, powering my imagination like an oversized generator, but I can’t allow myself to be that selfish. Not this soon. After all, I’d only unlocked the cage around my heart yesterday, and it needs time to acclimate.

“I want to … badly,” I confess on a long sigh. The truth is the only answer I can form with her body dumbing down mine. I push a hand over my hair and grip the back of my neck, searching for a way to function like the gentleman my parents and the Army raised me to be instead of a dog in heat.

“Why do I feel a but coming?” She continues searching my face for the answer.

“Not yet. Is that okay?”

“I meant what I said, Maddox. You choose the pace. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Say it again,” I demand, drawing her closer.

“I’m here with you and for only you. However long it takes and whether you’re here or in another state, I’m never leaving you a—”

I don’t wait for her to finish that sentence. It affects me in a way I can’t begin to explain, so I settle on showing her instead. With my body screaming for her, I lower my head for another taste and savor her until Aaron’s voice registers.

“Get back here. My lips are getting chapped!” he complains for the entire town to hear.

My forehead presses to hers in protest. Where did my commitment to ignoring our audience and having fun disappear to? “I don’t want to go back.”

“It’s okay. I’ll wait for you by the hot cocoa stand. However long it takes.”

The reminder hits home again, and I need to hold her again. Except this time, the fog of desire isn’t blocking out emotions I’ve kept tucked away, and I feel things changing. So. Many. Things. All the ways I held her through the many stages of our relationship growing up, pale in comparison to this one, and it’s opening something inside me. My heart? Maybe. My willingness to forgive? Sounds like the logical choice. My thoughts on a future I thought I’d never have? No doubt.

With a squeeze of my hand, she disappears into the darkness before I can finish analyzing what she just did to me. It will have to wait until my brain starts working again. My weak, neanderthal legs stumble back to the gazebo only to be received by a round of applause and an irritated little brother.

“Good Lord. It’s about time,” Aaron says while applying lip balm. “I had to pick up your slack.”

“I figured you’d thank me for that.”

“I’ll thank you for Jada—she is so hot.” He shoots me a grin over his shoulder and wiggles his dark brow. “But everyone else has been twice my age or older. More your speed.”

All three of our phones chime with a text, saving me from having to respond, and we dig into our pockets in unison.

Kendall: How’s it going? [kissy face emoji]

Aaron: Great until Madds dipped.

Me: I’m back so stop your whining.

Kendall: Why’d you leave? Did your lips get tired? [laughing emoji]

Cooper: Carmen cut in line, and he didn’t want an audience for that kiss.

Aaron: Which sucked. I wanted to witness their first kiss.

Me: Wasn’t the first.

Aaron: WHAT?!

Kendall: No way!

Cooper: Knew it.

Kendall: I need details … again with the secrets.

Me: I don’t kiss and tell. Hence the disappearing act.

Aaron: Damn.

Cooper: Can we get back to work, please?

Kendall: Kissing is work, Coop? You need to get out more.