Page 17

“I hope so,” she murmured as they stopped by her car, unlocking it. The flashing lights brightened the night for a heartbeat.

Deciding to risk it, he leaned around her and opened the door for her. “I had a really nice evening tonight, Kel. Thanks for asking me to join you.”

She looked up at him, the action bringing her face closer to his. In the muted glow from the only light in the parking lot, he caught the way her tongue darted out to moisten her lips. Tate bit back a groan. Memories from earlier in the day when he’d been tempted to kiss her in his kitchen slammed into him. His blood heated and his lower body tightened in his jeans.

He didn’t miss the increase in her breathing. “Kel?” he asked, sure of what he wanted but not wanting to assume she wanted the same thing.

“Tate,” she whispered and swayed a fraction toward him.

He rested his hand on her hip and lowered his head, keeping his eyes open. If she pulled back, he would give her space. Only she raised her face and their lips met. His eyelids drifted down and relief swept through him.

Her lips were soft and sweet beneath his. He could taste the lingering orange flavor from the zinger donut she’d eaten. Her hands clasped the front of his shirt, and he tightened his hold on her, angling his head to deepen the kiss. The second her mouth opened beneath his, he bit back a groan. Never in a million years would he have imagined he’d be kissing Kelly Turner, yet here he was and she was kissing him back.

As much as he wanted to keep going, he pulled his lips away and peppered her with a couple of soft touches before finally dropping his hands to the side. As first kisses went, this was the best he’d ever had.

They stood looking at each other for endless moments, as if reluctant to say anything and burst the fragile bubble of contentment surrounding them. Eventually, Kelly made the first move, as he seemed unable to.

“Good night, Tate.” She slipped into her car, closing the door with a click that echoed around the empty area.

“Night, Kel.”

Chapter Six

“Dammit,” Kelly mutteredas she tossed away another bloom she’d cut too short. The day hadn’t been going well at all. Every time she looked at a flower all she could see was Tate’s face as he bent to kiss her.

Oh God, what had she been thinking to let him kiss her like that? Of their own volition her fingers crept up and touched her mouth. If she closed her eyes, she could remember the feel of Tate’s touch. The way his lips moved over hers. The sweetness of his embrace.

“Kelly, are you okay?”

Her eyes flashed open and she spied Mom looking at her intently. “Yeah, I’m fine, just a little frustrated. This arrangement isn’t working out the way I wanted it to.”

“I can see that,” her mom responded drily. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”

No way was she going to tell her mom she’d kissed Tate Prentice. What had she been thinking? She needed to nip her wayward thoughts in the bud, no pun intended. They had to work together on the logistics for the festival. The last thing they needed was to muddy that arrangement with a relationship of some sort.

A snort erupted out of her.A relationship with Tate.Yeah, that was as likely as Betty Lou changing her hairstyle and eyeglasses on the same day.

“Well, clearly you don’t want to answer my question, so I’m going to assume that maybe it has something to do with your dinner with Tate Prentice.”

That was another reason not to even consider doing anything with Tate—the whole town would know. It had been three days since their dinner at the diner and still people looked at her and asked how Tate was. After the third time of being questioned within the space of fifteen minutes, she wanted to lock herself away from everyone. Of course, she didn’t—that wasn’t her. She faced everything head-on. Something new would board the gossip truck and she and Tate would be forgotten. She just had to hang in there a little longer. At least it wasn’t as bad as when she was a teenager. Back then, she’d thought her life was over.

“Mom, as I told you when you called me at seven in the morning after our dinner, there’s nothing going on. We were working on the Founders’ Day festival stuff. I’d had a meeting at his place that afternoon. We were just recapping everything and discussing some new ideas.”

Her mom picked up the discarded flower stems from the worktable, studied them for a moment before tossing them in the trash can. “You keep telling yourself it was a working dinner, Kelly, but that’s not what everyone who was in the diner told me.” Her mom leaned a little closer. “Every single person said sparks were flying between the two of you.”

Kelly rolled her eyes and snatched up another bloom, this time cutting it the right length. “Those people see things they want to see. Trust me, Mom, there were no sparks.”

“Okay, dear, but I’m just saying, he’s a good-looking man. You could do worse.”

“Mom!” A flush of heat warmed the back of her neck and she wished that a customer would walk in. “Stop it. He’s too young.”

“Oh, honey, age is relative these days. It doesn’t matter if he’s younger than you. I bet if he were older, you’d be giving him a second look.”

Kelly didn’t want to examine too closely how accurate Mom’s comment was. She didn’t want to think she’d treat Tate differently if he was older than her, but she couldn’t deny she probably would.

Society always seemed to accept the older man-younger woman scenario without much issue. However, when the roles were reversed, more gossip surrounded older woman.

“I don’t know. As I said, we’re working together on making sure the festival is a success. Any sort of relationship between us could cause more issues with the planning than we already have.”