About That Kiss (9 page)

“Are you insinuating I don’t know my way around a kitchen?” Joy asked, feeling some relief that they weren’t going to be a threesome.

“Do you?” Nick questioned teasingly.

“Not as well as my mother, but certainly better than Diana. My sister doesn’t put out dinner without a phone. She doesn’t even have to use her last name when she calls in an order.”

Nick grinned.

Joy thought about what she’d just said. “I didn’t mean for that to come out the way it sounded.”

“It sounded to me like amused affection.” Nick quickly gave her his opinion. “I know how much you love Diana.”

Joy sighed deeply. “When we were young and we shared a bedroom, we’d put our hands out to each other before we went to sleep and we’d say, ‘Don’t let the bedbugs bite.’ I don’t know why we said that. Of course, there weren’t any bugs. We just said it. I think it meant I love you.”

Nick smiled tenderly at her reminiscing, but it wasn’t Diana he wanted to talk about. “About your cooking…You’re going to have to prove your skills to me, if you want me to believe you.”

“You’re on,” Joy smiled. “I will cook you dinner one night.”

“How about the first night I move into my new place?” If he had his way, he’d be moving her in with him.

“All right. The night you move in,” Joy agreed, a total sucker for the mischief in his very blue eyes. God! If he didn’t get her one way, he got her another. “We’re going to have to start out first thing in the morning if we’re going to accomplish any house hunting. I know Diana and Kevin made early dinner reservations for all of us. You haven’t forgotten, have you? We get to debate the wedding menu tomorrow.”

“Right.” Nick nodded his head though he had forgotten.

“I just realized Ms. Louella didn’t call today.” Joy’s hands came together around Nick’s neck while her mind was on Diana’s turmoil over the shortening of the train on her wedding gown.

“She called while you were out getting more paint with Rachel. I gave her Diana’s message.”

“You did?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I was jealous of Rachel today,” Joy confessed in a whisper as her mind skittered off Diana’s wedding gown.

Nick’s eyes turned an even more brilliant blue. “Not half as jealous as I was over Eddie DeMarco.”
Nick held his breath then, hoping he wasn’t going to turn her away by opening his heart again.

“Rachel is my best friend. That makes it worse,” Joy insisted, trying to decide if she believed him while her fingers drifted into his hair.

Nick shook his head, barely. He was well aware of where her fingers were and he didn’t want to dislodge them. “You didn’t go to the lengths I went to.” He winked at her.

“I did what I had to do,” Joy said with her eyes tantalizing him. “I made sure you and Rachel didn’t get an opportunity to be alone together.”

“Nothing would have happened.” Nick grinned, feeling on top of the world that she hadn’t disputed his admission of jealousy this time. “I’m just a wolf around you.”

“And a bull,” Joy bantered, letting the playfulness between them carry her.

Nick groaned prankishly.

She moved out from the light hold of his embrace before she said, “I’m going to bed now.”

“Sure,” Nick quipped. “Now that you’ve killed my night’s sleep. Will you at least think about me before you nod off?”

“Maybe,” Joy parried.
Could she think of anything else?

“Joy.”

His voice stopped her. “Yes?”

“Don’t let the bedbugs bite,” Nick whispered.

“I still say the second house we went to is the one you should rent,” Diana insisted, as they all sat around the kitchen table. They’d returned from house

hunting and dinner at the caterer’s restaurant an hour ago.

“I liked the third house we saw best,” Joy refuted.

“The owner didn’t do a thing to that house.” Diana made a face. “How can you compare that to a house where the kitchen and bathrooms have been redone?”

“They should have been done in keeping with the Victorian charm of the house,” Joy countered. “Nick can always have the bathrooms and kitchen redone if he decides to buy later on.”

Diana turned her head to Kevin. “Have Nick show you both houses. I can see the one I’m talking about all decorated in my mind.”

“Sweetheart,” Kevin said with a smile, “let’s go back to talking over the wedding menu and let Nick figure out which house he wants for himself.”

“You’re right, sweetheart,” Diana answered distractedly. “But let’s just settle this first. Nick, which house did you like better? The second one or the third one?”

“Nick might want to see a few more houses before he decides,” Emily Mackey broke in diplomatically.

“I probably should see a few more,” Nick responded absently. He was more concerned with the discomfort he was feeling in his stomach than which home he’d preferred.

“My vote is still on the lemon-mustard chicken,” Kevin said, redirecting the flow of the conversation to the array of food they’d so recently sampled. “And I’m adding the cracked crab in butter sauce. Put those both on the buffet and I’m happy.”

“The black mushroom tomato sauce with sausages,” Joy said. “I don’t know how I missed trying that before. You tasted it and liked it, too, didn’t you, Nick?”

“Uh-huh.” He had liked the dish when he’d tasted it but he wasn’t so sure now.

“I still say Swedish meatballs go a long way.” Emily Mackey spoke with the voice of wisdom.

“Mom is right,” Diana smiled. “The Swedish meatballs, for sure. Nick, what did you think of the cold shrimp with ‘green’ mayonnaise?”

Nick felt himself turning as green as the shrimp dish he’d had. “I hate to break this to you. But you’d better get another caterer. I think I may have gotten food poisoning.” Nick put a hand to his stomach.

“Kevin, he’s doing it again!” came Diana’s hysterical outpour. “How can you have food poisoning when none of us are having a problem? I’m not sick. Kevin, are you sick? Joy? Mom?”

“I am not trying to ruin your wedding,” Nick insisted, getting as angry as he could, considering there was a steamroller riding over his guts.

“It could be something else,” Joy said frantically. “Your appendix…Oh, my gosh!”

“His appendix came out when he was ten years old,” Kevin said, looking torn between Diana and Nick.

Nick could just imagine the doubt plaguing Joy’s mind. Where the hell was his luck? How could he be the only one to get sick? “It’s the food. Joy, you’ve got to believe me. I won’t eat at the wedding. Will that settle it?”

“No, that won’t settle it,” Diana stormed. “Nick, if you’re faking this, I’m going to kill you. And I’m going to have Kevin kill you!”

“Diana,” Emily Mackey reprimanded severely. “Stop it right now.”

“I’m taking him to the hospital,” Joy said decisively, already on her feet.

“We’ll all go,” Diana said.

Half an hour later they had their answer.

“He’s had a reaction to shellfish,” the doctor explained to the party of four in the Emergency waiting room. “I’ve given him a shot and a prescription he can fill tomorrow. Give him a couple of minutes for the shot to take and he can leave.”

“Can I go see him?” Joy asked, her heart finally returning to its normal pace.

“Just give him a minute,” the doctor responded, already stepping away.

“I feel terrible,” Diana said, sinking back down into a couch. “Hold it a second…Does he know he gets a reaction to shellfish?”

“Sweetheart,” Kevin said patiently. “Nick would not make himself intentionally sick.”

“You’re right,” Diana acquiesced as Joy took off for the treatment area.

“Nick Tremain?” Joy asked, inquiring directions at the nurses’ station beyond the waiting room.

“The fourth door down.” One of two nurses behind the desk pointed the way.

“Bet he’s married,” Joy heard behind her back.

“The gorgeous ones always are,” the other nurse concluded.

“You’ve made a hit with the nurses,” Joy said, walking into the room where Nick was resting, his hands behind his head, his chest bare. The white shirt he’d worn to dinner was tossed onto a chair.

“Come here.” Nick took one hand out from behind his head to pat the side of the bed.

Joy sat where he’d indicated. She wanted to run her hands across his chest and tell him she loved him.

“Diana’s sorry,” she said.

He wanted to ask her if she was positive in her mind that he hadn’t tried to put a chink in the wedding. “So you liked the third house we saw?” he asked instead.

“Yes,” Joy answered.

Nick smiled. “My choice, too.”

“L
ie down with me,” Nick coaxed. “Please.”

It was a few days after Nick’s bad reaction to shell-fish and Joy had agreed to accompany him on his furniture shopping spree. But she wasn’t about to agree to his proposition. “No,” Joy answered resolutely, glancing again at the bed on the display room floor.

“You are difficult.” He eyed her with a rapscallion grin.

“Nick…” Joy squealed in shock as Nick lifted her off her feet. “Will you put me down? Everyone in the store is looking at us!”

“I’m not buying a bed without testing it out.” Nick tumbled Joy onto the bed and quickly stretched out next to her. “Bounce a little. No, bounce a lot.”

“I am not going to bounce a little—or a lot,” Joy said upbraiding him, but she was laughing.

“How are we going to know if these springs are going to hold up?”

“Will you behave yourself!” Joy went to sit up, but Nick’s arm came down over her shoulders, keeping her pinned in place and giggling.

A bespectacled salesman in his late fifties approached. “Can I be of any help?”

Nick gave a theatrical performance of a guy harassed. “She is a handful. Sees a bed and she doesn’t care where we are.”

Joy sprang to her feet as Nick released her. “This man accosted me in the store. I don’t even know him.” Joy’s eyes mirthfully flashed to Nick as they stood opposite each other with the king-size bed between them.

“Will you tell the nice man you’re lying, before you get me arrested.” Nick smiled. “See that little tick by her eye. She always gets it when she’s lying. And sometimes after I’ve kissed her.”

“I do not get a tick,” Joy stated, but she felt around her eyes to be sure.

“You had a tick by your eye the first time I kissed you.”

“I did not,” Joy said, though she did remember trembling.

“Yes, you did.” Nick stood his ground.

The salesman was following along, his head going back and forth between Joy and Nick as if he were watching a tennis match.

“That tick of yours is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Is it?” Joy’s cheeks got pink.

The salesman cleared his throat. “If you decide on something, just call me over.”

“We’ve decided,” Nick said, before the man got away. “This is the set she likes best. I’ll take it.” He’d also chosen the house she’d liked best. It was the third house they’d seen the day they’d gone looking with Diana.

The salesman took a pad and pen from the pocket of his shirt and began writing. “There’s a ten-day delivery,” he said.

Nick picked a credit card out of his wallet and handed it over. The salesman walked off to the counter to ring up the sale.

“How do you know I like this bedroom suite best?” Joy asked. “I haven’t commented about any of them.”

“I saw it in your eyes.” Nick gave Joy a knowing look.

“You really should have brought Diana along. She’s so much better at decorating. She can picture it all in her head. I can’t. What if this set is too big for the room?” His wanting to please her taste thrilled Joy while at the same time it made her crazy.

“If it doesn’t fit right, I’ll take a piece out and put it in another room. Okay?”

Joy punched Nick’s arm. “You gave that salesman the impression we’re lovers.”

“We are.” Nick quirked a seductive smile. “Even if it’s still just in name only.”

Joy scooted away from him rather than tackle that comment. “Are we going to look at furniture for the rest of the house?” she asked instead.

“Just housewares for now and we can call it a day.”

“Housewares?” Joy asked, strolling with Nick to the cash register as their salesman motioned them over.

“Pots, pans, dishes, silverware, glasses. Oh, and a blanket. Where would they have blankets?”

Joy was taking notice of a suspicious look in his blue eyes. “What do you need a blanket for now? You won’t have the bedroom set for ten days.”

“We need a blanket for the picnic we’re having tonight. I want that meal you’ve been promising me, even if I’m not officially moving in yet. Can’t wait any longer, babe,” he said, grinning into her eyes.

“What am I supposed to cook?” Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat. She didn’t need him to tell her that a meal wasn’t all he was after.

“Steaks. Baked potatoes. Salad, which I will cut up for you. I’ve already shopped and its all just waiting for your special touch.” He’d purchased everything he could think of to make the meal complete, including a bottle of wine.

“Uh-huh,” was all Joy could think to say, as Nick handed the signed charge slip over and received his copy. There was little she could do to combat him.

They unpacked together in the kitchen of Nick’s new home, putting away everything they’d purchased that day except what they were going to need for their meal. Nick had signed the lease on the house just a few days ago. And, as he had discussed with Joy, he had indeed selected house number three—the Victorian.

“Mmm,” Nick murmured, stealing a taste of marinade Joy had selected from the department store’s
gourmet shop. She was busily laying out the ingredients for their steak dinner.

“Will you make yourself scarce?” Joy pleaded. “I can’t cook with anyone watching me.” It was watching him lick his lips that had gotten to her—not that she wasn’t already wildly unnerved. How long did she think she could play with fire and not get burned?
Right, Joy Mackey!
So why are you here?

“Let’s have some wine first,” Nick said, taking the bottle out of the refrigerator.

Joy understood now why he’d insisted on adding a set of wineglasses to his purchases. He’d neglected to mention that he already had the wine. She washed and dried two glasses, while her eyes flitted his way as he dipped a hand into the last shopping bag and brought out the blanket. The kitchen, Joy told herself, with its brightly lit fixture was hardly the place for a seduction. That thought quieted her rapid pulse some.

“Bring the glasses,” Nick said, taking off with the bottle and the blanket.

“Why don’t we just have the wine in the kitchen?” Joy asked nervously but trailing after him with the glasses.

Nick put the bottle down on the hardwood floor in the living room and spread the blanket out.

“Sit,” he ordered.

“I’ll stand.” Joy’s eyes skittered down to her unsteady hands holding the wineglasses. “I want to put the steaks on. You’ve got to be hungry. All we had for lunch was that hot dog in the mall. I know I’m starving. You must be starving. I can’t believe that one hot dog has held you till now.”

Nick sat down on the blanket with his eyes raised up to assess her. “Sit with me for a minute. Have a couple of sips of wine and then I’ll help you get dinner on. You’re not afraid of sitting down next to me, are you?”

Joy lowered herself to the blanket. She sat Indianstyle with the two glasses gripped forcefully in her palms. “Is that mistletoe?” she asked, gazing upward at a sprig dangling from a dimly lit Victorian fixture above her head.

“’Tis the season,” Nick grinned.

Joy scooted over to get out from being directly under the sprig.

“Too late.” Nick shook his head.

“It’s not too late,” Joy argued, her pulse skyrocketing through the roof. How would she ever get over him if she didn’t put an end to it now?

“It’s too late and way too long,” Nick whispered. “Do you know it’s been an entire week since I’ve kissed you?” He pried both glasses out of her hands and put them down next to the bottle on the hardwood floor.

Joy quickly got to her feet. He looked up at her with mystified eyes. Bending at the waist, Joy plopped a kiss on his mouth and straightened back up.

He grinned at her boyishly. “Is that it? I risk life and limb to climb up a ladder that I found in the basement—and which is missing three rungs, might I add—to hang mistletoe, and that’s all I get?”

“Poor baby,” Joy laughed, already making a dash for the kitchen. “You should have bought a new ladder,” she commented over her shoulder.

He chased after her, catching her easily. Hands to her elbows, he raised her up off her feet at the doorway to the kitchen.

“Put me down!” Joy demanded, laughing as he lifted her even higher, demonstrating his strength.

He let her down, but he didn’t let go. “Kiss me right first, and I’ll behave for now.”

Joy put her lips to his. Keeping her mouth closed, she kissed him lightly. A fleeting smack.

“I’ve got to tell you, I’ve had
better,”
Nick taunted, still not releasing her.

“From Diana?” Joy brought up the specter between them, though she knew perfectly well that wasn’t what he’d meant.

He let go of her then. Silence ticked along for several seconds, then Nick asked quietly, “Do you really believe that?”

Joy turned away. What she believed was that she was much too near making an utter fool of herself and losing her heart forever in the bargain.

Nick’s hands circled her upper arms and forced her to turn back around. “Are you using Diana to erect a barrier against me? Are you afraid to trust any guy? Is that what this is all about?”

“I—I’m afraid to trust
you,
“ Joy confirmed.

He watched her face, looking for a lessening in her position while he dropped his hands. “If Diana is between us, it’s at your insistence, not mine.”

Joy’s determined gaze met his. “I know if Diana decides she wants you instead of Kevin that will be it for me.” All she had to do was look in a mirror to evaluate that she wasn’t any competition.

The hair bristled at the back of Nick’s neck, and his shoulders tensed. “Do you realize you’re not giving me a way to prove myself to you? What happens after Diana and Kevin get married? Am I off the hook then?”

“I don’t want to be second-best,” Joy said belligerently.

“You are hardly second-best,” Nick returned tightly. “If you don’t know that, if you can’t feel it, then I can’t show it to you or say it to you in any better way than I already have.” Nick jammed his hand through his hair. “I’ll cut up the salad. You can put on the steaks. If you’d rather, I can put the steaks on, as well.”

“Nick…” Joy said shakily as he started to walk into the kitchen. She really didn’t want to push him away. She kept doing it, but she didn’t want to.

He came right back to her, the anger in his blue eyes falling away with amazing speed, to be replaced by gentle sensitivity.

“I don’t know how to reach you,” Nick groaned. “Do you know that?”

Joy’s head bobbed up and down. Her bottom lip was quivering. “Could we just start this evening again?”

A smile wiped the pained expression off his face. “How about one more little kiss to bring peace back between us?” He brought his head down to place his mouth within easy kissing reach.

Giving him more than the price he asked, Joy put her arms around his neck and kissed him with all the feeling inside of her, taking from him everything he gave back.

Nick smiled as their lips parted. “Now that’s a kiss. Are you sure you want dinner?”

“Yes,” Joy lied sprightly.

He gave her a suggestive head-to-toe scan. “I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I’m going to make a believer out of you yet.”

Joy raised a tentative hand and ran a finger across his mouth. “Keep trying, okay?”

“Okay.” Nick winked. “Now put those steaks on, woman, before I find that finger of yours too tempting.”

He hustled her into the kitchen before he could change his mind and lead her back to the blanket. “You know that expression about food being the way to a man’s heart? Does it work for women?”

“No,” Joy laughed, giddy and loose again.

“Give me time,” Nick grinned.

Joy smirked impishly, while in her head she prayed,
Please let this be for real.

They worked together in companionable silence. Nick took care of the salad while Joy put the potatoes in the microwave and started preparing the steaks.

Nick nearly sliced his finger open, so intent on enjoying the sight of Joy being domestic that he’d let his attention wonder from the task he was performing.

“How do you like your steak?” Joy asked, finding his blue eyes already on her.

“Still pink inside.”

“Me, too.”

“Sour cream or butter for your potatoes?” he asked.

“Sour cream,” Joy answered.

“Me, too,” Nick said.

And for no reason either could imagine, that made them both laugh.

“What about salad dressing?” Joy still had a smile on her mouth.

Nick took out an oil and balsamic vinegar dressing from a cabinet above.

“Mmm,” Joy murmured. “I think I’ll give that a try.”

Smiling, Nick put the dressing on the counter. “Do you know you send shivers through me with that ‘mmm’ of yours?”

Joy rejoined, “You sent shivers through me when you said ‘Mmm’ before.”

“Mmm,” Nick murmured, giving it his best.

“Mmm,” Joy whispered back, trying to outdo him.

And again they both laughed.

It took no time at all for their dinner to be ready. They took their plates and bowls into the living room. Nick put his dinner down on the blanket and went back to the kitchen for silverware. Joy looked at the two as-yet-unused glasses and the bottle of wine. She gazed up at the sprig of mistletoe.

Nick came back with silverware and napkins and a can of soda, as well. “We don’t have to drink the wine.”

“I’d rather have the wine,” Joy said, her voice almost a whisper.

But she drank only half a glass to the two he had while they clumsily worked at cutting their meat in the plates set on their laps.

“Next meal we have at a table,” Nick grinned, breaking the tension that had crept back in.

Joy ate ravenously, though Nick finished his steak, potato and salad way before she did. He took the plate and bowl from her and set it next to his.

“More wine?” Nick raised the bottle, wishing he’d thought to purchase a stereo system. A tape deck. A radio.

Joy shook her head.

Nick smiled. “Can’t get you inebriated, huh?”

“No.” She matched his smile.

He put the bottle down, not really wanting any more himself.

“Nick…” She wasn’t looking directly at him as he lay there, stretched out and braced up on an elbow, while she sat with her feet curled up beneath her.