Kiss This (14 page)

Once outside, she took a deep breath of air.
It was gray and cloudy, but the coolness felt good as she trekked
down the steps to her car. She tossed the bigger bag into the trunk
and set the smaller one on the passenger’s seat. When she pulled
out her cell phone to start charging it, Teague’s note tumbled out
with it.

Her heart sank. She had two choices: call
him or stop by. Either way, saying goodbye was going to suck and
she didn’t want to deal with it. It was not supposed to come to
this. Since when did she develop feelings for a guy so quickly? And
all this time he didn’t do a single thing that was grounds for
kicking his ass to the curb.

She slammed the door shut and returned to
the house.

She’d call him on the road.

***

“Slow down, asshole,” Jay grumbled. “You
know Tommy’s gonna kick your ass if he sees you banging around his
babies like that.”

Teague ignored him as he continued to
haphazardly shelve some new boards that came in that afternoon.

“So big deal, she didn’t call or stop by
today,” Jay continued. “Maybe she’s busy, man. The world does not
revolve around you.”

“It sure doesn’t,” Teague finally replied,
shelving another board. “But she’s the only real thing that’s
happened to me in the last five fucking years. I’m not stupid, Jay.
I’m jumping on it.”

“Yeah, I’d jump that, too,” Jay chuckled.
Teague kicked an empty box and nailed him in the thigh. “What the
fuck?”

“Jumping at the
chance
, dipshit.
Don’t talk about her like that.”

Jay kicked the box out of his way and shoved
his hands into his pockets. “Okay, fine. I get it. You found a babe
that’s worthy in your book. So what’re you gonna do when she heads
back to Cali?”

Teague shrugged as he unwrapped the last
board. “I’ve got a couple ideas.” He glanced at the clock. Perfect
timing. He’d spent half his day thinking about Camryn and barely
got his shit done. It was a good thing Tommy wasn’t at the shop
today because he would have probably chewed him out a dozen times
for spacing out. “Why are you here, anyway?” he asked Jay. “I
thought you worked at the garage until six today.”

“Wasn’t busy. Grady sent me home. ”

Teague barely nodded since he was already
thinking about Camryn again. Maybe tonight they’d hang out at her
mom’s house so Camryn didn’t feel so torn about being away from her
so much. And it would be good to be around other people. He could
barely keep his hands off her to begin with.

He still had four more days before he could
really show her what owning Teague McCallan would be like…

When Teague re-entered the store from the
storage warehouse, he made sure everything was good for Jesse to
close, and then left for home. Impulsively, he stopped at the store
to get flowers. He couldn’t think of the last time he’d bought
flowers for a girl, but for some reason, he wanted to for Camryn.
He didn’t even know if she liked flowers, but it didn’t matter. It
was supposedly the thought that counts, right?

He headed home first, showered, changed, and
ate something really quick. When he returned to his room for his
wallet and keys, he paused at the foot of the bed and stared at it.
He could still picture her curled up in his sheets, blonde hair
fanned over the dark pillow. He’d carried her there last night,
sure that she was going to wake up and object. But she didn’t, and
when he held her close to him again, she sighed and put her hands
on his arms like she wanted to keep him there.

He shook his head of the image and left the
house. He’d rather see her in person, anyway.

When Serena answered the door, she only
stared at him for a second. She looked confused, sad even. She
glanced at the flowers and frowned.

“Is Camryn here?” Teague finally asked.

Her eyes met his again and she slowly shook
her head. “No, honey, she’s not. She said she was going to call
you.”

Teague lifted an eyebrow. “Well if she did,
I didn’t catch it.” He’d had his phone stuck to him all day, even
with the sound on which was against Tommy’s policy. He was sure he
didn’t miss a call. He’d even taken it into the bathroom with
him.

“She left, Teague. I’m sorry. I thought
she’d call you.”

It took a moment for it to register—the look
on Serena’s face, and how she most likely pitied him right now.
“She went back to California,” he stated somberly.

“She had a work issue that came up. But she
said she was going to call you. I thought for sure…” Serena left
the sentence hanging.

Teague wanted to toss the flowers into the
garbage, but instead he forced a smile and handed them to Camryn’s
mom. “Well I’d rather you have these, then. I certainly don’t need
them.”

“Oh, thank you.”

“Okay, I gotta get going,” Teague smiled
again as he angled to leave.

“She’ll probably call tonight, Teague,”
Serena called after him.

He stopped at the steps and turned around.
“Yeah, most likely,” he falsely agreed.

“You should call her, though. You do have
her number, right?” she added.

“Uh, yep, I do. Thanks,” he replied as he
pounded down the stairs.

Total fucking lie…

Chapter Thirteen

Camryn slid to the floor at the back of the
room. She’d just gone through six hours of judging competitions,
and four hours of teaching advanced hip-hop classes. It was ten
o’clock at night, and she’d be repeating the day in another twelve
hours. This was the first few minutes she had alone all day
long.

“Hey, can’t get enough?” Sonja said, popping
her head into the hotel’s grand ballroom. “You’re the last one
here, chica.”

“Pull me up,” Camryn whined, holding her
hand out.

Sonja made it across the room and heaved her
into a standing position. “Sorry, babe. Your schedule was the only
one without a three-hour break this afternoon.”

“Meh, it’s okay.”

“I remember when I was the one judging
competitions, not running them. I swear you were in about seven
competing numbers each day,” she chuckled. “
And
the master
classes.”

They walked out of the ballroom and headed
for the elevators.

“Yeah, those were busy days,” Camryn agreed.
“Fun, but busy.”

“Even at a young age you were such an
amazing dancer, Cam. And you still are, more than ever. There are
huge things in your future, dear. I can’t wait to see the
incredible things you’ll continue to do. I’m so proud of how far
you’ve come.”

“Thank you,” Camryn expressed gratefully.
Those “incredible things” weren’t exactly in her plans anymore,
though. She’d done quite a lot over the last four years and was
proud of all of it, but two years ago she was looking forward to
other things in life instead. They’d been delayed unexpectedly, but
her goals had never changed. “Between you and Mimi’s mom, I would
never have come as far as I have,” she told her mentor.

“Well,” Sonja shrugged. “I know it was tough
for you and Melanie. I never wanted you to stop dancing, so I
didn’t mind taking students to competitions if an extra parent was
needed.”

Camryn knew very well that Sonja and the
other moms took her to more dance events and competitions than her
own mother had. Her dad did when he wasn’t working, but she was
already grateful enough that he paid for her classes and didn’t
want to burden him more. She made him believe she loved carpooling
with the other girls just so he didn’t feel bad.

As they traveled to their hotel rooms on the
seventh floor, the two reminisced about Camryn’s teen years. After
they parted at separate doors, Camryn’s phone rang the second she
set her bag down.

“Hey, you,” she answered.

“I didn’t know you were back early,” Brandon
said. “Melanie said you came home late last night.”

“When’d you talk to Mel? I haven’t even seen
her. She wasn’t home when I rolled in.”

“I grabbed coffee this afternoon and she
told me.”

“Oh.”

“So…can I come over?”

“I’m actually in LA for the weekend, judging
a competition for Sonja until Sunday night. I leave Monday
morning.”

“Ah, okay. We’ll get together Monday, then.
So how’d the day go?”

She continued to chitchat with Brandon for
the next ten minutes as she removed some clean clothes from her
suitcase and tossed them on the bed. She was dying for a hot
shower, especially when he asked the question she was dreading.

“So…how’d things go with that guy up north?
Melanie said you were actually dating and stuff which…kind of
surprised me.”

Her heart fell as she turned on the shower
to warm up the water. Knowing he’d eventually ask, she was already
prepared with an answer. “Oh, I left before anything came of it.
How’s your new job going?” she asked, changing the subject.

She listened to his reply for another minute
as she stripped off her sweaty clothes with one hand. When she
finally got off the phone, she set it on the counter and stepped in
the shower to wash away images of Teague.

It never worked.

***

“Eeeeee!!” Melanie squealed as Camryn walked
up to the house. She threw her arms around her sister and squeezed
her tight. “God, I’ve missed you and you’re even home
early
!”

“Have you even been home much?” Camryn asked
as they walked through the front door together. “Every time I
called you were out somewhere.”

“I was here twice and it sucked. There’s
something wrong with me; I can’t be alone.”

“You’ve always been that way. Even when we
were little you always had to be wherever I was.”

“Well, Mom was never available. If she was
home, she was always reading her romance novels or watching soaps.
How do you think I learned how to kiss?”

Camryn laughed. “Soaps?”

“Hell, yeah. If I wanted to spend time with
Mom, I just watched a soap opera. And the first time I learned of
the word ‘cock’ was from one of her books.”

Camryn rolled her eyes with a smile as she
hauled her bag to her room. “You read Mom’s romance novels?”

“Well, I opened one up once and just read
through the page she was on. I think I was twelve.”

“My God, Mel. Is that when you asked me what
‘burning hot channel’ meant?”

Melanie laughed out loud. “Possibly. I
remember asking you that, but I’m not sure when it was. And you
told me it meant a really popular TV station!”

Camryn laughed with her. “Well what was I
supposed to say?”

“Did
you
even know?” Melanie wondered
honestly.

“At fifteen? Probably not. I didn’t learn a
lot of that stuff until I was with Zach. And even then it’s not
like people use that kind of language. Do they? I might’ve busted
up laughing if he said something like that to me. Even the word
pussy is funny.”

Melanie giggled with agreement. “Okay good,
I’m not the only one. But does it sound okay coming out of
Teague’s
sexy mouth?” she teased.

Camryn knew she was just fishing for
information and didn’t mean any harm. But Camryn felt her chest
squeeze slightly, so she busied herself with unpacking. “Nah, I
don’t think he ever said that word to me.”

“Ooh, then what did he say?” she
grinned.

Camryn shrugged. “Just… I don’t know. He was
cool to hang out with.” She picked up her dirty laundry and headed
for the utility room.

Melanie was right behind her. “So what’d you
guys do?”

She wasn’t ready to talk about this with her
sister just yet, but at least Camryn could face away from her as
she started a load of laundry. “Just hung out.” Melanie was silent
behind her and Camryn didn’t like it. When she chanced a glance
behind her, Melanie was staring at her with her arms crossed over
her chest.

“Did you let him kiss you on the mouth,
Cam?” she asked quietly with surprise.

“No,” Camryn replied immediately.

“Then why are you all weird talking about
it?”

“I’m not being weird. I’m doing a load of
laundry.”

“I’m not stupid, Camryn! You’ve never been
this evasive. You don’t give a shit about any guy and you’ve
offered up anything I want to know without acting annoyed. Why is
Teague different?”

Camryn only sighed and shook her head,
refusing to answer.

“Cam? What’s going on? Please tell me.”

“I liked him, okay?” Camryn retorted. She
slammed the lid to the washer and pushed start, then turned around
to face her. “He was the first guy that…” She couldn’t finish it.
She brushed past Melanie and left the room, praying that her sister
would just drop it.

But with Melanie, that was asking too
much.

“The first guy that what?” she asked,
following her to the kitchen. “The first guy you didn’t want to
punch? The first guy you didn’t want to cut down to size for being
an arrogant ass?” She couldn’t get a reaction out of Camryn, so she
stopped beating around the bush. “The first guy that you cared
about since Zach?”

Camryn froze with the refrigerator door
open. Then she closed it without getting what she came for. Turning
around, she sighed. “I wanted to, okay? I
wanted
to kiss
him. Yes, it’s the first time I’ve ever felt that way about a guy
since Zach. I just… It scared the shit out of me.”

“I understand,” Melanie replied softly.
“Camryn, don’t be upset. I know this is hard for you but…it was
bound to happen. You are gorgeous, and smart, and funny, and any
guy could fall in love with you if you gave him a chance. If you
actually found one that made you feel that way, then don’t be
scared to go with your instincts.”

“Melanie, I don’t really feel like talking
right now, okay?” Camryn said quietly. “Between all the emotional
shit with mom, and then that stuff… Not now, okay?”