The Kiss That Launched 1,000 Gifs (15 page)

“I, on the other hand, am totally doing it for charity,” Grace said. “But I’m still game. And I totally believe that we can do better than a thousand bucks for one second, but I guess that’s up to our listeners.”

Allison gave a quick, exuberant clap. “So you’re both really in?”

“For a good cause?” Ash said, smiling Grace’s way. “Totally.”

Grace nodded. “If it will put shoes on the feet of children, why not? But we have to at least reach $1,000, or it’s all off. That’s my deal.”

Ash grinned from ear to ear. Oh, they were going to reach $1,000 all right. He’d make sure of it.

“I guess we’ll see if Allison’s right,” Ash baited into the mic. “For every thousand dollars donated, Grace and I will kiss for one second. You have forty-eight hours to whip up a thousand bucks for charity, everybody. Make me a happy man, will you? Five dollars? Ten dollars? It all adds up, so give what you can today.”

When Ash showed up for volleyball practice that night, Brad gave him a nod in greeting, the corner of his mouth curving up in a smirk. “Loving the billboards, man.”

“Shut up,” Ash said, dropping his bag.

Brad laughed. “I would have thought that hanging half-naked pictures of yourself up around town would help you with the ladies, but I’m hearing that now I’m expected to dish out so you can see some action.”

Ash grew still. “You’re hearing what?”

Brad held up his phone, a smug grin on his face. “Got a text all about it. Kids need shoes like you need kisses, or something like that.”

Ash rolled his eyes. “Ignore it.”

“Too late,” he said, tossing his phone in his bag. “Already texted ten bucks to the number when I saw the chick you’ll get to lock lips with. She’s hot, man. Is she single?”

Ash felt himself tense. “Why? You want my seconds?”

Brad laughed. “Dude, she is literally kissing you out of charity. We both know she’d kiss me for free.”

“Her boyfriend might have thoughts about that,” Ash said as he started to strip down to his board shorts.

“Huh. Figures,” Brad said. “But at least I can follow her on Instagram now. The woman knows how to rock a dress. Does she dress like that at work?”

“Yep,” Ash said, putting an unnecessary amount of focus into untying his shoes to get ready to hit the sand.

“Well, then you definitely have a better view at work than I do. I work with all dudes, and none of them dress like that.”

“But you’d like it if they did?” Ash said, all innocence.

Brad glared at him. “Not what I meant.”

“If you say so.”

Brad let it go, putting his stuff to the side and starting over to the volleyball court. “Don’t worry, man. You’ll get your thousand bucks and get to kiss the girl. That should turn your frown upside down.”

Ash sent Brad the bird, earning a laugh before he sat down to take off his shoes and socks. Yet once he was ready to hit the sand, he stalled. Rather than getting up, he sat where he was as it settled in that Brad was right. Grace would literally be kissing him for charity, which meant it wouldn’t mean anything. Not to her. For Grace, it would be a couple seconds of personal contact and then back to business as usual.

How could Ash get excited about that?

Yes, the kiss had seemed like a great idea when he heard it pitched, but now that it was actually a thing? Now that it was all but certain that he would be kissing Grace in front of a crowd that would almost certainly have cameras?

How was he supposed to play that?

One thing was fairly certain. He wouldn’t be able to kiss her the way he wanted to. It would have to be a kiss for the crowd, not for them, and Phillip would probably be standing in line of sight and overseeing the whole thing. So how could he kiss Grace without really kissing her? What could be posted to YouTube and not come back to haunt him?

A lame, safe kiss. That’s what.

“Hey, Ash,” a female voice said from behind him.

Ash turned and spotted Jess, one of the few exes he was still friends with. They’d dated about a year back. Briefly. But Jess had been quick to read the tea leaves with him and shut them down before he made it past first base. In retrospect, Ash was glad they never really went anywhere, since she was now with Abe, one of his teammates. The fact that he and Jess weren’t true exes made Ash’s Tuesdays and Saturdays a whole lot easier.

He sent Jess his best version of a smile. “Hey, there.”

She smiled and wiggled her phone. “Got the text and donated.”

Did everyone he knew get a text? What was going on?

“Who is sending out all of these texts?” he asked, fighting the urge to reach for her phone.

“According to my phone, it was you.” She took in his look of confusion and tilted her head. “You’re saying you didn’t send it?”

“No,” he said, his thoughts shifting to his niece. He’d dropped by Fawn’s house before heading to practice and Megan had asked to see his phone. Now he knew why. “But I think you just told me who did it.”

Jess smiled. “Sounds like you have a solid wingman in your corner.”

“Solid wingman… ambitious niece. Tomato, tomatoe,” he muttered.

Jess came and sat next to him. “Oh, don’t act so put out, Ash. It’s pretty much the worst-kept secret ever that you have a crush on your cohost. I think that became pretty clear to the volleyball community when you traded in Thursday night volleyball practices for Latin ballroom lessons.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Dancing is a good skill… and good exercise.”

Jess leaned in, nudging her shoulder against his. “
Latin
dancing, Ash. That’s very specific. And care to remind me who competed in Latin dancing in college?”

Grace had. Anyone who read her bio knew that.

“Fine,” he said, giving up the fight. What was the point of denying it anymore? Yes, he had denied it when Jess had asked him point blank last year. She hadn’t believed him, but he had denied it. He hadn’t been ready to admit it back then, but now he was running out of time. He needed straight talk. “Will you answer me something, oh generous donor?”

“At your service,” Jess said with a smile.

“Let’s say that, hypothetically, you had to kiss a coworker for charity.”

“Hypothetically?” she teased.

“Yes. Hypothetically. And let’s say that hypothetically you—as a woman—have never given your coworker any reason to believe that you want this charitable kiss to be any more than an obligatory pressing together of lips.”

Jess gave him a once over. “Look at you, Ash. You’re nervous. How cute.”

He felt his face blush slightly. “Look, I just don’t want to overstep and piss Grace off, okay? I mean, I can see everything going wrong no matter which way I play it, so I’m asking you—a sage female—how should I play this?”

Jess chewed her lips as she considered the question. “So you want to go all in while still giving yourself an out?”

Ash nodded. “Yeah. Especially since she has a boyfriend.”

“Ah, that does complicate things,” Jess agreed. “But, boyfriend or not, she won’t want this kiss to be awkward either. We all have our pride, Ash. Plus, I can promise she’s as curious as you are about what kind of chemistry the two of you will have. She’s human, after all.”

Of course Grace was human, but hearing Jess say it filled Ash with renewed hope. Of course Grace wanted the kiss to be good. Who wanted a gross kiss?

Jess paused to take a thoughtful breath. “I would just keep things light and be upfront about the fact that you plan to give everyone who donated a show. Grace seems pretty savvy. I think she’ll roll with that.” Jess winked at him. “Then give it all you’ve got.”

A slow smile curved Ash’s lips. “You are devious.”

She shrugged, standing and brushing off her shorts. “Most women are.”

Ash laughed. “But you’re serious? You think she’ll be good with an all-in approach?”

Jess considered that. “I would say no tongue. Don’t bridge that gap unless you’re following her lead, but yeah.” She winked again. “Give her all you got and see if she still has a boyfriend when you’re done.”

Ash laughed. “Oh, they’ve been together for three years. I don’t think he’s going anywhere.”

“Three years with no ring on her hand?” Jess asked, her lips pursing skeptically. “I dunno. Smells fishy to me. The timing might be right for someone like you to step in and shake things up.”

Then Jess left him with that food for thought.

What in the world had gotten into Grace? The woman was… was… was…

Vocabulary wasn’t Ash’s forte at the moment. All he knew was that he couldn’t think when Grace’s dark eyes were looking at him like… what, exactly? It wasn’t a flirtatious look per se. Although he was certain she was licking her lips more often than usual, and this was certainly the first time in a long time she’d gone sleeveless in the booth. It was normally too cold for her. But today she was showing some skin. Arms. Shoulders. Collarbones. A wisp of cleavage.

It was all Ash could do to keep his eyes up. But then he thought of the kiss and Jess’s advice—keep it casual, but give Grace a heads up that he planned on making the kiss something worth posting.

They owed it to their fans. They owed it to the station. They owed it to the charity. If they were going to kiss, they needed to make it good… for the children!

That was logical. Right?

“You seriously have nothing to say on the matter?” Grace asked into her mic, her tone more than a little impatient… as if she was repeating herself. Maybe she was. Ash honestly couldn’t say. His eyes dropped to her full lips with their sheen of lip gloss, trying to remember what she’d just said. He drew a blank.

He was bombing. Grace had dominated him on all the talking points that day. In the back of his mind, he knew that for certain, and yet the rest of his brain was quite content.

Bathrooms. They were talking about bathroom etiquette for men vs. women. The toilet seat, shave clippings, messy counters, yada yada. It was well-trodden territory, and Ash had succumbed to the female point of view long ago. Growing up with no brothers had pretty much made adapting to estrogen-induced whims a survival skill. That said, Ash was supposed to be a voice for men, not necessarily for himself. He needed to step things up.

He cleared his throat, picking up the conversation from the last spot he remembered: toilet seats. “Look, the way my family dealt with the toilet seat thing was to put both lids down each time. That way
every
one had to move at least one lid up to use the toilet and put it down after they were done. Equal treatment for all. Problem solved. But the dirty counters? There’s no way you can tell me scattered makeup is less annoying than whiskers from shaving.”

“Hair clippings versus product in little containers, Ash? There is seriously no comparison.”

Ash? Since when did Grace call him Ash? Well, since yesterday. He knew that. But why the change? It was playing with his mind a little bit.

“They’re totally the same,” he countered. “I don’t want all the powders from your makeup on me anymore than you want my random whisker remnants on you. It’s like the toilet seat compromise. If one of us needs to clean up every time, we both do. You put your makeup away and wipe down every time, and I clean up my whiskers. Fair’s fair.”