8. Ada
Iwas so tired by the time I got ready to sleep, that I almost couldn’t appreciate the cloud that was my new bed. And it was my new bed. I’d called the nanny service, pretended to be Joseph Carrington’s assistant, and canceled the contract. I felt terrible for stealing someone’s job but I was desperate. Spending a day in the mansion had made me want to spend several more days in the mansion. It was like a drug. Or potato chips. I couldn’t stop at just one. Even as I tucked Milo into bed, I’d been thinking about taking him swimming the next day.
I couldn’t get over the world I’d walked into. It was all so magical that I barely felt guilty about the lie I was perpetuating. I wasn’t a nanny, but I’d taken care of Milo all day and we’d had a great time.
I’d read through the binder of rules and most of it was common sense. That made me feel a bit better. Then there was other things that I didn’t understand. There was a whole section about the kids’ mothers. Using the word ‘whole’ made it seem like it was a thick section, but that wasn’t true. It was a couple of paragraphs that specified I wasn’t to bring up their mothers. Due to conflicts, they didn’t want me to accidentally upset the children by talking about the woman who’d birthed them. I found it beyond odd but I was willing to adhere to that rule.
We hadn’t seen another Carrington for the rest of the day but I’d gotten an email copy of the nanny rules, to go along with the binder copy and I’d followed the schedule for feeding Milo and getting him to bed. I’d already set my alarm to make sure I woke up in time to be there for the little tike in the morning. Milo was going to be a much better morning partner than Camden ever was.
As I adjusted the pillows under my head, I waited for the sadness over Camden to hit but it didn’t. All I felt was a sense of relief that I wasn’t lying next to him, being forced to pretend like I didn’t hate the way he tucked his face into the back of my neck and drooled on me. I stretched my limbs out in every direction and didn’t reach a single edge of the bed. I was in heaven.
Thinking of Camden and his drool made my brain sprint in the other direction and suddenly an image of Joe Carrington popped into my head. Joe, standing outside of Collin’s office, his pale blue eyes boring into me. There was something about his eyes that felt familiar and I hated the way it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I’d never been around any of the Carrington men outside of the diner and it was obvious that we’d never held eye contact before because they didn’t recognize me as their waitress.
I rolled onto my side and squeezed one of the luxurious pillows to my chest. That was enough thinking about Joe or Collin or Camden. I was going to sleep peacefully for the first time in months and I wasn’t going to let anyone ruin it.
*
Mallory pushed me into the kissing booth with a wicked laugh and then smirked when she saw I wasn’t laughing along. Her high ponytail swung from side to side as she bounced in place. “Just do it, Ada! Eric asked me to go out with him tonight. If I work the kissing booth, he’s not going to want to kiss me. Plus, you need the practice!”
I grabbed the rough wooden edges of the booth and glared at her. “I can’t, Mallory! Just find someone else. I can’t kiss all those guys.”
She looked over her shoulder and waved at another one of her friends. When she glanced back at me, I could see she was already out with Eric in her mind. “Sorry, Ada. Everyone else has a boyfriend. It’s for charity. You have to.”
I didn’t even get a chance to argue before she turned and jogged away. My stomach clenched and I turned back to the booth. The money jar sitting on the counter was empty and the picture of Ellie Hanover grinned back at me. She needed an expensive surgery. There were guys lined up waiting to pay for a kiss. Some of them were old enough to be my dad.
I forced myself to settle on the stool inside the booth and lifted my eyes to the first guy in line. It was Frank Gore and his grin made my skin crawl. I hated Mallory in that moment. I wanted to grab her ponytail and drag her back to the booth so she could do the job she’d signed up for. I wasn’t even supposed to be at the fair. If my parents found out I wasn’t at Jenny’s house, I was dead. Sneaking out was bad but sneaking out to a fair an hour away? D-E-A-D.
“Get those lips ready, Ada.” Frank pulled out a wad of bills. “How much for tongue?”
I cringed and was fighting tears when the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen walked up to the front of the line, cutting Frank off. He had eyes the shade of the sky and eyelashes that I would’ve killed for. His lips lifted in a slow smile and then he dropped several hundred-dollar bills into the jar.
“Walk with me?” He wasn’t just gorgeous. He was hot, hotter than any of the guys I was graduating with soon. His voice was velvety smooth and I was sure he’d never once stuttered or tripped in front of the girl he was flirting with.
Frank Gore and the guys behind him grumbled but I was out of that booth too fast to even pretend to care. The mystery guy met me at the side of the booth, the same place Mallory had just ditched me, and he offered me his hand. I’d held a boy’s hand before, but it was different with him. When I slipped my fingers through his, my heart sped up and I got wild butterflies in my lower stomach.
“I won’t make you stay with me if you don’t want but you looked like you didn’t want to be there.” He guided us away from the crowded parts of the fair and smiled down at me. “Are you okay? I saw your friend shove you in there.”
My mouth moved without my brain’s permission. “I owe you a kiss.”
He laughed. “You don’t. I just wanted to help out.”
I swallowed down the rejection because he was still holding my hand, and changed the subject. I wanted him to keep talking. “Thank you. I’m not even supposed to be here tonight.”
“How old are you?” His eyes moved over my face and lower, sending warmth coursing through my body.
“Almost eighteen.” My lips stretched in a wide smile. “Old enough.”
He laughed and the sound washed over me. “Oh? Old enough for what?”
I blushed. “Do you live here?”
“At the fair? No.” He grinned when I tugged at his hand. “On Lake Dun? Yeah. I do. You don’t.”
I pushed my hair behind my ear and licked my lips. “No. How could you tell?”
He looked away. “I would’ve noticed you around.”
My entire body flushed. I stopped walking and I had a moment of clarity. My mom was always talking about moments of clarity. I moved closer to his chest and took a deep breath. “I’ve… I’ve never kissed anyone before. If you hadn’t rescued me tonight, I would’ve given my first kiss to Frank Gore and I don’t think I could’ve survived that.”
His eyes flicked down to my lips. “That would’ve been a tragedy.”
“You paid for a kiss.” I glanced down at his lips and watched as his tongue peeked out to wet them. “I owe you a kiss.”
“You want to kiss me?”
I glanced around and saw that we were standing outside of the crowded fair. Not wanting my first kiss with this stranger to be interrupted by a screaming kid running past us, I pulled him farther outside of the fair. Behind the tents set up for games, I pulled him down next to me on a green metal bench and leaned closer to him.
“You paid for a kiss and I owe you a kiss. It’s only right.” I swallowed as nerves threatened to ruin my plans.
He smiled then, and as his hand slowly trailed up my arm, I knew I was about to experience magic. “You saved your first kiss for a long time. Are you sure you want to give it to me?”
His hand was already cupping my face and pulling me closer. My breath caught as our eyes met so close. “Kiss me.”
His lips brushed mine so softly at first that I wanted to scream. I opened my eyes, desperate to see if he was pulling away after such a gentle kiss, and found his eyes still open, watching me. I’d waited nearly eighteen years to kiss someone and I refused to let him tease me with a playground kiss and leave me dying for more. Whatever I wrote in my journal that night, it was going to be good.
I grabbed his shoulders and pressed my mouth to his harder. He made a sound that was a mix between a laugh and a groan and it made me a little crazy. I watched TV. I saw my friends make out with their boyfriends. I’d felt turned on and I’d touched myself before, but nothing compared to the feelings the mystery man was causing in me. Maybe it was a little wild for my first kiss, but I didn’t care. I climbed into his lap and stroked my tongue over his lips. I wanted to taste him.
His hands settled on my hips and I wrapped my arms around his neck, thinking he was going to push me away. Instead, he dragged my body closer to his and groaned into my mouth. “Too much?”
I loved the feeling of his lips moving over mine, the feeling of his tongue stroking mine. I didn’t want to stop kissing him to answer and I figured he got the point. I felt my t-shirt ride up and his fingers on the bare skin at my side. It was electric and I suddenly got it. I got what my mom’s romance novels were all about. I got what my friends meant when they talked about sex.
He hardened under me and I gasped at the feeling of it, pressing into my inner thighs. He shifted and apologized against my mouth but I pressed my weight into him and a breathy moan escaped my bruised lips at the feeling of his hardness against me.
He kissed down my jaw and the feeling of his mouth sucking at the skin under my ear made my hips rock forward on him. I didn’t think about him marking my skin or anything else but how right his mouth felt. I ran my hands through his hair and tugged at it. He pressed his mouth to my ear and nipped me with his teeth before rushing out a whispered question. “What’s your name, sweet girl?”
I opened my mouth to answer when movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I pulled away from my mystery guy when I realized I was staring at Mallory and she looked panicked.
She looked even more panicked as she saw me sitting on top of a random guy. “We have to go, right now! Your mom called Jenny’s mom and they know you lied. My mom’s freaking out, too.”
My stomach dropped. My mom was going to murder me. I climbed off of my mystery guy and winced when I looked down at him and saw him doing his best to hide the state of his pants. A wild grin broke out across my lips and I leaned down to kiss him once more. “Best first kiss ever.”
He grabbed my hand before I could pull away. “What’s your name?”
“Come on! If our mom’s talk to each other, they’ll make each other angrier!” Mallory’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m going to be so grounded.”
“Wait!” Mystery guy stood up and pulled me closer. “Your name.”
The moment of clarity had vanished and in its place was a moment of hazy magic. I felt wild and free and wanted to stay that way. I grinned up at him. “Meet me here tomorrow and I’ll tell you.”
He moved to kiss me but Mallory grabbed my other arm and tugged me away. His eyes stayed glued to mine. “I’ll be here. I promise.”
As our fingers slipped apart, I turned and ran with Mallory, my smile cemented on my face. It wasn’t until I was in Mallory’s car with her speeding back towards our home town that I thought about what I’d done. Why hadn’t I gotten his name or given him mine? What the heck was I thinking?
“Your parents are going to freak out when they see you if you don’t hide that hickey, Ada.” Mallory glanced over at me and laughed. “You skank. Who was that?”
I flipped the visor mirror down and screamed when I saw myself. “I need makeup. Where’s your makeup, Mallory?!”
“I didn’t bring it!”
I rubbed at the hickey on my neck and groaned. “I’m so dead.”
“Yeah, your parents are never going to let you leave the house again.”
It wasn’t until my parents grounded me and then wouldn’t budge the next night, no matter how much I begged and cried that I realized how much I’d messed up. They wouldn’t let me go, even for what I was sure was love, and my mystery guy was never going to see me again.
*
I woke with a start, heart pounding over a recurring dream of a memory a decade old. My chest rose and fell too fast, my panties were damp, and the strange sense of loss was still as present as ever.