Summer Kisses (The Kingston Brothers #2)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

HAZEL

" I dropped my handkerchief. Would you mind grabbing it for me, dear?" Grandma asked me.

I ducked under the table, on my hands and knees, grateful the announcer hadn’t started calling out Bingo numbers yet. As soon as I saw the white cloth embroidered with delicate flowers and the initials MH, I reached for it. I heard a ding, then saw a ring rolling away from me.

I covered it with my hand, then slowly lifted my palm. It was a diamond ring. An engagement ring.

My heart was racing with the possibilities. Where had it come from? Who lost it?

I should stand up and ask whose it was. But no one else had seen it.

I'd dreamed about what it would feel like to be the owner of such a ring.

It would just take a second to see how it would look on my finger.

Before any sense of reason returned, I slipped it on my finger, the handkerchief forgotten.

My heart rate slowed. It was beautiful, shiny, and delicate.

"What are you doing?" I heard the familiar rumble of Brady's voice, and before he could join me, I grabbed the handkerchief and scrambled out from under the table. I lifted my hand toward Brady, fully intending to tell him about my find, when everyone gasped.

"Are you engaged?" But before I could respond, Grandma sighed. "It's my dying wish that you get married before I go."

Brady was staring at me with a strange expression on his face.

"Since when are you dying?" Gram's friend Sofia asked her, exasperation evident in her tone.

Grandma waved her hand. "I knew you and Brady would get together one day. I just didn't think it would be this soon. You've made me so happy."

My hand was still suspended in midair. I should tell them that I'd found it on the ground. That it wasn't mine and we needed to find the owner. But the words were stuck in my throat.

Grandma clasped her hands together. "I can't wait to plan a wedding. This is going to be amazing."

Grandma had been feeling down lately. An engagement would make her feel better and give her something to look forward to. But I should tell her it wasn't real. That I wasn't even seeing anyone, much less engaged.

I implored Brady to save me like he had a million times over the years. From the bully at school or a guy's attention at the bar, Brady always came through for me.

He scrutinized my face for a few seconds and then closed his hand over mine. "We couldn't deny the attraction anymore."

I shook my head slowly as a smile spread over his face. I couldn't argue with him. Not here. But we'd be having a conversation when we were alone.

This had to be some kind of joke. Drop a ring on the floor and see what Hazel does with it?

I'd been wanting to get married for as long as I could remember. I was enraptured with the fairy-tale renderings of love and romance, and the magic had never truly gone away. But I wasn't a princess, and Brady wasn't my prince.

We were friends. Childhood best friends but that's all we would ever be.

Our friendship was too important to ruin it by telling him about my silly schoolgirl crush. I thought it would go away as I got older, but it had only intensified.

"You always said there was nothing between you—" Grandma began.

"We were worried about ruining our friendship—" I floundered for the perfect explanation as to how we were suddenly engaged.

Brady placed his arm over my shoulder, pulling me into his side. He squeezed my shoulder in a silent plea to go along with whatever plan he'd concocted in his head. “We should have known that we were headed for this.”

I felt stiff next to him, smiling despite the awkwardness of the situation. Everyone at the table was staring at us with a mixture of happiness and confusion. I couldn't blame them. A few seconds ago, I was single. Now I was engaged to my best friend.

One by one, everyone stood to hug and congratulate us. This was quickly spiraling out of control. It was too late to say that it wasn't real. That I'd found this engagement ring on the floor and I needed help to find the owner.

"You have some explaining to do," Elena said to me.

My mouth opened and then closed. I couldn't blame her for being confused. As far as she knew, I was single.

Grandma leaned forward to say," We'll have to plan an engagement party to celebrate."

Before I could respond, Grandma turned toward her friends, talking a mile a minute about an engagement party that was never going to happen because I wasn't actually engaged to my best friend, and any minute someone was going to call us out on our blatant lie.

Brady sat next to me at the table, his arm flung casually over the back of my chair while everyone at the table talked animatedly about our engagement, our party, and even the wedding.

I should be in full-blown panic mode, but I was mesmerized by the sparkler on my finger.

I forced myself to look away from the diamond and hissed at Brady, "What did you do?"

His expression was amused. "You looked like you needed to be rescued."

My heart contracted that he'd read my plea for help correctly. "Yeah, but you made everything worse. Now Grandma thinks we're engaged."

A smile played on his lips as he leaned in close. "Trust me."

I trusted him as my friend. But could I trust him with something like this?

This was some kind of trick. Any minute someone would jump out and yell surprise. But the longer we sat there, the more I wondered about how I'd feel if this situation was real. What if my best friend had proposed, and I was wearing his ring on my finger?

I gazed down at my finger, the sparkling diamond, the promise that he'd be with me forever. Grandma planning an engagement party and then a wedding. The entire thing felt like a dream come true, and for one night, I could pretend it was real.

Brady leaned in as the announcer read the numbers for bingo. "What's going on in your head?"

"I can't believe this is happening or that you went along with it."

Brady inclined his head toward Grandma. "Look how happy your grandmother is."

She was beaming at her friends as she occasionally checked her bingo cards for the numbers the announcer was reading over the microphone.

She was happy, and I had been worried about her. "Yeah, but?—"

He squeezed my shoulder again. "No buts. "

I wanted to know what his plan was, because pretending to be engaged was not a sustainable plan. Not when we had no intention to get married.

But for now, I refocused on my bingo cards and the weight of Brady's arm on my shoulders. Occasionally, he'd lean into me, his warmth and masculine scent surrounding me.

My senses were heightened. His chuckle reverberated through my body.

For now, Brady seemed to have some kind of plan, and I'd have to go along with it until we were alone.

When the event was finally over, Brady and I walked Grandma to the shuttle.

"Are you sure you don't want us to give you a ride home?" Brady offered like he always did.

Grandma winked. "I'm sure you two lovebirds want some time alone."

I began to shake my head. "That's not nec?—"

Brady pulled me in close. "That's thoughtful of you."

Grandma beamed. "You two enjoy your evening."

With a wave, she got on the shuttle, and Brady tugged me toward his truck. I bit my lip, determined not to break character until we were alone.

When we were in the cab, I turned toward him. "What were you thinking?"

Brady shook his head. "I was thinking you needed saving, and I did the only thing I could think to do."

I threw my arms in the air. "Agree with Grandma that we are engaged?"

Brady put the truck into Reverse and backed out of the space. "Can we have this conversation at home? I don't want people thinking we're having our first fight."

"Ugh!" I groaned and turned to look out the window. "You're unbelievable."

Brady was quiet as he drove me to his house. He parked, and we got out, meeting on his porch like we had a million times before.

Inside, he took my hand and led me through the house to the back patio. His cottage was on the beach, and he loved sitting out here when he wasn't working or doing something with his family.

He started a fire.

I tapped my foot, waiting impatiently for him to be done. "Are you going to say something about what happened back there?"

"I rescued you."

"So you've said." I stood and paced in front of the fire, feeling his gaze on me. "But you've made everything worse."

He raised a brow. "How did I do that?"

"Grandma thinks that we're engaged. You know, about to be married." I pointed at the ring. "She's already planning an engagement party, a wedding. The whole shebang."

"You're the one who had a diamond ring on your finger. Care to tell me what that was about?"

I tipped my head to the side, my hands landing on my hips. "Are you insinuating that I'm dating someone?"

"I would hope not." He chuckled as he took a seat in one of the Adirondack chairs. "That would mean you're cheating on me."

I growled in frustration. "We are not engaged."

He raised a brow. "Where did that ring come from?"

"Grandma asked me to get her handkerchief. You know the embroidered one with her initials on it?"

Brady nodded.

Grandma had held it in her hands, wrapped around her bouquet when she married Grandpa. She said it was special to her because of that. "When I picked it up, a ring fell out of it. Do you think we picked up somebody else's ring?"

"We were the ones that set up for the bingo, and no one at our table was missing a ring. Otherwise, they would have said something."

I started pacing again. "That's probably true. But we should still try and find the owner."

Brady leaned back in his chair, his hands folded behind his head, his expression one of amusement. "How do you suggest we do that?"

"We could hang up flyers around town, post on the community page?—"

"But everyone thinks it's our ring, and that we're engaged."

I stopped pacing, my heart racing. "We have to tell them it was a mistake."

"That might work except I went along with the whole thing—agreed that we were engaged."