Chapter 10 #6
The word kid made her eyes go dark, but Dutch still smiled, pointing to the chair next to Rachel's. “Sit. Let’s get you guys tatted up.”
“Not fair! Kell knows what he’s getting and I don’t,” Rachel complained.
“Just go with it, Rachel. Learn to relax.”
“As if that’s a valuable skill,” she joked.
“It is. I saw you do it by the fire this morning. Maybe being stuck here in Maine will teach you something.”
Dutch’s eyes jumped from Kell to Rachel, eyebrows arching. He just gave her a half smile and motioned to Rachel’s arm.
Henna tattooing was an ancient art form, and by the time Dutch was done, his request was stunning.
She’d taken the pattern from one of the pages of the binder and added what looked like an anime lemur head in the center.
It could have looked cartoonish, but Dutch managed to give it depth and whimsical beauty.
It was a shame it would wear off in ten to twelve washes.
“Done?” Rachel asked.
“No peeking! I have to do Kell’s now.” Grasping his hand in hers and blushing furiously, Dutch bent her head and got to work. “Your arm’s harder.”
“Why?”
“Hair.” She was searching for a clearer spot.
“He’s half bear,” Rachel declared.
“Nothing I can do about it,” he groused.
“You weren’t this hairy in D.C.”
Dutch’s eyelashes lifted again.
“I shaved and had short hair. Sometimes I wore a suit.”
Dutch made a choking sound. “You? In a suit?”
“He was stylish,” Rachel said with a sigh. “Very metro. Very cut.”
Dutch caught his eye and mouthed, She likes you.
It was his turn to blush.
Bending back down, Dutch put the finishing touches on his design, blowing lightly on his arm, her face red enough to blend in with any heart costume.
A mom with two little kids, bundled up and exploding with excitement, walked up to the pavilion. Dutch looked conflicted, like she was eager for the new customers and their money but didn’t want Kell to leave.
“Okay. Open your eyes, Rachel.”
She did as told and burst out laughing.
“Oh, no, Kell! A lemur?”
Twisting his forearm, he showed Rachel his matching one. “Of course.”
“Poor Leo lives on.”
Kell grinned and added:
“She was beautiful and kind and smart,
But she got her tail caught in a cart.”
“Oh, no,” Rachel groaned, Dutch glancing at them with curiosity, but her new customers took precedence.
Kell continued:
“I was confused by a schemer
After saving a lemur”
He paused, knowing what he wanted to say next, the move bold. Once he crossed this line, there was no turning back.
Go for it, he told himself. Take the leap.
He finished with:
“But Rachel Hart has stolen my heart.”
Those beautiful eyes flared, Rachel’s look of surprise and interest making him wonder if she felt it, too. The day had been so much richer than he’d expected.
He wanted more.
She reached for his hand and smiled. “Stolen? That implies I did it without consent.”
“Then I need another word.”
Rachel’s phone buzzed repeatedly and she reached in her pocket with her untatted hand. “Must have caught internet.”
“There’s a router so people can use their credit cards,” Dutch explained as the mom and kids looked over a sheet of her designs, deciding.
Rachel turned to Dutch. “This is gorgeous. You’re such an artist. Thank you!”
The girl beamed, handing Rachel a trifold pamphlet. “This explains how to care for it.” She looked up at Kell. “You know what to do. That must be the hundredth tat I’ve given you.”
“Call me the henna guinea pig.”
With a wave, Dutch turned to her new customers, and Kell felt a swell of pride.
She was a sweet kid, and as the youngest in his family, he’d never had a little sister.
Dutch was close enough. They were distant cousins, connected through a maze of genetics, and she needed more help than she got at home.
Putting some cash in her pocket while letting her practice something that built up her self-esteem was a two-fer.
As they walked, Rachel stared at her wrist, grinning. Her other hand brushed his and he took it, threading their fingers together, the zing of attraction growing as she squeezed back.
Warmth emanated up from where they connected.
He couldn’t help himself. Hesitation be damned.
Rachel gave him a side-long look, but then glanced down. He moved closer to her, scouting the area for a private spot. After that almost kiss in the hot springs, and the easy way they were together today, he felt hope rising in his chest, his heart feeling a bit lighter.
Maybe.
Maybe the Rachel he’d liked so much five years ago was buried deep inside this one, and coming to the surface?
Could this work? Spending time with her had always felt natural.
Fun. Fulfilling and grounding. While she’d changed, and he certainly had, too, maybe they hadn’t changed so much that they couldn’t enjoy each other’s company.
Which is what he was doing right now.
Enjoying her.
And a kiss would make it all even better.
Bzzz
“That’s me,” she sighed, reaching for her phone, but pausing halfway. “No,” she admonished herself.
“You’re arguing with some part of you, huh?” he asked.
“I am.”
“You don’t have to be a workaholic.”
“Tell that to my boss.”
“Gladly. Give me your phone. What’s his name?”
“Hers. And no,” she said with a laugh as they passed an enormous oak tree, the trunk covered with a beautiful cable-knit yarn treesock in red and white, with thick red heart patterns knitted in.
This was his chance.
Pulling her closer to the tree, he rested her back against it and took a leap, his mouth on hers, friendly and pleasant, feeling her out to see if she felt the same way. When her arms went to his neck and wrapped around, her chest against his, he swelled inside, turning the kiss up a notch.
Thousands of moments flooded his mind, all the times he wondered what she’d taste like lining up inside him, the press of his hands against the textured yard sock, the way she pushed back against him to get closer making him hold her tighter.
She tasted like coffee. Like hope. Like years of questions finally answered.
Longing, years deep, rose up in him as he held her tighter and kissed her intensely, her lips parting, his tongue daring. The swell of need and the thrill of her response made him lose himself in her, and they were lost together, her hands pressing him closer, her mouth divine.
“GET A ROOM!” someone called out from across the common, making Rachel dip under him and put space between them, her cheeks pink with embarrassment.
Then she kissed him again.
Putting to rest any question that she was as interested in him as he was in her, the way Rachel kissed him was a preview of how she would be in bed, her hands wandering over his broad back, hips pressing into him, her tongue matching his inch for inch.
There it was.
Exactly as he’d hoped, the kiss was the right move. Heart pumping hard, he let himself revel in this, because while Rachel Hart wasn’t supposed to be in Luview, Maine, maybe she was meant to be here after all.
Bzzz
Rachel pulled back, then looked at her texts and frowned.
“Something wrong?” Kell asked as they stood there, his hand on her shoulder.
The deep frown took over Rachel’s face again as she read her messages more carefully.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s my boss, my assistant, and my boss’s boss. Work has exploded on me.” She sighed eyes jumping to the phone in her hand, clearly distressed by the new messages. “I have to get back to the trailer and my laptop.”
“Okay.” Not a word about the kiss? Uncertainty filled him, making him feel awkward, like a middle school boy taking his first chance at a romantic gesture.
He pulled her over to the gazebo, climbing the steps to the empty half; the other part was full of sound equipment and microphones.
Sound techs were setting up, getting ready for the welcome speech, the bands that would play happy love songs, and more.
The town’s public address system wasn’t piping the recorded music through any longer.
Sound checks dominated.
Kell leaned against the railing, pulling her in for a hug. “More of this, less of work.”
She gave a shallow laugh. “I mean it. I really need to go, Kell. My phone suddenly isn’t connecting to the public Wi-Fi.” Rachel took a few steps closer to a microphone stand.
“It’s interference from all the electrical equipment.” He paused. “You sure you don’t want to stop somewhere else in town before I take you back?”
“Where? Love You Chocolate?” She waved her tattooed arm in the air and he could see something was agitating her, the tone change alarming. “Where I can get some magic-water-infused chocolate that determines the rest of my career?”
“I’m trying to show you the real Love You, Maine.”
Bzzz
Another text, this one making her look a little sick.
“And I keep telling you I need to work,” she mumbled.
“You work too much.”
“Who are you to tell me how to live my life?”
“You’re in my town.” His words were meant as a joke, but they fell flat. He knew it the second her cheeks turned pink and she began to pace.
What a change in mood. Something about those texts was upsetting her, and as she paced, he realized he was misjudging the situation.
But it was too late.
“Oh, I’ve seen plenty of it! The real Love You is nothing but a backward town filled with people who are too stuck in their ways to see that they’re wasting so much potential!
Like the coffee shop, where they don’t even have skim milk or ground vanilla, and the menu is circa 2005.
Or the parking! Who puts nickels in meters anymore?
Upgrade the meters to use phone apps, and get an electric trolley system for the town like every other small tourist town!
How about the horny moose everyone just tolerates because…
because why? And then there’s you! One minute you’re telling Boyce not to trust me, then the next you’re trying to kiss me! ”
Screeeeeech
A hideous sound of feedback cut through the air, Rachel covering her ears with her hands, Kell suddenly noticing the microphone she was standing waaaay too close to.
His gut dropped. Every word of that rant had just gone out on the PA system.
Which was why every human being within view was staring, gape-mouthed, at the two of them.
“I’ll take you home,” he said softly. The feedback had subsided, and Rachel’s face was a mask of horror as she realized what she’d just done.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I do, actually. You can’t call an Uber here.”
“Oh.”
“Plus, uh... it’s more for your protection than anything else. You’re getting a lot of attention, none of it positive.”
He took her elbow, mentally figuring the most direct path through town to get back to his truck.
They were cutting through alleyways to get there, the stink of dumpsters reminding him of that day in D.C.
when he'd rescued her from the pedicab that ran over the tail of her lemur costume.
Had he somehow angered the gods with the lemur tattoo?
Hah. No.
He’d just let his guard down. Opened up, been playful.
And so had Rachel.
“I can’t believe I just did that,” she said, breathing hard as she hurried after Kell, his hand holding hers.
“But you did.”
“No, Kell. That was–I had no idea the mic was on! I never would have said all those things if I’d known!”
“Gotcha.”
“Everyone is going to hate me!”
“Already do. Can’t take it back.”
“Take it back? It was all true. I’m not taking it back, but I didn’t mean to broadcast it all over the entire town!”
Something on her phone had set her off, but he wasn’t about to ask. The cold reality of how little he knew about her life hit like a slap. Was she seeing someone in L.A.? Were the texts from work, or more personal? She said she didn’t have a boyfriend, but...
He was focused on getting her back to the trailer so he could think in silence.
Once they reached the car, she climbed in, set her bag of books on her lap, and rested her temple against the window, staring out for the ten-minute drive to Kenny’s. He pulled in the driveway and parked in front of the trailer, and the fire circle seemed like a memory from a million years ago.
So much changed so fast.
“I‘m the town pariah,” she moaned, her words full of regret.
“You meant every word of that.”
“I did.”
“And nothing I showed you had any impact.”
“It did. Of course it did.” Shifting in her seat, she looked at him. “Mo is wonderful. Dutch is adorable. The theater with the romance movies, the chocolate company, the hot springs–this is a town where people really care about each other, but it’s also a town that needs to innovate.”
“By selling out to big companies like Markstone's.”
“By making sure businesses don’t have to sell out to companies like Markstone's. Innovation is resilience.”
“Corporate jargon,” he spat out.
His words made her reach for the door handle, pop it open, and climb out.
“Thanks for a lovely time, Kell. I had fun.”
With that, she shut the door and stomped into the trailer, the sound of the thin metal door closing stirring up so much in him.
What the hell had just happened?
And where did they stand?