CHAPTER 43
Kennedy
“Babe?” she asked when she walked into the back of the empty shop.
“Front!” River yelled.
Kennedy smiled and locked the back door she had just entered from using the key River had given her for just that purpose and pushed open the door that led to the front of the shop. River was restocking candy in one of the giant barrels, but she looked up and smiled at Kennedy.
“Hey. What are you doing here?”
“You’re closed, right?”
“Yeah, just got the last customer out of here and locked up. Did I know you were stopping by?”
“No,” Kennedy replied and placed her bag down on the counter. “I missed you.”
River stood up fully and said, “Yeah?”
“It’s lonely at my rental when you’re working.”
“Going stir crazy?” River asked.
“A little, yeah.” Kennedy walked over to her. “I talked to Zane. They still want me for this mom movie.”
“Mom movie?” River asked before Kennedy leaned in and kissed her. “Ken, we’re closed, but those are glass windows,” River pointed out.
“Honestly, I don’t care anymore, River. I’m not saying we should make out on the street corner, but we’ve only had dates at my place or yours, and I want to be able to take you out for real.
” She wrapped her arms around River’s neck.
“I talked to Jessie today. She thinks it’s still too soon for Cam and me to not have questions about cheating and moving on too fast tossed our way, but I’m going to talk to Cam to see if she’s okay with it because I want to be able to grab coffee with you in public and not worry if I want to hold your hand, or just have dinner in an actual restaurant. ”
River wrapped her arms around Kennedy’s waist and said, “As long as you’re doing that because you want to and not because you think I need it.”
“You’re not tired of having to keep this quiet?”
“No, but I’m also not a celebrity, so it’s different for me. Compared to you, my relationships have always been private.”
“You know this means that your shop will be even busier than it has been, right? And it also means that even if we don’t officially come out as a couple, once people see us a few times, they’ll know, and you’ll be in the public eye. It changes everything, River.”
“I know. I don’t really care about the public eye thing. I just want to make candy and run my shop.”
“That might get hard.”
“How hard?”
“River, people won’t just come in here for candy. They will come in here to take pictures of you or with you, ask you questions about you and me, and it could get hectic.”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” River replied.
“So, maybe not now, then?” Kennedy said, but she was really asking.
“Can I still make candy in the back?”
“What? Of course, you can. It’ll die down, too. Maybe by then, you’ll have like five shops all over Southern California, and you’ll be running your empire from an office-slash-kitchen where you can make whatever you want whenever you want to.”
“I don’t know about the whole empire thing. I’ve been thinking about one day opening another shop someplace else, but that’s years from now.”
“LA?” Kennedy asked, hopeful.
“I don’t know. I started turning a profit, and I thought about it more and more since we’ve stayed so busy.”
“I vote for LA.”
River chuckled, backed Kennedy up, and said, “And I vote we continue this conversation in the back because anyone can see us.”
“See us what, River?”
“Well, I’m about to kiss you for real, and I don’t really want anyone getting that on camera.”
River continued to back her up until Kennedy stopped to pick up her bag. Then, Kennedy turned and walked the rest of the way herself. River closed the door behind them, and Kennedy set the bag on the desk chair before she turned back around to face her.
“How much more work do you have to do before we can go home?”
“None. I was just restocking, but everything else is done for tomorrow. Why?”
“Want to make out upstairs instead? Maybe take it to your bed?”
River moved into her, gripping Kennedy by the hips, and turned her until Kennedy’s back was to the counter.
“Yes, but not yet. The back door is locked, right?”
Kennedy smirked and replied, “Yes, I locked it.”
“Good. Cal sometimes just comes by whenever, and I do not want to have her walk in on what I’m about to do to you. She wants to meet you, by the way.”
River slid her hands under Kennedy’s dress and lowered her bikinis.
“Okay,” Kennedy said. “Set it up.”
“Yeah?”
Kennedy spread her legs, thinking River was about to touch her, but instead, River lifted her at the waist and promptly deposited her on the counter.
“Oh,” Kennedy said.
“Yeah. You stay there. Lean back, though.”
“Oh, fuck,” she said and leaned back on her elbows.
“Upstairs, if you want. Right now, I’m going to do something else.”
River knelt in front of Kennedy and lifted her dress. She rubbed Kennedy’s thighs, and Kennedy watched as River took her in.
“How would you feel about having the shops, but working mainly in a kitchen making whatever you want?” she asked.
“Um… Ken?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m about to go down on you here.”
“River, I’m serious.”
“So am I,” River said and kissed the inside of her thigh. “And I don’t know. I like working in the shop.”
“Pretend you had a few shops, and you could go from shop to shop, making whatever you want in a kitchen you own, too.”
“We’re having this conversation now, aren’t we?” River sighed and stood and.
“River, it’s important.”
“I want to have sex with my girlfriend. Can’t I do that first?”
“You can do that after,” Kennedy said with a smile and sat up, wrapping her arms around River’s neck.
“Babe, when we come out, it might get unsafe for you to be here and work out front. I don’t know how crazy people will get.
I’m thinking about how we can make this work with you being safe and happy. ”
River placed a hand on Kennedy’s cheek and said, “We haven’t been together that long, Ken. Are you sure you want to come out with me on your arm already?”
Kennedy nodded and replied, “I’m sure about you.
” She smiled. “And I’ll have to go back to LA at some point.
I call it a mom movie, and I was resisting it.
Then, they didn’t want me anymore, but they do now because Cam and me are done.
It’s all so ridiculous, but I might do it, and if I do, I’ll be in LA.
You’d be here. I’ll go back and forth whenever I can – whatever we need to do to see each other, since I know you can’t just take a bunch of days off here – but I was thinking about the future. ”
“How far in the future?”
“Why? Scared?” she teased.
“No. I’m curious.”
“Well, I had this idea, assuming you don’t get sick of me, that you could maybe spend more time in LA and open another shop just like this one.”
“I could, huh?”
“Yes. And you could spend some days here, some days there, and maybe in that future time period, you’d be moving in with me and have someone else run this location day-to-day while you transition to making candy full-time or maybe not full-time, but you get the idea.”
“You’re planning out my entire career?” River laughed.
“It’s your career, River. You can do whatever you want. I’m thinking out loud and trying to make sure you and I can both get what we want.”
River wrapped her arms around Kennedy and asked, “What do you want?”
“You.”
“And?”
“To make movies and maybe do another TV show one day.”
“In LA?”
“Primarily, yes. But I’m not opposed to buying something here and just going up there when I need to. I wake up early already, and the studio will send a car, so it’s not that big of a deal.”
“Okay. How about this idea?”
“Go on.”
“While you do this movie, we go back and forth however we need to. You can lose the rental and stay with me, but we don’t come out just yet because once that happens, everyone will know you’re here, and it’ll be a mess.”
“So, tell no one until after the movie?”
“For now, yeah.”
“Okay. Keep going.”
“Well, since I can’t afford to lease another shop, stock them both daily, and hire enough people right now – I’m not asking for you to pay for that, either, so don’t get any ideas, Ken – if you’re really considering buying something down here or somewhere between here and LA by that time, and we want to move in together, we can. ”
“Move in together?” she asked with a smile.
“Not tomorrow,” River replied. “But that will give me time to plan the business and figure out what I want. If I want another store, or if I want to run my own homemade candy place to supply my shops and let someone else run them. I have never been able to really plan what I want, only dream about it.”
“You’d really consider moving out of your apartment?”
“Yes,” River said with a little laugh.
“Into a house with me where there’s maybe a pool?”
“Oh, the pool would be a requirement,” River joked. “To me, the important thing isn’t that we have a definitive plan yet, but that we want one.”
“You know I’m better in the black and white.”
“I know. And this is pretty black and white for me.” River pressed her lips to Kennedy’s forehead.
“I want you. I want us to talk about all of this. But the most important thing is that we’re together, and we’re talking about all of this like it’s going to happen.
It might be that we move in together next year or a year after that, and that we live here, or in LA, or, hell, in New York, even.
I’m not a big fan of the gray areas, either, but I’m okay with not knowing all of that just yet if it means I’m with you and we’re talking about it. ”
“You make the gray areas sound good,” Kennedy replied.
“Want to share them with me for a little while until we start to get things figured out?”
Kennedy nodded and said, “I’m going to have my assistant extend the rental until I have to go to LA for pre-production, though. Is that okay?”
“It means you’ll be here, so, yes.”
“Can I make some slight alterations to your apartment upstairs, too, since you’re saying yes to things right now?”
River laughed and asked, “What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing. I just… I want some of my things there for when I stay over.”
“Oh. Yeah, leave whatever you want,” River replied. “I guess I could buy another dresser.”
“For me?”
“In general.” River shrugged. “The one I’ve got is small. I’ll have to move some of my stuff around to make room for yours, so I can just get a bigger one, and we can share. Black and white enough for you?”
“For now,” Kennedy said with a wink and kissed her. “Thank you.”
“You know how you can really thank me?”
“How?”
“Lean back and let me finish what I tried to start a minute ago.”
River knelt in front of her again, and Kennedy leaned back on her elbows.
She knew she’d never felt this sure about anything in her life, and that included her career at every stage and her previous relationship, even in its best moments.
She and Cameron had waited for two years to move in.
Kennedy had gone ring-shopping at some point, yes, but she’d never actually bought one, and she certainly hadn’t asked Cameron to marry her.
Now, with River, she’d been thinking and planning for the future, and it felt so right to her that she hadn’t even been scared to bring it up this early in their relationship.
Kennedy knew she was in love and had been since they’d made fudge together in that kitchen.
As River licked her, Kennedy ran her hand through her hair and could see everything they’d just talked about.
River wearing a suit on the red carpet with her at the premiere of this movie that Kennedy didn’t really want to do, but it was something, at least. She could see them looking at houses together, and she knew she’d have to be the one to pay for it, but she hoped River would consider owning it with her.
Kennedy could see it all, and it was okay that it could all come in time and not immediately because with River, she could live a little in the gray right now.
Maybe the gray was the best place for them to be in this early phase.
River was about to make her come in the back of her candy shop.
Then, Kennedy would take her upstairs and use what she had brought in that bag of hers since River only had things she’d used previously with someone else, and Kennedy didn’t want them to use anything that they’d used while they’d been with other people.
“Fuck!” she said when she came.
“Want to?” River teased after she stood and wiped her mouth.
“Yes, I do. Now. Let’s go.”
“Why go anywhere at all?” River asked and cupped her.
“Here?”
“I just ate you out on the counter, babe. Why not?”
Kennedy gave River a playful shove backward and went to stand.
“I bought us something. Want to try it down here? You have never… I mean, back here, right?”
“Had sex? No. Well, now I have,” River said and licked her lips, causing Kennedy to laugh. “You bought us something?”
“Yes. I know you haven’t had the time to pick anything up, so I ordered things online and brought one of them with me because I thought we’d go upstairs, and I’d try to make you dinner.
I didn’t think that part through, though, because I didn’t go shopping for actual food or bring anything with me.
Can you cook something, and I watch? I’ll get better at cooking, I promise. ”
“God, I love you,” River replied with a laugh.
Kennedy sobered, and River stopped laughing when she realized what she’d just said.
“Oh, shit. I–”
“Did you mean it?” Kennedy asked.
“I… I did, yeah. I just shouldn’t have blurted it out like that. I know it’s soon, but–”
“Let’s go upstairs,” she said, wrapping her arms around River’s neck.
“I thought you wanted to…”
“I don’t want that anymore. I want us to be in bed and with you on top of me when you say that again. I don’t want us to fuck in this kitchen. I want us to make love in bed after we say that for the first time.”
River gave her a somewhat worried expression and replied, “We haven’t said it.”
Kennedy pressed her lips to River’s for a few seconds, letting their lips graze after, and whispered, “I love you. Make love to me?”
River nodded and kissed her slowly.