Chapter Sixteen #2
I crossed my arms. “Did he also tell you he was messing around with Becca in the hallway before he turned Kung Fu Caleb?”
Opal gasped and almost choked on a chip. “Mira, your life is like a movie.”
I snorted. “A horror film.”
Sadey crumpled up her trash and pointed down Main Street. “First float. And what do you mean messing around with Becca?”
“I mean, she was latched onto his completely unbuttoned shirt and their faces were an inch apart. He definitely looked like he was about to kiss her.” Why did my voice drop to an embarrassing whisper on the last two words?
“Six more floats until Caleb’s.” Sadey air-balled her wadded up trash at the trash bin and missed it by a lot. She sighed and scrambled to retrieve it. “I suck at basketball.”
“Yeah, honey,” Opal said, scrunching up her face. “You do.”
“You’re pretty good at painting houses,” I offered. “You know, if playing professional sports doesn’t work out for you.”
“Five more floats,” Sadey said.
Darn my eyes as they searched for him.
Sadey pulled a bundle out of her purse. “I made these for us.” She held out two tiny flags that read McCreedy in yellow script letters. One of them was spelled wrong.
“Homemade?” I asked.
“Shut up. You get the misspelled one for that.”
We stood at the railing and watched the floats full of happy townspeople as they waved to the crowd below. Opal pulled up a chair and snatched the limp flag out of my hand.
“I’ll cheer for a McCreedy,” she said, stretching to see their float. “I’m sorry, sugar, but your daddy is a spicy looking man.” She lowered her voice and grumbled, “And Ms. Opal likes her sausage with a kick.”
I groaned but Sadey laughed. “I’ll tell him you said so.”
“Please do so with relish.” Opal waved her flag harder as the edge of the car the McCreedy’s were driving peeked around the side of a huge float of a makeshift football field. A huge billy goat hung in mid-air, head-butting a giant football.
Sadey poked my elbow with her flag. “He likes you, you know.”
“Who Evan? He doesn’t like me. He just wants to boink me. Or at least that is what he told me before he got pummeled by your other brother.”
Sadey sighed in exasperation. “The other brother is of whom I speak.”
“Please. Caleb has made it clear, on several occasions, that I would ruin his precious reputation and that he doesn’t have feelings for me. I embarrass him.”
“Yeah,” she conceded. “He hasn’t handled things very well. You should have seen him at Sunday dinner. He was a mess.”
I tossed her a worried look, and she smirked. “I knew it.”
“My feelings have no effect on his feelings, Sadey,” I reminded her.
Sadey shrugged and cheered, waving her tiny flag gallantly.
I rested my forearms onto the wooden railing and swung my gaze to the refurbished Model T that made its way toward us in the street below.
Caleb waved and nodded to people. He greeted old friends and acquaintances and shook hands with some of the older men who approached the car.
Evan and Brian acted similarly in the back seat, and Mr. McCreedy waved and drove like a pro.
Even if I was mad at Caleb, I couldn’t help the jitters that fluttered in my stomach when I watched him.
I hadn’t seen that smile before. He seemed relaxed, in his element.
These were his people. The ugliest part of me let go of the lingering anger.
Of course, he should stay away from me. He was right.
His father and brothers were right. How could I be so selfish to think he should give up his relationship with his town in order to be with me?
On top of everything else, Caleb had been honest with me from the start.
He had never hinted with words that he cared about me as anything more than his project.
His debtor. Not to mention, he was dealing with being a newly turned bear shifter.
He had no room in his life for me. I’d been foolish to get so worked up over a man who had done nothing wrong—who hadn’t led me on.
The anger at myself was as sharp as the crack of a whip, and I bit my lip against the sting.
Caleb looked up, almost as if he could feel the turmoil roiling within me.
Such a dark and turbulent feeling had to create some sort of brown and muddied aura around me surely.
It couldn’t be that he was so connected to me, though.
His eyes held surprise. Then satisfaction.
Then determination that rivaled the grizzly that maimed him.
Caleb said something to his father and opened the door.
The car was still in motion, and his father’s shocked reprimand could be heard from where I stood.
“What the hell is he doing?” Sadey breathed beside me.
I hadn’t a guess. He hopped out of the moving car and pushed through the crowd. The confounding man was headed straight for the pie shop.
He came to a stop right under me. “Mira Fletcher. Is there room for one more up there?”
My mouth hung open. I hadn’t even the good sense to snap it closed.
“Oh, dear goodness,” Opal whispered through a grin.
“This is happening.” She cleared her throat and spoke loud enough for him to hear.
“Caleb McCreedy, the door’s locked and we’re not missing the parade to let you in.
If you’re going to do this, you better do it right. The fire escape will hold you.”
Caleb grinned, and I was convinced that a heart could actually skip a beat if one was faced with a smile as capturing as his. Or maybe I was having a full-blown heart attack.
“He has lost his damned mind,” I whispered as he grabbed onto the fire escape.
The town watched as Caleb scaled the bright red wall of the Main Street Pie & Candy Co.
in order to seek out one Crazy Mira Fletcher.
He hopped over the railing and wiped his hands off.
His breathtaking grin had become bigger with the exertion.
Sadey bounded out of the way when Caleb came to stand beside me.
He was so close, I could feel the warmth coming off his arm.
“Well, you’re in it now, Mira. You ready?”
I was highly suspicious. “Ready for what?”
“I’m going to kiss you.”
I darted a glance to the waiting town below and then back to him. “But, I’ve never kissed anybody before.”
Caleb leaned over and brushed his lips against mine.
Softly. Slowly. More tenderly than I thought a man as powerful as him would be capable of.
I couldn’t pull away. I had frozen into place, and the warmth of his touch was the air I had been desperate to breathe.
A salvation that loosened a trapped part of my soul.
His mouth moved against mine, and his tongue brushed the closed seam of my lips.
His fingers traced my jaw, and he stood, straightening me with him.
His hands clenched my hair like I still wasn’t close enough, and when my mouth parted for him, he dipped his tongue against mine. I felt like I was falling.
Easing back, his lips curved up into a smile. “Now you have.”