Chapter 18
SHELBY
I was a woman who had just been kissed.
Looking at it objectively, it had been a nice kiss. Quick and sweet, but…a nice way to kiss someone you’ve just met. Granted, I had no idea it was coming, but that just made it more exciting.
The pressure of his lips had been light but not too light.
I checked the bathroom mirror as I readied my toothbrush with paste.
My lips weren’t puffy, which was good. A first kiss at the front door was definitely not a time for a full-blown make-out session.
I didn’t need to feel fireworks and butterflies this early.
Nobody needed to be overcome by the passion of the moment on a front porch.
Or even having passion at all. There hadn’t been time for passion.
By the time I registered what was going on, it was almost over.
For a surprise first-date kiss, it had been great.
Good, at the very least.
I doused the toothbrush with water and began brushing.
Easton was sweet. The kiss was sweet. I didn’t think he intended it to be more than that.
He did mention that maybe we could get together in Boise when I moved.
But there was no pressure for anything. I should be shouting from the rooftops.
It was a great practice kiss. Maybe I would shout from the rooftops.
Maybe tomorrow, when I wasn’t so tired.
I had always imagined myself being the type to fall on my bed in a swoon-filled heap after I’d been kissed for the first time.
Maybe I’d dance around in my room to an old pop song, reliving the touches and the feel of his lips on mine a hundred times over.
Of course, my teen-pop-song-bedroom-mirror-dancing days had ended once I’d graduated high school, but the happy image was still enticing.
My fingers should be itching to call Tessa or at least text…
someone. But it was almost ten p.m. And technically, this date was supposed to be a secret.
I spit out the water before crawling into bed. Coincidentally, while it was Easton’s kiss that lingered on my lips, it was Jake I couldn’t get out of my mind. Had he been on the porch tonight? It had been dark, but I thought I’d seen a flash of white in the shadows.
A loud knocking at my front door caused my body to tense. It came again. I jumped out of bed and grabbed my baseball bat hidden underneath. It wasn’t until I heard Jake’s voice calling through the window in my room that I took a breath.
“Shelby,” his voice came again, this time with a knock at my window.
Worried it might be something to do with Sophie, I moved to the other side of the bed and yanked open the window blinds, revealing what looked to be an agitated cowboy on the other side. I dropped the bat and opened the window.
“Can I help you?”
He took me in for a moment, his eyes scanning quickly from my hair to my bare feet, and settled momentarily on the baseball bat lying on my bed. “Is that how you always answer the window?”
“Just when it’s you, apparently.”
“Didn’t you hear me calling?”
“Only after the first two bangs on my door.”
He looked sympathetic. “Oh, sorry.”
“What’s up?”
“Lesson time—as long as you don’t bring the bat.”
“What lesson?” I immediately glanced down at my silk pajama set and folded my arms across my chest as the chill from the night air infiltrated my room.
Before my shopping trip with Tessa, I had always slept in basketball shorts down to my knees and an old tank top.
And now, at the curious look in Jake’s eyes as he raked in the shorts reaching mid-thigh and the matching top, I became very aware of what little I was wearing.
“Your doorstep lesson. I saw the most disturbing things on my porch tonight, and I can’t sleep knowing there’s somebody like you left unchecked in this world.”
Immediately, my hackles rose. “What part?”
“Parts.”
“I wasn’t that bad.”
“If you were a dog, I’d just as soon shoot you.”
Folding my arms, I said, “I didn’t hear any complaint from him.”
“He’s just happy to get some.” He motioned to where he was standing. “Let’s go.”
I glanced around. “What about Sophie?”
He nodded toward his cabin. “I opened her window. I can hear if she calls for me.”
“What are you teaching me?”
“Kissing.”
My body stiffened as my surprised eyes landed on his. “I thought you said we wouldn’t need that lesson.”
“Well, that was before I saw you send off your date tonight.”
“That wasn’t my fault. He just planted one on me. I had no idea it was coming.”
“Then you should have kicked him where it hurts. Or I should have.”
I thought about the surprise feeling of Easton’s lips on mine. While it wasn’t groundbreaking, it had been kind of…fun. In a shocking sort of way. Now, I just wish he hadn’t done it with my audience of one nearby. Jake had already seen too many of my humiliating moments.
“Let’s just say, I’ve had worse surprises.”
“I just want to teach you a couple of things.”
I swallowed, feeling the breeze lift a flyaway piece of hair off my forehead. “I’m not sure we should…”
He shook his head, looking so different without his cowboy hat on.
Not different in a country musician sort of way, where they take their hat off at a concert and you’re shocked at seeing their balding heads—Jake had a full head of brown hair—but in a…
softer kind of way. Approachable. His hat gave him a manly, defined look.
Sexy. A true Idaho cowboy, and it was so much a part of him on the ranch that it almost felt like he was telling me a secret without it on.
“Tuck, this is just one pal helping another pal out. Can you handle that? And this?” His eyes teased as he motioned down his body with his hands.
“The friend zone and I are so tight I’m probably going to marry it. So, yeah. No problem on my end.” The words didn’t sound like a lie when I said them, but the way my stomach took an aggressive dive gave me pause.
“Alright. Come on, then.”
Full disclosure, speaking with Jake about kissing while a window separated us felt much different than walking up next to him on my porch, knowing that the only thing about to be separating us was a thin shirt of silk and one of white cotton.
The windowpane back in my room seemed to hold the keys to all of my bravado.
He watched me approach with a look I couldn’t quite discern, and I wondered if the no-windowpane thing was giving him pause too.
I stopped in front of him. For a moment, we just stared at each other, a strange tension filling the space between us.
It didn’t help that Chad’s words from tonight were running through my head on repeat.
I lifted my chin. “So, what did I do wrong? I didn’t hit him or talk about my friends, so I thought I was doing pretty good.”
Jake’s eyes were on my hair when I spoke. He blinked, and with some effort, he shook his head and opened his mouth again, turning into teacher Jake. “No movement. No touching. You reacted badly.”
“Well, it took me by surprise.”
“Fair enough. Let's pretend you didn’t get taken by surprise, and it was a kiss you were waiting for.”
“That has never happened to me before. Not quite sure how to imagine it.”
There was a slight pause in the air before a slightly bewildered Jake Evans asked, “How is that possible?” His voice was soft, almost like a caress. Almost like he meant to think it but not say it out loud. But I heard. As did the goosebumps suddenly rising on my arm.
“It’s possible. Trust me. So, how are we doing this?”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Now I’m not sure this is a good idea.”
“Can’t resist all of this?” I teased, pointing up to my hair, pulled up in a messy top knot with tendrils falling all around my face—and not in a cute, messy type of way.
It was literally everywhere. I had been so flustered after Easton left that, in the shower, I had gone on auto mode and washed my hair, two days early, and then thrown it up with no rhyme or reason beyond getting it out of my face.
I most definitely hadn’t thought I’d be invited outside to kiss Jake.
His hesitant eyes left my hair and roamed my face once more. He cleared his throat, sounding more like himself than a moment ago. “Alright. First thing. How are your allergies tonight?”
I pushed his stomach. “Guess we’ll see,” I told him, strong and bold. I could do this. And then Jake moved in front of me, and my heart rate skyrocketed.
Stupid Chad and his words were getting into my head. I forced myself to keep calm on the outside. To play this right so Jake didn’t get scared off. If anything, this was my chance to kiss Jake Evans. The right way. Sans braces and an overprotective dog. What kind of girl could resist that?
“Alright. What should I do? Open my mouth? Keep it closed?”
“It pains me that you have to ask that.”
I gurgled out a laugh. “I’m not sure what you’re going to teach me. The kiss wasn’t that bad.”
“Wasn’t that bad?” he repeated.
“No,” I immediately sputtered. “It was fine. Good.”
“Fine and good. Not that bad.” Jake stood motionless for a minute, chewing on my words before he added, “If you’re still saying fine and good in a few minutes, I’ll go jump in the lake.”
I grinned. “Promise?”
He took another step, closing the gap between us and completely snatching the breath from my lungs.
“You ready for this?” He was all brown eyes and lashes now. He was also stalling. Maybe I wasn’t the only one being affected by this idea.
“I’d better be. You dragged me out of bed for this.”
“Well, now I’m not sure you’re ready.”
I growled softly, if only to take the attention off my shaking limbs. I had played in countless games throughout my life. I could play this game without losing whatever cool I had. I just needed to block out all the feels and keep things light.
“Don’t be a baby. Finish what you started. You’re lucky I just brushed my teeth.” He still didn’t move, adding to the growing nerves I was trying so carefully to hide. “Go. Do it. Open or closed?”
There was a brief hesitation.