His smile was so sweet as he turned to walk away that I very nearly called him back. I didn’t. But I sure as hell wanted to.
Chapter 12
“I can’t believe I’m hosting Drunk Puzzle Night when I can’t even drink,” Gloria said as she set a red plastic pitcher of margaritas down on her kitchen table. “Did any of you ever imagine I’d be the sober one?”
“Nope. Not ever. No way,” various women chorused.
There were seven of us squeezed around a wooden table inside Gloria’s turquoise-painted kitchen. We assembled about once a month for what was aptly named Drunk Puzzle Night. We used to call it book club, but eventually we came to terms with the fact that none of us ever read the assigned book, and we always just sat around drinking and doing puzzles.
“So, Brooke,” Gloria said as she settled into a chair. “How is it going with that sexy new bartender from the Palomino? What’s his name?”
“Leo. There’s nothing to report.”
“Oh, really?” Eva Culpepper said. “Because I heard someone saw the two of you doing it on your front porch.”
My gasp was justifiably loud. “We were not doing it! Is that what people are saying?”
Eva giggled. “No, not really, but Percy told Collette that his sister saw you and the bartender standing very, very close on your front porch and that there appeared to be some lip-locking and some potential groping.”
My sister turned in her chair to gape at me. “Is that true? Did you kiss Leo the bartender? Without telling me?”
“It was one little kiss. I didn’t tell you because there wasn’t much to tell.”
Actually, there were all sorts of things to tell, but all of them had to do with my messy, inexplicable emotions, my fears, my doubts. My need to keep this delicious secret to myself. Whatever Leo and I had started, I didn’t want to share it with the rest of the community. I just wanted to enjoy it a bit before it became part of the island conversation.
“But I’m your sister, and I have to find out about this on the street?”
“Well, since it’s out there,” Marnie White said, “I saw you two getting off the ferry, and you looked rather cozy.”
Emily frowned. “What were you doing on the ferry?”
“We went out to dinner in Manitou.”
She made a noise that was part harrumph and part well-well-well. She’d be grilling me for details on our walk home.
“So how was the kiss? Did he spend the night?” Marnie asked.
“No, of course he didn’t spend the night. I told you, it was just one little kiss.”
“Oh, sure,” Gloria giggled, running a hand over her belly. “One little kiss is how it starts, and before you know it you’ve got a meatloaf in the oven and you’re marrying Tiny Kloosterman. Well, not Tiny, because he’s all mine, but you get what I mean.”
“I do get what you mean, Gloria, but I am a long way away from anyone putting a meatloaf in my oven. It was a harmless little kiss, and besides, he’s not staying around here for long. The bartending thing is short-term.”
“He’s sticking around long enough to write a book. How long does that take? Seems like it could take a pretty long time. Almost as long as it takes to read one,” Eva said.
“How did you hear about his book?” I asked.
“Shari from the post office told me. She’d heard it from Clancy. Did you know she’s making pasties for strippers now?”
“I heard she’s made seven hundred dollars so far,” Gloria said. “I think I need to get myself a glue gun.”
“Who cares about the pasties? I want to hear about the bartender. Is he a good kisser?” Marnie asked.
The back of my neck started to prickle, and I felt my palms growing damp. Talking about this made me uncomfortable because it forced me to label whatever it was that was going on. And at the moment, I didn’t really know what was going on. I knew I liked Leo, and he seemed to like me, too. But it was already obvious that he was not a “stay on the island forever” kind of guy.
“He was a fine kisser, but could we move on, please?”
“His kiss was fine as in meh, fine? Or fine as in fiiiiiinnnnne?” Eva punctuated that last word with a little shoulder shimmy. I felt myself blushing, which was sure to fan the flames.