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“Heath kissed me last night.”
“What?” Coffee sloshed over the edge of Aubrey’s mug the following morning. She and Franny sat in the corner of Charles’ Cafe. Franny had dropped off a delivery to the diner on Main Street and then texted Aubrey. She couldn’t keep it to herself one minute more. She had to tell someone.
Aubrey leaned over the table and lowered her voice, even though they were the only two customers in the coffee shop. “Well, my God, girl, tell me details.” Her eyes sparkled. “‘Cause he’s one fine specimen of man. He was back in high school, and from what I’ve seen, he’s only gotten hotter.”
“I made him dinner,” Franny said, “to thank him for doing stuff around the Hideaway.”
“And then he kissed you?”
“Kind of.”
Aubrey set down her coffee cup. “Oh, now, Franny, even you aren’t that naive. I know you’ve been kissed before. He either did or he didn’t.”
Franny played with the empty napkin in her lap. “He did. Or actually, he went to kiss me on the cheek and I just, I turned and then he kissed me for real.” Had she been too forward? It had been almost instinctual, nothing she’d thought about before doing it. “It lasted like a second, and then he stopped and looked at me like it was a huge mistake. He said he was sorry. And then he walked away.”
“Oh.” Aubrey frowned. “Did you talk to him about it?”
Franny shook her head. She’d laid awake half the night thinking about it. She’d replayed the moment when he teased open her mouth with his tongue and pulled her tight against him a dozen times. His scent. The heat of his body. She’d never had an orgasm from a single kiss, but she was beginning to think she might have felt the start of one in those few seconds of contact with Heath.
“Well, you should,” Aubrey said. “Why did he apologize? It’s not like you didn’t want it to happen. Right?”
Franny scrunched up her shoulders. “Right.” But he’d obviously considered it a mistake.
The bells on the coffee shop door tinkled, and a curvy redhead walked inside. “Hi guys!” Annie McKenzie, longtime diner waitress who’d just finished her nursing degree, stopped at their table. “Good to see you back in town,” she said to Aubrey. “Love the manicure.”
Aubrey curled up one hand to examine the pale pink polish and tiny flower petals painted on each pinky. “Thanks. I like to treat myself every once in a while.”
“Is that – Finn asked you?” She took Aubrey’s left hand and turned it to the light. The small round diamond sparkled in the sun. “Oh, Aubrey, it’s gorgeous. Congratulations.”
Aubrey turned pink. “Thanks.” She ran one finger over the ring and beamed. Franny couldn’t help but feel the tiniest bit jealous and then hated herself, because Finn and Aubrey were about the nicest people in town.
“Did you set a date?” Annie asked.
Aubrey shook her head. “It’ll be next summer at the earliest. But we’re having a small engagement party at the end of this month. I meant to ask you, Franny. Would you mind making a few things for it? It’ll only be close friends and family.”
“So then fifty or sixty people?” Annie said.
Aubrey grinned. “Something like that.”
“Of course I will,” Franny said. “I’d be honored.” She’d made wedding cakes and engagement pastries for dozens of brides in and around Lindsey Point. Only once or twice had she found herself wondering if she’d ever make her own.
“You and Mick will come, won’t you?” Aubrey asked Annie.
“Tell me when it is, and I’ll do my best to take the day off. The Med Center’s a little shorthanded right now, but you know I’ll be there if I can.”
Aubrey rattled off a day and time, and Annie typed it into her phone before getting an extra-large cup of coffee and waving goodbye as she hurried out of the cafe.
“So about that kiss,” Aubrey said.
Franny gulped down the rest of her coffee and went back to fidgeting with her napkin.
“You won’t know anything unless you ask him. Maybe he was just a little freaked out. Guys get that way.”
“Good to know.” A kiss from Franny had freaked Heath out. Wonderful.
“That doesn’t mean he didn’t enjoy it. It just means maybe he isn’t sure how you feel about it. I mean, you haven’t known him very long.”
Franny shot a glance at the barista behind the counter. People in this town talked all the time. The last thing she needed was gossip about her and the guy living behind the Hideaway. “I think it was just a random thing. Spur of the moment.”
Aubrey cocked her head. “Are you attracted to him?”
Franny squeezed her eyes shut. She was so not used to talking about things like this.
“Franny?” Aubrey tapped her wrist, and she opened her eyes again.
“Of course I am. Have you looked at him?”
Aubrey smiled. “Like I said, one fine specimen of man.” Then she pursed her lips.
“What?”
“Just be careful.”
“Of what?”
Aubrey looked outside at Lindsey Point’s placid Main Street. A few cars drove by, a few people strolled by, and the sun climbed in the sky like every other day here. “He was a playboy back in high school. Hung out with a different girl every month.”
Franny would have guessed as much.
“I know you’re not looking to marry the guy,” Aubrey went on, “but I’d hate to see you fall hard for him if he’s just passing through.”
Franny had repeated the same words to herself late last night. She nodded. “I know.”
“He doesn’t have a girlfriend?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask.” She hadn’t seen him with anyone since arriving in Lindsey Point, but that didn’t mean anything.
“I remember he did have one serious relationship back in school,” Aubrey said. “Beth Snohomish. Prom queen, cheerleader, typical blonde with big boobs and too much makeup. Couldn’t peel those two apart.”
Franny wilted a little inside. Of course. Complete opposite from someone like her.
“I always wondered what happened to Beth,” Aubrey went on. “After graduation, it was like she just dropped off the planet. I asked Heath once where she ended up.”
“And?”
Aubrey shrugged. “He changed the subject.”
Franny pushed away her empty mug. One more mystery to add to the man living in her rental house.
“Anyway, that was a long time ago. Now he’s literally in your backyard, which means if anyone’s got dibs on him, it’s you.”
“I don’t know about that.” Franny looked down at herself. “I don’t think I’m really his type.”
“How do you know what his type is? Just because he dated plastic Barbie in high school doesn’t mean that’s what he’s still into.”
“I guess.” But Franny still pictured Heath’s type as being a lot different from her. She picked at the corner of her placemat. “I don’t know the first thing about buying the right clothes or putting on makeup. I could use a little help.”
“Ooh, want me to give you a makeover sometime? I’d love to.”
“Maybe. Yeah.” Franny smoothed her hair away from her face. “I’d like that.”
“That reminds me.” Aubrey opened her purse and took out a slim, glossy brochure with the logo of Transformations magazine on the front.
“I love that magazine,” Franny said. “I wish I could afford one-third of the things they advertise, though. I just keep adding everything to my DIY list that I’ll probably never get to in a hundred years.” Although now that she thought about it, maybe Heath would be able to help her with some of that list.
“Check this out. They’re having a contest. I saw this a few weeks ago, but I think it’s still open.”
Enter Your Home or Garden Business Into Our Annual Makeover Contest!
Franny squinted at the fine print.
One winner will receive our grand prize of a total makeover, both business and personal, as well as a feature article in an upcoming edition of Transformations. Prize valued at twenty-five thousand dollars...
Franny’s eyes widened. “That’s a lot of money.”
Aubrey winked. “It’s a lot of mascara. You should enter the Hideaway.”
“Oh, sure. You know what kind of businesses enter that contest? I’ve seen the past winners. They’re huge places in L.A. or Chicago with million–dollar views of the water.”
“You have a million-dollar view of the water.” Aubrey pushed the brochure into Franny’s hands. “Just look at it.” She stood and tucked her purse under one arm. “I would love to play hair and makeup with you sometime if you want. Not that you need it,” she added. “Don’t go doing anything different just because you think Heath likes a certain type.”
“I won’t. But thanks.” Franny stood too, and they walked out into the bright morning.
“And listen, talk to him.” Aubrey took her arm as they reached the parking lot. “Or just jump him one afternoon right after he’s finished fixing a broken pipe, and he’s all sweaty and peeling off his shirt and about to get in the shower and –”
“Shh!” Franny looked around. She lowered her voice and put her mouth next to Aubrey’s ear. “Weren’t you just telling me to be careful?”
“Yes. And I mean that. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun in the meantime.” Aubrey winked. “And I’m betting Heath Garrick would be a whole lot of fun. Just watch your heart.”
###
HEATH KEPT HIS DISTANCE from Franny that day. He didn’t want to be rude, but after the stunt he’d pulled last night, he wasn’t sure what he’d say if he saw her. What the hell had he been thinking, kissing her in the moonlight? He hadn’t thought at all. He’d just done. And the second he kissed her, as good as it felt, he knew he’d made a mistake.
He tossed and turned most of the night, then finally got up and drank a pot of coffee inside the house with the curtains drawn. When he saw Franny climb onto her bike and pedal toward town, he finished weeding one of the flower beds and took a few measurements of the front porch. Then he went back inside, turned off all the lights, and flipped through talk shows until he fell into a fitful sleep.
Clouds. A moon. Voices. Always voices, speaking sometimes in English and other times in languages he didn’t understand. Towns made up of rubble and the scent of death. A bright, hot morning. Roberto going to meet the chopper. His buddy grinning at him across the sand. Then an explosion that ripped Heath’s heart from his chest. He awoke with a start, drenched in sweat.
“Fuck.” He lurched up in the chair and bent forward, hands dangling between his legs, until the floor stopped spinning and he remembered where he was. His nightmares didn’t always bring him back to the day Roberto died, though they usually did. Of all the horrors he’d endured, that had been the worst. That had been the reason he left. How long are they going to last? He ran a hand over his head and forced away the images. Forever? Somewhere in his wallet he’d buried the business card of the Army therapist he’d been forced to see. For a long moment he thought about digging it out and calling her. But what could she do for him? Sit him in a chair and talk? Screw that. Reliving hell wasn’t the way out of his night terrors.
He stood on shaky legs and walked to the bathroom, where he ran a shower. Hands planted on the pedestal sink, he stared into the mirror as he waited for the water to warm. Eighteen years ago, he’d known the guy who looked back at him. Cocky, maybe, but grounded and goofy and certain about everything from women to beer to his buddies. Now he was a walking zombie who couldn’t predict from one day to the next what he might say or think or do. He blew out a long breath and shed his clothes.
Under the spray, he closed his eyes and pictured Franny. She reminded him of a bird, little and fragile, pretty in her own plain way. Shouldn’t have kissed her, he thought again, though he wouldn’t deny liking it. She’d responded to his touch at once, and he wondered what she would have done if he’d tried more, if he’d picked her up and carried her inside and kissed places other than her mouth. Heath shook his head as he lathered up and scrubbed his face. He had no business doing that to her. She deserved a good, decent guy who had plans to stick around Lindsey Point, who didn’t seesaw between rage and anxiety and fear that he’d never fit into a civilian world again.
Heath turned the water a few degrees hotter. A shower, dinner somewhere downtown, and then maybe he’d feel better. Or maybe he’d feel nothing at all. That would be okay too.