Page 18 of Second Down Darling

Billy makes that humming noise again before he slips his beefy arm over my shoulders. “Doesn’t care, huh? I might regret this later, but how ’bout we give him something to careabout?”

“What?”

That’s when the doofus pulls me into his chest and kisses me out of the blue. There’s no tongue, thank God. Just the hard press of his bristly mouth againstmine.

It’s fine, Iguess.

When he pulls away, he smacks his lips. “You tasteminty.”

I sigh, and it’s not because he swept me off my feet. “That was my first kiss.” I don’t mention I was saving it for someonespecial.

His eyes widen. “Like,ever?”

“Yes, and now I need to go home and write about it in my diary,” I say sarcastically before I turn to pack my gear, a little upset my first kiss wasn’t moremagical.

He yells, “I can’t tell if you’re pulling my leg rightnow.”

“Life is full of mysteries,” I yell back as I check on the dogs we brought today, but after a few minutes, once the shock wears off, I trot after Billy and tug on his jersey. When he turns to me, I whisper, “Maybe ask next time.” When he doesn’t seem to know what I’m talking about, I add, “Before you kiss someone. I’m okay with it, but someone else might not be. You know what I’msaying?”

He freezes and rubs the back of his neck. “Shit. Sorry, Chuck. Didn’t think of it likethat.”

I give him a patient smile. Billy is really clueless sometimes, but since he’s trying to be a better person, I figure he needed to hearthat.

When I get back to the animals, I give them all fresh water and treats. It helps get my mind off that very public fiasco with Jake. Merle pulls up with his enormous van, and we start loading up the animals. I was a little worried this would freak them out, but they’ve loved all of the attention. I swear some of them were smiling when we took their photos. One of the cheerleaders is even going to adopt one of the dogs, so I consider today a success despite that very public conversation withJake.

After Merle takes off, I scroll through the images on my camera. Roxy peeks over my shoulder. “Those areawesome!”

“Thanks. We have way more pics than pages in the calendar. Especially if we do more shoots.” Roxy really did schedule half the baseball team nextSunday.

“That’s a good problem, though,right?”

I nod. “It’ll be hard topick.”

“Maybe we should use them all. We could make flyers for the shelter with the images that don’t go in the calendar. Does the model clearance you used coverthat?”

“I’ll look it over again tonight just to be sure, but it should becool.”

Roxy waits until we’re home to bring up the neon-pink elephant in the room. “So you and Jake Ramirez? That’s who you were talking about the other day? Your sister’sboyfriend?”

Shame burns my face as Inod.

“And he’s her babydaddy?”

“It’s as bad as you think itis.”

“Did you guys, um, ever sleeptogether?”

I recoil. “God, no. Never. We hugged at graduation, and he’s given me noogies from time to time. Trust me, the infatuation was completely one-sided.” Roxy must think I’m full of shit to be crying about never having dated or beenkissed.

Scratch that. Because now I’ve been kissed. I’m not sure what got into Billy today to plant that onme.

Roxy pauses, her lips pursed. “Are you sure? Jake seemed really riled up for a guy who doesn’t feel anything foryou.”

“I swear. He was very committed to Dakota. You probably overheard us talking, but they broke up. So I think he was extra pissed aboutthat.”

The lightbulb goes off. “Holy shit. You’reDakota Darling’ssister?”

Here we go. “Yup.”

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