Page 57 of The Kiss Keeper
“Christ!” he muttered, then blushed. “I mean, shit! No, that doesn’t work either. Crap! That one’s okay, right?” he asked, turning to Sister Anne.
The nuns stared at him with their mouths hanging open, except the little one who tossed him a wink.
“I like him,” she said, rubbing her wrinkly hands together.
He glanced at the women and then to Natalie. He couldn’t let her down.
“Sure, I can be Adam,” he said as resolutely as one can when being ogled by a feisty, pint-sized woman of God.
“Adam didn’t wear clothes,” Sister Evangeline added, undressing him with her eyes.
“Are you sure?” he asked, forgetting who he was talking to.
“Maybe just take off your shirt,” Natalie offered.
“My shirt?”
“And the hat,” the little nun ordered.
He went up to Natalie, glanced back at the smiling sisters, then bent down to whisper into his fake girlfriend’s ear. “Is this normal?”
“I sketched nudes in college. It’s not that uncommon,” she answered.
“Heels, I think those horny nuns want to see me naked,” he whispered back.
“They’re not horny nuns.” She glanced over his shoulder, then covered her mouth with her hand. “Well, maybe one is, but the rest seem okay.”
“Do you think this is funny?” he asked, chancing another glance at the women.
She held back a grin. “It is kind of funny?”
He let out a sigh. “It is kind of funny.”
He turned to face the women, then slowly removed his hat and T-shirt.
The little nun’s gaze raked over his body. “Now, that’s an Adam.”
“What’s going on in here?”
He whipped around to find Hal and Bev Woolwich standing in the doorway.
Natalie came to his side. “Hi, Grandma and Grandpa. I was going to lead the class in a sketching exercise.”
Bev entered the room with a creased brow. “Why is Jake half-naked?”
“Because your theme is Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and we needed an Adam,” she answered.
Bev’s eyes twinkled, just like Natalie’s. “Yes, but we’re sketching still life, like apples and other fruits. That’s where the Garden of Eden theme came into play.”
“You’re not sketching nudes?” he asked, throwing a disapproving glare at the brides of Christ who, remarkably, looked quite pleased with themselves.
“Goodness, no,” Bev chuckled.
He turned from Bev and met the little nun’s eye.
She shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”
“We saw Fish downstairs,” Bev began addressing the nuns. “Sisters, I’m sorry that the schedule got mixed-up. I’m not sure how it happened.”
