Page 4 of Sugar and Spice
I nodded at her. “That’s nice, Mrs. O’Leary.”
2…
“She’s better at sweets than you, you know.”
“Suspect that’s why her store’s called Sweet Tooth,” I replied, but that was as far as I got before the brass bell above the door was jingling, announcing Daisy’s arrival.
1…
“What the fuck, Austin.” Daisy’s words were growled, and Mrs. O’Leary looked startled behind the loaf of sourdough in her hands.
I raised my coffee cup in greeting to her. “Good morning to you too, Daisy. I see you’re murderous as usual.”
She waved a hand at me. “Don’t you good morning me, Austin. You have a lot of explaining to do!”
I took another drink from my coffee. I knew what she meant, but I wasn’t ready to show my hand to her. Not yet. “Isn’t it too early for that? Seems like a midday affair if you ask me.”
“Really?Married!” Daisy yelled, stamping a foot at me. I sighed. She was making it hard to keep our little news just between us. I guessed it wouldn’t have stayed that way for long seeing as the reality series,Frontier/City, was in town and ready to film. I glanced over at Mrs. O’Leary who was making no play at hiding that she was eavesdropping on us. Once that little old woman was out the door, half of Clarity would know about our marriage.
This was going to be bigger news than when Pastor John got too drunk on the eggnog at a christening and went streaking down Main Street. And that had made the paper.
Once Mrs. O’Leary made the rounds in town there would be questions. Lots of speculation and insistence from townsfolk that it was fake. We would have to cut that off at the knees if we wanted a hope at foolingFrontier/City.We were going to have to convince a whole lotta people, and we were going to have to do it quickly. Which brought me to my next brilliant decision.
Kiss Daisy in full view of Mrs. O’Leary.
A kiss from me under normal circumstances would have Daisy kneeing me right in the balls, which meant I was going to have to blow right past normal and straight to extraordinary circumstances if I didn’t want the woman to drop me like a sack of potatoes in the middle of my bakery.
“Married?!” Daisy yelled again, and I moved. Coffee cup still in hand I crossed the space between us in three quick steps, moving so fast Daisy stumbled in an attempt to back up from me. “Austin, have you lost your mind-” I reached out, wrapping an arm around her and yanked her towards me. Then, I did the thing I had thought obsessively about since first grade.
I kissed Daisy Ortiz.
I felt her balled up fist glance off my shoulder, before she pushed at me with her other hand, but I didn’t move. I couldn’t move. Not with Mrs. O’Leary watching from the bread aisle. I had to sell this, and I had to do it now. I tilted my head, slanting our mouths together as I pulled her to me, forcing the last bit of space between us to vanish. Her body was rigid against mine. I could feel the tension rolling off the woman in my arms. The curves and softness of her I had wanted was lost to me.
Lost to us.
This wasn’t how I had imagined our first kiss might be. But for better or worse, I was going to make it work. Hell, I was gonna go for broke. I leaned in, dipping her backwards and put my fucking soul into the kiss. I teased the seam of her lips with my tongue, once, twice, until I felt Daisy tremble. Her lips parted with a sigh and I closed my eyes in relief, kissing her properly. The first brush of her tongue against mine made me moan, a sound Daisy echoed as she threw her arms around me. I expected her to do that, to hold me close. What I didn’t expect was for her to hook a leg around my hip and practically wrap herself around me.
I heard Mrs. O’Leary gasp somewhere to the left of us, but I ignored her. She was going to gossip, there was no way around it. It was exactly what I wanted her to do. Might as well focus on the task at hand and enjoy having Daisy in my arms. I squeezed her tighter, my hand sliding up into her hair, fingers pushing the beanie off her head and carding through her tresses. Her hair was soft, the strands of it curling around my fingers just the way I had always imagined it might.
Somehow, in all the fantasies, in all the years I had known her, I had overlooked one damn important consideration. What the hell would I do when the kiss or feel of Daisy wasn’t just good, wasn’t just extraordinary, but sprinted right past toout of this fucking world.
I wanted more of it.
Though the storefront of my bakery with the door opening and a gust of wind announcing the arrival of new customers probably wasn’t the best place for what I wanted to do with my newfound feelings. A quick‘ahem’from Mrs. O’Leary confirmed that she was still going to purchase her sourdough bread loaf before she went to tell all of Clarity what she had witnessed. I released Daisy, unhooking my arm from her so suddenly she stumbled and had to grab onto me to stop herself from falling.
“Fucker,” she grumbled when I made no move to help her steady herself. I couldn’t go soft on her, not now. Not when it was pretty damn fun to push her buttons, like I was slamming my hand along a row of elevator buttons, lighting up each and every floor. She was looking at me like she wanted to kick me, but she kept her mouth shut.
I raised my coffee cup and took another drink of it, nodding at the newcomers. The Masons were a good family who could not be counted on to gossip with the veracity Mrs. O’Leary possessed, but who were looking between us like they expected us to start bickering. I knew why. We were always bickering. But I didn’t have time for that, not when there was the role of secret husband exposed to play forFrontier/City.
“Oh, honey, you promised to keep the sweet nothings to the bedroom,” I retorted, and her dark eyes flashed.
“Austin, I swear to-”
“So youaremarried then?” Mrs. O’Leary asked, coming forward with the bread still in hand.
I nodded. “Sure are.”
“The hell we are,” Daisy fumed.
