Page 12 of Moonstruck Kiss

She nods. “A child with this much enthusiasm for art shouldn’t be discouraged. If he gets bored, he can leave early.”

“I won’t get bored,” promises Ollie.

Joey smiles at him, and I’m suddenly feeling all sorts of warm towards this woman.

Ugh, I don’t want to add to the attraction I already feel when I don’t want to have anything to do with her. But maybe I’m just touched by her kindness to Ollie.

She suddenly turns her head towards me and finds me staring. Blinking, her tongue comes out to lick her lips before she schools her expression.

Aha! I caught that look!

But even though Dimple seems attracted to me, too, it doesn’t mean much because it’s clear I’m her most disliked person on earth.

“By the way,” she says casually, “Liss wants me to tell you that you’re to visit her at our shop soon.”

“Why?”

“Don’t know. She just had her tuned-in look.”

Before I can stop them, teasing words tumble out of my mouth. “Are you sure it’s Liss who wants me there?”

Her mouth drops open. “Are you insinuating it’smewho wants you there?”

“I thought maybe you’d want to... apologise in private.” Fuck, I almost saidkiss and make up.

“Why should I?—“

“Don’t you start arguing now,” my mother interrupts. “Since Ollie might be seeing Joey for some art tutoring, isn’t it time to put your grievances to bed?”

A picture of Dimple inmy bedflashes in my mind.

Argh, what the actual fuck?

I don’t want her taking that kind of space in my head again. The last thing I want is to get involved with her and her smart mouth.

Because she’s a Mooner.

Enough said.

Chapter

Three

JOEY

I finish settingup a kid-sized table in my studio, placing large sheets of paper and a big box of crayons on top. For good measure, I’ve also set aside a table-top easel and a small canvas for Ollie if he wants to play around with different mediums.

There’s an adult’s chair next to the table for whoever will be staying to supervise Ollie. Hopefully, it won’t be Brax.

This class, starting in half an hour, is open to all ages but Ollie will be the only child in attendance. It’s perfect because this group of students—apart from Candy—are talented adults who mostly need plenty of encouragement rather than corrections. I’ll be able to focus a lot on Ollie today and see if his enthusiasm carries him through the whole hour and a half of class. I doubt it, though. He’s only four.

There’ll also be a couple of tourists attending, but they’re usually here for fun and not instruction. One of them is Manny, the handsome Filipino I literally bumped into at The Only Bakery the other morning. Emory noticed his interest in me and encouraged him to turn up to this class.

But I already know he can’t be the guy for my fling experiment. The sexologist said that it helps to be highly attracted to the man in question, and I didn’t feel any spark with him. To be honest, I haven’t met anyone who attracts me enough for my planned experience.

Apart from Brax. But he’s the most unsuitable guy of them all.

He was the picture of a doting dad yesterday, and that part of him was kind of nice to see. Candy is obviously crushing on him. She couldn’t stop touching his arm, giggling at everything he said. And the way she batted her fake lashes at him? I felt the breeze they fanned from where I was sitting!

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