Page 4 of Stolen Kisses
“I’m sorry,” Grace said softly. “But I think you might feel better if you came to Castaways with us. It’ll take your mind off things.”
“Not tonight. But I’ll meet you for coffee and muffins at the BB Café before work tomorrow.”
The Blushing Bay Café was her favorite guilty habit.
“All right. If you’re sure.”
“I am. See you tomorrow.” Krista set her phone aside and continued to stare at the ceiling fan. It wasn’t just her patients that she was upset about tonight. She was still bothered about Noah bringing a date to Wednesday Wings.
She blew out a breath and pressed her palms into her eyes. A moment later, the door to her townhouse opened behind her.
“Hey, brat,” Joey said, tromping in and heading straight to the fridge, as usual. He was a beast of a man. Large boned just like their father and a towering six foot two. Krista hadn’t gotten the “beast” gene, as her family called it. She was petite by their account, even though the world considered her five-foot-six, one-hundred-and-thirty-five-pound frame average.
Krista sat up and watched him pull out the salami. He lifted two slices of bread from a bag and sandwiched at least an inch of meat in between. “Want me to make you something better than that?” she asked.
He looked up, taking her in for a moment. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Why aren’t you getting ready for Thirsty Thursday at Castaways?”
“I’m staying in tonight.”
His assessing brown eyes continued to stare. “You’re still upset over whatever happened last night? You never did tell me what that was, by the way.”
“Doesn’t matter. And no. It was just a long shift at work. My feet are killing me.” And her heart felt a little achy, too. “I can cook you dinner, if you want. To pay you back for all the nights of DDing in your cab.”
Joey shrugged his broad shoulders. “It’s no problem. It’s good for my image to be seen with a bunch of beautiful women.”
Krista walked over and joined her brother at the kitchen counter. “Seriously, it’s time you found yourself a good woman to take care of you.”
“Well, if I do that, who’ll take care of you?”
This made her laugh, even though laughing was the last thing she felt like doing at the moment. “You do take pretty good care of me. Guess we’ll be stuck together into old age. Maybe we should take in a couple dozen cats and freak the neighbors out.”
Joey glanced at her over his shoulder. “Tempting.”
She laughed again. “So, dinner. What do you want? Name anything we have in our pantry and I’ll cook it for you.”
He scratched his chin. “I’m not sure you can handle what I’m craving.”
She folded her arms at her chest and shook her head. “Are you serious? I’m offering to make anything and you want mac and cheese right now?”
He took on a serious expression. “How the hell did you know that?”
“Because that’s what you’ve wanted for every meal since you were five. Aren’t you ever going to grow up?”
“Only if you do.”
Krista pointed at the couch where she’d just been having a mini pity party. “Go. It’ll be ready in fifteen. But you’re eating a vegetable, too,” she said, channeling their mother who lived with their father on the west side of Blushing Bay now. Krista pulled out the dark blue box with a neon orange–colored pasta dish on the front. Then she set about to making the meal her brother had asked for. He was never going to outgrow mac and cheese, but hehadgrown up. He owned his own cabbing business—even though he was the only cabbie—and he’d nearly married his high school sweetheart a while back. That had never happened, but at least he’d gotten close to his happily-ever-after. Krista, on the other hand, felt stuck in some in-between place. She wasn’t a child anymore, but she didn’t have the things she’d assumed would be hers as an adult. A husband, a family. Even Grace was getting married now. And Abby Sawyer, the other part of their Thirsty Thursday trio, had already been there and done that with Noah’s oldest brother, Sam.
So why not me?Krista wondered as the water boiled in front of her.
The doorbell rang, breaking her from her thoughts. Krista looked up. It was either Grace or Abby attempting to pull her down to Thirsty Thursday with them. “I’ll get it,” she said, sucking in a breath. She readied her “no” and opened the door to the one man she’d never been able to say no to—and the reason she didn’t have the adult life she fantasized about. “Noah. What are you doing here?”
