Page 55 of The Kissing Part
Madison makes a face. “I don’t read romance for hand-holding.”
I can’t stop staring at her tattoo every time she moves. It seems significant to place it over her heart.
“I see you’re admiring my tat,” Madison says to me.
“Did she just say tit?” Hailey whispers. “I swear, Mad—”
I laugh. “No, she said tat. I was curious about it. Does it mean something special? I noticed it’s right over your heart.”
She points over at her husband, Parker, helping Jake out at the barbecue. “Park got a hawk tattoo over his heart when he enlisted in the Air Force at eighteen. I was fifteen, madly in love with his oblivious self.”
The women murmur amongst themselves.
“Remember when I gave you a makeover at Claire’s wedding to open Park’s eyes to the woman you’d become?” Hailey asks.
“You mean the beauty torture session?” Madison asks. “Hard to forget. And thanks, bitch.”
Hailey beams.
Madison continues, “I never got over him, even after him being away for years, so I got a matching tattoo because he swooped in and stole my heart just like a hawk.”
I place a hand over my heart. “Aww, so sweet.”
“Just a fact,” Madison says. “For him, the tat means think first and then take action, swooping in like a hawk.” She shrugs. “It worked out.” Her gaze meets Parker’s, and he smiles at her.
“Sounds a little like you and Owen, Shay,” Claire says from her chaise longue. “In love as teens and then reuniting later in life. Except Owen certainly wasn’t oblivious. He was crazy about you, still is.”
I can’t help my smile. Everything’s been going so well. Of course it’s only been two days since he decided he wasn’t mad at me anymore. I’d like to say he returns my love, but I’m not sure. It could just be sex for him. Though sometimes, there’s a certain look in his eyes…
“Our relationship started with a fake engagement,” a woman with shoulder-length dirty blond hair says. Sabrina Campbell, that’s right. “Now Logan and I are happily married with three kids, two dogs, and a hamster.” She wiggles her fingers at Logan, who’s walking toward us with Josh, carrying wine bottles and glasses. He smiles warmly at her.
Logan and Josh stop to present their offerings to us.
The women exclaim over their thoughtfulness.
Josh leans down to kiss Hailey. Logan pours Sabrina a glass of wine and hands it to her.
“Thank you so much,” Sabrina says to Logan. “Can you check on Deidre? She hasn’t come out of the house yet. She’s still upset she failed her driver’s test. I think she’d feel better out here with her cousins. I tried, but she’s so touchy with me lately.”
“Leave it to me,” Logan says confidently.
After Logan leaves, Sabrina shares their story—they had a fake engagement that she announced on TV, basically throwing him under the bus. He rose to the occasion.
That starts a domino effect with all the ladies sharing their love stories.
I like Charlotte’s story. She finally agreed to a date with Ty after considering him to be too much of a player, and he wowed her with a dinner cruise on a borrowed boat that got stuck in the mud. They were basically trapped together on a boat for so long that they actually had to get to know each other.
But the best craziest story was Claire and Jake, which I’d never heard before. She was supposed to go on a blind date with his identical twin, Josh, but the twins pulled a switcheroo. Jake took out Claire as Josh, and Josh took out Hailey as Jake. It took a while for the women to realize the switch had happened since it was the first time Claire and Hailey had met Jake. Hailey just assumed the twins were very similar. When Claire found out, she told Hailey, who was so furious it launched an all-out war between Josh and Hailey until their parents fell in love and Josh and Hailey made up for the sake of the family.
“And because he was madly in love with me,” Hailey says. She turns toward the pool and yells, “Right, Josh?”
He props his arms up on the side of the pool, water running in rivulets down his muscled chest and arms. “Right.”
“He can’t even hear me,” Hailey tells us. “He just agrees.”
Claire points at Hailey. “Now that’s the sign of a man who knows the secret to a happy marriage.”
We all laugh, even Olivia, who finally stopped taking notes long enough to really listen to the women’s stories.
