Page 62 of Moonshine Kiss
Then I heard a voice coming to me from the phone I hadn’t hung up. “What’s happening? Are y’all neckin’? Did you murder him?”
Bowie’s little sister.
My brain grabbed hold of that. Scarlett was Bowie’s little sister, and he’d once lied to my face and told me he saw me as nothing but the same.
I pressed my palms to that crisp dress shirt he was wearing and shoved.
“Hold your horses! There’s not gonna be any more kissing!” I told him.
He grinned down at me looking like he hadn’t a care in the dang world.
“Cass, honey, kissing isn’t the only thing I’m after.”
I looked down at his crotch, and sure enough it looked like Bowie Bodine, Jr. wasveryhappy to see me.
“I can still hear y’all,” Scarlett chirped through the phone.
He plucked it out of my hand and disconnected the call. I realized I was still plastered up against his chest like a bug on a windshield.
“We’re not having sex. Not ever, Bowie,” I said taking a big step back. “You picked my father over me.”
“I did no such thing,” he argued, advancing on me. I found myself pinned up against the back of the couch and his long, lean body. Sir Edmund Hillary dashed across the top of the cushions. Bowie skimmed his hands from my shoulders to my wrists in one long stroke. “I wanted to be good enough for you, Cass.”
“You backed off of me because my father asked you to.”
“I thought he was saying I wasn’t good enough for you.”
“You told me you didn’t have feelings for me, Bowie!” It was like we were having two different conversations.
“I lied,” he said simply. “I’ve had big feelings for you for as long as I can remember.”
A panic was welling up inside me. He was saying all the things I’d wanted to hear for so damn long. And now they weren’t enough.
He released my wrists and threaded his fingers into my hair again, moving in on me in slow motion. His lips found mine, and it was like my body was hypnotized into accepting the pleasure he was offering. I kissed him back like my life depended on it. It wasn’t so slow and leisurely now because there was a fire growing between us.
Why did this feel so good? So right?
“Nope. No. Not happening,” I said, pushing him back and then dug my fingers into his shirt to hold him in place.
“I’m gettin’ some mixed messages here, Cass,” Bowie said with that damned boyish grin.
“I’m furious with you.”
He traced a finger down my nose. “I’m gonna make you forgive me, Cassidy. Then I’m gonna spend about a year kissing you to make up for lost time.”
I shook my head. “I’m not forgiving you, Bowie Bodine. You broke my heart.”Stop admitting things, Cassidy, you damn moron!
He cupped my face in his hands. “I broke mine, too. Now I’m gonna put them both back together and you and I are gonna spend the rest of our lives together.”
“Did you confiscate some hallucinogenic drugs today from a student? Do you even know what you’re sayin’?”
“I sure do. I’m saying I’m gonna marry you so you might as well hurry up and forgive me so we can move on to the good stuff.”
“You’ve lost your damn mind. I just got cats. Cats, Bowie! I’ve committed to the cat lady lifestyle and now you come runnin’ and expect me to marry you? You are the damnedest man on the planet!”
* * *
“Did y’all see that bouquet Bowie Bodine bought for Cassidy Tucker? It’s about damn time!”
