Page 32 of The Kiss Class
“Badaszek.”
“You?”
“No, my father. The one who has your career in his hands. The one who didn’t let you dress up as Santa.”
I wince. “How’d you know about that?”
“It’s a Knights tradition that the newbie to the team gets the honor, and trust me, it’s an honor. For him not to let you be Claus, you must be close to getting erased from his list.”
My cheeks puff on an exhale. “I gathered that. By theway, do the guys do any kind of initiation? Hazing? Secret society stuff?”
“I wouldn’t know.” She wears a smile that suggests having been around the team her whole life, she’s heard otherwise.
I brace myself anew.
“If you want to prove to my father that you’ve changed, you have to temporarily pretend that I’m the girl you can’t get over and keep that promise you made by staying away from other women.”
“That’s what I’ve been doing, but it seems risky.” On multiple levels. Falling for her wouldn’t be hard. Heck, I’m on both feet, and I already feel like I’m tripping.
“If we can pull this off, you’ll have cleaned up your reputation as far as my father is concerned, and I’ll no longer live in fear of the third date.”
“What do you mean?”
Her throat bobs on a swallow and she glances at her hands. “Until the Merry Kiss Me moment, I’d never been kissed.”
I narrow my eyes. “I find that hard to believe.”
She looks up with surprise. “I’ve gotten a smooch on the cheek. A peck on the lips and slightly slobbered on. But not a proper kiss. Not like that. A real one. The kind that makes me understand what the fuss is all about.”
I can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that I was Cara’s first kiss, but I’m a little puffed up, too. For whatever reason, she waited and I’ll admit it was an honor that she let me be her first. I have hockey awards and some shiny stats to write home about, but this feels like a big deal, especially because Cara is so beautiful, smart, and discerning.
The corner of my lip quirks. “Do you mean to say you didn’t have to go through a lot of frogs to find a prince?”
A giggle escapes and she playfully swats me. “My sisters are trying to find me someone to date—Nolan and Richardto start. Even though they’re married and changed their last names, they’re still Badaszeks at their core.”
“I take that to mean the three of you are a force to be reckoned with.”
She shakes her head slowly and gazes at the floor. “I didn’t get that gene.”
“Yet here we are.” I gesture to the inches between us in the narrow supply closet and that she’s devising a master plan to deceive her father, my coach, and evade her siblings’ matchmaking quest.
“Considering you’re not actually boyfriend material, Richard was a dud, Nolan was non-existent, and the few guys from the past—never mind—this is probably boring to you.”
“I’ve never been more intrigued in my life.” This woman mesmerizes me, makes me feel like I’m skating on sunshine.
She shifts her weight and lets out a shaky breath. “I’ve never told anyone, but it was easy to talk to Not-Nolan, so it should be easy to tell you. I have a rule. I don’t kiss on the first date . . . or the second or third.”
A pit forms in my stomach because that’s all it seems like the women who flock to me want. To kiss and stuff. But Cara is different. Lately, part of me wants more. Do I want her? “A physical connection is good, but it’s not everything.”
She balks. “Says the Frenchman.”
“I hate that you know that about me. The truth is, I’m a bit of a hot mess. But that’s behind me. I’ve turned over a new, um, puck?”
She snickers. “That makes two of us. Sort of. If we inverted our respective situations, I kind of worked myself into a corner. It all started with Ricky. On the first date, we hugged. Second, a kiss on the cheek. The third—” she clears her throat, face reddening.
“Oh, now you have to tell me,” I say, gathering it’s a juicy story.
“It was prom night, and we went to an Asian fusion restaurant in Omaha. Trying to be fancy, I said I wanted to order a fruity drink—the kind with an umbrella and frills. I had to use the bathroom, so Ricky ordered what I thought was a mocktail. Let’s just say I got silly and then sick. I’ve never looked at pineapple the same way again. Later that night, my sisters caught him making out with Dawn Edwards in the back of his PT Cruiser.”
