Finding Kyle(52)

Didn’t matter that her daughter knew that going into this and had agreed to it; it still made me feel bad. I only agreed because Jane sensed my reluctance before I could even accept the invitation, and she quickly backpedaled. I saw the clear disappointment and sadness in her eyes that I couldn’t give her this little bit of normalcy in this crazy relationship we had, and even as she was saying, “Never mind I asked. I’ll come up with a good excuse for my parents,” I was saying, “Of course, I’d be glad to go.”

Turns out, it was nice and her parents are great, but it only served to remind me how different my world is from Jane’s. She adores her parents and has a natural and easy relationship with them. I can’t imagine how that might be affected if they knew what was really going on between their daughter and me.

I carry the cooler over to the blanket. After setting it down on a corner so it’s not lifted by the breeze, I take a seat on one side as Jane removes items from her basket.

“I made some fried chicken and potato salad,” she says as she pulls out some paper plates. “And I was going to make some cookies but decided to buy them instead at the bakery. No sense in ruining this outing for us.”

Chuckling, I take a plate from Jane and put a piece of chicken onto it. It smells phenomenal. There’s something about the fact that Jane made it that makes me believe it will be the best chicken I’ve ever had. Today will no doubt go down as one of the best days ever, which I seem to think a lot when I’m around this woman.

As Jane dishes me some potato salad, I take a bite of the chicken and groan. Her eyes snap to me.

“That’s fucking amazing,” I mumble around my food before chewing.

She ducks her head almost shyly, which is not like Jane, but I’ve come to find out that she actually doesn’t take a compliment very well. She’s almost embarrassed when I do. I find that charming and sad at the same time. I suspect that’s because she’s not had a lot of genuine accolades from men before, which is totally odd given how amazing she is. Also odd is the fact that I hand out compliments to her. Never been that kind of dude, but she brings it out of me and I can’t fucking help myself.

“Miranda’s thinking about dumping Jim,” Jane says off-handedly before licking a bit of potato salad off her thumb.

“The guy who went to dinner with us a few nights ago?” I ask, then take another bite of chicken.

Jane nods as she selects a drumstick from the container of fried, spicy goodness.

“Thought his name was Tom,” I say after I swallow and put my chicken down on the plate. I reach over into the cooler to pull out two Cokes, popping the top on one before handing it to Jane.

“Was it?” she asks as she accepts the Coke and takes sip.

“Yeah,” I tell her, and then try a bite of potato salad. “And damn… that’s amazing too.”

“The secret is to add a little poultry seasoning in it,” she says with a nod down to the container before looking back to me. “Tom, Jim… whatever. The point is she wants to dump him.”

“Didn’t care for the guy anyway,” I say as I continue to eat. “And I could totally tell he wasn’t Miranda’s type.”

Which also seems to say something about how I’ve integrated into Jane’s life since I’ve even gotten to know her best friend quite well. I’ve been around her enough to know that she needs a good guy with a strong hand who won’t take her bullshit. Apparently, though, she either gravitates to assholes with low self-esteem or wimps who like to kiss her ass.

Jane snickers. “He so was not Miranda’s type. And that thing he did with his nose…”

“That snuffling noise whenever he finished a sentence?”

“What was that?” She laughs.

“No fucking clue, but it was driving me batty,” I commiserate.

“Oh, my God,” Jane says as she continues to laugh. “Can you imagine them in bed together? ‘Oh baby, that feels so good.’ Then that god-awful snuffling sound.”

I watch, chicken poised halfway to my mouth, as Jane laughs with abandon. With such radiance. Green eyes shimmering whimsically. Completely in the moment… with me… sharing something that we both found funny as hell.

Sharing something with me that I don’t remember having in forever and a day.

I drop the chicken to the paper plate and reach across the expanse of the blanket. I lean toward Jane at the same time I cup the back of her head to pull her toward me, and I lay a swift but soft kiss on her mouth before I release her.

Her eyes are wide with surprise when I pull back, because I’m not the most spontaneously affectionate person.

“That was different,” she says.

“It was?” I ask, feigning ignorance.

She nods. “You usually only kiss me when you… well, you know… you want sex.”

That would be true. I love kissing Jane, which leads to fucking ten times out of ten.

But that wasn’t my intent just now. Hell, I’m not even sure what my intent was, but I was filled up with a gloriously warm, euphoric feeling that was due solely to the woman sitting across from me and, before I knew it, I was giving her a kiss.

I try to play it off though. Looking around at the picnic area, I casually say, “Who says I don’t want to have sex here?”