Andy looked up at Carly. “You made them?”
“Everything in the store is made by hand. If you’re curious, you can go and see what some of the artists are making at their tables. Oh, and there are samples of cupcakes from next door, if that’s okay with your dad.”
“Dad?”
“Go ahead. But stay in the store. And only one—okay, two cupcakes.”
Noah followed Carly to the cash register. It gave him time to appreciate what she was wearing. A sleeveless blouse with the ends tied loosely at her navel and a black miniskirt. Simple. But she made it look elegant. Of course, she wore braided leather sandals with laces crisscrossing back and forth up to her knees. Women’s fashion. He’d never understand it. But on her, whatever she wore was sexy as anything ever.
Their fingers brushed as he handed her his credit card. “I’ve missed you, Carly.”
She didn’t look up. “I’ve been around. Every day. For two months.”
“I know. I thought maybe you needed time and space to process things.”
She looked up. He wasn’t certain that was better. He could see the hurt peeking out behind the shade she was throwing. “Did you need it?”
He nodded. “Cody. The hatred. What it did to my family. Getting straight again on the job. It all took time. After my part in your suffering, I wasn’t sure you’d want to see my face again.”
“Okay.” She turned away.
“Wait.” He touched her arm. “What does that mean?”
“It means you went two months without getting in touch.” There it was. The mistake he’d suspected he was making. But he’d wanted her to have a chance to get over him. What they’d started was too hot not to cool down.
But she hadn’t cooled on him, and she was doing a miserable job of hiding it. That hunger she banked back most of the time had leaped to flame in her eyes as she regarded him. And with it, the hope inside him that just maybe he hadn’t ruined it all.
“We need to talk.”
“Not here.” She handed him his card back and began tying a lovely pink bow around the box containing the earrings.
“Then let me come back and take you to dinner when you close.”
“I’ll be too tired to go out.”
She must have seen the disappointment register in his expression. It softened hers. “You’re welcome to come over for dinner tonight. I’m making spicy sweet potato bean burritos.”
He’d be there, even if she were serving mud with rocks.
*
“You came.” Carly leaned in and kissed Noah on both cheeks, then added a third kiss, just because, before dancing away into her apartment.
Before she could back completely away, he snagged her at the waist with an arm. “There’s been something on my mind all day.”
“Oh yeah?” His arm felt so good, and comforting. But she had her pride. She slipped free and moved into her living area.
Noah followed. “You impressed the heck out of Andy. He’s asking if we can come by your shop again soon. I got to admit, it’s got me a tad worried, since you sell only girly stuff.”
“It probably has more to do with Kuppy Cakes next door. I saw him sneak a third.” She had walked over to the sofa but didn’t move around it to sit.
He moved right in behind her, caging her with his body against the back of the sofa. “So, here’s what’s on Andy’s dad’s mind.”
His braced his arms on the sofa back, one on either side of her. Very close, but not touching. “I want to know about what other kind of kisses were you going to tell my son about?”
“Oh, you mean like the Inuit kiss?” She turned within the space he allowed and pushed her face up to his and rubbed her nose back and forth along the length of his.
“That’s pretty damn erotic,” he murmured.
“Yes. It comingles breaths like a mouth kiss and offers the stimulation of nerves we don’t think of as sexual.”
“Whatever. They called it an eskimo kiss when I was a kid. Of course, it wasn’t sexy as you make it.”
“Eskimo is a term that has fallen out of favor. But the next time you want an Inuit kiss, you know where to find me.”
“Indeed, I do. So, lay that on me again.”
When she moved back from the kiss, he was grinning at her. “What else?”
“Butterfly kisses.” This time she reached up to frame his face with her fingers and turned her head to the side as she moved in. When her eyelashes touched his cheek, she opened and closed her eyes rapidly. “Butterfly-wing kisses.”
“Damn. That went directly to my nether regions.” He pulled back with a strange intensity in his face. “Want to try that all over my body?”
She smiled but shrugged. She tapped him on the chest to be released. “If your curiosity is otherwise satisfied, I have to check the oven.”
“Why?” He followed her. “What else do you have in your personal bag of kissing erotica?”