Borrowing Kisses

Chapter 1

1

Zoe walked down the sidewalk, arm in arm with her best friend, Ruby. The sun had set an hour earlier and all they were left with was the light from the street lamps, splashing across the road. Summer was her favorite time of year, despite the monsoon rains that would leave as quickly as they arrived, and despite the mosquitoes the rain invariably brought with it. And right then, she loved the scents of the desert mingled with campfire smoke that surrounded them as they walked down Main Street toward the town park.

“Too bad Parker couldn’t be here for the star party,” Zoe said, turning the corner by the bike shop. A small path led to the large park that was tucked away behind the buildings, which made it perfect for stargazing. The lights from the street wouldn’t cause as much distraction.

“I’m sure he’s getting a better view from his hot air balloon,” Ruby said. “And to be honest, as much as I love being married, I kinda like these girl nights.”

“I like them too,” Zoe said, trying to sound upbeat, but Ruby must have heard the hint of a heavy tone, because she immediately pulled Zoe into a side hug.

“I know I haven’t been around as much. After I sold the daycare, I didn’t expect my business to take off as quickly as it did. And I feel guilty if I’m away from Parker too often, considering that he’s gone a lot too.”

Zoe stopped Ruby there. “You do not need to apologize. Things aren’t the same as they were, and there is nothing wrong with that. I’m just glad that you’re flying again.”

The last thing Zoe wanted was for Ruby to feel guilty about being happy, especially after Ruby had gone through a few tough years after her first husband, who’d also been Zoe’s brother, had died. Ruby’s airplane chartering business kept her busy at all hours, but she needed it. Almost as much as she needed Parker.

“Okay, if you say so,” Ruby said with a small frown, but it morphed back into a smile just as quickly. “But the star party better not run out of chocolate for s’mores this year.”

Zoe winced. “Seriously, you’d have thought it was Armageddon. But what did they expect would happen? No one wants just a marshmallow stuck between two graham crackers.”

“Who’s in charge of the event this year?”

“Katie volunteered to have Refuge do it.”

“Oh good. There will definitely be enough chocolate, then,” Ruby said with a laugh.

Zoe smiled, knowing that Ruby was right. Katie was the mayor’s wife and owned a non-profit organization for the homeless, which meant that most of the people running the party that evening would be people that were trying to get back on their feet. And Katie loved her chocolate.

Zoe and Ruby entered the clearing and exchanged smiles. Telescopes dotted the grassy expanse on one end, and multiple campfires dotted the other.

“Stars first, or food?” Ruby asked.

Like she had to ask.

Zoe rolled her eyes and Ruby laughed. “Food it is.”

They walked over and speared hot dogs before settling in on a couple of large rocks that were far enough away from the fire that the stray sparks wouldn’t land on them.

Zoe’s hot dog was nearly perfectly golden brown when Ruby elbowed her in the side.

“Do you know the guy sitting across from us?” she muttered under her breath.

Zoe glanced up, trying not to make it obvious that she was looking. Through the flames, an attractive man was roasting his own hot dog, though his attention wasn’t on the food he held over the fire. His gaze kept wandering.

He watched a group of teenage boys who were daring each other to jump over the flames at a nearby fire, then a little boy who had managed to stuff several marshmallows into his pockets before his mother caught him red-handed. His gaze then traveled to the star gazers gathered around the telescopes, and then it finally landed on Zoe.

She looked away. “No, I’ve never seen him before.” She would certainly remember if she had. He had piercing dark eyes, and yet when he smiled in the direction of the boy, who was now shoving the marshmallows into his mouth so his mother couldn’t take them away, two dimples appeared that gave him the appearance of someone who liked to laugh.

“He keeps looking at you,” Ruby said.

“He’s looking at everything, taking the sights in. Probably another tourist here for the flight that leaves in a couple days,” Zoe said. They’d been getting a lot more people coming through their small town since Galactic Enterprises opened their spaceport forty-five miles away in the middle of nowhere. People needed someplace to stay before their space tourism flight, and Amor was the closest town.

“That’s what I thought at first, but his gaze always comes back to you,” Ruby said, averting her eyes when he looked their way again. “Maybe we should move to a different fire, just in case.”

Zoe snorted. “Just in case of what?”

“I don’t know. He’s a stranger who can’t keep his eyes off you, that’s all.”

“Yes, he looks very dangerous,” Zoe said with a small laugh. “Maybe he’s a psychopath killer and he’s going to use his hot dog to beat us to death.”

The man tilted his head and gave them a crooked smile. “You know I can hear you, right?” It was like he wanted to laugh but was trying to be polite. “It’s not that big a fire, and the flames aren’t soundproof.”

“You whisper too loud,” Zoe accused Ruby in a whisper that wasn’t in the least bit quiet. “Now he knows that we figured out his plan.”

Ruby’s face had turned a bright shade of red, and Zoe didn’t know if it was from embarrassment or the heat of the flames. Probably the former. Zoe was an expert at embarrassing Ruby.

When Ruby didn’t say anything and instead hunkered down with her eyes locked on her hot dog, Zoe nodded and said, “You’re right. It’s time to bring out the emergency arsenal.” She slipped her hand into a bag of marshmallows that she had placed next to a supply of chocolate she had stockpiled, and then threw one at the man. It hit him in the eye and she grinned. “There. I fended him off.”

The man’s dark eyes glittered with humor. He slowly took his own hot dog out of the fire and stuck the roasting stick into the ground. Bending over, he picked up his own bag of marshmallows.

Zoe gaped. “You stole a bag too? The sign on the table clearly said only two marshmallows per person.”

“I must have missed it,” the man said, before lobbing several marshmallows at her.

He threw them so quickly that she didn’t have time to react, and she ended up being hit by one on the nose and two on the forehead, but it wasn’t until one went straight down her shirt that she jumped up from the rock with a squeal, while simultaneously dropping her roasting stick. The hot dog plummeted into the flames.

Zoe tried to scowl at the man while shaking out her shirt, but she was laughing too hard. She hadn’t expected the stranger to retaliate.

When the marshmallow dropped from her shirt, she threw it into the flames to burn next to her now-blackened hot dog.

“Don’t start a fight you can’t win,” the man said with a smile, then he calmly took his roasting stick out of the ground and resumed cooking his own food.

“You were right,” Zoe said to Ruby, who had been watching the entire interaction with open-mouthed shock. “We should find a different fire.” She shot a bemused smile at the stranger, grabbed her bag of marshmallows, and walked away. Zoe was far too attracted to that man for her own good. It was better to keep those ones at arm’s length.

“It’s not every day that you meet your match,” Ruby said with a grin as she hurried after Zoe. “That was fun. Can we do it again?”

“Absolutely not. We can only hope that when his spaceship goes up into space, it gets stuck there.”

Ruby laughed. “You don’t usually let anyone get under your skin like that. This guy must be special.”

“If ‘special’ is another word for charming, funny, and completely wrong for me, then yes, that man is very special indeed,” Zoe said, collapsing on an unoccupied rock at the campfire that was the furthest they could get from him.

“Who’s special?” Katie asked, walking up. Her daughter Liv was running around her legs. Liv was two years old with boundless energy, but Katie did pretty well keeping up.

“A good-looking man at one of the fires over there,” Ruby said, pointing. “He and Zoe had…a moment.”

Katie raised her eyebrows and leaned in closer. “Ooh…a moment? I need to hear more.”

“We did not have anything of the sort,” Zoe said, folding her arms.

“Says the woman who accused him of wanting to murder us with his hot dog, and then proceeded to throw a marshmallow at him—which hit him in the eye, I might add,” Ruby said with a laugh.

“You didn’t,” Katie said, now laughing as well. “Scratch that. I’ve known you long enough to know that you totally did."

“Can we focus on the most important aspect of the story?” Zoe asked. “He made my hot dog fall into the fire. And the food table is out. Let’s focus on that tragic ending for a moment.”

“Are you asking me if I’ll get you a new one?” Katie asked with a teasing smile.

“It’s okay,” Zoe said with a dramatic sigh. “I’ll just have to have dessert first.” She speared several marshmallows onto her roasting stick, and by the time she had four beautiful s’mores sitting on a paper plate in front of her, Katie had returned with a package of hot dogs.

“You’re right, he’s very handsome,” she said with a wink. She eyed Zoe’s sticky hands, then handed the package to Ruby.

“I hadn’t noticed,” Zoe said around a mouthful of chocolate and marshmallow. At least she was trying not to remember those dimples or his dark eyes that had lit up when she had pelted him with her marshmallow.

It was more difficult than she was willing to admit.