About That Kiss

“What surprises you?” He took the knife she didn’t realize she was still holding out of her hand and put it down on the counter.

“I’m surprised that you didn’t come back when Diana and Kevin first started dating.” Joy watched his gaze drop to her hips as she placed her hands there. For a second Joy wondered if she was intentionally trying to flatten her red sweater so he’d know it was the sweater that was puffy, not her hips.

“Actually I didn’t know Diana and Kevin were dating. The first I heard of them being a couple was when Kevin got ahold of me and told me they were getting married. But I wouldn’t have come back even if I had known.”

My eye! Joy muttered in her head. He certainly had come back quickly enough when he’d found out they were getting married.

“Do we really have to talk about Diana and Kevin?” He smiled. “I’d much rather talk about you.”

“There’s nothing about me to talk about.” Joy turned back to the counter. She picked up the knife and jaggedly sliced open both rolls.

“We could talk about your column. Or we could talk about whether you’ve been affected by the sun or any full moons since I’ve been gone.”

Joy’s face flushed deep red. Was he intentionally trying to embarrass her by bringing up that kiss? “Did Kevin tell you how he and Diana first got together?”

“No and I didn’t ask,” Nick responded disinterestedly.

“Diana needed a lawyer to collect money from one of her clients,” Joy said. “That was three months ago.”

Nick leaned back against the counter. “I assume Kevin got Diana’s client to fork over.”

Joy nodded. Taking a plate down from the cabinet overhead she placed the sandwiches on top of it. “He’s a very good lawyer.”

“No question about that.” Nick took the plate and walked over to the kitchen table in the center of the room.

Joy made a half turn in his direction. “Would you like a beer with that?”

“Okay.” Nick took a seat and stretched his legs out.

Joy came to the table with a glass, a bottle of beer and a bag of potato chips. She placed her bounty down within his reach and then took a seat across from him.

Nick opened the bag of chips, took a helping out and put them on his plate. He passed the bag to her. Joy took a handful of chips out for herself.

She watched him begin eating his sandwich.

He watched her munch on chips.

A stretch without any conversation went by while Joy commanded herself to get her eyes off him. Her command went unheeded.

Nick finished one sandwich. “How are you doing with your column?” He had read them all, having worked out an arrangement with the owner/editor of the Greenport News to have the paper forwarded to him. He’d even spoken to her editor a few times, which was how he’d known the paper was up for sale before any official announcement. He toyed with the idea of telling her that he was her new boss, instead of waiting until tomorrow at the Monday morning staff meeting.

“It’s going okay,” Joy returned. “Nothing all that exciting.” She did have something exciting in the works, but she didn’t want to go off on that tangent now. She was hoping to ease back into the topic of Diana and Kevin. She wanted a more definitive expression from him about his intent.

“You’re the one with the glamorous career,” Joy said, directing the conversation to his globetrotting. She knew he’d been in Russia, Egypt, then Europe during the past four and a half months. She’d hunted out every picture of his that had been published.

“It’s not at all glamorous. Living out of a backpack most of the time means not always showering. And it’s almost impossible to establish any relationships. As soon as I meet someone I’d like to get to know, I’m off to someplace else.”

Joy tipped her head slightly. “That doesn’t sound at all like the way you used to speak about your career.”

Nick shrugged his shoulders.

Joy was surprised by his change of attitude. It was the excitement she used to hear in his voice that had given her the impetus to seek out a similar career for herself as a journalist. She’d just gotten a go-ahead last Friday to take on an assignment in Bolivia, three days after Diana and Kevin’s wedding. She hadn’t told anyone about it yet. She thought it only right that she give her notice in to the Greenport News first.

Joy dabbed up some potato chip crumbs on the table with the tip of her finger. “That part about not getting a chance to really know people you wanted to get to know, did that include women you might have thought of getting serious with?”

“Are you asking me if I was interested in anyone romantically?”

“Was that what it sounded like?” She’d been trying to find out whether there had been any lessening in his feelings for Diana. It wasn’t because she was jealous, she reminded herself.

“That’s what it sounded like,” Nick said, grinning. He poured beer into his glass, then studied her over the rim as he took a deep swallow.

“So were you?” Joy impatiently met the mirthful look in his eyes.

Maxie barked just as the front door opened.

Joy took a big frustrated breath and blew it out fast, releasing her disappointment that there wasn’t time now to press him for a response.

Nick’s gaze locked with hers. “No, I didn’t meet any woman I wanted to spend more than one night with or even a single night with.”

“Oh,” Joy managed to say, before her mother appeared in the kitchen, followed by Diana and Kevin. All three looked as surprised to see Nick as Joy had been.

“Nick…” Emily Mackey gushed. She was an attractively unfussy woman on the cusp of turning fifty. Short brown hair framed her lively round face. “It’s wonderful to see you again. We couldn’t imagine whose car was in the driveway.”

“It’s wonderful to see you,” Nick said, returning the smile. He was on his feet, enthusiastically ready to receive a hug, bending to accommodate Emily, who was inches shorter than both her daughters.

Kevin approached to shake his hand, then thump him on the back, getting a thump in return from Nick as males will do in place of an embrace.

“Son of a gun,” Kevin said with a grin almost identical to the grin he was getting from Nick. “I thought you still had pictures to take.”

“I couldn’t think of any picture I wanted to take more than one of you getting hog-tied.” Nick raised his eyebrows, relieved to see that Kevin appeared really happy he’d arrived.

Then it was Nick and Diana facing each other as Kevin drew Diana to his side.

“Hi, Nick,” Diana said slowly.

“Diana,” Nick replied without a grin. He hoped she was truly in love with Kevin. She was going to have him to answer to if his brother got hurt.

Joy caught the lingering look between Nick and Diana and glanced quickly at Kevin to check for his take on the situation. Kevin’s brown eyes gazed affectionately—and naively—at Diana. Joy resisted an impulse to punch Kevin in the head.

“Joy, did you put on coffee?” Emily Mackey asked, taking off her coat, adding it to the leather jacket and navy pea coat already on hooks.

“No, but I will,” she replied. Joy watched Diana and Nick break their regard of each other, and she walked over to the counter where the coffee maker was.

Filling the pot with water, Joy observed as Kevin assisted Diana with her coat. Joy already knew what Diana was wearing underneath her coat. A short, straight black skirt, a white cashmere sweater, black tights and sexy black high-heeled boots.

Joy craned her neck to see if Nick was appraising her sister. When she saw that Diana did indeed have his attention—Joy let the water spill out over the top of the glass coffeepot. Embarrassed she quickly turned off the faucet.

Kevin said to his brother, “I know you gave up your lease. You’ll stay with me.”

“Thanks, Kev,” Nick replied. “But I figured on finding a place here in Greenport.”

Water sluiced over the sides of the coffee maker as Joy poured from the pot. Of course he wanted to stay in Greenport! All the better to see Diana.

“There’s no need for you to look for someplace to stay. There’s certainly plenty of room here,” Emily Mackey announced. “The downstairs is a mess with all the painting going on, but the bedrooms are all fine.”

“That would be great, but are you sure I won’t be in the way?”

Joy gnawed her bottom lip as she mopped up water from the counter with a sponge. Didn’t anyone else realize what was going on here? Was she the only one that wasn’t naive?

“Not another word about it,” Emily Mackey insisted. “Joy, I’ll finish making the coffee. Would you two girls go up and get a room ready? Nick, please finish your sandwich. I’ve got cherry pie for you. I baked just this morning.”

Joy and Diana left the kitchen. Kevin walked out behind them to hang his coat and Diana’s in the front hall closet. The three maneuvered around furniture that had been covered with heavy drop cloths and pushed into the middle of the living room. The front entryway was the only completed section on the first floor.

“Hurry up you two,” Kevin said as Diana and Joy started up the stairs to the landing. “I can’t stay too late. I’ve got briefs to go over tonight.”

“You’d better not be thinking of bringing any briefs on our honeymoon,” Diana replied over her shoulder.

“I’m not figuring on bringing any briefs at all,” Kevin called back up to Diana.

Diana smiled to Joy showing her amusement with Kevin’s retort.

She wasn’t in a smiling mood, but Joy gave it her all to smile back as they reached the second floor. “Did you ever think of not waiting any longer and just eloping?”

“Don’t be silly,” Diana answered with indignation. “I want a church wedding with all the trimmings. And I want my reception here, where no one else has had their reception. It’s going to be just perfect having it here once everything’s all together. Don’t you think so?”

Joy wistfully nodded her head as she opened the door to the linen closet in the hallway. If she were getting married she’d want it to be just the way Diana had it planned.

“Which bedroom do you think we should put Nick in?” Diana asked her.

“How about the attic bedroom?” Joy suggested, gathering together a set of sheets.

“I think Mom would rather have us all on the same floor. Let’s put him in the bedroom between yours and mine.”

Joy scowled.

“What?” Diana asked.

“Nothing.”

Diana wouldn’t let it go. “Was it obvious to you, too?”

“Was what obvious?” Joy asked innocently.

“Nick. He’s still in love with me. Did you see the look in his eyes when we said hello to each other?”

“I saw it.”

“Poor Nick.” Diana released a deep breath. “I really feel badly about it.”

Joy didn’t think Diana felt half as bad as she did—not that Joy imagined Nick could ever be interested in her, even if Diana was out of the picture.

Chapter Two

Nick couldn’t sleep. He turned the lamp on next to his bed and reached for his watch. Seeing that it was nearing midnight, he realized he’d been tossing around for close to an hour. Could it have something to do with the pizza he’d shared with Joy at ten o’clock? They’d been the only two interested in food, so Nick had gone out and brought a pizza back. However, Nick decided his inability to sleep had less to do with the food he’d eaten and more to do with the company he’d shared it with.

Nick grinned and thought about Joy fast asleep and curled up in her bed. He wondered if she slept on her stomach. Or flat on her back the way she’d.been on the pile of leaves. Flat on her back brought a red-hot image to his mind.

Slow it down, Tremain! How long ago was itfleeting though it may have been—that you thought you were in love with Diana?

Knowing these thoughts would not help him sleep, he decided to go downstairs. He used the miniature pocket flashlight hanging from his key chain to find his way to the kitchen. Once in the cozy room he poured himself a glass of soda. His flashlight began blinking and he turned it off to conserve the battery. He drank his soda in the dark, something he’d often done out of occupational necessity.

Suddenly the kitchen was flooded with light. A surprised Nick was confronted with a bleary-eyed Joy, dressed in colorful flannel pajamas.

“What are you doing?” Joy asked as soon as she got over being startled at finding a very bare-chested man in her kitchen.

“I was thirsty.” Nick held out his glass of soda. “What brought you downstairs?”

“Thirsty…very thirsty.” She wasn’t making any move to do anything about it. The muscles of his chest and forearms had her mesmerized.

“Must have been the pizza.” Nick grinned.

“Uh-huh.” Uh-huh, she thought…uh-huh? Is that all you can think to say? Uh-huh! You’re a writer! You’re supposed to be good with words.

“How about some cola?” Nick asked.

“Okay,” Joy answered.

Nick put his glass on the counter and poured her drink. He held out the glass, and Joy felt as if she were walking in a dream as she came up to him. The coldness of the glass in her hand came as something of a shock. She wasn’t conscious of having even accepted it.

“Love your pajamas.” He gave her a full-wattage grin as she held the glass to her lips.

Joy gulped and sputtered. She looked down at herself after wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She would hardly have picked to wear what she was wearing if she was conjuring this up as a dream.

“They were a present.” Joy ran the tip of her tongue across her lips.

Nick dragged his eyes off her mouth and studied the array of small iridescent red hearts against the background of cream-colored flannel. “Did some guy give them to you?”

He knew she wasn’t seriously involved with anyone. He knew because he’d asked Kevin. Indirectly, of course.

Joy shook her head. “A friend from work ga?? them to me for my birthday.”

He liked that answer. “And when was your birthday?”

“February fourteenth, Valentine’s Day.”

“Cupid’s baby, huh?” Nick grinned.

Joy nodded. Looking at his bare chest was causing her heart to flutter.

His eyes moved over her face. “Your chin looks a little sticky.”

“Cola,” Joy said.

Nick took hold of the hand she started to raise and kept it down at her side. He brought his free hand up and touched the damp spot on her chin.

Joy’s lips parted. She was breathing haltingly through her mouth as his hand lifted her chin higher.

And then the kitchen door swung open.

“What are the two of you doing?” Diana asked, clothed in one of her seductive nightgowns. The thin, pink silk just missed being see-through.

“Drinking,” Nick muttered, bringing his hand back down.

“We were both thirsty,” Joy added. “And I had cola on my chin.”

Diana proceeded to the refrigerator for the platter of cold chicken. “It isn’t any wonder that you’d be thirsty. How the two of you can eat the food you eat is beyond me. Don’t either of you have any concern for your bodies?”

Nick groaned to himself. He had a very definite interest in one of the bodies in the room. It wasn’t his. Nor was it Diana’s.

“Well,” Joy said awkwardly. “I guess I’ve had enough. See you both in the morning.”

“I’ve had enough, too,” Nick said. “I’ll walk up with you.”

She looked over at him just once, as they walked toward the stairs. Had he been about to kiss her when Diana had walked in on them? No, Joy answered herself. So what had he been doing?

“Are you tired?” Nick asked as they reached Joy’s bedroom door.

“Uh-huh,” Joy answered, then moaned under her breath. “Aren’t you?”

“Not really. But I guess since you’re tired I won’t try to persuade you to stay up with me a little longer.”

Joy took a deep breath. Persuade! She was like putty in his hands.

“Well, see you tomorrow,” Nick said with a smile.

“Tomorrow is a workday for me.” Joy made herself open her bedroom door. “I leave early.”

“I’m a pretty early riser myself.”

“Even without much sleep?”

“Even without much sleep.”

“Good night,” she said.

“Good night,” he answered.

Joy took a resolute step into her bedroom. Not looking back, she closed the door.

Nick stood in the hallway a second longer, wondering again what position she slept in.

Her mother was flipping pancakes as Joy came into the kitchen the next morning. After noting that no one else was in the room, Joy marched straight for the coffee that was already brewed.

Emily slipped a pancake onto a plate. “How many will you have? Two or three?”

“I don’t have time for more than a swallow of coffee,” Joy said to her mother. “I’ve overslept as it is.” She hadn’t fallen asleep until the wee hours of the morning. “Put them in the oven for Diana and Nick.”

“If Diana eats half a pancake that will be a lot, and Nick has already eaten and left.”

Joy put down the cup of coffee that she hadn’t yet taken a swallow from. “Nick ate and left already? Where did he go?”

“He didn’t say, dear.” Emily looked at her youngest child thoughtfully. “I must say he didn’t appear any less tired than you do this morning.”

“I guess we were both attacked by pepperoni pizza.” Joy gave her mother a kiss on the cheek, then hurried off.

* * *

The newsroom of the Greenport News was buzzing when Joy arrived. It was never a quiet place to begin with, but this morning there was an unusually high-pitched quality to the chatter.

Joy hung up her green reefer coat and glanced around. Even Arthur Dailey was in animated conversation with Bill Kellman. That was unusual. The two pressmen, both gray-haired, though Arthur had more on his pate than Bill, hardly ever spoke to each other. There was something about one having slighted the other sometime back. Way back. Joy suspected that neither man recalled the exact slight, nor which one of them had delivered it, or even exactly when it had happened.

“What’s going on?” Joy asked, catching the ear of Pamela Cousins, a breezy forty-year-old blonde with an ample shape and a Ms. Congeniality personality. She manned the phone for the classifieds. There wasn’t anyone who didn’t like Pamela. Nor was there anyone who Pamela didn’t like back.

“You know. The big news,” Pamela said, turning from Cal Peterson who reported weekly on the activities of the Greenport wharf.

“What big news?” Joy asked.

“Oh,” Pamela said. “I thought that was the reason you dressed up today. You know…to make an impression on him.“

“‘Him’?” The only him she’d wanted to make an impression on in her short, slim, gray wool skirt; clingy, white, ribbed-jersey turtleneck; high-heeled black pumps; and black panty hose had left before she’d come down to the kitchen. “What ‘him’?”

“Our new boss. The man Earl sold the paper to.”

“Earl sold the paper?” Joy was amazed.

“The new owner is in his office right now. Earl said he’ll be introducing us all once you’d arrived. They’ve been waiting for you.”

“I’ll go tell Earl you’re here,” Cal said, breaking away.

“Have you seen the new owner?” Joy inquired of Pamela.

Pamela expressed her response to Joy’s question with a big smile before she said, “God, I wish I was ten years younger and not married. The man is a S-T-U-D.”

Earl Lansing came out of his office and into the main section of the news area with Cal Peterson and the man Pamela had just labeled a stud. Joy’s mouth fell open. The stud at Earl Lansing’s side was Nick Tremain.

Earl Lansing’s eyes singled out Joy. “I assume you know by now?”

Joy got her mouth closed in time to nod her head. Her eyes flashed to Nick. He gave her a fast wink, then a very slow perusal. When his eyes did cruise back up to hers, there was sexy masculine approval in his gaze.

Joy felt her face get warm.

Nick grinned.

By then everyone in the office had gathered around.

“I am not going to give a speech,” Earl began, looking delighted. “I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing me complain about still working at my age—”

Cal Peterson cut in jokingly. “It’s not fair of you to walk out without letting one of us win the yearly bet. Just how old are you?”

Earl chuckled. “Old enough to know better, but not old enough to stop doing it.”

There was laughter and cheers.

Earl waved both his hands to bring the group to order. “Ladies and gentlemen…may I present Nick Tremain, the new owner of the Greenport News. You’ve got a renowned photojournalist for a boss now, but I’ll let him tell you about that himself.”

Earl smiled at Nick. “It’s all yours.”

But it wasn’t all Nick’s yet, as the staff crowded around Earl to wish him well. In that moment only Joy stood to one side, where Nick’s full attention was on her. There was a hint of devilishness around his mouth. Joy flicked him a look of sheer incredulity before she included herself among Earl’s well-wishers.

“I’m not leaving without a big hug from you,” Earl smiled, getting to Joy last.

“Oh, Earl,” Joy said emotionally as the hug ended. “I’m really going to miss you.” She’d already had that feeling on her mind, knowing she was going to give three weeks’ notice this morning.

Earl fondly patted Joy’s shoulder as he looked out at all the people who had worked for him. “Is tomorrow enough time for you to get a cake for me?”

Pamela called out, “I’m going to bake you my triple-layer chocolate cake.”

Someone joked, “Is that the one we have to use a saw on?”

Earl smiled broadly. “Settle down, kiddies. And behave yourselves.”

Cal Peterson said, “So you finally get to take your wife to Florida. Pearl must be dancing a jig.”

“She’s certainly nagged me about it long enough,” Earl replied. “But I will be around a few more days just to make sure you all stay in line. Only right now I’m going out to have myself a long, leisurely breakfast while the man of the hour takes over.” Earl gave Nick a two-finger salute.

A tense silence filled the newsroom as soon as Earl walked out. All eyes were on Nick. Joy was certain she was the only one that noticed Nick was a little tense himself. She could tell just from the way he stood.

Nick smiled at the group. “Let me begin by saying that my intention is to be more than an editor. I’m planning to work out in the field, as well.”

The twenty-eight-year-old staff photographer for the Greenport News cleared his throat. “I’m real familiar with your photos, Mr. Tremain. I guess you won’t be needing me around here anymore.”

“You’re George DeGeneris, right?” Nick questioned.

“Yes, sir.” George put an uneasy hand up to his hair in a reflexive motion, but the untamable blond cowlick sprang right back up.

“Cut the ‘sir.’” Nick grinned. “Now it may take me a little time to put a name to all your faces, but I am fully aware of the work each and every one of you do around here. And I haven’t seen anything to complain about. I’m especially familiar with your photos, George. Your concepts are fresh and alive. What I’m going to want is more of the same. A lot more of the same. I want a lot more of the same from all of you, but I’m also going to want you to stretch beyond where you’ve been. We’re going to create something together. Something new and different.

“We are not going to be just a local paper anymore. We’re going to feature stories that today’s top magazines will envy. We’re not going to just deliver the news. We’re going to tell the stories behind the news. In-depth stories about the people that make the news and not just in Greenport. We’re going to cover the entire East End. We are going to become the East End Journal and we are going to give the ‘big boys’ a run for the money. And, by the way, it’s Nick and not Mr. Tremain.”