About That Kiss: A Heartbreaker Bay Novel Read online

  What happened in the elevator was pretty much the same. One second she was standing on her own two feet. The next she’d leapt at Joe.

  His hard arms closed around her and he put his jaw to hers. “If you wanted another kiss, all you had to do was say so.”

  “I’m begging you not to talk,” she moaned and dropped her forehead to his chest. “Just get me out of here.”

  He paused and she felt him looking down at her. “You’re claustrophobic.”

  “Maybe. Just a little tiny bit.” But she was also a big girl, so she pried herself away from him and turned to stare at the doors, willing them to open.

  She half expected Joe to make a joke or laugh at her. Instead she felt his bigger, much warmer hand slide into hers. Not proud, her dignity long gone, she held on like he was her personal life buoy.

  “One sec,” he said calmly and opened the control panel to take a look.

  She lifted her head. “Do you know how to fix elevators?” she asked hopefully.

  “I could probably figure it out.”

  He could probably figure it out . . . “Oh my God.” She squeezed her eyes shut and heard him laugh.

  “It’s going to be okay, Kylie. Just hang on.”

  She was pretty sure he didn’t mean that literally but she did just that, fisting her hands in his shirt and holding on. “This is all your fault,” she said tightly. “I really want to hit you right now.”

  “Take a few deep breaths,” he said.

  “Then can I hit you?”

  He snorted and kept doing something in the electric panel.

  “Doesn’t anything bother you?” she asked a little bitterly.

  “Plenty.” He looked at her as if gauging the level of her panic. Apparently deciding it was extremely high, he said, “I go with the five-by-five rule. If it’s not going to matter in five years, I don’t spend more than five minutes upset by it.”

  She tilted her head to his, startled to realize that since he’d bowed his, their mouths were nearly lined up.

  All you have to do is not kiss him, she told herself. But she licked her suddenly dry lips, a gesture that had his eyes darkening and a very rough, very male sound coming from deep in his throat. He leaned in even closer, but just before their mouths touched, the elevator jerked and began its upward motion again.

  Kylie let out a shaky breath and stepped back from Joe. “I told you this was a bad idea!”

  “Yeah, that was close,” he said. “You almost kissed me again.”

  “I meant getting on the elevator!” She glared at him. “And you kissed me that last time!”

  “You were going on about a kiss being nice. But there was nothing nice about that kiss you planted on me in the alley. It was raw and sexy and dirty in the best possible way. You needed to be reminded of that.”

  She covered her face. “Oh my God.”

  “God had nothing to do with it,” he said smugly. “Kylie, you kissing me like that was hot as hell and . . .”

  She dropped her hands and stared at him. “And . . . ?”

  He held her gaze prisoner. “The thought of you not remembering it the same way made me crazy.”

  Oh, she remembered it the exact same way. The memories of it were imprinted on her brain much as the Polaroids she’d been receiving. First having drinks with her friends, and then at some point realizing that most of them were paired up and in love, and she’d felt . . . alone. Needing air, she’d stepped outside into the courtyard.

  Joe had been there looking dark and dangerously alluring. She’d tossed some change into the fountain like a tourist and he’d laughed with her, making her feel . . . well, less alone.

  Then she’d done something wild, at least for her. She’d taken him by the hand and pulled him into the alley. And the rest was history. “I’m not going to do that again,” she said. “Kiss you.”

  “Okay, how about I kiss you again then?”

  He was infuriating. And way too sexy. She stormed off the elevator. Joe followed, still smiling, the ass. He knocked on an apartment door.

  “I forgot to ask,” she whispered. “Which one of the apprentices is this?”

  Joe didn’t have time to answer before the apartment door opened, revealing a man who looked older than time itself. He was ninety if he was a day, hunched over a cane.

  “Mr. Gonzales,” Joe said respectfully.

  “Eh?” Mr. Gonzales asked. “Speak up, boy!”

  Kylie recognized him from years ago when he’d worked at her grandpa’s shop after a late-in-life career change from carpenter to furniture maker. She waved at him. “Hi, Mr. Gonzales. Remember me? You were my dad’s first apprentice. I was just a kid, maybe five years old?”

  “I remember you.” He blinked at her through his spectacles. “You were a runny-nosed, whiny little thing who rode her bike through the shop and knocked my work over.”

  And he’d been a grumpy, curmudgeonly old man even back then, but she kept that to herself.

  “Never saw you after your grandfather died.” His voice softened. “It was awful what happened, to the both of you.”

  She felt Joe look at her, but she kept her face averted from his, heart feeling tight.

  “We’re wondering if you’re still doing any woodworking,” Joe said.

  Mr. Gonzales laughed so hard he would’ve toppled over if Joe hadn’t steadied him. “Haven’t left this apartment in several years. The only woodworking I do is picking my teeth with a toothpick. Can’t even take a shit in peace anymore.” He gestured to a bag attached to him at the hip.

  Joe winced and nodded. “Thank you for your time, sir.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever. If you show up again, bring me some of that greasy fried food from the deli on the corner.”

  “Done,” Joe said.

  Mr. Gonzales slammed the door on their noses.

  Joe looked at her. “What did he mean, sorry for what happened to the both of you? You said you weren’t hurt in the fire.”

  Kylie didn’t want to go there with him. Not now, not ever. Just thinking about the horrific warehouse fire gave her nightmares, even all these years later. “I wasn’t.” She started walking. “I’m sure he just meant he was sorry for my loss. I told you that there was an elderly apprentice and he didn’t need to be investigated.”

  Joe was unapologetic. “I like to cover all the bases myself.”

  She shook her head. “And clearly, you’d already looked into him. “You knew he was two hundred million years old when you said I could come up with you.”

  “To be fair, I never said you could come up,” he reminded her. “I said I wouldn’t stop you.”

  “Whatever!” she exclaimed, tossing up her hands. So he’d only pretended to trust that she could take care of herself. She should have known. Shaking her head at the both of them, she headed straight to the stairwell. No way in hell was she taking the elevator back down.

  “You afraid of getting stuck or afraid you’re going to jump me again?” Joe asked.

  She ignored him. Which was, admittedly, getting harder and harder to do.

  Chapter 8

  #WhereWereGoingWeDontNeedRoads

  By six o’clock the next day, Joe was exhausted after fourteen hours on the job. Still, and against his better judgment, he met Kylie at the courtyard as she’d insisted by text.

  She had her huge bag over her shoulder and Vinnie in her arms, who snorted in excitement at the sight of him. Kind of how Joe felt like doing at the sight of Kylie. Instead, he ruffled the top of Vinn’s head. “Hey, little man. Whatcha up to?”

  “He’s been very busy,” Kylie said. “He ate one of my socks. And in other not so surprising news, he’s constipated.”

  As if on cue, Vinnie farted audibly.

  “Nice one,” Joe told him on a laugh. “Bet you feel better now.”

  “Sorry.” Kylie grimaced and fanned the air with her hand. “I don’t dare leave him at home alone. What’s our plan?”

  Joe ignored the “our.” “