Paper Kisses Read online

  “Some things never change,” she said quickly, trying to get her friend’s mind off whatever it was she was going to ask. “After how many years, you two are still at it?”

  CeeCee smiled impishly and Alannah did a mental sigh of relief. “Well, I can’t let him get too big for his britches, can I? Now, follow me home. I have dinner cooking.”

  Alannah blinked. “You prepared food? Is it edible?”

  CeeCee snorted. “Ha. Ha. Ha. How do Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese sound?”

  “Like a frozen dinner.”

  CeeCee stuck her tongue out and Alannah laughed at guessing correctly.

  “Anyway, while we’re eating I’ll tell you about the party I’ve planned tomorrow at the lake.”

  “This isn’t going to be like our senior year party, is it?” Alannah asked a bit apprehensively. “I don’t think I’m up for a moonshine dance-a-rama again.”

  It didn’t make her feel any better when CeeCee shrugged back innocently.

  The entire trip back to CeeCee’s house, Alannah thought about Sky. Thought about how much he’d changed over the years from the too tall skinny teenager into the mega-delicious hunk wearing the sheriff’s badge. Holy moly. The man was a freakin’ sex god on legs. She squirmed in her seat and felt the seam on her jeans rub tightly against her clit, causing wicked pleasure to shoot through her. Crap, she shouldn’t do that too much or she’d end up wrecking the car, and that’d be one hell of an explanation for the insurance company.

  “Excuse me, Miss Atwood ... how did you manage to wreck the car that you rented, and promised not to damage?”

  “I was, like, grinding my pussy into my jeans trying to get off because the cop that pulled me over was so totally hot.”

  Apparently, in her sex fantasies she spoke like a Valley Girl.

  Sky had always been the one person she could run to no matter the reason, and although she’d had CeeCee and Kevin too, she’d always had a special relationship with Sky. That relationship was one of the reasons why she hightailed it so fast out of Dexter. She didn’t want to become like her mother, stuck in a backwoods town with absolutely no ambition, and her dependency on Sky scared her.

  CeeCee’s house hadn’t changed one bit, and that included the plastic flower on the porch table. The paint was peeling and it had long ago lost the yellow pigment that once made it sunny and bright. Now it was more washed out, more of a mushroom color, which really wasn’t that attractive. But there’d been so many great memories within the two-story farmhouse style home that Alannah wouldn’t have given a crap if it were pink with purple polka dots.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t come back for the funeral,” Alannah murmured.

  CeeCee shrugged. “Truthfully, I was completely out of my mind so I wouldn’t have known if you’d been there or not. Mom and Dad would’ve understood. They were like that. Say, while I’m slaving over the hot microwave, wanna pour some wine?”

  “Okay,” Alannah said and headed right toward the cupboard where she knew the wine would be. The Jones family had never been sophisticated enough for a wine rack and it was a miracle that the wine wasn’t in a box. She’d loved CeeCee’s parents and had been devastated to learn they died in a car crash only five months after graduation. Twenty minutes later, the sad memories were pushed away as they sat on the couch laughing over home movies.

  “I can’t believe you still have a VCR,” Alannah murmured as she washed down the last bite of her frozen dinner.

  “I have a DVD and VCR combo in my bedroom,” CeeCee said proudly. “How cool is that?”

  “That wouldn’t be the adjective I’d use.”

  “Ha! Oh, watch this,” CeeCee said, pointing. Kevin was on the screen trying to ride a mechanical bull. “Kevin is such a freak! I can’t believe he entered amateur rodeo night at the festival!”

  “Daredevil, that’s Kev,” Alannah agreed. “Gotta love him.”

  “It’s a wonder he never broke his neck all in the name of a dare,” CeeCee replied. “You know the Strawberry Festival starts this week, right? I’m working the kissing booth. Want to help?”

  “Setting it up or working it?”

  “Both. It’s for charity, you know. Every year I donate the money to Kevin’s animal shelter.”

  “Let me think about it.”

  “Well, if not we can find something for you to do. Maybe Skylar wouldn’t mind having you help patrol.”

  Alannah’s eyebrows shot up. “Think he’d give me a gun?”

  CeeCee rolled her eyes. “Are you kidding? He took away my Beebee gun.”

  Hearing Sky’s name threw her once again. She’d been working really hard to not think of him. Might as well get the questioning over with now.

  “How come you never mentioned he was living in Dexter?”

  CeeCee pursed her lips and pressed pause on the VCR. “You never seemed to want to talk about high school memories. So why’d you leave so fast?”

  “Come on,” Alannah said. “All I talked about my senior year was getting out of middle America to see the world.”

  CeeCee was unusually somber as she regarded her. “Sky took it hard when you disappeared after graduation. You didn’t even say goodbye.”

  “Why am I the only one to have left Backwoods Missouri?”

  “Well, Kevin did for a time. He went to vet school in Dallas. I think he wanted to work on a cattle ranch or something but he moved back here a little over a year ago. He stays with me every weekend.”

  “And Sky?”

  “He went to Mizzou, studied law and then went to Joplin to the police academy. When he came back he became a deputy and well, you know the rest.” She paused for a beat. “He’s had an on-again, off-again relationship with a woman named Linda who lives in Poplar Bluff.”

  Hearing that actually…hurt. Jealousy rose up in Alannah and she had to swallow the bitter pill down. There was absolutely no reason why she should feel possessive over Sky. He wasn’t hers. No one was hers. It was ridiculous to think hunky, hot Sky would be interested in boring old her. She couldn’t even hold onto the man who’d vowed to always love her until death.

  Still, she had to know.

  “Are they on again?”

  CeeCee shrugged. “Truthfully, I haven’t a clue. You, more than me or Kev, knew about his girlfriends.”

  Alannah groaned. “Tell me about it. All through high school I was Sky’s punching bag with his girls. By graduation I was so tired of hearing about them… I don’t know if I want to ask and risk it again. Anyway, let’s change the subject. Who’s all going to this party tomorrow?”

  “You, me. Kevin, who’ll be over tonight … Skylar always hems and haws, but I manage to talk him into it. There’ll be about twenty people around our age, some you know and some you don’t. It’ll be a total blast!”

  Alannah reached out and took CeeCee’s hand, squeezing it. “I can’t wait. It’s been so long since I just relaxed by the lake.”

  “I wish you’d stay longer than a week,” CeeCee said with a pout.

  “Hey, I just got here. Let’s not think of me leaving just yet.”

  “I know. I’ve just missed having someone to talk to, having you to talk to. We’ve all missed you. Especially Sky. He was a basket case for awhile.”

  “Come on, Cee,” Alannah muttered, squirming a little. “There wasn’t ever anything sexual between us.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  CeeCee rose from the couch and gathered up the plastic frozen dinner plates before glancing at her. “Who do you think took over your punching bag job?”

  The words rendered Alannah speechless and all she could think were the immortal words of George Takei.

  Oh, my.

  Chapter Two

  As soon as the first honk sounded through the dead of night, Alannah sat up in bed with a gasp. High-beam lights were blinking off and on, reminding her of a disco ball. Scowling, she jumped from bed and hea
ded out of her bedroom at the same time that CeeCee came out of hers.

  She turned on the stairway light and they both started down when the front door lock turned and Kevin Ramsey strolled in. He was tall, lanky, and way too happy for one o’clock in the morning.

  “Cecilia Elizabeth Jones, don’t tell me you went and bought a sports car!” he called out, his bellowing voice filling the foyer.

  “Nah, it’s Alannah’s,” CeeCee said with a laugh as she hugged Kevin. “You can lecture her on the dangers of tiny motorized go-karts.”

  Kevin looked up the stairs, to where Alannah had halted halfway down.

  “Well, hell,” he said with a smile on his handsome face. “You finally got your butt back to Dexter where it belongs. So come down here and give me a hug. Haven’t seen you in a mess of years.”

  Alannah finished heading down the steps and as she reached Kevin’s space he reached out and grabbed her off her feet for a hug. Out of the four of them, Kevin was the most laid back. He was the type of guy who fit into any clique, be it skaters, smokers, jocks, or nerds. He had that type of personality that was calming and heaven knew it was just what she needed.

  “Whoa, Kevin!” she said. “Hi. Please put me down.”

  He set her down but didn’t let go of her as he studied her face. His fingers smoothed back her red hair off her face.

  “You’re even more beautiful now than in high school, Alannah Atwood.”

  “And you’ve grown pretty damn tall, mister!”

  “What did that bastard do to you?”

  She blinked and her good mood evaporated in a blink. “Excuse me?”

  “I could always tell when something upset you, so talk to me. What did that asshole you married do to put that unhappiness in your eyes?”

  She shook her head and touched his cheek. “Maybe some other time, Kev, when it’s not the middle of the night.”

  “Sure,” he said, ruffling her sleep tossed hair. “Let’s make you forget him, shall we? So, Cee, my darling, where’s the beer?”

  CeeCee laughed as she headed toward the kitchen. “Follow me to the celebration!”

  Alannah watched after them with tolerant amusement. She’d forgotten how perceptive Kevin could be. The Grandfather clock in the corner showed the time as ten minutes after one, so why the hell was she following after them?

  ****

  The slamming of a screen door jarred her awake and Alannah discovered she’d been sleeping with her head on the kitchen table. The surface was littered with coffee cups, beer bottles, chip bags and various other assorted junk food paraphernalia. She sat up and wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth, feeling like she’d been run over by a Mack truck.

  “Morning, sleepy head!” CeeCee greeted cheerfully.

  “You’re too fucking happy for this early in the morning,” Alannah grumbled. “What time is it, anyway?”

  “Six-thirty.”

  “Good god.” Her elbow hit an empty beer bottle, which went careening across the table to hit another bottle. She winced at the noise. “How much did we drink?”

  “Well, let’s just say I have to take a trip to the recycling plant.”

  “Man, and I feel it,” Alannah muttered. “I haven’t drunk that much in ages.”

  “Hurry up and get ready, we don’t want to be late,” Kevin called out from somewhere.

  “Huh? Be late to where at this ungodly hour?”

  “The lake,” CeeCee said patiently, as if she were talking to a child. Alannah half expected her to tack on a duh. “Have to get there really early or we’ll loose the volleyball net.”

  “Of course,” Alannah said dryly. “How silly of me not to think of that.”

  CeeCee waved a hand as she grabbed a bag of ice from the freezer and headed out the door. “You got half an hour!”

  The screen door slammed shut behind her. Great. Half an hour. Alannah groaned as she rose and headed upstairs for a shower. Half an hour later, she sat squashed in Kevin’s small truck cab with CeeCee half sitting on her and trying not to get in the way of the shifter.

  “You know,” she said. “I really didn’t mind following you in my car.”

  “No way are you driving that golf cart around me. Most of the time truck drivers fail to notice tiny cars like that and then SPLAT! Instant roadkill.”

  “Thank you for that oh so lovely picture, Kev,” CeeCee said.

  “Anytime.”

  “Like this is safer?” Alannah questioned. “You can’t even shift gears without banging Cee’s legs.”

  “That’s the idea,” Kevin said, grinning. “I’ve been trying to bang her for years and this is the only way she’ll let me feel her up.”

  CeeCee slapped his head. “Pervert!”

  “Don’t do that,” Alannah said, slightly panicked when the truck swerved. “He’s driving.”

  “Hey, you reminded Sky about today, didn’t you?” Kevin asked.

  “Yep,” CeeCee replied, nodding. “Yesterday. He caught Alannah speeding and pulled her over.”

  “Caught it on the police scanner?”

  “Of course. As usual he threatened to confiscate it.”

  “I didn’t think scanners were illegal,” Alanna said.

  “They aren’t…” Kevin answered. “But, Sky doesn’t like anyone knowing his business.”

  Alannah’s eyebrows went up. “Are we talking about the same man who wanted to videotape himself doing a Rain Dance naked for his history report?”

  “Oh yeah!” CeeCee said through laughter. “I forgot about that! Well, after he came back from college he was a very different person…very private. I dunno why.”

  “Hey, how come you two never hooked up?” Kevin asked her. “As I recall, you two spent an awful lot of time together at East Park.”

  “Yeah, well, that time was devoted to his bashing of Traci or Shelly, or whichever girl he happened to be seeing at the time. Lucky me, I got to hear all the explicit details of how they pissed him off.”

  Kevin laughed. “Oh no, what a loser! Babe-bashing to a babe.”

  “Well, I guess I was the last person standing,” Alannah said with a shrug. “I mean you were off studying sheep or something, and Cee was…well, Cee. I guess Sky felt I was the only one he could talk to.”

  “Ah ha!” Kevin exclaimed gleefully. “But you don’t know what he and I used to talk about when you weren’t around.”

  CeeCee shot him a speculative glance. “Really, Kevin Michael Ramsey? And what might that have been?”

  “Did you and Sky talk about me and Cee?”

  Kevin groaned. “Oh no, I was just teasing. Don’t you two gang up on me. All we talked about was, you know, girls and shit.”

  CeeCee looked at her and she saw the devilment in Cee’s blue eyes. “They talked about our bra sizes.”

  Alannah nodded. “How utterly immature, Kevin.”

  She saw Kevin’s face flush red as he studiously ignored them. She poked CeeCee in the side and winked.

  “So…who do you think is bigger?” Alannah asked him.

  “Yeah, me or her?” CeeCee chimed in as she thrust out her breasts.

  They dissolved into giggles when he gave them a horrified look.

  The rest of the trip they played nice and Alannah got her first glimpse of Lake Wappapello in twelve years. In high school the four of them had come up here every weekend through the warm summer months, which was why she was fighting off the nostalgia tears. The only thing that had seemed to change were the danger notices of undertow and moccasin snakes, and the big sandy man-made beach sporting a volleyball net.

  The woods felt peaceful, the sun hot, and Alannah tumbled out of the truck as soon as the door opened. As CeeCee helped her up, Kevin took off running for the water, tossing his clothes in every direction.

  “Well, I see nothing’s changed with him,” she said sarcastically.

  “At least he’s wearing swim trunks now. Other than that, yeah, turning thirty didn’t seem to phase him one bit,” CeeCee ag
reed. “Come on, let’s get our picnic set up.”

  Since Kevin was otherwise occupied, it took them several trips to bring all the food and drink from the back of the truck to the table. CeeCee tossed a ball onto the sand near the net, claiming it, before setting up the food and coolers.

  “Excellent!” Kevin replied as he approached, covered in water and grinning from ear to ear. “We’re here before anyone else. Ladies, let’s crack us open some beers!”

  “It’s eight o’clock in the morning, Kev,” Alannah said, a bit shocked.

  He kissed the top of her head, some of the cold lake water splashing onto her.

  “It’s the weekend, it’s going to be a beautiful day, and I’ve my two favorite ladies all to myself. It’s time to party.”

  Alannah chuckled as she wiped away the water droplets.

  “Kevin, darling,” CeeCee called out. “Before this wild party of three gets too out of hand, start up the grill.”

  “What a party spoiler,” he whispered.

  “I heard that!”

  It was about an hour later when cars began arriving with people dressed in shorts and bathing suits. Someone set up music, which helped relax Alannah as she greeted some people she knew and shook hands with others she didn’t. The atmosphere was young and carefree and she almost felt like a teenager again, almost like twelve years hadn’t just passed in a blink of an eye.

  She could almost pretend she’d never met Bryce Burns, that he hadn’t called her boring or frigid. That he hadn’t utterly destroyed her self-esteem.

  Alannah forced the memories away. Somehow, somewhere between there and this, something had gone all wrong so she’d come back to Dexter to relax and have a good time. Find the girl she used to be in the body of the woman she’d become. She didn’t know how she was supposed to accomplish that, but all she could think to do was start over.

  Around noon she grabbed some food and a beer and settled at table to eat and watch the volleyball game going on. Three girls she knew from high school sat with her, although she’d never been close with them. In Dexter, though, everyone knew everyone.

  “CeeCee told me you were an interior designer,” Yvonne said to her.