The Kiss Keeper Read online

  “No, my cousins have teased and tormented me for ages, and now that they’re married, their husbands try to find ways to touch my feet.”

  He cringed. “That’s damn creepy, even if they are podiatrists.”

  “Right,” she answered, nearly knocking over the empty champagne flutes.

  He handed them to the flight attendant as Natalie pulled a face mask from their first-class complimentary box.

  She held it out for him.

  “No thanks,” he said, and she frowned the cutest damn frown he’d ever seen.

  “No, silly! It’s for me. Can you take it out of the plastic wrapper? I can’t feel the tip of my nose anymore.”

  He bit back a grin. “You don’t open it with your nose,” he replied, staring into her sparkling green eyes—now considerably more sparkly from the champagne.

  “I think I need a nap,” she said, fanning herself as her cheeks grew rosier.

  He ripped open the plastic and removed the sleep mask. He went to hand it to her, but she closed her eyes, then leaned forward.

  “Can you put it on me? I don’t want to get it all caught in my hair.”

  She had beautiful hair. Long and dark. It brushed past her shoulders in subtle waves. He could still feel the strand wrapped around his finger.

  Jake Number Seven, stop!

  He threw another mental punch at his brain. He was not Jake number seven. He would not be Jake number anything to anybody.

  He pulled the mask over her head, careful not to mess up her hair, then pulled the material over her eyes and…

  And he stared at her. With the mask in place and half her face covered, he couldn’t peel his gaze away.

  “Am I good?” she asked as that weird déjà vu sensation took hold again.

  “Yeah, you’re good,” he answered as she leaned back.

  She sighed. “Do you have a pillow?”

  He glanced around. No dice. “I can ask the flight attendant for one when he passes by.”

  “That’s okay,” she yawned and rested her head on his shoulder.

  He didn’t move. He only listened as her breaths grew slow and even as she drifted off to sleep, and surprisingly, he relaxed. It was only then that he realized how tense he’d been since he’d agreed to Charlie’s proposition.

  He glanced at his slumbering, possibly champagne addicted seatmate, then carefully picked up his glass of Jameson and sipped the smooth spirit. But just as he set his glass down, Natalie swayed forward, and he caught her and brought her back to him.

  Fuck it!

  He wrapped his arm around her, and she nuzzled into him.

  “Thanks, Jake,” she said in a sleepy sigh.

  Which Jake? He could almost laugh. There were seven to choose from, right? He stared down at the giant mask covering her face, then closed his eyes, and tilted his head to rest against hers.

  He could always go back to being an asshole when they landed.

  4

  Natalie

  Half-awake, Natalie twisted what she thought was a bedsheet around her hand, melting into the warmth around her until a tap at her shoulder pulled her out of that cozy space sandwiched between sleep and wakefulness.

  She opened her eyes only to find complete darkness, then remembered the sleep mask. She peeled up the fabric covering one eye and was met with the smiling face of their First-Class flight attendant.

  “You two look so cute. I hate to have to wake you.”

  Slightly disoriented, thanks to all that champagne, Nat pushed the mask to her forehead. “Where are we?”

  Her warm pillow shifted as a hand now rested on her breast.

  She was not in bed with Jake number six back in Denver. She was cozied up to a completely different Jake on her flight to Portland.

  The safe, comfy feeling disintegrated.

  She’d made it, and now she’d have to contend with her cousins—all by herself.

  She tried to edge her way out of Jake’s embrace, but underneath that suit, the man had some serious muscles, and she couldn’t get him to budge.

  Nat glanced around. There wasn’t a passenger in sight. “Where is everyone?”

  “They’ve all deplaned,” the man answered.

  “Oh! Wow.”

  It was pretty creepy being the last one on a plane.

  “I’ll give you a minute,” he said and headed toward the flight crew assembled near the front of the aircraft.

  She released the handful of Jake’s shirt, then closed her eyes and listened to the soothing rise and fall of his breath. Another few seconds couldn’t hurt. She’d always craved this kind of closeness, and Jake number six was not a cuddler. Actually, neither were Jakes one through five. She let the memory of the Jakes of her past fade away and inhaled this Jake’s clean scent of soap with a hint of sage.

  With her head nestled in the crook of his neck, she couldn’t see his face, so she reached up and ran her fingertips down his jawline. He hummed a satisfied little sound that sent a warmth emanating through her chest.

  “Jake, we’ve landed in Portland. It’s time to wake up,” she said and stroked his cheek.

  “Hmm,” he replied. But her plan to ease him out of slumber got cut short when the flight attendant, now joined by the pilot, the co-pilot, and two other flight attendants crowded in around them.

  Trapped in one hell of a bear hug, she smiled up at the flight crew, then switched from a gentle stroke to a wake-the-hell-up slap.

  He turned his cheek and tightened his grip. Holy Mary! Was this man half boa constrictor?

  “Jake, seriously, they need us to get off the plane.”

  “Plane?” he mumbled, stroking his thumb across her breast.

  “Yeah, and you’re feeling me up in front of the flight crew.”

  “What?” he exclaimed, releasing his grip and looking back and forth as if he’d woken up on an alien planet.

  Natalie nodded to the flight crew. “Would you mind giving us another minute? I promise that we’ll be off in a jiffy.”

  Jake ran his hands down his face. “I don’t usually sleep well. I must have conked out.”

  She gestured toward the front of the plane where the friendly-skies flight crew looked considerably less friendly. “We better go. I think we’re holding them up.”

  Jake nodded, then made an awkward gesture toward her breasts. “Sorry about that.”

  She stood in the aisle and waved him off. “No worries. You were asleep, right?”

  He joined her in the aisle and removed their bags from the bin above their seats. “You think I felt you up on purpose?”

  “No, I didn’t mean that. I meant that it was probably an accident,” she tossed back.

  He held her gaze. “Heels, if I were to feel you up on purpose, you’d know it.”

  Heels.

  Not counting Nat, Nat the little brat—a gem her cousins cooked up—she’d never had a nickname.

  “So, you think you’re super awesome with the ladies?” she challenged.

  He shrugged, and she laughed.

  “Men.”

  “You mean Jakes, in your case. It’s probably a good thing you’ve given them up,” he added with a sly smile.

  He had her there—the jackass.

  But he wasn’t a jackass. He’d gotten her through security, and he’d stuck by her while she watched her boyfriend suck face with some random woman.

  And then it hit her.

  She’d told everyone she was bringing a date—bringing Jake. Natalie Callahan, the loser in love and life, had emailed her entire family that, for the first time ever at a Woolwich family event, she would be accompanied by someone who thought the sun rose and set with her smile.

  Oh, God! She’d used those exact words, too.

  Her stomach clenched as she imagined Lara and Leslie’s smug faces when she arrived, boyfriendless.

  Jake pressed his hand to her lower back, jolting her from her doomsday scenario. “Are you all right?”

  She shook off the impending d
isaster. “Yeah.”

  He leaned in. “Do you need to throw up? You look a little green.”

  “No, I’m thinking of my family,” she answered as they exited the plane and walked across the jet bridge to the terminal.

  “The perverts?” he asked.

  “The what?” she exclaimed as they continued down the concourse.

  “The podiatrists. On the plane, you said they were perverts.”

  She hung her head, recalling her tipsy tirade. “My stupid champagne mouth.”

  “You did knock back a few.”

  Or five.

  They continued on in silence. And she glanced around the familiar airport. In a week, she’d be back here, most likely with a bruised ego and another chunk of her self-esteem whittled away by her witch cousins. But she’d make it.

  How much could happen in a week?

  She could hide out in her cabin or sneak away to do art projects with all the great-grandkids. And she loved Camp Woolwich as much as she loved her grandparents. They’d never jumped on the Natalie bashing bandwagon. They had to have known about all of her misfortunes—all her lost jobs and failed relationships—but they’d never mentioned it.

  And she knew she’d always hold a special place in their hearts.

  She was their youngest grandchild, and that had meant extra time with them when she was little. While the older kids ran off to play capture the flag and paddle canoes over to their small island, she’d stay close to her grandparents, waving to her cousins from her grandpa’s arms.

  Unfortunately, she wasn’t four years old anymore. And with all their friends and family coming in for the fiftieth-anniversary celebration, it may be a stretch to find a single quiet moment with them.

  “How about I walk you to baggage claim and then…” Jake began, breaking into her thoughts.

  And then, he’d be just another Jake who’d passed through her revolving door of Jakes. But even though she’d decided to give up Jakes, she wasn’t ready to say goodbye to this one quite yet.

  “Do you want to grab something to eat? I still owe you for helping me,” she asked, trying not to sound too pathetic.

  A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I should be going.”

  “So soon?” she asked, then winced.

  Her stupid mouth! Now she looked desperate, but she didn’t need to lay it out there like a Sunday picnic.

  “We’ve been together for the last five hours,” he replied.

  “But we were unconscious for four of them,” she parried back, trying to be funny.

  She should not try to be funny.

  “Heels, I’m not a Jake that you want to add to your list.”

  Anger edged out her embarrassment. “My what?”

  “Your list of Jakes—I can’t be one of them.”

  Heat rose to her cheeks. “First of all, I’m done with Jakes. And for the record, I wasn’t asking you to be one of them. I was trying to be polite.”

  “You should stop. That could be why all those Jakes treat you like a doormat,” he replied.

  She gasped. “A doormat! How dare you! You don’t know the first thing about me.”

  His features hardened. “I know your cheating boyfriend dumped you via text and that you’re unemployed.”

  Dammit! He did know everything. Still, it didn’t give him the right to judge her.

  She took a step forward, grabbed his tie, and pulled him down to meet her eye to eye. Their breaths met in the millimeters between them, and a shiver ran down her spine. A delicious tingling that made her want to close her eyes and pull him in that fraction closer where their lips could meet.

  She steadied herself. “There’s a lot more to me than that. I’m—”

  “Natalie, is that you?”

  Like nails on a chalkboard, Leslie’s voice rang out.

  “Shit,” she whispered, holding Jake’s gaze.

  “This must be the Jake of the hour,” her cousin added.

  “Which one? There are like twenty of them.” Lara giggled, still piggybacking off her sister like they were kids.

  Natalie swallowed hard. She couldn’t go back to Camp Woolwich, a complete failure with no job and no boyfriend. For once, she wanted her family to at least think that she had it together.

  “You have to help me, Jake,” she whispered.

  He frowned. “Help you how?”

  She flicked her gaze to her cousins, standing with their husbands. Unsurprisingly, both men’s eyes were locked on her feet.

  “Be my last Jake for one week,” she whispered, hoping he could see the desperation written all over her face.

  “Your last Jake?” he threw back, eyebrows nearly hitting his hairline.

  “Now, don’t be so selfish and keep him all to yourself, Nat. Introduce us.”

  She took a step back and glanced at the women. With matching bob haircuts and sensible shoes, it had been a few years since she’d seen them in person. But when it came to her least favorite family members, absence didn’t make the heart grow fonder.

  “Jake, these are my cousins, Leslie and Lar—”

  Leslie cleared her throat. “Natalie, you’re forgetting something,” Les said with a condescending smirk.

  Natalie plastered on a grin. It would take everything she had to make it through this week.

  “Jake, these are my cousins, Dr. Leslie Dixtown, Dr. Lara Dixtown, and their husbands, Dr. Leo Dixtown and Dr. Marcus Dixtown.”

  “Dicks town?” Jake repeated slowly.

  “Dix-ton,” Les corrected, repeating the two syllables at light-speed. “It’s meant to be spoken quickly.”

  “D-I-X-T-O-N?” Jake spelled out.

  “D-I-X-T-O-W-N. The W is silent,” Les threw back.

  Dammit! She’d forgotten the silent W.

  “Or you can shorten it to Doctor Dix. That’s what our patients call us,” Lara’s idiot husband chirped.

  “I bet they do,” Jake murmured under his breath.

  “And this Dr. Dix doesn’t approve of that kind of footwear for air travel,” Leo, Leslie’s husband, said, while his brother went back to staring at her stilettos as if they were covered in chocolate.

  Ugh! These guys were the worst. If she weren’t basically naked, she’d whip off her trench coat and sling it over her heels to stop the freaks from feasting on her footsies.

  Nat glanced at Jake to find him frowning as he watched Lara and Leslie’s husbands’ eye-hump her feet.

  But she had no time to worry about the Dix brothers. She had to act fast. This was her last chance to recruit back up.

  “Look! The bags are loading onto the carousel! Come on, Jake. You can help me get it while the others wait here,” she blurted, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the baggage claim area.

  “Holy hell, Heels! Those people are…”

  “A bunch of dicks?” she offered.

  His stoic demeanor cracked and gave way to the hint of a smile.

  She released a tight breath. It was now or never.

  “You said you didn’t have any set plans. No hotel. Nothing scheduled, right?”

  He nodded.

  “Come with me. My grandparents have plenty of room at their place. You’d only have to hang out with us for a few meals, and then you could do your own thing the rest of the time. If you can’t already tell, I need one last Jake in my life. Will you be my fake Jake for a week?”

  His gaze slid past her. “Natalie, for all you know, I’m a serial killer.”

  She cupped his cheek in her hand and forced him to meet her eye. “Maybe you’re just a part-time serial killer, and this trip to Maine is a respite from all the…carnage.”

  A frown line pulled between his brows. “Do you hear yourself? You said you’d be fine spending the week with a monster.”

  “You met my cousins. I’m already going to be surrounded by monsters,” she replied, really liking the feel of his scruff on her fingertips.

  His gaze dropped to the ground. “This is crazy.”

  “I know,
” she whispered back.

  They studied each other, and she could feel the rejection coming. It was like her sixth sense. Just when something seemed too good to be true, things got worse. But that didn’t stop her from pleading with the universe.

  Say yes! Say yes! Say yes! Please, Kiss Keeper Curse, cut a gal some slack.

  She channeled all her mental energy into this man when a voice cut off her internal plea.

  “Nat! I figured this hot pink bag was yours. It was going around and around on the baggage carousel.”

  “Fish!” she said with a genuine smile and dropped her hand from Jake’s face.

  The giant of a man she’d known her entire life lumbered over. A former camper who’d gotten hired on as the grounds’ keeper at Camp Woolwich and then went on to drive the camp van, Fish had been a part of Camp Woolwich since the first year it opened.

  He wrapped her in a warm embrace, and her frayed nerves calmed at the sight of an old friend.

  “How are you?” she asked, happy for the momentary distraction.

  The gentle giant of a man patted her back. “I’m doing well. Do you have any more bags? We should hit the road. Camp Woolwich awaits!”

  Jake’s jaw dropped, but he quickly recovered and muted his expression. “Did you say Camp Woolwich?”

  Fish’s brows knit together. “Yes, the one and only Camp Woolwich, located on Woolwich Cove.”

  She watched Jake carefully. “Yeah, my grandparents own it.”

  “They own it?” Jake repeated.

  “They sure do,” Fish said, extending his hand to Jake. “You must be Jake. It’s good to meet you. Call me, Fish.” The man squinted, looking out the window at the airport’s passenger drop-off zone, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes grew deeper. “I drive the camp van that may be parked illegally out front, so we better hit the road. I’ll go tell your cousins.”

  The man left, and she met Jake’s gaze, now clouded with disbelief.

  Of course, the guy was gobsmacked. What she’d asked him to do was utterly insane. But that didn’t change the fact that she needed a Jake.

  She held his gaze, doing her best not to look like a lunatic. “I know this is nuts. I know we barely know each other. I know you—”