Sweet but Sexy Boxed Set (99 page)

Chapter Eight

Too busy to think much about it, Patti sailed through Tuesday and worked her ass off all day on Wednesday. The carnival started at five o
’clock in the evening with a chili supper until six. After that, the short Christmas caroling session would begin, with the games and other fun stuff to follow.

Exhaustion was Patti
’s middle name, but she kept on going like the Energizer Bunny. No time to stop. No time to think.

About kisses.

About Jim.

About stupid transfers to the middle school.

What had she been thinking?

For forty-eight hours she
’d swept it all out of her mind. For the first twenty-four, she’d been elated. Jim’s kisses were to-die-for and made her feel really tingling and special inside. Over the next twelve, she was beginning to falter. And all day long today, she was very much regretting having even said anything to Jim about asking for a transfer.

Because, well, she never made it to the school board office. She
’d gotten caught at the light on Jacobs and Main, and by the time she had gotten there, they’d closed up shop early and had gone home.

But she
’d never told Jim that. Because she’d not talked to him, not that she was avoiding him. And she assumed that he assumed she had gone and done it.

That confused feeling settled over her gut again.

What should she do? Tell him the truth? That she didn’t make it there in time? Because in all honesty, she wasn’t even sure that she wanted to transfer to the middle school. She loved her fourth graders!

But then if she didn
’t transfer, and if she told him what she’d not done, she wouldn’t be able to sample his kisses anymore, and in all honesty, she wasn’t quite ready to give them up yet.

They were too new and needed exploring.

Later, after the chili and the caroling, the fun stuff began. There were face painting booths, snow cone machines, lots of games with the kind of crap that kids loved, and moms hated, for prizes, a dunking booth—brrrr—and various and sundry other kinds of fun to be had by all.

Patti had just put out the sign on her booth when Suzie and her family stepped up in front of her.

“Hey, Patti, I just wanted to say…”

“
No worries, Suzie. I’m fine. I don’t really know what happened on Saturday night, but it’s okay. I guess you’re off my case then officially, huh? Since I sort of screwed things up the first time. ‘Cause, you know, I don’t wanna ruin your track record.”

She watched Suzie glance up to her husband, then back to her.
“Oh, um, Patti, of course we’re not through! We barely got started. In fact, I may even have a blind date for you, if you’re up for it.”

What? No. Not this, not now….

“Blind date?” She glanced about, having said that a mite too loud, and she had no clue who was standing around her. In fact it sort of made her nervous to talk to Suzie out in public, at all, her being a matchmaker and all. Were people talking? Thinking that she had to stoop so low…

“
You mentioned New Year’s Eve. I have a bite, if you are interested. Small group of my friends, and we have a singleton, a male of course, and well, if you would like to round out the group. We’re having dinner at the Lodge and then a private party in one of the suites. Let me know, and I’ll make all of the arrangements.”

So was it as simple as that? Apparently.

She bobbed her head. “Okay. Well, let me think on it. Thanks, Suzie.”

The chef smiled back, then herded her family off in another direction. Patti returned to her booth, finally ready to get things started, and tacked up her sign good and straight on the left support.

“My God, I cannot believe you are doing that!”

Patti spun at the words, only to face Kate, who was staring aghast at her sign.
“What’s wrong?” she asked her.

“
Patti, you’ve got to be kidding me. This is the kids’ Winter Carnival. A kissing booth?”

She squared herself in front of her friend.
“Yes. Why not?”

“
Why not? Why? You can’t pass out kisses here like some hooker on the street. This is a school and community function! There are kids here. What were you thinking?”

What was I thinking? It
’s charity, that’s what.

“
You don’t understand, Kate, it’s not what you think. Just hang around for a few minutes, and you’ll see.” She glanced over Kate’s shoulder. “In fact a line is already forming, so if,” she grasped her upper arms and scooted her aside, “you could slide over to your right just a little bit…”

There. There they were. A huge big long line of them. Men.

All wanting kisses.

Was this not Heaven? And could there possibly, in that long line of men waiting to sample her kisses, be the man of her dreams?

All thinking about Jim aside, at the notion of a potential suitor in the line, the old feelings of excitement and anticipation that she used to get when perusing the online matchmaking sites came back to her. Choices. She liked choices, didn’t she?

Well, just because Jim Hamilton had suggested she quit her job just so he could continue kissing, didn
’t mean that she couldn’t go sampling kisses, or potential kisses, from others, right?

I mean, it
’s not like he owns me. And how dare he ask me to quit my job anyway!

It had been a very good idea when she
’d come up with it a couple of weeks ago, and it still was. The hospital thought so too. For every kiss she gave out, a man had to pay a dollar.

Thing was, they weren
’t getting real kisses, just candy ones. Hard candy kisses that she’d had made up special for the occasion at
Bittersweets
. Jillian Bass was such a dear. Normally she only did chocolate truffles, but she had made an exception for this event. And she’d donated all her time and the ingredients.

It was all part of the hospital
’s “Candy for Kisses” campaign to stop the spread of flu germs this winter.

But oh, looking at the specimens waiting patiently in line in front of her, she wondered if she might sacrifice a few germs for a couple of short pecks on the cheek from just a few of them….

****

Jim felt good. Pretty good, anyway.

And once this night was finished, he’d feel much better. The Winter Carnival was one of the biggest community events of the season, and both the school board and the community expected it to be successful. Patti had been in charge for years, and she’d always delivered.

He was proud of her, for this year and in the past, and he wondered why he
’d never given her huge praises for all that she pulled off. He’d have to remedy that.

Even though he
’d not seen her for a couple of days, he felt semi-good about where they were in this budding relationship. He’d feel better when a few things were settled. One being this thing about her job. He’d thought about it quite a bit, and he didn’t want to lose her at his school, and middle school would drain the creativity out of her. Oh, she was an excellent teacher, and her personality was likely perfect for teaching middle school, but the fact remained that he wanted her here, in his school, and he wanted her kisses, too.

So they
’d just have to work some things out on those issues. Dammit, he’d break his own rule, too, to make it work.

He was so glad he
’d gotten in touch with the Assistant Superintendent before Patti had arrived. He’d not heard back yet from Tom Porter, but he trusted that his request had been met.

He supposed Patti would be upset about that, but he figured this was not the time to discuss it.

But they would. Soon.

He spanned the gymnasium; the crowd was thick. Kids with elf faces where running about. Santa was in one corner taking requests; Mrs. Santa was passing out cookies. There were reindeer games happening over in the far corner with the P.E. teacher, and a Frosty the Snowman building contest happening in the center of it all. The perimeter was lined with booths—bake sales, informational tables, a gingerbread house making station, and there, over in the corner….

What in the world?
There was quite a bit of commotion over there it seemed.

Principal mode kicked in pretty darned fast. Wherever there were crowds, be them kids or parents, he got worried. Bigger things happened with numbers. He scurried over to that end of the gym just to see what was going on.

A very long line snaked all the way from the Snow Cone machine, weaving in and out of the “dunk the teacher” machine area, to around the corner. He followed, moving closer to the source, hearing a few cheers and snickers go up on his way.

He noticed Tom Porter, the Assistant Superintendent, standing off to the side, watching, a frown on his face. Distracted by that, he went to his side, stood next to him, and gazed off between the crowd toward the booth.

“Looks like a lot of action going on here, huh, Tom?”

Tom
’s glare bolted straight ahead. “Yup. Are you going to do something about this, or shall I?”

He wasn
’t sure, exactly, what Tom was referring to until he swung his own gaze a little further to the right, got a good angle between a couple of really tall men, and saw for the first time exactly what Tom was speaking of.

A very tall man had just dipped Patti Jo Baker, planting a long and sloppy kiss square on her mouth, underneath a big sign that read,
Kissing Booth: Get ‘Em While They’re Hot!

His throat closed up tight.
“Ah, hell…” The words slipped out on a thin breath.

Inside every vein of his body, his blood boiled.

****

Patti righted herself and then gently pushed back her latest kisser. All right, it was time to rein things in. This was getting a little out of hand.

She’d had good intentions, truly. And she had raised a lot of money for the hospital flu campaign, so she’d met her goal there. But in all honesty, she’d really screwed with the mission of the event.

She
’d swapped more spit in the last hour, exchanging a helluva lot of germs with way too many men.

Oh, it had started innocently enough. The first ten guys or so were okay with her bypassing their lips, and her depositing a baggy of candy kisses in their hands. But then came along Nash Rhodes, hunky country singer and husband to Mary Lou, and even though his wife was standing right there beside him, he came around the table, dipped Patti right before God and everyone, with cameras flashing, and planted a huge wet one right on her lips.

It was all for publicity, and they had planned that out too. Thing was, the rest of the men in line hadn’t realized that, and when they approached for their turns, they wanted the same treatment Nash got. And what surprised her was that all the wives were cool with it. They were all laughing and having a good time, and Patti was wondering if she would come out of this with a nasty cold, and hoped, not the flu.

She also hoped the hospital people wouldn
’t be too upset with her.

To say the least, she was getting tired of kissing, even though it was a little fun.

But all of that spun on a dime when Jim Hamilton cut in line, moving all the guys back with a couple of principal-like barks and stood red-faced before her, hands on his hips, his sport coat pushed back at his waist, and glared at her.

“
What in the…” he glanced about, leaned in, and lowered his voice. “What in the heck do you think you are doing,” he bit out.

Patti swallowed, hard, and tried like hell to stare him down, tit-for-tat.
“Um. Kissing?”

If his face could get any redder, it just did. His voice even lower, he strung the next words out.
“Go home. You’re shut down. Go home. Now.”

His anger surprised her, and it cut straight to her heart. She didn
’t understand what was happening, why he was so darned angry. But the look on his face meant business, and it plummeted every teeny little hope that there might ever be something between her and Jim, to her feet and then some.

“
Jim,” she began softly, just really feeling a need to explain, “this isn’t what it looks like. Let me tell you what this is about. Really, Jim, it’s all harmless fun and…”

He reached up, grabbed the kissing booth sign off the side of her display, and slapped it down on the table with force. A collective gasp went up in the surrounding crowd, but she kept her gaze fixed on Jim. She
’d never seen him like this, not in all her days of teaching with him.

“
That was rude.”

“
You’re going to see what rude is in a moment, Patti Jo.” He crowded closer, and what he said next, was only for her ears. “If there is any kissing to be done by those lips,” he glanced to hers then jerked back up again, “I will be the one doing the kissing. Not them.” He tipped his head to the rear.