Free Secret Kiss by Melanie Shawn

wasn’t alone. So my grandpa wouldn’t worry. He has high blood pressure, and worrying makes it worse.
    “They worry about me. A lot. Especially my grandpa. But I think that’s just because they’re more like my parents than my grandparents. They raised me, and we’re all the family we’ve got, so they worry all the time.
    “We have a call every week. Our check-in call. It’s on Mondays. But they can’t make it this week. That’s what they were calling to tell me. That we won’t have our weekly call. Which is weird. They’ve never missed a call before. I didn’t ask why they can’t. They just said they couldn’t.”
    Stop talking.
    Thankfully, Jane’s body cooperated with her inner voice’s suggestion and she shut her mouth. This non-date had been going so well up until that point. Then it had gone from pleasant to code-red awkward in the span of thirty seconds.
    Her eyes darted around the room to see if she had an audience to her colossal crash and burn. It didn’t seem like any of the other patrons were interested in what was happening at their table though. Thank God for small blessings. In this town, if someone had overheard her rant, there was a very good chance it would end up either on the front page of the newspaper or, at the very least, as an anecdote at the next chamber of commerce meeting.
    Feeling fairly certain she had managed to narrowly avoid both of those unfortunate fates, Jane took a deep breath and forced herself to look back at Adam. She braced herself for an expression of disbelief, irritation, this-chick-is-crazy, or, at the very least, confusion. What she saw couldn’t have shocked her more if someone had come through the door and told her that she’d just won the Miss Universe pageant. He looked…charmed.
    “So, no boyfriend, then?” he asked smoothly, his lips turned up at the corners.
    “Oh no, no boyfriend.” Jane returned his smile, her nerves still rioting through her.
    “And you said your grandparents raised you?”
    And just like that, she calmed down. Somehow, with one simple follow-up question, Adam had centered her off-balance state. “Yes, since I was six,” she answered calmly.
    Well, calm if she ignored the butterflies that were flitting around in her mid-section, that is.
    *
    As they walked down the street, back towards the office, Adam couldn’t get over how ridiculously cute Jane was. She’d been silent since they left the café, and currently wore a pensive look on her face. He could practically hear the wheels turning. It was all he could do not to lean down and kiss the top of her head.
    He was surprised at what a difficult time he was having adjusting to his huge response to her off-beat charm. He was more than just attracted to it; he was captivated. It made him feel things that he’d never felt before.
    With every minute he spent with her, he wanted to spend more. With every word she spoke, he wanted to hear more. With every movement, smile, and look she gave him, he wanted to see more.
    She was…disarming. His defenses were crumbling with each passing moment, and he was forgetting why they were there in the first place.
    Adam intentionally slowed his steps to a strolling, leisurely pace. They needed to get back to work, but he was in no hurry.
    “So you mentioned that your grandparents raised you. What happened to your parents? If you don’t mind me asking?”
    Before Jane had a chance to answer, his phone buzzed. Only a few people had this number, so as much as he wanted to ignore it, he knew he couldn’t. After pulling the device from his pocket, he saw that it was Declan.
    “I’m sorry. I need to take this.” He stopped just as they reached the corner where Brewed Awakenings was.
    “Of course. I’ll see you back at the office.” Jane smiled brightly as she continued on.
    His eyes drifted down her back, locking on the sway of her hips. Today, Jane was wearing dark-grey slacks that hung loosely on her thin frame, but now that Adam had