Free Pretty In Pink by Sommer Marsden Page A

really that damaged?
    Probably.
    “Go over and kiss him,” Sarah laughed
and started to assemble some lettuce wraps.
    “Okay.” Kimber set her mug down and
marched past Sarah.
    “Kimber!”
    She held her hand up. Do not think.
Do not analyze. It will all work out. He may be safe, he may not. But if you
can sleep with him twice in one night, you should be able to talk to him. And
kiss him. And be brave.
    She barely felt her boots hitting the
walk or the cold snow on her face. Kimber felt barely tethered to her own body.
She came up on them and almost backed up and ran. Charlie turned and smiled,
Clarice waved, Janette grinned, and Kimber swallowed hard.
    “Hi, Kimber!” Clarice said.
    Kimber couldn’t find her voice, but
she waved at the little girl.
    Charlie looked confused. “You okay?”
    She nodded, ran forward three steps,
stood on tiptoe, and kissed him. Somewhere far away she heard Clarice giggle to
her mother. “They are smooching.”
    “So I see.”
    Charlie’s hands came up and he held
her waist, kissing her back, his mouth gentle and soft on hers.
    She whispered so only he could hear. “I
shouldn't have left that way. And the note was a bad idea.”
    “Don't worry about it.” His bright
eyes flashed and he said, “We were just about to ask you if you have a spare
strand—”
    “Or more!” Clarice interrupted.
    “Of lights for the tree. I realized I
don’t have any.” Charlie kissed her hair, an oddly familiar and sweet gesture
and Kimber remembered vividly why she had felt drawn to him. Handsome, kind,
warm, and good in bed to boot. Protective, gentle but firm…she could go on.
“And there will be hot cocoa and cookies and even some spiked eggnog later,
possibly.”
    “And there will be singing, and dancing,
and Elvis Christmas songs!” Clarice chimed in, twirling in the snow.
    Janette rolled her eyes, but her
shoulders shook with laughter. “She has a thing for Elvis Christmas songs.”
    “Who doesn’t?” asked Kimber.
    “So what do you say, Miss Kimber?” His
hand was warm and comforting against the small of her back. He ran slow circles
with his thumb that no one could see but she could feel. They made her warm and
flushed. Hell, they made her want to spend another night in bed with him.
    “I’ll go look for those lights and
tell Sarah that I’m playing hooky today.” She ran off through the snow, her
belly buzzing from excitement. This could totally tank on her, but she sure as
hell hoped not.
    * * * *
    “What. You go off all half-cocked,
finally find your nerve, believe yours truly about his sexual
orientation and then you’re leaving me here to be Cinderella for the day? That
blows.”
    “All you have to do is be here until
they come. Then call me and I’ll come over and get them set up. It’s no big deal.”
Kimber brushed her hair out and then twisted it into a messy knot at the top of
her head. She artfully messed up her long bangs and put on a little rose
colored lipstick.
    “And you get to go to the ball,
step-sister.” Sarah shook her head. “Hmph.”
    “You’re being a bit dramatic aren't
you? You’re the one who kept telling me to go after him, do this, do that, and
now I do and you want to balk at me asking for one little favor.”
    “You asking me to quit my job to start
a business with you was a little favor. This is huge. This is a Christmas tree,
hot chocolate, and Elvis .” She snorted. “You Grinch.”
    “Woman, please,” Kimber laughed. “I’ll
come over as soon as they come.”
    “Are you gonna kiss him again?” Sarah
winked lasciviously.
    “Hope so.”
    “How about bang him?”
    “Sarah!”
    “Diddle? Hump? Fuck? Screw? And a
partridge in a pear treeeeeeee!”
    “You are just nasty.”
    “I try. You didn’t answer me.” Sarah
turned on her laptop and launched her web browser.
    “Gosh, I hope so. But obviously with
his sister and his niece there, we’re kind of limited in the bedroom area.”
    “Bummer.” Sarah shooed her with