KICK IT | JENLISA

119

Jennie

Traitorous beats robbed my sense of hearing. She waited, hovering an inch away and giving me the choice to make up the difference. My heart pounded and the buzz of insects fuzzed into the background noise.

I lifted my chin and brought my lips to hers. The sweep of her mouth tapped a direct feed into my central nervous system and shot a surge through my veins. The soft, gentle touch clenched my stomach and struck the back of my knees weak. Opening our mouths for a shared breath, she stepped closer. My back pressed into the fence, and her hand on my chin wrapped around the back of my head. I palmed the wild beats in her chest, where the reassuring lub-dub pace matched mine.

This kiss said more than an apology between equal sides for making a mistake. It was a promise. Press for press and pull for pull, it turned harder, hotter, and wetter until my head spun. It turned awful, all desperate teeth clashing and tongues fighting, but I poured all my doubt, uncertainty, and fuck, all that guilt into it. She swallowed all of them with a groan.

The groan of the fence behind my back pulled my head back, and the brush of her upper lip over mine made me pull back. Her cheeks were flushed pink, and the outline of her lips raised with sensitivity. She aligned the bridge of her nose with mine, breathed in, and closed her eyes. "Wow." A sharp exhale tickled warmth over my lips. "Not complaining, but that was supposed to happen after my hero moment."

I blinked through the euphoria that the kiss flowed through me. "Your what?"

"Grand gesture." Lisa's papers fluttered before she tapped the tip of my nose with it again.

"A simple apology was enough, Lisa." I looked down at the plans she unrolled over the fence. My heart dropped into my heels, followed by my jaw. "You bought the property!? All of it!? For... what!?"

I didn't believe her when she nodded. I couldn't. She couldn't have... could she? The rickety white fence pitched to support my weight because fuck, the ground opened up to swallow me whole.

"Careful not to swing on that gate." she teased, knuckles protruding into definition as she steadied it. Her tone was light, lifting with a beam on her face as her fingers danced closer to mine. A brush of skin teased my index finger. "Think we should replace that or repair it?"

My brain blanched at the word 'we.' All coherent thoughts tail spun down a drain of disbelief. We? Her eyes warmed with that stubborn determination, but excitement sparkled through it. "I have a few ideas but learned my lesson. My suggestions, your decisions."

I lost the ability to speak. Frogs croaked louder than I did. At my dumb-foundedness, she pointed to the spread-out paper.

"Let me show you." Her pointing finger walked me through her blueprints. I had no idea what the rectangular shapes meant, but there were half a dozen of them. Her finger tapped one of them. "This part is flat, my architect - which sounds impressive, but it's Nancy's husband - says it is the perfect spot for group quarters, but I thought we should take advantage of this amazing open space for a rehab centre. That would take advantage of all this open-air space. I get why you like it. But I'm thinking lots of natural grounds... what?"

Rehab centre!? Was she serious? She was serious. Fuck, I... couldn't think. I couldn't breathe. My lungs compressed in self-CPR. I trailed the tips of my trembling fingers over the side of her neck. Lisa winced as I pinched warm skin between my fingers. She's real.

"Oww!" Lisa's eyes widened. "Are you saying this isn't enough, Jennie? Because there's also a dog - oh, fuck! I should check on her. She fell asleep on the way here. I didn't want to disturb her."

Light-headedness flushed into my forehead, spinning the sky above. The inside of my mouth dried from how long my mouth hung open. "A what!?"

"Hang on." My eyes tracked Lisa's retreat, where she opened her truck and pulled out a bundle wrapped in a light blue blanket. Her biceps flexed into rounded forms from the bundle pinned to her chest. I gasped when a black nose on a grey snout poked out, opening wide and revealing white teeth with its yawn.

"Lisa!" I whispered as two blue eyes blinked open, and captured my heart with one look. "Is this a..."

"Blue Lacy." She passed the tiny bundle into my arms, which stretched its limbs out. "Paws for Cause had her. Couldn't ignore the timing."

"I... I... I..." All twenty-five other letters failed me. My mouth was as dry as if I stuffed my yoga mat into it, and my heart rammed its way out of my chest. I swallowed, but my garbled whisper lodged itself out of the back of my throat. "I don't know what's happening. You got a dog?"

"Nope." Her fingers trailed down the white stripe between the puppy's front paws. "I got you a dog."