The Kiss That Launched 1,000 Gifs (18 page)

Ash froze. Wait. What? Allison knew about the hashtag?

“—but either way, they both stepped up to be heroes for tonight’s event—helping Small Steps raise more money in one night than we raised in all of last year combined!”

The crowd cheered as he and Grace moved up the stairs on opposite sides of the stage.

Man, she made that dress look good.

Megan had informed Ash earlier, when she’d picked out his shirt based on a picture she’d seen in Grace’s Instagram feed, that Grace’s outfit for the night was very Taylor Swift, and very on trend. He believed her, but at the same time, his eyes barely saw the dress. He saw trapdoors, like the inch of bare skin exposed between Grace’s skirt and top. How was his hand
not
supposed to land there and slip under the gap? And her skirt was at least three inches shorter than usual. If they stood close to the edge of the stage, people would be able to look right up it. He couldn’t have that.

Then there were Grace’s curves. She was way too sexy for the nightly news in that dress. Just standing in front of a camera with a mic in her hand would raise flags, but kissing? Those cameras had better zoom in tight—and Ash had told them as much. Shoulders and up. That’s all they could show before the whole event became PG-13.

Ash tried not to stare as Grace’s ballroom legs walked his way. Instead, he focused on the fact that her heels made her about two inches taller than he was used to. Flat-footed, Grace hit him at chest level. In her usual work shoes, she was the height of his shoulder, but whatever she was currently wearing had the top of her head hitting him at chin level. All it would take to connect their lips would be for him to look down and her to look up.

His heart hammered at the thought.

This was happening. It was really happening. And if he played his cards right, it would happen again when they were off the stage and away from cameras. Then they’d really see where they stood.

But first things first.

“Give them a hand!” Allison was yelling into the mic.

Grace earned a few catcalls as she walked across the stage, causing Ash to search the crowd for the offenders. Yes, she looked great, but those men could keep the volume down on their thoughts as far as Ash was concerned.

Allison continued her role as MC. “When I dared these two to kiss for charity two days ago, I had hopes that it would bring in some much-needed funding, but I had no idea of how big the response would actually be,” she said, smiling ear-to-ear. “So for that, I thank each of you—the ones who donated tonight and the ones who gave online. The response is more than we could have hoped for.”

Ash glanced at Grace, who looked a bit nervous under the smile she flashed as she stood on the other side of Allison. She could have walked up and stood right next to him, but she hadn’t. She’d gone for the buffer. Yeah, she was nervous. For some reason, that made Ash feel better.

“Are you ready to hear how much your generosity has raised for homeless and underprivileged children tonight?” Allison yelled into the mic, and was met with cheers. Her smile widened as she looked at Ash, then at Grace. “Are you two ready for this?”

“Bring it on,” Ash said, sending Grace a competitive look.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Grace replied, leveling a playful glare on him.

It was on.

“What if I told you…” Allison drawled, “that in the past forty-eight hours this community came together and donated $43,316 dollars to get shoes on the feet of children in this community and beyond?”

Ash actually choked on his next breath. “What?”

He looked at Grace, whose mouth had fallen open. Then she covered it with her hand and started laughing.

The crowd cheered, although Ash got the sense that it was a cheer for the money amount in general, not the accompanying stunt.

$43,316? That would make it a 43-second kiss. Anyway you cut it, that was not appropriate for any type of newscast.

Ash panicked, not quite sure what to do next. What were they supposed to do? And why wasn’t Grace freaking out with him?

“And you know what
that
means!” Allison yelled into the mic.

Most of the audience didn’t seem to know what that meant, but there were a couple hundred who started whistling and cat calling again. They knew what was up.

Allison grabbed Ash by the arm and pulled him to the other side of her, so he was standing next to Grace. “I don’t think any of us saw this coming, but are you two still willing to live up to your end of the deal?”

Grace reached over and brought the mic to her mouth. “I dunno. Forty-three seconds?” She sent Ash a searching look. “Wouldn’t that be some sort of record for you, Ash?”

Ash had never heard two thousand people make sounds of pity on his behalf at the same time until that moment. Oh, she was good. She was also going down.

He pulled the mic over to him. “Start the clock, Allison. Grace has some words she needs to eat.”

The audience cheered, everyone seeming to be into it now, while Allison looked like a child at Disneyland for the first time when she called out, “Set the clock!” A projector turned on from the other side of the park, projecting a countdown clock that was preset to 43 seconds onto the screen behind the stage.

Ash reached for the mic again. “And don’t be afraid to call out time for us, so we don’t have to keep our eyes on the clock.”

That earned him some cheers. He turned to face Grace, feeling even more confident when he realized she looked more than a little ill. Behind that smile of hers, she was freaking out just like he was. Something about that was reassuring.

“You ready to get this done?” he said, not in the mic. Allison was tucking that back into the stand as he and Grace faced off against each other.

She took a breath. “I should have said a second for every ten thousand raised.”

Ash shrugged it off. “It is what it is. We can get through this. It’s a commercial-and-a-half.” She still looked nervous, licking her lips as she sent a sidelong look at their concert-sized audience. With every second they waited, she was getting more hesitant. “Just think of a mattress commercial,” he coached. “Or the next Honda clearance sale playing in the background.”

That got a light laugh out of her, and Grace looked away from the audience and back at him. “Is that what you’ll be doing?”

Ash grinned at her, using his finger to tilt Grace’s chin up. When her body tensed and her lips parted, there was only one thing to do.

“No,” he whispered, then leaned in and pressed his lips lightly against hers.

“Whoa! They’ve already started,” Allison called out into the mic. “Start the clock! Start the clock!”

Ash heard clapping and cheering. He even heard some laughing and whooping, but it was quickly drowned out by the sound of his own heart beating in his ears. He did hear it when a large group of the audience yelled out
“Forty!”
letting him know that three seconds had past.

Three seconds? Already? He’d still done nothing more than press his lips to hers and hold on to the contact. The back of his finger still pressed her chin up from beneath, but that was the only contact between them besides their lips. But when they broke apart for a breath, it was Grace who made the kiss a little more firm while bringing her hand up to touch his arm. Such a simple act shouldn’t have been a snap point for him, but if it hadn’t been for a few loud catcalls from the peanut gallery, it would have been.

Everything in Ash’s soul demanded the he step forward and pull Grace flush, but that wasn’t an option. Not here. Not now. He had to remain objective. He had to remember they had an audience… with cameras.
Megan
with a DSLR camera. Yet when Grace’s lips parted against his, Ash didn’t even hesitate. His free hand moved to her waist of its own accord and he matched her.

“Oh, my goodness,” Allison muttered, the mic picking her up a bit and sending her words over the speakers.

Ash did a quick check in to make sure he was still in PG-land.

One hand cupping Grace’s face? Check.

One hand chastely on her waist? Check.

One reasonable kiss that might show up on any TV show before the news? Check.

As for Grace, Ash was quite aware of the hand she had chosen to rest lightly on his chest, while the other one now rested on his hip. Between that and her slightly open-mouthed approached, if anyone was toeing the line of public decency, it was Grace.

And he loved it.

Ash wanted more, of course, but the feel of her lips actively seeking his and drawing him in was more than he had been expecting from her. And the way she kept opening up the kiss made him feel like she was almost daring him to go in for a taste.

So when the crowd yelled
“Thirty!”
he did.

Big mistake.

A dozen things seemed to happen at once, and all too fast to stop. Suddenly they were too close… as in flush against each other. Ash wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but it probably had something to do with the fact that his hand had dropped from Grace’s waist to her hip and the hand that had been carefully cradling her jaw was now buried in her hair. But all of that awareness disappeared as he processed his first quick taste of her mouth.

She’d had some of those candied almonds that were for sale. Ash’s diet didn’t allow for sugar-covered protein, but he got a taste of them now. And when Grace pressed in and took a taste of her own, only the cry of
“Twenty!”
brought Ash back to reality.

He was on a stage. In front of news cameras. Kissing. As far as he could tell, they were still in PG-ish-land, but they needed to dial things back.

Removing his hands from where they were currently latched, Ash weaved his fingers through Grace’s and brought their hands back down to their sides as he stepped away from their contact. It had to be done—if not for the cameras, then for his sanity. His head felt like it was full of sand and his body felt like it was filled with firecrackers. He needed her hands off of him. If Grace so much as breathed on his neck, he’d be cooked.

So he kept it light. Kept it easy. Kept it—

“Ten!”
the crowd yelled as one.

Thank heavens! He needed to get off that stage. Stat. And he needed to finish the kiss off in a way that wouldn’t leave him staring hopefully into her eyes in front of a bunch of cameras.

Light. Easy. Professional.

“I’m going to dip you,” he said against Grace’s mouth before stepping back and making a show of finishing the kiss off in a melodramatic style that would make a good snapshot on the news as the audience chanted the final countdown.

“Five! Four! Three! Two! One!”

Ash brought Grace up, knowing she would follow his lead when he spun her out of his arms so they could stand next to each other, side-by-side. No eye gazing—not with all-seeing HD cameras on the scene. They could talk about how much they wanted to try that again later.

The crowd cheered as Ash stepped up to the microphone. “Thank you for your generosity, everyone. I really appreciated it… and I’m pretty sure the children will too.”

It got him a laugh. He glanced around to see if Allison was going to step up to the mic, but she had disappeared at some point during the kiss, it seemed. He didn’t see her anywhere.

“Well, that’s it for us, I think, so for those of you who are here to see the Neon Trees, make some noise to get them out here!”

Someone in the crowd started to chant
Trees!
When others joined in, he looked at Grace for the first time. Her lips were slightly swollen and her eyes seemed doubly dark when she looked back. And when she smiled at him, it hit him like a pillow to the stomach.

“I think that’s our cue. Vámonos
,
” she said. When he nodded in agreement, she turned and headed for the wings of the stage, pulling him after her. He fell in step like a baby duck. Wherever Grace was heading, Ash planned on being in her shadow.

Allison was in their faces the second they stepped off the stage.

“That was insane, you two!” she said over the crowd. “Insane!”

Grace dropped his hand. “Thanks. Glad we made a difference.”

“Oh, you did!” Allison said with a little clap. “And you gave me a great idea for a follow up. We could do a video asking
How many shoes can one kiss provide?
and then show all the shoes that are donated based on the money you two raised. I think it would go viral!”

Ash barely heard the words. He was mainly aware of how quickly Grace had shucked him off the moment they had stepped out of sight of the crowd.

“For now, I’d get the band out there,” Grace said. “I think your audience is ready for the main event.”

Then she turned to Ash. Finally! Now he could look her in the eyes and—

“I’m going to go find Esme,” Grace said, holding her hand out his direction for a shake. “Thanks for keeping classy out there, Ash. That could have gone bad fast.”

Wait. What? A handshake? That’s how she wanted to leave this?

Ash took her hand again, motioning to Allison to give them some space. The woman seemed happy to comply as she watched Ash lead Grace a few steps away. The crowd was still chanting when he looked in her eyes. “Don’t you want to talk about that at all? I mean, it’s not every day you…”
kiss your coworker and discover it was everything you hoped it would be.

But he didn’t say that last part out loud. It didn’t feel safe.

“Kiss a coworker?” Grace said, finishing half of his thought. “I know, but I think we pulled it off, don’t you? We should probably go talk to Erik and see which part will be used.”

She was blowing him off. After a kiss like that? They’d been seamless together, and now she wanted to go chat up Erik before joining her friend for the concert?

Ash felt the electric sparks still skipping through his veins flash freeze into ice. “Sounds like a plan,” he said, letting go of her hand. “I just wanted to make sure I didn’t offend you or anything.”

She shook her head. “Not at all. We’re good.”

“Good,” he said, then watched as Grace walked away.