Just One Kiss

Cheater

Nick could feel his heart pounding in his ears and the force of Abby's eyes on him. She looked furious. He turned and noticed that Tiffany's smile was slowly fading. He didn't want to upset his bride-to-be, not tonight. So he hoped for the best as he extended his hand towards Abby, giving her a pleading look he waited for her response.

Abby's blood was boiling and she felt like throwing up. If it wouldn't have been for Tiffany's smiling face and the fear of her dad having some kind of heart attack for causing a scene, she would have shouted as loud as she could that Nick was a cheater! So, with a deep sigh and a fake smile she hesitantly took his hand. She squeezed his hand tight, when she felt him try to pull away.

"Hey...I was looking all over for you." Annie pushed past Abby making her let go of his hand. She caught sight of Nick and quickly smiled. "Hi. You must be the famous groom!" Annie interrupted.

"Uh..." He recognized her right away. She was the one in the picture. Now that he saw them almost side by side they weren't so different. "Yeah. That's me!" He tried to smile, but he was feeling really guilty at the moment.

Annie threw her arms around him and squeezed. "Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"You...too..." he tried breathing. Nick watched as Abby walked away from the group. He found himself wondering where she was going.

Abby was happy for once to have turned invisible. There was a knot in her throat and a strong guilty feeling in her stomach. She walked out by the fountain and took a seat. What was she supposed to do now? Wasn't it her duty as a sister/stepsister to say something? How could she tell Tiffany, who had just put all the responsibility of her wedding on her, that she'd kissed her groom. Even worse, that she liked it.

"Hey baby girl!" Startled she looked up and smiled when she saw her dad's face. He'd aged nicely with just a bit of wrinkles around his eyes and his salt and pepper hair.

"You scared me." She watched him unbutton his suit jacket and take a seat next to her.

"What's going on? Why aren't you enjoying the party like everyone else?" His big brown eyes were trying to read her. "Is it your mother? You shouldn't worry so much about her. She's going to be fine."

"It's not mom. I know she's going to be fine." Abby always worried about her mom, she was a diabetic and occasionally had her trips to the hospital. That was when she got stubborn and didn't follow doctors orders. But, that was the last thing she wanted to think about. She let out another sigh and was tempted to tell her dad about the whole Nick incident. Then she caught a glimpse of Tiffany and Nick interacting. Tiffany was beaming. She couldn't let her anger ruin everything, at least not tonight. "Dad, if you knew something about someone that would change their life. Would you tell them? 

Her dad didn't hesitate. "I do it all the time, honey. It's the best way to go. Are you in trouble?"

Abby shook her head and gave her dad a big hug. "No. I'm fine."

He stood up and buttoned his jacket. "I'm proud of you, don't forget that. I'm glad that you accepted to help out Tiffany. This means a lot to her." He kissed her cheek, "Come on, you aren't going to just sit here all night." He took her hand and pulled her to her feet. They both headed back to the party.

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Nick was smiling wide, but deep inside he was mortified by the coincidence. He was regretting all the awful online dates he'd had and especially everything with Abby. They'd all been for nothing, because his mind hadn't really changed. Tiffany's mouth was moving a mile a minute as it always did. Only Nick wasn't really listening.

"Did you hear me?"

"Uh...yeah. It's going to be great."

"You are so spaced out lately. I was apologizing about this morning. I didn't mean to leave you in the middle of our heated moment. Plus, you didn't look so happy about me leaving and having my sister help you with everything."

"Which is Abby? Right?" He knew damn well which one she had said that morning. It just didn't want to register in his mind. Out of all the women in the world he'd have to spend the next two weeks with a girl he'd insulted, kissed and was his brides family member. "Shit!"

Tiffany looked at him puzzled. "Is everything alright? If it's such a big deal we can always postpone it." She was saying the words, but really didn't mean it.

He embraced her and took in the soft scent of her hair. "No. Things will turn out just fine. I'm just nervous. I hadn't seen your mom and step dad since that one night we had dinner and I don't know everyone here."

Tiffany's eyes shot past him and she waved, "Abby! Come here!"

Nick's stomach twisted as he heard the name. He didn't even have the guts to turn around and face her. He looked around for the guys, they were supposed to be his reinforcements; yet they were sitting at a table with Rochelle laughing up a storm. Which it wouldn't have surprised him if he was the butt of the joke.

"Hey I hope you are having fun!" Tiffany stated.

"Oh. I am. I just needed to get away for a bit. You know me and big crowds don't go together." Abby smiled.

Tiffany's blue eyes were gleaming with excitement as she nodded her acknowledgment of the issue. "Listen...I have to go see what my mom wants..." She waved again, "COMING MOTHER!" She grabbed Nick by the shirt and spun him around. "You guys need to get acquainted. You are going to be spending a lot of time together." Then off she fluttered leaving the twosome, who probably knew more about each other, than she did, standing there in awkward silence.

The silence continued for almost a whole minute, until Nick cleared his throat. "I can explain all this. It's not what you're thinking."

"How would you know what I'm thinking?"

"I can already imagine...I have a an explanation." Abby rolled her eyes and started to walk away.

"Is this something you do all the time." He trailed right behind her. "...walk away from everything when you can't handle..."

She spun around and pointed a finger at him. "I'm not walking away from you. I just don't want to talk about my future cheating brother-n-law in public."

"I'm not a cheater! I told you I have an explanation."

"Oh really?!? You proposed to Tiffany right around the time you started talking to me. Then you kissed me."

He took two steps closer to her and pointed a finger at her. "Let's not forget that you kissed me back. How would that look...being the sister in charge of planning out the wedding."

Abby swallowed hard and rested her eyes on Nick's tie. She felt ashamed of herself at that moment. In all truth she had responded, but she didn't know about his engagement. He did.

"I'm sorry. I got the case of the wedding Jit--"

She placed her palm in his face and shook her head. "I don't want to hear it. That is not the way to deal with pre wedding jitters. I just want to forget about all this."

He stuck his hand up to her face, mocking her. "Hell, me too!"

"Good. I better not find out your still dating online women."

Nick didn't get a chance to say another word, her father was standing there looking at them both. He was serious and his eyes were darting from one to the other. Abby's heart felt like it was stuck in her throat. She couldn't say a word. Nick was internally praying to whoever people prayed to, that he hadn't heard not one bit of the conversation. He jumped a little when he felt the older man's hand clasp around the back of his neck.

"Well...I'm glad to see you two are already getting to know each other. It's toasting time and it looks like your best men are more than ready."

The threesome both turned to look at AJ and Brian playfully taking turns pushing each other back onto their chairs. Each holding a champagne flute in their hands and trying to talk over each other. Nick groaned and let out a sigh. This was going to be a long three weeks.