Handmade: A Series of Short Stories

Story Three: Candy Cane Kiss, prt.5

 Copyright of KalMoss. All rights reserved.

Delicate drops of rain fell from the sky while the setting sun continued to peak out from beneath the clouds, outlining them with its golden light.

  Ann, Jayce, Jane and Matthew sat outside on the patio chatting nonchalantly as they watched the rain drizzle down lazily bathed in yellow from the sun.

  It was around five in the afternoon, after lunch Lisa and Noah had fallen asleep while watching a movie and the adults had come out, alcohol and chocolate in hand, to watch the sun shower. The atmosphere was filled with a pleasant buzz, everyone felt completely at ease. Except for Ann.

  Her mind was in chaos as she tried to figure out when and how she was going to tell Jayce, she only had the rest of today. As Ann chewed her lip nervously Jane looked across at her sister curiously.

  “Ann, would you mind helping me clean up in the kitchen?”

  Not really, Ann thought but she nodded anyway and together they stood up and entered the kitchen.

Jane handed Ann a plate, “I’ll rinse you stack the dishwasher.”

  Ann took the plate and silently obliged, for a few minutes they worked in silence until eventually Jane sighed, “Okay, out with it, what’s going on?”

  Ann focused on keeping her face blank as she said, “Going on? Nothing’s going on.” She paused, “What do you mean by ‘what’s going on’?

  Jane gave an exasperated huff, “I’m not stupid you know, I can see there’s something going on with you, and my guess it has something to do with our guest Mr.Hampton over there.” She nodded her head in the direction of Jayce.

  “Why would you guess that?” Ann said too quickly causing Jane to smirk.

  “Well I know how much you liked him when we were young and it wouldn’t surprise me if your feelings had returned, besides just look at him! He’s gorgeous!”

  As Ann stacked another dish in the dishwasher her cheeks were flaming red and Jane smiled triumphantly putting down the bowl in her hands and leaning against the bench.

  “So what are you going to do about it?”

  Her shoulders slumped Ann moved so she was leaning on the pantry door opposite Jane, “I have no idea,” she said miserably, “the last time I asked a guy out I was in high school!”

  Jane nodded sympathetically, “Well, all you can do is try, and if he says no. Well it’s not the end of the world plenty of fish i–”

  “No this is different,” Ann interrupted, “this is Jayce, my next door neighbour who I grew up with. I’m bound to run into him in the future and besides…I think I’m falling in love with him.”

  “You can’t be serious.” Ann shrugged, Jane looked thoughtful, “Are you positive you’re falling in love with him? I mean, you only just met him last night after, what, five years?”

  Ann bit her lip and nodded, Jane sighed, “Well I’m still going with what I said before, ask him out it’s not that–”

  At that moment Jayce walked into the room and smiled, “Bathroom?”

  “Just down the hall.” Jane replied he smiled in thanks and headed off in that direction being careful not to wake the sleeping children who lay sprawled on the couch as he walked by. The two sisters watched him until he couldn’t be seen anymore, as soon as he was out of sight Jane turned to Ann and nodded her head in his direction in a ‘go on’ gesture. Ann looked mortified and shook her head furiously, not now, she wasn’t ready! Jane rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms under her chest and did the gesture again, a little more harshly this time. Ann pleaded with her eyes but Jane just shook her head, walked over to Ann grabbed her wrist, pulled her away from the pantry and shoved her towards the lounge room. It was useless to resist Jane; she was after all, both stubborn and physically stronger then Ann. She wouldn’t stand a chance.

Heart pumping fiercely, stomach churning nervously and cheeks flushing tomato red she quietly passed the sleeping children and walked down the hallway.

  Taking each step as slowly as possible, she heard Jayce washing his hands in the distance and nearly turned and ran then and there.

  Yet, at that moment he walked out of the bathroom in all his good-looking glory and Ann froze. That all too familiar fluttering sensation taking hold of her as he smiled questioningly at her.

  “Oh hey Ann,” he said walking towards her, “after the bathroom are you, well it’s free now.” He smiled at her and she gulped.

  “Oh, er, uh, yeah thanks,” giving him a shaky smile her brain then somehow managed to tell her feet to move towards the bathroom but before she’d taken her second step she felt the heat Jayce’s warm hand on her arm. Turning to face him she noticed he’d stepped forward, holy smokes they were so close! She could even feel the heat of his body, it wouldn’t take much effort to just reach out and touch him. Calm down, calm down she thought, desperately trying to force her heart to stop its violent beating.

  “Ann, wait, I just wanted to…” he trailed off and Ann found herself saying, “You wanted to what?” as she moved in closer, lust overtaking her thoughts as she hungered for his touch, his lips. The spicy sent of his after shave drawing her in. She was so close now she could feel his breathing; the distance between them was closing rapidly.

  “Candy cane?” A small voice asked.

  Ann and Jayce jumped as they instinctively sprang apart, both turning to see Noah standing there. Watching them with great awareness as he held two candy canes out to them, Ann sighed as she felt her cheeks flushing.

  She smiled warmly at Noah, “Sure.” Ann took one and stubbornly ignored Jayce as he also agreed and took the other candy cane, “Excuse me,” she said smiling at Noah before turning on her heal and walking quickly down the hallway and into the bathroom.

As Ann closed the door behind her she looked at the candy cane in her hand, confused as to whether she was relieved or angry that Noah had interrupted. Unwrapping the candy cane and taking a bite of it she found herself feeling a bit of both, as she chewed she pondered what had just happened.

  Had she really almost just kissed Jayce? And more importantly, had it just been her imagination or, did he look like he wanted to kiss her too?

********

Told you I'd be quicker to upload this time! HAHA!

Sorry it's short but the next part should be pretty long, which reminds me. Part 6 will probably be slower to come, I start school in two days and I won't have time to write as much, as soon as I get it done I'll post it up asap!

As for Part 7, well that's going to be like an Epilogue, show you the future of Ann and Jayce haha :)

Hope you enjoyed! Feedback? Vote? Comment? Thanks! xx