Page 7 of Kissing Nick
“He’s actually what?” asks Oliver.
“Oh, nothing. I was just going to say…he’s actually been more helpful than I expected.”
“Cool,” says Oliver. “Anything else?”
Nick’s face pops into my mind again. Nick’shandsomeface. I guess I’ve always realized that he was hot, but…I don’t know. It’s like he’s so muchhotternow.
I push thoughts of Nick out of my mind and focus on the phone call.
“Um…not for now. I don’t want to keep you,” I say. “I’ll check in with you tomorrow, okay?”
“Yep. Sounds good. Night, sis.”
“Night, Ollie.”
As soon as I hang up with Oliver, I find the container of resin and the gold powder. I find a couple of paint brushes, too. Relieved that I have all of the necessary supplies, I parade them triumphantly into the living room. Nick smiles when I enter the room.
“All right,” he says. “Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”
I wish you would come over here and kiss me, Nick.
Whoa. Shit. Where didthatthought come from? I blink a couple times and close my fingers tightly around the supplies in my hands.
“Everything okay?” Nick asks.
“Yep,” I say. I set the supplies down and busy myself with putting paper towels down on the table to protect the surface. “You don’t need to stay long, by the way. I just mean, feel free to leave whenever you want.”
Nick shrugs. “We’ll see.”
You don’t like Nick, Holly. You can’t like Nick. He’s your brother’s best friend. Not to mention that he’s too old for you…
We sit down at the table. I find two pieces of pottery that fit together, then mix together a bit of resin and gold powder. I’ve watched a video of this being done before, but I’ve never done it myself.
Carefully, I use a brush to apply some of the adhesive to one piece of broken pottery, then press it to its mate. Several seconds later, when I let go, the pieces hold together. It actually looks pretty good.
“Want to give it a shot?” I say, glancing up at Nick. When I look up, he’s already sifting through the box to find pieces that fit together. He pulls two out, picks up the second brush, and gets to work. Soon, he holds up the two joined pieces with a grin.
“Perfect,” I say, impressed.
Everything’s pretty impressive about Nick, though…right, Holly? Especially that smokin’ hot body of his…
Oh, God. Stop, Holly. Stop!
“What was that?” asks Nick.
My eyes shoot over to him. “Huh?”
“I thought you said something.”
Shit.
I smile. “Nope. You must be hearing things.”
“Right,” says Nick. His eyes look amused. I pull mine away from his, turning back to the task at hand.
Suddenly, it feels far too quiet in the room. So I get up and put some music on. I pick a Christmas music playlist, of course. I worry for a second that Nick might find it annoying—we’ve been listening to the stuff all day, after all—but he just smiles and even nods his head a little to the melody that starts playing.
For another ten or fifteen minutes, we continue to work, both of us fully concentrated on the pottery. The Christmas music continues on, paying one cheerful song after another.