That First Special Kiss

When they were finally seated, Shane ordered an appetizer of raw vegetables and dip—to make the fast-food meal more nutritious, he assured them gravely—and fruit punch all around. He chuckled when a man dressed as Santa Claus in a sombrero passed their table playing “Feliz Navidad” on a guitar. “Molly and I like only the most elegant restaurants,” he assured Kelly as two squealing children dashed past their table in the singing Santa’s wake.

“This place is fun,” she assured him with a smile.

He should have known Kelly would enjoy this noisy mall eatery as much as an elegant restaurant. He had always liked her naturally unpretentious manner. Watching as she chatted with Molly, he admired the way the twinkling, multicolored Christmas lights reflected in her fair hair and sparkling eyes. She looked like a Christmas sprite, he thought fancifully. Her green-and-gold sweater added to the illusion. It occurred to him that he wouldn’t mind finding her under his tree on Christmas morning.

He realized abruptly that his feelings for Kelly had undergone a radical change in the last few weeks. He wasn’t even trying now to convince himself that he thought of Kelly exactly the same way he thought of his cousins. He knew she wouldn’t want to hear that—she’d made that perfectly clear when he had kissed her on Thanksgiving—but somehow it had happened.

Now he wasn’t sure exactly what to do about it.

She glanced his way, saw him watching her, flushed a little and quickly turned back to Molly. And Shane was left to consider the possibility that Kelly didn’t think of him quite as a cousin, either.

Shane was staring at her again. Kelly glanced at him from beneath her lashes as they finished their meal with fried ice cream for dessert—another of Molly’s suggestions. She looked quickly down again after confirming her suspicion that Shane was watching her.

She wished she knew what was going through his mind.

“Can we walk around the mall for a little while after lunch?” Molly asked eagerly.

Though Kelly knew shopping wasn’t one of Shane’s favorite pastimes, she wasn’t surprised when he agreed. He didn’t refuse Molly very often, and after her upset earlier, he was in a particularly indulgent mood.

Molly seemed to have almost forgotten about her earlier distress. Whether because Kelly’s words had meant something to her, or because she was enjoying this outing—or whether her adolescent hormones had simply settled down for a while—Molly was in a particularly sunny mood now. She seemed enthralled by all the Christmas displays, and couldn’t seem to take it all in fast enough as she craned her head from side to side, looking at everything and everyone around them.

Molly was much too old to visit Santa Claus, of course, but Kelly saw her smile and wave at the bearded guy, who gave her a friendly wave in return. Molly lingered for a few minutes in front of display of new CDs, but politely declined Shane’s offer to buy her one. “I have CDs on my Christmas list,” she explained. And then her face lit up again. “Hey, there’s an arcade!”

Minutes later, Shane, Molly and Kelly were lined up in front of Skeeball games, trying to roll their wooden balls into the high-score slots. Molly and Shane had a fierce competition going, bragging noisily about their Skeeball skills and predicting victory in the points battle. Both seemed surprised when Kelly ended the game with the highest score and the greatest number of prize tickets.

“Way to go, Kelly,” Molly said, laughing at the startled look on her brother’s face. “You beat Shane—and he thinks he’s the Skeeball champ.”

“I demand a rematch,” Shane declared, plugging another token into his machine. “I was blindsided.”

She smiled sweetly at him and inserted her own token. As the wooden balls clattered noisily into the chute, she murmured, “Let’s just see who’s the real Skeeball champ.”

Shane’s eyes lit with the fire of competition. Molly clapped her hands and cheered Kelly on, choosing to watch rather than play this time. And at the end of nine rolls, Kelly once again had the high score.

As Molly laughed in delight, Shane planted his fists on his hips and studied Kelly with narrowed eyes. “So how are you at shooting targets with Ping-Pong ball guns?” he demanded, motioning toward another game.

“Adequate,” she replied vaguely, and pushed the sleeves of her sweater higher on her arms.

She soon proved she was more than adequate. Ping-Pong balls whooshed steadily out of her air-powered “gun,” and stuffed targets fell swiftly, one by one. When the game ended, she had tied Shane twice and beaten him once. Handing the prize tickets to Molly, Shane challenged, “Let’s see how good you are at air hockey.”

She soon showed him that she was very good at air hockey. As the plastic puck shot past his paddle to clatter into the goal slot, she straightened and absently brushed her hair out of her eyes. “Seven to five,” she announced unnecessarily. “I win.”

“Okay,” Shane growled, moving to stand toe-to-toe with her, “how did you get so good at arcade games?”

She laughed. “I worked at one of those pizza-and-prizes places when I was in high school. After work, the employees would spend an hour or so playing the arcade games, on the pretext of making sure everything was working properly. After working there for two years, I was named the arcade queen.”

“You might have told me that before you accepted my challenges,” Shane muttered.

Her smile widened. “And miss seeing you bust a gut trying to beat me?”

Molly giggled. “She got you good, Shane.”

“Yes,” he agreed, his mouth quirking into his attractively crooked smile. “She got me good.”

Kelly tugged at the high collar of her sweater and looked away. “Does it seem warm in here to either of you? Hey, Molly, do you want to try the claw machine? Maybe we can make it pick up a stuffed animal.”

Easily distracted, Molly headed for the game, her attention already focused on a small teddy bear on top of the rather tightly packed pile of prizes. “Kelly,” Shane said when she started after his sister.

She paused. “Yes?”