That First Special Kiss

She spent the remainder of the afternoon straightening her apartment and doing some laundry. And then it was time to get dressed for the dance. She didn’t have to debate this time about what to wear. This was the perfect occasion to wear the red dress she’d bought on the shopping trip with Brynn.

Yet the dress that had seemed so perfect when she’d tried it on in the store suddenly looked different when she donned it in her bedroom. The spaghetti straps left a lot of bare skin above the low bodice. The clingy fabric left little to the imagination about her figure. And the skirt was rather short, making her legs look longer than usual, an illusion reinforced by flirty red sandals—lowheeled, of course, since her limp made high heels too precarious.

Maybe she should change into the black satin pantsuit she’d worn for the holidays last year to cover the thenfresh scars of her operations. Those scars were still there, but they had faded considerably, and the shimmering hose she wore further camouflaged the ones on her legs, though the one on her arm was still revealed. She had never been particularly embarrassed by her scars. She knew exactly how fortunate she was to have come through that accident as well as she had. She considered her recovery a testament to Joe’s surgical skills. A limp and a few scars were of little significance when she considered that she could have spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

It was that bracing thought that made her lift her chin and decide to wear the dress with confidence. Brynn had said it looked good; Kelly would trust her friend’s judgment.

As she donned a swingy, black evening coat in preparation to leave, she couldn’t help wondering what Shane would think about the dress.

Chapter Ten

Shane was beginning to get concerned. He’d been at the country club at which the charity dance was being held for nearly forty-five minutes and Kelly still hadn’t arrived. He’d asked around, but no one had heard from her. Brynn and Joe had explained that they’d offered her a ride, but she’d wanted to bring her own car. They didn’t know why she was late.

Where was she, damn it? He tugged irritably at the bow tie that felt as if it was choking him. He hated evening clothes.

“Hey, Shane. You look bored. Thinking of bolting already?” Michael Chang asked, approaching with a glass of wine in one hand.

He forced a smile. “No, I can tolerate it awhile longer. Where’s your date?”

Michael grimaced wryly. “She and Heather went to the ladies’ room. Why do women want to do that in groups?”

“Why else? So they can talk about us. I like Judy, by the way.”

“Yeah, me, too. It’s our third date. So far, so good.” Michael took a sip of his wine, then asked, “How come you didn’t bring anyone tonight?”

Scanning the crowded, elaborately decorated ballroom, and still seeing no sign of Kelly, Shane replied, “There wasn’t anyone in particular I wanted to bring.”

It was a lie, of course, but he’d made that stupid promise to Kelly. He wished he knew what was keeping her. Maybe he should try calling her apartment.

He glanced across the room to where Cameron stood with his statuesque blond date, Julie Fields. They were talking with Scott Pearson and Scott’s companion, Paula, the woman Heather disliked so intensely. Shane suspected that Paula figured prominently in the ladies’ room gossip.

Heather was determined to keep her brother from becoming Paula’s fourth husband. Not that Shane thought there was any danger of that. In his opinion, Scott and Paula were merely having a little fun until something better came along.

“Have you met the woman with Cameron yet?” he asked Michael.

“Yeah. She’s a weekend anchor on local TV—I forget which station. Cameron said she’s got her eye on a network spot eventually, and he thinks she’ll get there. He seems to admire her, but I don’t think there’s anything more to it.”

Shane shook his head. “It will be a while before Cameron gets involved again. His usual pattern is to play the field after a breakup.”

“Too bad Amber didn’t come tonight. She usually enjoys things like this.”

“She wouldn’t have enjoyed it tonight,” Shane murmured, glancing again at Cameron, who had the anchorwoman draped all over him at the moment.

Following Shane’s look, Michael grimaced. “No, probably not.”

Michael’s friend, Judy, joined them then. A sweet-faced, generously rounded young woman, she worked at the airport where Michael’s air-charter service was based. She chatted with Shane for a moment, then persuaded Michael to dance with her, leaving Shane to worry again about where Kelly was.

It was probably a good thing he was alone when he finally spotted her. He suspected that if he’d been in the middle of a sentence, his voice would have trailed into stammering incoherence. As it was, he must have frozen for a full minute before he got himself under control.

She looked...stunning.

Reminding himself that Kelly wanted him to act normal—whatever that was—he headed across the room toward where she stood visiting with Joe and Brynn. As he made his way through the well-dressed crowd, he practiced suitably casual greetings in his head.

“Where have you been?” was what came out when he reached her.

He couldn’t read anything in particular in her expression when she turned to reply. “Oh, hi, Shane. I was just telling Brynn and Joe that when I went out to my car this evening, it wouldn’t start. It kept making a terrible, grinding sound. I finally just called a cab.”

“See? You should have let us pick you up,” Brynn fussed. “Why didn’t you call when your car wouldn’t start?”