Only a Kiss by Cadence Keys

Author:Cadence Keys [Keys, Cadence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cadence Keys

“One second,” I heard through the door followed by another coughing fit.

When the door finally opened, she looked as bad as she had sounded—and yet she still looked absolutely beautiful. Her nose was red and raw while her eyes were dull and watery. Misery coated every inch of her expression. She was dressed in an oversized sweatshirt that hung loosely on her body and had been cut around the neck to make it looser. The ensemble was finished with baggy sweats and fluffy socks. She may have been miserable, but she also looked cozy.

I held up the paper bag in my hand from the stop I made on my way here. “I brought you sustenance. I figured you wouldn’t be up for cooking.”

She leaned against the doorjamb like she was too tired to hold herself up, but her eyes lit up a little. “You brought me food?”

I peeked into the bag. “Chicken soup, Gatorade, cold medicine, and some of your favorite snacks.”

When I looked back up at her, her lips were curled up at the corners and her eyes had lost some of her exhaustion. Instead, they were now filled with a softness that made me think she was grateful.

She stepped back and opened the door wider, and I took the unspoken invitation. A blanket was thrown across her couch, and an old romantic comedy from the nineties was playing on her TV with the volume turned low.

“I was trying to see if sleep would knock this cold out, but I can never sleep in the quiet when I’m sick. I always sleep better when I have something playing on the TV in the background, but it has to be something I’ve seen enough times that I won’t feel like I’m missing something if I fall asleep during it. It’s weird, I know,” she added, as if she was self-conscious of the information she just spewed, but I was fascinated. I loved learning new things about her, and this was definitely something I didn’t know.

“It’s not weird. Are you hungry?”

She shook her head, but then her stomach grumbled loud enough to wake a hibernating bear and she smiled sheepishly. “Okay, maybe I’m more hungry than I thought.”

I smiled at her. “Go sit down and get comfortable. I’ll put something together for you.”

“Okay,” she said softly, her gaze locked on mine. The way she looked at me was a mix between tender and something else. Whatever it was, it made my heart pound heavily in my chest.

She moved to the couch, and I watched her get comfortable under the blanket before I finally pulled my gaze away and moved toward her kitchen. It was mostly clean apart from some dirty dishes in the sink. I quickly got familiar with where she put everything, put most of the groceries away, and then made her a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

I didn’t find a serving tray of any kind so I made do with a sheet pan, setting the bowl of soup, some bread, and the Gatorade on it so I could bring everything out to her at one time.

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