“What?”, Cade asked, looking around in a panicked stated that quickly turned into hot rage. “Oh, hell no. She neglected to tell me that. No freakin’ way is my woman going to sit there and kiss guy after guy. Let’s go! Find me that booth now, Boomer”, Cade heatedly said as he scanned the booths up ahead. Fury was beginning to numb his insides, but it fueled him to walk faster and faster across the grass field.
“Kresley Anderson, where are you?”, Cade could be heard bellowing across the fairgrounds. “You better answer me, woman.”
“Over there, Cade”, Boomer called out as he indicated a booth off to Cade’s left. It was a red booth, with lots of glittered lips all over it with the word kiss in huge letters on the banner above.
Cade stalked over to the booth and broke through the line of men standing there, waiting, ready to light into Kresley about sharing her luscious lips with others. When Cade made it to the front, he was totally confused when he came upon four older women, lovely ladies with grey hair and sweet smiles. They were sitting side by side on stools, with an Anderson sister standing behind them. Cade was completely baffled when he noticed one of the ladies was his Aunt Mae. “Aunt Mae, what the hell are you doing here?”
“Cade Grantham, you better watch your mouth young man. I’m here for a good cause, to help raise money for our local firefighters. And what better way to help than to have handsome man after man kiss me on the lips”, Aunt Mae stated with a big wink. Cade watched as an older gentleman, named Alvin, put a $5 bill in the bucket on the side and lean in to his Aunt Mae for a kiss. Cade turned his huge, blue eyes away from the sight before him and turned his attention to Kresley, who stood behind his aunt. Lord, she was beautiful. Each time he saw her, she literally stole his breath. How can a woman do that to a man over and over, every day? Cade absently rubbed his chest, as he often did when he had warm thoughts about his girl. Kresley stared back at him, with a big smile on her face and a blush on her cheeks. She usually blushed at seeing him, no matter if it was hours after being together or a day or more. He would never get enough of it. Her red hair was extra curly today, flowing long down her back and brushing against her butt. He needed to touch its silky strands. Soon.
“Hey honey. I heard you calling out my name across the aisle. Everything okay? Like our booth?”, Kresley stated to him, the booth façade between them. She motioned for him to come around the back, and he and Boomer walked around the crowd there, taking in the amount of men waiting on a kiss.
“Hey Boomer. Get in line to get a kiss from Grace in a few minutes”, Kresley quietly stated to the giant man. “We’ll be taking our turns from Aunt Mae and them soon.” She looked up at Cade after that statement and was taken back at the raw emotion she saw there. Anger was evident, but jealousy was soon taking lead. “What? What did I do?”
“You didn’t tell me your booth was a kissing booth baby. I mean, what the hell?”, Cade asked irately. “I don’t want my girl kissing other men. Period. Shut this shit down now.” Cade was almost pouting, arms crossed, jaw firmly set. Which was hilarious to see in person. Big man Cade Grantham, Big Sexy, lead detective for the Mercy Springs PD, was jealous and throwing a tantrum.
“Hey, Big Sexy, get your panties out of your crack for a sec. Stop acting like a toddler who’s lost his toy”, Birdie stated next to Kresley. Red knew that Birdie wouldn’t know subtlety if it hit her in the face. She ignored Kresley’s elbow to the boob and Boomer’s outright snicker of laughter at Cade’s expense.
“Birdie, by all that’s holy, shut up. Please. This is between your sister and me”, Cade stated, putting his large hand over Birdie’s face and pushed it gently backwards. When he felt her lick his palm, he quickly let her go and stated with affection, “Brat. God help the man who claims you one day.” He ignored the eye roll she gave him.
“Kres, you’ve got five minutes to discuss this with your man before our time slot”, Francie quietly stated in Kres’ ear. Kres nodded her understanding and took Cade by the hand, intertwining their fingers and pulling him away to a quiet spot. Kresley observed that Cade was quiet and he was rarely quiet. She looked up at him concerned and noticed that he was looking down at her head intently. Kresley stopped in the middle of the midway and took both of Cade’s hands.
“Cade, honey, tell me what’s wrong. Are you upset about the kissing booth?”
“Well, Kres, of course I’m upset about the kissing booth. I can’t help but be upset. Can you blame me?”
“Honestly, I didn’t even know our booth was a kissing booth until about 30 minutes ago. I would have told you what it was if I had known. I figured I’d let you know when you got here. I wouldn’t keep anything from you Cade. Ever.”
Cade sighed heavily. “I’m sorry Red. I guess I have left over baggage from a past relationship that I haven’t thought of in years. A woman I dated for months would purposely use things to try to make me jealous while we dated. It drove me insane and is the reason I broke things off with her. I don’t like jealousy and don’t like feeling that way. At all. But thinking of you being kissed by another man, even if its just a
