It's In His Kiss - By Mary Leo Page 0,3

to do. I’m sure Max will be around for a few days. We’ll talk later.”

“Are you sure?” Jasmine coaxed, but Max seemed to have already forgotten that Rose was in the room. His full attention was on his favorite cousin.

Rose walked away thinking the crystal had to be wrong. That it was simply wishful thinking on her part, there was no way rambling Max could ever love stick-in-the-mud Rosie. But when she turned back for one last look before she turned the corner to the kitchen, the red glow surrounding Max was even brighter than ever.

Damn gypsy!

Chapter Two

“He’s the one,” Jasmine chided as she sat at her desk in her office inside With a Twist. The lunch crowd had gone and the girls had a couple hours until dinner prep had to begin. “I always knew you two would end up together. It’s sweet.”

“It’s not sweet,” Rose protested while standing in the open doorway “It’s a train wreck and you two know it.”

“He has to settle down one day, if only from pure exhaustion,” Daisy said as she perched herself up on the edge of Jasmine’s desk looking completely fabulous with her long dark hair draped over a shoulder. She wore her latest pair of trendy knee-high boots with a tight short skirt and a blue top that brought out the sapphire of her amazing eyes.

The three women had been friends since elementary school when other kids would make fun of their ‘silly’ flower names. All the razzing and bullying only brought them closer, as close as sisters. Their friendship had gotten them through the tough times of their lives, along with all the good, and this was just another phase.

Albeit a great phase in many respects, but also, at the moment, clearly a confusing one for Rose. “Max has been traveling around the world ever since he turned eighteen. He didn’t even wait to pick up his diploma before he was on a plane bound for India. He stood me up for Prom, left me without a groomsman when his best friend got married, and couldn’t make it back when his own mother remarried.”

“In all fairness, that was her third marriage,” Jasmine countered.

“Your point being?”

Jasmine stared at her for a moment. “It wasn’t important for him to attend and he knew it. Besides, he was studying Tango in Barcelona at the time. He couldn’t just pick up and leave for one of his mother’s weddings. I’m sure she understood.”

“Well I don’t. He’s a leavin’ kind of man. What makes you think that’s ever going to change? And especially for me? He doesn’t even like me, not really.”

Jasmine turned to face Rose. Her green eyes sparkling, and her long cinnamon colored hair looked amazing as always. Jas had a flair for high-end designer fashion and preferred wearing cream or ecru, her two favorite colors. Rose was more into the business of cooking, so her chocolate colored hair was kept short, extra short sometimes, depending on her culinary experiments. She couldn’t take the chance that a stray hair would end up in someone’s dinner, and she hated wearing a hat of any kind. Her style was efficient, with a flash of whimsy in her earring selection. Rose loved big bright earrings. They gave her pixy face just the right touch of sassy that she liked.

“He’s always liked you. Why do you think he called you Rosie when you were kids? True love.”

“I hate that nickname and he knows it.”

“A term of endearment,” Daisy added.

“More like a term of aggravation.”

“A little aggravation can be good. Keeps you on your toes,” Daisy said.

“I don’t want to be on my toes, I want a love that lasts, and from a lover who won’t disappear just because some famous musician in Japan is available to teach him how to play the koto.”

“Wouldn’t that be fun? We could wear silk kimonos and have big hair.”

Rose rolled her eyes.

“But didn’t the crystal cast a glow on him this morning?” Jasmine asked, looking all excited over the potential love affair. Rose suddenly regretted ever having told them about the damn crystal.

“So he glowed. An accident, I’m sure. He couldn’t possibly be the one. He’s never stuck around for more than a few months anywhere he’s landed … always said he didn’t like the grass to grow under his feet. A man like that needs a woman who has the same philosophy, not someone who has recently opened a restaurant and works twenty-four-seven. It just can’t be him. It