Kenna took the time to collect herself. Little Will had turned into a gorgeous man. He probably had so many women in his life that there would be no way he remembered her.
Will finished the conversation with his dad and walked back to Kenna. "Sorry about that. I guess I also better apologize that I don't seem to know you as well as you seem to know me, although you do remind me of someone I knew when I was just a teenager," he said with a cocky smile that showed he wasn't embarrassed in the least about not being sure if he knew who she was.
"Well, I guess you're close to knowing who I am. We haven't seen each other in seventeen years. And we only saw each other for one week up in New York."
"McKenna Mason," his smile grew to a full grin. "My, my, you have grown up well.” His smile faded and he turned serious. “I sure am sorry about your grandmother and your parents."
"Thank you," she said with a slight bob of her head in acknowledgment of the sympathies.
His grin came back and his eyes went straight to hers, "That sure was one fun week, though. I remember your grandmother catching me kissing you in the garden." Seventeen years later and the thought still brought a blush to Will's face. "I thought it was bad enough she interrupted my first kiss, but then she went and told my granny. And before you knew, I was being dragged into her apartment with one grandma on each ear giving me a lecture on the birds and the bees." Will faked a shudder. "A sex lecture from two senior citizens… It was worth it to get that kiss from you."
Remembering the incident made Kenna laugh hard. It was the first real laugh in a month and she found it hard to stop. After all these years, she still remembered the look on Will's face when he had left his granny's kitchen. His head hung low and his feet shuffled as both his granny and Kenna's nana had followed him out the door still lecturing him. Kenna felt a tear of joy start to roll down her cheek.
"You wouldn't be laughing if you had been given that lecture. I didn't have sex for years after that. Every time I tried to get lucky, the picture of our grandmothers popped into my head. It was like they were lecturing me again," Will laughed. It caused Kenna to laugh even harder.
"Sure, sure, laugh it up,” Will teased. He didn't give her a break though. "Do you know what they told me? Of course not, because they said it was the man's role to control the situation. You were completely innocent in their eyes. And if I remember correctly, you weren't all that innocent," he said as he winked at her.
Kenna slowed her laughter enough to answer him. "That's right. It wasn't like I dared you to kiss me...Okay, so I did dare you. But you were enough of a gentleman not to tell Nana."
"I remember that week so well. It truly was one of the best of my life."
It was Kenna's turn to blush at the compliment. "It was for me, too."
"Our grandmothers were something else. I still can't believe you took down a whole room of seniors in bingo that first night. I thought you were going to be lynched with support hose."
"Yeah, I guess I shouldn't have gotten on the table and told them they got whipped by a kid. Probably not the smartest move on my part," Kenna said, remembering being twelve and thinking she knew everything.
"That was the night I had gotten there. There you were, up on the table yelling bingo and jumping around for winning sixty bucks. I knew right then I wanted to kiss you but was much too shy," Will admitted.
"That, and our grandmothers always got us into trouble. We couldn’t have any privacy. You remember how they snuck us into the cafeteria that night for a celebratory ice cream? And we got busted by security since no one was allowed in there after seven?" Kenna asked.
"Then your grandmother said, 'Officer, our dear grandchildren came in here not knowing the rules. We just came to bring them back to bed." All the while, she was hiding a pint of ice cream behind her back." Both Will and Kenna broke out into a new round of laughter. Yup, their grandmothers were hell on wheels, wheels being the rascals they occasionally drove.
Will placed his hand over Kenna’s and looked down at her. Kenna's laughter died in her throat as she looked at Will. She saw him looking at her lips and had to admit, all the talk about their first meeting and their first kiss sure got her in the mood to do just that.
Will cleared his throat and shook his head just a bit as if coming out of a trance. "So, what brings you to Keeneston?"
Kenna bit the side of her lower lip before she caught herself. "Well, I'm actually here to apply for a job. I'm applying for the assistant district attorney opening. I know how the legal world can be a men's club, so I was hoping you could help me get my foot in the door. I also needed to find a place to stay, but I think I got that worked out.”