The no kiss contract, p.1
The No Kiss Contract, page 1
The No Kiss Contract
Synopsis
Despite being the youngest partner at her firm, corporate attorney Davy Dugan is gunning for a recently vacant name partnership—it would mean finally having the power to make a real change in her conservative workplace. But eighty-hour workweeks don’t allow any time with her much younger half-sister, Tally, who doesn’t seem to need Davy in her life anyway.
Davy aims to get back into Tally’s good graces by throwing her a big birthday party, but that means dealing with Tally’s other half sister, Anna. To say Davy and Anna don’t get along is putting it mildly.
When a misunderstanding leads to her boss’s assumption that she and Anna are headed to the altar, Davy sees a way to leapfrog over the competition straight into one of the top spots at her firm. She just has to convince Anna to be her faux fiancée in order to do it and keep her growing attraction in check, of course.
What Reviewers Say About Nan Campbell’s Work
The Rules of Forever
“This is one of those books where silence fills the air when you put it down because your brain is saturated with the characters’ voices while reading. I loved it. Beautifully written with tons of interesting tidbits about art, literature, New York, and life. The characters were so well developed and I loved following both of their journeys. The tension that typically comes wasn’t overly dramatic though it was gut-wrenching. I was totally rooting for these too and would be so happy to have just kept on reading about them.”—Queer Media Review
“I needed this book. I won’t say I have been in a slump, but it’s been a while since I really liked and related to the main characters. Nan Campbell’s debut book gives us two complex, well developed women. In a terrific balance of romantic chemistry, angst, and humor. I can’t wait to read whatever she writes next.”—Odd Girls Media
“I bought into The Rules of Forever hook, line and sinker. This is mainly because the characters are so likable. …Besides well-developed characters, Campbell uses sound literary devices that give readers a romance they can count on but not find overly predictable. She charms readers with her delightful dialogue, entertaining subplots and engaging secondary characters. In addition to that, her use of conflict and sexual tension is masterfully done. Readers quickly become engrossed as well as captivated. The romance flourishes because of it.”—Women Using Words
“This was such a fun story to read. Aside from the whole second chance arc, there’s also the rich girl/poor girl storyline and while you think you know where the narrative is heading you’ll be in for an interesting ride that seriously keeps the pages turning. …This is an amazing debut for new author Nan Campbell and I can’t wait to read her next.”—Bookista
The No Kiss Contract
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By the Author
The Rules of Forever
The No Kiss Contract
The No Kiss Contract
© 2023 By Nan Campbell. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 13: 978-1-63679-373-3
This Electronic Original Is Published By
Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Valley Falls, NY 12185
First Edition: April 2023
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Credits
Editors: Jenny Harmon and Cindy Cresap
Production Design: Susan Ramundo
Cover Design By Tammy Seidick
Acknowledgments
My childhood could almost be called idyllic. I had a mom and dad and three sisters. Our suburban New Jersey life had the usual ups and downs, but I never knew how good I had it until much later. My family surrounded me with love, respect, and support. I was blessed in an untold number of ways.
So when I began writing, years ago, my topic of choice was a bit of a head-scratcher. Instead of writing from my experience, I was drawn to telling stories of fractured families. Deceased parents, decaying marriages, and clashing stepchildren became the conflict-rich fodder for the stories I liked to tell. It was satisfying to give my characters some hard-won happiness in new, found families. The No Kiss Contract is a holdover from my early writing days, where a family doesn’t necessarily adhere to a typical nuclear configuration and requires only large amounts of love to fuse it together.
Thank you to everyone at Bold Strokes Books—Rad and Sandy for keeping the BSB machine well oiled and singing. Thanks to Cindy, Ruth, Toni, and everyone who helps me get my book in front of readers. Thank you to Jenny, who has made editing my favorite part of the publishing process. Thanks to my beta readers, Michele, Cade, and Rita—it would’ve been a very different book without your helpful input.
My family deserves all of my gratitude. Not only for providing the template of what familial love looks like, but also for the unfettered support they have shown the last few years over this new endeavor I’ve undertaken. They are my biggest fans—and I couldn’t ask for better!
My wife, June, knew my writing before she knew me. She was one of my very early readers and continues to encourage me in all that I do. I couldn’t do this without her.
Finally, to the readers who reached out with a review, a social media post or comment, an email, or in person to tell me what they thought about my first book. I’m honored and gratified that you decided to take the journey with my characters. That you chose to share your opinion with me about my work is even more meaningful, and I thank you most sincerely.
Dedication
To June
For sending that first feedback email
Prologue
Summer 2007
Davy Dugan snuck into the living room and opened the cabinet where Anna’s mom kept the liquor. Weeks ago, she had spotted a dusty bottle of peach schnapps she’d bet wouldn’t be missed and today was their last chance to drink it. She had just shoved it in her backpack when she heard Anna behind her.
“What’s taking you so long? Let’s get out of here.” Anna stood there, glorious in her summer uniform of black Docs, a sleeveless, paint-spattered T-shirt, and faded denim cut-off shorts. “It’s your last day. We can’t spend it sitting around here.” The smile she directed at Davy was like warm sunshine, and Davy soaked it up like she was seriously Vitamin D deprived.
Davy took a look around the comfy room where she had spent a lot of time with Anna these last few months, the remains of late-night popcorn and Netflix DVD sleeves scattered on the coffee table. She couldn’t believe summer was just about over. When her father picked her up at boarding school in June and informed her she would be spending the summer with his new girlfriend and her daughter, Davy never thought she would be sorry to leave at the end of August. But she was. And sorry this was the last time she would be following Anna out into another hot and humid New Jersey day.
Anna flicked her tied-back blond hair and shouldered her art bag before she and Davy trooped through the kitchen. “Bye, Mom. We’ll be gone all day.”
“Bye, Dad,” Davy said to her father. The two of them sat at the fully set breakfast table, but neither was eating. The look on her dad’s face caused Davy’s hackles to rise. Something weird was going on.
“Wait,” Anna’s mom, Pam, said. Anna stopped mid-stride, and Davy bumped into her. “Where are you going?”
“I told you we were leaving first thing for the set strike.”
“Right.” Pam seemed distracted. “Have a seat, girls. We want to tell you something.”
Anna resisted. “We gotta go, Mom. Can it wait?”
Davy’s dad put his Blackberry down. “No, it can’t wait. Sit.”
She immediately planted her ass in the chair across from him and Pam. His dealing-with-Davy expression, the downturned eyebrows and mouth, as if he smelled something gross like heated up old tuna fish or something, now seemed to extend to Anna too. Davy was very familiar with it, although she’d seen it a lot less this summer since he’d been with Pam. But he was still bossy and brusque with Davy. And now his eyes twitched with irritation, which Pam allayed with a quick touch on his arm.
“Please, Anna.” Pam patted the chair next to her. “It’s important, and it will only take a moment.”
Davy darted a look and saw Anna’s aggrieved look at Davy’s quick capitulation, but Davy knew her dad. The sooner they heard their respective ’rents out, the sooner they could be on their way.
Anna’s blue eyes flashed as she plopped into the chair. “Okay. What is it?”
Pam took a big breath and gripped his hand. Now that Davy was paying attention, Pam didn’t look too good—pale and sweaty and maybe about to blow her breakfast.
But her smile grew wider as she looked into his eyes and said, “We’re pregnant.”
“We are?” Davy blurted.
“Don’t be impertinent.” Her dad frowne
“I mean, you are?” What the fuck? This was the absolute last thing Davy expected. Her dad wanted to be a dad again? She had no idea how to react right now. Davy shot another look at Anna, who looked wholly confused.
“You’re what?” Anna’s entire face was scrunched up in incomprehension.
“Gregory and I are going to have a baby.” Pam sort of looked pleased, dazed, and overwhelmed all at once. “It’s very early days, but we wanted you girls to know right away.”
Anna still appeared to be struggling to understand. “Aren’t you too old to have a baby?”
“Apparently not,” Davy’s dad said, pinning her with a glare. He didn’t even bother to look Davy’s way to gauge how she felt about it.
“Thirty-eight isn’t that old, Anna.” Pam laughed.
“Are you going to get married?” Davy asked her father. She thought it was a pertinent question.
Pam glanced at him. “We haven’t really disc—”
“Not right away,” he interrupted. “But eventually, yes. Give me a chance to propose, girls.” He smiled, but it looked more like a pit bull baring its teeth. “We’ll also find a bigger, better house.” He surveyed the slightly rundown kitchen with its aging appliances.
He turned back to Pam and gazed at her in a way that Davy didn’t recognize, a way that was prideful and possessive and a little bit creepy. “We’ll be a family, and I expect you both to assist Pam and your new sibling in whatever ways they require.” The conversation, as far as he was concerned, was over, and he reached across the table for his copy of the Wall Street Journal.
Davy was used to her dad laying down his pronouncements like he was managing subordinates. He had been doing it since her mother died when she was three. And now he wanted to start doing it to another kid? What the fuck was he even smoking?
Pam looked as if she wanted to say more, and reached out to Anna, but Anna pushed her chair back from the table.
“Can we go now? Announcement is over?”
Pam tilted her head and silently gazed into Anna’s eyes. Anna responded with a short, seemingly irritated nod. Their nonverbal communication wasn’t easily translatable, but if Davy had to guess, Pam had just promised to answer Anna’s unasked questions. Both seemed to know that now was not the time for it.
“Where did you say you were going?”
“Striking the set,” Anna said through gritted teeth. “It’s what we always do the day after the last performance.”
Pam took a twenty from her purse. “Here. So you can contribute to the pizza. Have fun, girls.”
Anna plucked the bill from her hand and gave her a quick, one-armed hug. “Thanks, Mom. Sorry I called you old. See you later.”
“Davina.” They had almost made good their escape when his voice forced her to turn around. He took his time lowering his newspaper and skewered her with his eyes. “I trust you will be packed and ready by seven tomorrow morning and not a minute later.”
“Yes, Dad.” Davy stood stock-still and waited until his attention returned to his newspaper, but Pam was out of her chair and across the room before the paper rose to his eye level.
“Your last day with us, Davy. I can’t believe the summer has gone so fast.” Pam wrapped Davy in an affectionate hug. “We’re really going to miss you around here, but it won’t be long until you’re back for the holidays, right? I’ll be showing by then.”
“Right,” Davy mumbled into Pam’s shoulder. She did not want to think about Pam and her dad procreating for another goddamn second.
An impatient groan from Anna. “Mom, you can hug her later. We have to go.”
“Bye, Pam,” Davy said before following Anna out the front door toward freedom. They cut across the front lawn and avoided the sprinklers in the neighbor’s yard. It was already hot but the leafy canopy provided by the oak trees that lined Anna’s street offered a bit of relief. By some unspoken agreement, neither of them brought up their parents’ announcement.
“What does striking the set mean?” Davy asked, walking beside Anna as she shortcutted and trespassed her way to the main road. They walked on the sidewalk-less strip next to the street and tried not to be in the way of sporadic Sunday morning traffic.
Anna seemed to shake off her gray mood as she slung an arm around Davy’s shoulder even though she was a few inches shorter. Davy stooped a little as she walked to make it easier for her.
“Your first season as a stage crew member in the Southfield Summer Community Theater is almost at an end, Day. We have only one more task before Cats is officially closed.”
Davy tried to ignore the blaze of pleasure the nickname gave her. Nobody but Anna had ever called her Day. “Do we dismantle the set and throw it into a huge pile and set it on fire?”
“Yes to the first part, no to the second, pyro.” Anna removed her arm and bumped Davy with her hip.
They crossed into the J&B Market parking lot. Outside the market was a community bulletin board. SSCT’s poster for Cats had disappeared yet again.
Anna heaved a dramatic sigh when she saw it. “Hang on.” From her bag she took three rolled up posters and a staple gun. She attached all three to the board with about fifty staples each. “Let’s see them take those down.”
Davy watched her. “Why? Last night was closing night.”
Anna turned to her, her expression sheepish. “Oh, yeah.” She gazed at all the staples she had just wasted. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t want to give those poster-rippers the satisfaction.”
The posters were of Anna’s design and were totally clever and cute. But Davy snorted at the musical’s tagline. “Cats: Now and Forever? More like now and for five performances only.”
“Yeah. I’m always a little sad when it’s over.” Anna tilted her head and surveyed her handiwork.
“Maybe they’d attract a bigger crowd if they called it Pussies.” Davy made her voice like a commercial announcer. “Pussies: Meow and Furrr-ever.”
“Ha. That’s funny. Hey, I have to make a stop.” She headed for the market entrance. “It’ll only take a minute.”
Davy followed Anna inside. The market was small and rundown, but she appreciated the blast of refrigerated air nonetheless. Anna made a beeline for the small case of prearranged flowers wrapped in cellophane bunches next to the shelves of produce. They all looked a little past their prime to Davy, but Anna confidently chose a bouquet that was mostly yellow and pink carnations with a few already half-opened red roses thrown in.
“Oh, no, Anna, you’re not.”
“I am.” Anna’s jaw was set, but her voice wavered while she inspected the blooms and avoided her gaze. “Sure, she got tons of flowers last night, but will she get any the day after closing night? If I’m the last one to give her flowers for this show, I’m the one who gets remembered.”
Davy had already heard every possible angle in the flowers vs. no flowers for Winnie Bowerchuck debate in the lead up to closing night. “If you say so. I’m going to get some orange juice.”
It was pointless to argue. Winnie Bowerchuck did not deserve flowers from Anna. Or anyone, really, in Davy’s admittedly meaningless opinion. Her Grizabella was a lifeless lump with a thin and reedy belt. She could concede that Winnie was conventionally pretty with her curvy figure and dark curly hair, but Davy thought Anna was a knockout, and her carefree, blond-haired, blue-eyed boho look was heaps more attractive. And Winnie was only about three years older than Anna and Davy, but she acted like they were peons privileged to witness her onstage brilliance. If she was so great, why was she performing in suburban community theater?
But Davy didn’t say any of this to Anna, who had gazed at Winnie with heart eyes all summer. She had come out to Davy and disclosed her feelings for Winnie, and Davy, the supportive new friend, had been the unfortunate recipient of every excruciating thought and feeling Anna experienced about her first same-sex crush.
