“I’m good,” he says, rolling his neck. “The Tylenol’s helped. And what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?”
“Yeah,” I reply with a grin.
He looks around us, watching the creek for a few moments before focusing back on me. “So what’s bothering you?”
“It’s just something Leah brought up.”
“That’s pretty shitty of her to bring up bad news while you should be celebrating.”
“It’s not bad news,” I say, shaking my head. “And it’s not like it’s something I haven’t been thinking about myself.”
“What is it?”
I give him another grin. “You.”
“Me?”
“Leah thinks we should date.”
“I’ve always said Leah is one smart cookie.” He extends his legs and crosses his ankles.
“You have?”
“No, but she obviously is.”
“You want to date me?”
He’s silent for a moment, probably letting reality sink in.
“Maybe,” he finally says, “but there are a number of … obstacles.”
“I agree.” I hold out my hand and count each one with my fingers. “One, I can’t lose focus on my future. Two, I can’t loaf it in any of my classes or clubs or teams. Three, I can’t give you special treatment. Four, I can’t—”
He holds up his hands. “I was thinking more along the lines of keeping me alive. Obstacle number one is Jernigan and Obstacle number two is your dad.”
“Alex can’t hurt you.”
“No, but he can make my life even more miserable.”
He’s right. Alex hasn’t been exactly fair to Logan. “I should have a talk with him. He has gone a little over the top with you.”
“What about your dad?”
I take a deep breath. He raises a great question. Logan’s a DQ. There’s no way my dad would approve of him. Still, I like Logan. Logan likes me. It shouldn’t matter what opinion my dad has. “It’s really none of his business.”
Logan nods his head in an exaggerated way. “Okaaaay, then. I have a feeling he might disagree, though.”
“I should be in control of my life.”
“Hey,” he says, raising his hands in front of himself. “I’m all for you taking control. I just don’t want to wind up in the morgue in the process.”
“Don’t worry,” I say, rocking my shoulder into him. “I’m going to face the bulk of his wrath, nobody else.”
“I doubt that.”
“You’d be a minor issue after I tell him I’m going to the Air Force Academy, not the Naval Academy.”
“Wait. What?” he asks, twisting around to face me. “He’s not aware of your plan?”
I shake my head. “You know him—it’s Navy this and Navy that. He assumed I’d go there. I just need to…”
“Grow some balls and tell him?”
“Yeah,” I reply with a grin. “But it’s easier said than done.”
“Remember what you told me about Lora—isn’t it better to just do it and know the answer so you can stop obsessing over what might or might not happen?”
He’s right, of course. The problem is it’s much easier to dole out advice than take it. When I don’t answer, he smirks at me and says, “It’s kind of like us constantly obsessing over how amazing our first kiss will be. At some point, we’re going to realize we should just do it already.”
I laugh at his subtle way of bringing us back to the topic of dating. But he does have a point. I spend more time than I’d like thinking about kissing him. For someone who has never once had a fleeting thought about kissing until the last few weeks, this is troubling. Maybe actually doing it would stop my daydreaming.
He’s still smirking at me.
Without warning, I lean down and lightly and quickly brush my lips against his. Then I pull back and watch him. His expression changes from surprise to delight.
“You just kissed me,” he says, his eyes lit up with amusement.
“Yeah. I realized we should just do it already.”
I expect him to have some sarcastic comment, but instead, he grasps the back of my head and pulls me closer. His mouth finds mine, and he makes much more significant contact than I had, with his lips pressing firmly against mine. They’re soft and smooth and taste like ChapStick—not a flavor, just plain ChapStick.
As his lips move against mine, it dawns on me I don’t know what I’m doing. Had I planned ahead, I could have researched this online first. Or with a magazine. Every time I go to Piggly Wiggly, I see cover after cover in the checkout line advertising “What Your Man Wants” or “Kissing 101.” That would have been four dollars well spent.
Logan, on the other hand, seems to know exactly what he’s doing and has no reservations.
Rather than obsess over my lack of preparation, I follow his lead. When his hand kneads the back of my neck, I allow my fingers to trail lightly against his lower back. I feel him smiling against my lips, which makes me think I must be doing something right.
“This is nice,” he whispers.
“I agree.” It is nice. But it’s a different type of nice than I’m used to. It’s not the satisfying thrill that comes with acing a test. It’s more of a tingling excitement working its way through my body. It feels like part nervous anticipation and part … something I’m not familiar with.
He tugs gently on my lower lip, and my hands begin to wander up his back.
“Hey, Paige, did you—”
Leah’s voice causes me to spring away from Logan like a kid who got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
“Sorry,” she says, already turning around and waving her arm overhead. “It’s not important.”
Logan chuckles next to me. “Are we going to become Wallingford gossip now?”
“No, Leah would never spread rumors.”
He takes my hand in his, weaving our fingers together. “Does this mean we’re giving the whole dating thing a chance?”
I stare at our hands. Doing this with a fellow cadet, especially one who’s my mentee, should make me feel like a horrible officer and at least a little uncomfortable, but those emotions don’t make the top ten feelings running through me. “I’m not sure,” I finally say. “Maybe we should think about it for a couple more days before we make a decision?”
“Okay,” he says, giving my hand two quick squeezes before letting go.
If my disappointment by the loss of contact is any indication, the decision has already been made.
CHAPTER 21
LOGAN
Exactly six days after our first kiss, Paige and I climb into her CR-V. She removes her coat and throws it in the back, revealing her navy leggings; a thin, silky-looking shirt; a patterned sweater that’s open in the front; and brown calf-high boots. My eyes keep alternating between the leggings, which are effectively advertising her sexy legs, and her long black hair, which is hanging to the middle of her back. I’ve never seen it down before, and I like it. A lot.