by Anthology
As she pulled into the driveway of her aunt’s two-story home (painted in the white with blue trim option, for that Mediterranean flair), she felt a confusing combination of relief, nostalgia, sadness, and anxiety.
This was it. Katie was home.
She opened the door to her rented blue Honda Accord, took in a deep breath, and let out a cleansing sigh. The air smelled of a familiar combination: sweet from Mrs. Greyson’s beautiful flower bed and fresh from the trees that lined the street. Katie let her head fall back, soaking in the warming rays of sunlight. The sun in the sky may very well be the same one that shone in California, but somehow, standing in her Aunt’s driveway, it felt different. It felt comforting.
With a renewed sense of calm, she moved to the back of the car, popped the trunk, and reached in for her suitcases. As she pulled them from the car, she was stopped cold in her tracks by a familiar voice.
“Need a hand, Kit Kat?” the deep voice sounded from behind her.
A shudder rippled through her body and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Her carry-on slipped from her shoulder and dropped with a thud on the cement driveway.
“Jason?” she said, her voice a whisper of disbelief.
Katie had known she would have to face Jason at some point on her trip home. He was, after all, the best man in Sophie’s wedding—which made perfect sense, seeing as how Sophie was marrying Jason’s little brother, Bobby. She didn’t need to possess psychic powers to foresee that their paths would cross. She’d just thought she would have had a little more time to prepare herself before she came face to face with him.
She had also been banking on the theory that when the inevitable face-to-face occurred, she would have the benefit of a room full of people surrounding them to serve as a protective shield, a buffer. However, that did not seem to be the case.
Nope. Here they were. Alone.
She stood, frozen, with her back to him, staring down at her pink and black suitcase, wishing with all her might that she could just climb into the trunk and hide. Logically, she knew that plan was probably not the most mature response to this encounter—also, shall we say, not the most subtle. Still, it was tempting. Because as the realization sank in that the extra time and buffer-people she so desperately needed to get through this encounter with Jason were not flipping forthcoming, Katie felt as though the air was literally being sucked from her lungs.
Great. Panic attack number two. Here we go. And right in front of Jason. The hiding-in-the-trunk move was sounding better by the second.
Her mind raced as she tried to mentally prepare herself for seeing Jason again.
Jason Andrew Sloan had chestnut brown hair, whiskey-colored, soulful brown eyes, and a smile that could, as her Aunt Wendy always said, “melt butter in a freezer.” He was also the first person Katie had met in her kindergarten class at Harper's Crossing Elementary.
23 Years Ago
It was the first day of Kindergarten and Katie was paired up with a boy as a table buddy.
A BOY! Could this day get any worse? The class’s first official assignment as kindergartners was to write their names on the white paper sitting on the desk in front of them and then tape it to the back of their seats.
Katie wrote her name in all capital letters and rainbow colors and taped it on the back of her chair, just as she had been instructed to do. She was proud of finishing her assignment in time to go out for recess. She noticed her table buddy (The Boy!) had not.
After the first recess, when the kids came back into the classroom, she saw a few of them standing around her chair—laughing. As she walked up behind them to sit in her seat, she saw that the 'ie' at the end of 'Katie', on the nameplate she had been so proud of, had been crossed out, and the word 'Kit' had been written in front of the 'Kat' that remained of her original creation.
She was so embarrassed. Why would anybody ruin her name paper? She looked over to see her table buddy Jason (The Boy!) smiling a toothless grin from ear to ear as he patted her chair “I think this is your seat, Kit Kat,” he said.
All the kids started laughing and Katie just slumped down in her chair, furious at her table buddy aka The Boy aka Jason Sloan.
Jason never admitted to being the one who had defaced her beautiful rainbow-colored name paper but she knew, deep down in her heart, he was the culprit. And she would never forget it, just like no one ever forgot the nickname. From that day on, Katie Lawson was Kit Kat.
Well, to all the kids in Harper’s Crossing Elementary anyway.
Present Day
His deep voice interrupted her thoughts now.
“Wow, all this time and you know it’s me without even having to turn around. I guess that means I still got it,” he said with his trademark cocky tone. A tone that had always amused Katie, not that she would ever let him know that. His ego was big enough.
Jason had had girls swooning over him for as long as she had known him. In fact, Katie maintained to this day, that their sixth grade math teacher, Mrs. Carson, had had a crush on him. Whenever Jason would turn on the charm, usually to get out of detention for not completing his homework or being tardy, Mrs. Carson would just smile as her cheeks turned a light shade of red and say, “Oh, Jason, if you were just ten years older…”
Mrs. Carson never finished the sentence but Katie always knew what she meant, and Jason never got detention—at least in that class.
It’s not like his charm only worked on older women either. Jason had always had girls eating out of his hand and he knew it. There wasn’t a single girl in Harper's Crossing who wouldn’t do just about anything to get Jason’s attention.
Well, there was one girl. Katie.
“Oh yeah, you still got it, Jas,” Katie said, forcing herself to speak, trying to buy herself even a few more seconds before she would have to face him. Katie’s words sounded strained between her shallow breaths even to her own ears. “If by 'it' you mean the maturity of a five-year-old, then, yes, you definitely still have it.”
She realized they were falling into their patented Jason-Katie banter, which was a good thing. Right? Out of all the ways that seeing Jason again could go, him being his usual arrogant self and her calling him on it was definitely not the worst scenario. Now, if she could just stop her body from short-circuiting at his mere presence, she’d be all good.
With each second that passed, it appeared that was going to be easier said than done. Not only was she having trouble keeping the oxygen from escaping her lungs, it also seemed as though all of the oxygen had somehow disappeared around her. Deliberately and methodically, she slowly breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, trying desperately to remain as calm as possible.
She reminded herself, firmly, that she had to be calm in hopes of staving off panic attack #2. She absolutely couldn't think about how humiliating it would be to fall to pieces in front of Jason or fear would take over—her heart would start to race, her breathing would quicken, and it would all be downhill from there. Reaching up with heavy arms, Katie shut the trunk of the car so that she could lean on it for strength.
“Come on Kit Kat, you know you always loved that nickname,” Katie heard Jason say playfully, but his voice sounded as if it were coming from a long distance, across a great expanse. She felt his hand grasp her arm, and then she felt her body being turned in his direction.
As Jason’s fingers wrapped around her arm, they caused tingling sensations in places located much lower south, and not nearly as innocent as the place where he was touching her. Hmm, that wasn't a very good sign. It also wasn't doing a whole heck of a lot to help her in the campaign to keep her heart rate under control and slow her breathing. Nope. Not one little bit.
As she turned, her eyes alighted on a broad chest that—oh my, yes—filled out his white t-shirt quite well. Her mouth instantly filled with saliva like one of Pavlov's dogs. Hmmm, she thought, so this is what they mean when they say something looks 'mouth-watering.' She totally got it now. In an effort to avoid drooling,
she swallowed, but to her own ears it sounded like a shockingly loud gulp.
Slowly, Katie moved her eyes up the length of the solid, strong, statue-like figure standing mere inches away from her. She paused momentarily to admire—against her will—the smooth olive skin at the base of Jason’s neck. She couldn't help herself. It just so nicely contrasted with the stark white color of the t-shirt's v-neck it was peeking out of.
Unconsciously, she licked her lips and saw the pulse on Jason’s neck jump. Her eyes darted up to meet his golden brown ones, which caused the aforementioned tingling places to start pulsing.
Katie felt her heart beating so hard she thought it might beat right out of her chest. And the mantra began.
You can breathe. Just breathe. Breathe in and out slowly. You can breathe.
--- ~ ---
As Jason stood in front of Katie, who was wearing a simple grey tank top and blue jeans, he was momentarily paralyzed with shock at the effect she had on him.
Suddenly he was back in Mrs. Garcia’s kindergarten classroom.
23 Years Ago
It was the first day of kindergarten—finally. Best. Day. Ever.
Putting his backpack in his cubby, he felt a brush of something that tickled his arm. He swatted his arm and felt the softest, silkiest thing he had ever touched.
When he looked up to see what it was, he couldn’t believe his eyes. There she stood, a real-life angel. Rays of sunlight from the window streamed through her long, blond hair, and she was looking down at him with the biggest blue eyes Jason had ever seen in his life.
The earth stopped spinning and everything stood still. Nothing existed except this amazing creature. She slowly reached her hand to her neck and flipped her long, blond hair behind her back as she placed her backpack in her cubby.
Jason could not speak. This was a new phenomenon for Jason, as the spoken word had always been one of his greatest gifts.
Since the time Jason was able to put two words together, he always knew just the right thing to say to either get out of trouble, get what he wanted, or just put a smile on the faces of the women in his life. Even before he was old enough to speak, he had exuded a natural-born mojo. The first word ever used to describe Jason in the nursery was charming. All of the nurses in the infant care ward would fight over who could hold him. Even as a newborn, he had a twinkle in his eye and a little smirk on his lips that the opposite sex just couldn’t get enough of. But in this moment, five-year-old Jason could not even remember how to say, 'Hi.'
But luck was on his side, as it usually was. Yes! He was assigned to the same table as this heavenly being. Jason could barely sit still next to her. He fidgeted and couldn't keep his eyes off of her.
She, on the other hand, sat totally composed next to him, completely ignoring him, working on their first assignment, the name paper.
Jason had tried all morning to get her attention somehow, but to no avail. When she finished her paper, she looked proud of it as she taped it to the back of her seat.
When she sat down again beside him, he had the sudden urge to pinch her just to see what she would do. Anything to get her attention. He was desperate to have her acknowledge him.
But reason prevailed, and he realized that pinching her wouldn't be the best course of action. He had to keep thinking. Before another plan could take shape, however, she was out the door to recess.
Finally, genius struck. As he sat in his chair while all the other kids were at recess, he decided he would ‘redecorate’ her name paper to give her a nickname. That would be a way he could start to talk to her—an ice breaker of sorts. He knew that would get her attention. And it would be special. If he gave her a special name paper decoration, she would know, for sure, how special he thought she was.
He looked at her name page, which so beautifully read 'Katie,' and the first thing that came to Jason’s mind was Kit Kat—the best candy bar in the whole world. He quickly changed her paper to read just that.
He had not expected any of the other kids to notice it when they came in from recess—or to think it was funny. It was supposed to be a special, inside secret between him and his blond angel.
In fact, to be honest, he had completely forgotten that any other kids were even in their class. No one existed in the room for him but Katie.
But after the look on Katie’s face when the other kids were all gathered around her desk in giggles, Jason knew he had made a huge mistake.
Okay, he had to fix this and quick. The only thing he knew to do was try to relieve some of the tension by stating the obvious. It was part of his charm. Jason was always being accused of saying what everyone was thinking. Instinct kicked in and he simply said, “I think this is your seat, Kit Kat.”
He was shocked to see a look of anger and embarrassment that suddenly appeared on Katie’s face. He didn’t know how things had gone so terribly wrong or why his charm and wit had not gotten the smile that always appeared on the opposite sex's face whenever he spoke. But the one thing he did know was that he had never met anyone else who made him feel the way this girl sitting next to him made him feel.
And he hadn't known it at the time, but he never would.
Present Day
The same feeling, that paralyzed him upon seeing her for the first time in their kindergarten class, washed over Jason now, as he stood in front of Katie. His world stopped spinning and she was the only thing that existed.
Katie had grown into the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. Standing five foot three, with a petite figure that had curves in all the right places, she still had incredible long, blond hair and the most intoxicating blue eyes in existence.
And when he looked at her, he still saw his angel.
---~---
Still unable to get her breathing under control, Katie stood stock-still, staring wide-eyed at Jason, who was totally silent. That was very un-Jason-like. He always had something to say, usually of the smart-ass variety.
The quiet between them felt electrically charged and Katie was desperate to say something to break the super-charged silence, but she just wasn't sure she could speak through her choppy breaths. Also, she wasn't sure she even remembered what they’d been talking about. Katie instinctively closed her eyes in hopes that she would have an easier time focusing without the overwhelming distraction of the much too-tempting man Jason had grown into. Also, maybe without the enticing visual stimulation, she could actually take in a steadying breath.
She took a deep breath in slowly through her nostrils. So far, so good.
So what were they talking about again?
Oh, yeah. The nickname.
Focus restored, her eyes flew open, sparking with fire, “No, Jason, you always loved that nickname, which I have to say surprises me, because—as witty and creative as you claim to be—I would have thought you could’ve come up with something just a little more original.”
She strove to keep her voice light and even, but she could hear the tension in it as tight as a wire. She concentrated on keeping her breathing steady, on trying to remember to pull her voice back into a tone that sounded as casual and nonchalant as if she were merely taking note of the weather.
However after several seconds of melting into Jason’s enticing stare, she concluded that she was failing miserably and that the casual demeanor she was striving for could be better maintained if she avoided direct eye contact with him. She looked away. Even without eye contact, a rush of heat washed over, causing tiny bumps to raise on her skin. Still feeling his potent effect, Katie reassessed thinking maybe it wasn’t in his eyes after all. Her eyes darted back to his. The tiny glance solidified the fact that she was right the first time. Her cheeks flushed and her breathing threatened to gallop out of control again.
Yep. No eye contact. No eye contact was definitely the way to go.
Katie stared across the street. She just needed to look anywhere but into those big, sexy, soulful eyes. What’s that saying? Oh right. “The eyes are the window to the so
ul.” Nope. Not a good idea. The last thing she needed was Jason looking directly into the gateway to her soul, thank you very much. She was going to go ahead and keep those “tidal wave” feelings to herself.
Growing up, Katie had always thought Jason was cute. In a mischievous boy sort of way. But the specimen that stood before her, now, was no boy. No sirree. Nope. This was definitely a man. And the sexiest man Katie had ever been in the presence of, at that.
“Who said I came up with that nickname?” Jason asked with playful innocence coloring his voice. She knew that he knew exactly what he was doing. For some odd reason, frustrating Katie had always been Jason’s favorite pastime. Katie never understood why.
“Come on, seriously? Are you still going to deny it?” Shaking her head, Katie's voice wavered between irritation, at once again visiting a topic that was well-covered ground, and amazement that Jason had not changed, at least in regards to this topic.
Instantly, Katie's breathing returned to normal and her lightheadedness vanished. Hmmm. I guess being in the sweet spot between irritated and amazed trumped the beginnings of a possible panic attack, she mused. Good to know.
Now that she had confidence flowing through her veins like liquid lightning, Katie turned and tilted her face up to Jason's, planning to continue her diatribe about his denial of the origin of the nickname, but she immediately froze in her tracks.
Big mistake. Abort! Her first instinct had been correct.
Note to self: avoid eye contact with Jason Sloan at all costs this weekend.
Katie realized, in that moment, that no matter how strong and self-assured she felt going into it, eye contact with Jason would always be a supremely bad idea for a couple of reasons.
First, she didn't want him to have any inkling of the powerful effect he was having on her body—or, for that matter, on her mind and soul. It was going to be hard enough to put her past behavior in the water-under-the-bridge category without adding new indiscretions to the list.