"Rachel?" he asked.
"Hey!" I said.
He pumped his fist excitedly the way hot, confident guys do. "I knew it!" he said, as if his team had just scored some points. "What are you doing here?"
Another lady came to the restroom, and Kate and I moved aside to let her pass. She stared at Logan the whole time, and I knew her trip to the restroom had been more about seeing him than going in there. I experienced a stab of jealousy at the way she looked at him, which was ludicrous since he had a real date sitting across from him.
"I'm here with some friends," I said. "We all went to dental school together."
"It's not Ashton, is it?" he asked with an easy smile.
His hair was really short, almost shaved. I wondered if he had it cut that way for a movie. I liked it—thought it looked good on him. I caught myself wanting to reach out and feel it—just rub my hand over the top of it so I could feel it between my fingers. I had to clear my throat before I could answer his question.
"Um, no. I'm uh, here with Kate, and our friends Victor and Charles."
"Victor and Charles, huh?" he asked, lifting his eyebrow slightly.
I glanced at Kate only to find that she was just staring at us with a comically confused look on her face.
"Hello Kate," Logan said, reaching out for a handshake.
She cleared her throat twice before saying, "Hi, hello, how are you? I'm a big, a really big fan of yours. I love your movies, and I used to watch Taylor and Tig like every day of my life."
He smiled and shook her hand. "I'm glad to hear it, thank you." Logan only smiled at Kate for a few seconds before turning his attention back to me.
"Rachel graduated at the top of our class," Kate blurted as soon as Logan looked away.
This caused him to smile and teasingly raise his eyebrows at me. "Is that so?"
I shook my head and rolled my eyes in a way that said, it's probably true, but she shouldn't have said that.
"So it's Doctor Stephens now?" he asked, looking impressed.
I bowed slightly, indicating that he was correct. "Our sushi's probably ready," I said, motioning to the dining room. It was the worst thing I could have said, but I was unreasonably nervous, and it just came out of my mouth before I could stop it.
"Seriously?" he asked, staring straight at me.
I smiled. "What?"
"I find you after all this time, and you're gonna talk about getting back to your sushi?"
I giggled nervously, and glanced at Kate who was wearing a look of shock.
"Please tell me you're planning on calling," he said.
I let my eyes roam over his face. He was wearing a sincere half-smile that took my breath away.
I nodded. "I, I, was actually. In September."
"I knew you would. I hoped you would have already done it by now. I thought you would have broken down."
My heart wanted to soar at the thought of him waiting for my call—until I remembered the blonde.
"We should both be getting back to our dates," I said.
"I'm not here on a date." He pointed at me. "Are you here on a date?"
The lady came out of the restroom. She almost walked off, but changed her mind and came back, asking Logan if she could take a picture with him. He graciously agreed and smiled while she held out her phone and took a selfie with him. She thanked him profusely and said what a big fan she was before heading back to her seat.
"Are you here with someone?" he repeated.
"Are you?"
"With my sister," he said. "You have to come to our table. I want her to meet you."
Kate, who was normally a calm person, let out a squeal at his words. We both glanced at her, and she smiled apologetically.
"Victor and Charles went to dental school with us," I said. "We're all just friends."
Logan and I shared a long stare. One in which I could not tell whether we were communicating a ton of things or nothing at all. It was a crazy feeling standing in the hallway staring at him like that. It was as if we were each trying to sync with one another… like we were scanning a radio to find a station where we could both meet up.
"I knew I'd find you before September," he said. The corner of his wide mouth curved upward in a confident grin.
"That's Charlotte you're with?" I asked.
I felt a rush of excitement at the news that he wasn't on a date after all. Logan had told me all about his sister that day on the hillside, and I loved having a face to go with the stories.
"You have to come meet her," he said with a jerk of his head in that direction.
Kate and I followed him. She made hilarious faces behind his back the whole time we walked, and it took every ounce of my restraint not to laugh. I saw her make eye contact with Victor and Charlie and make a face at them while pointing at Logan.
"Charlotte, this is Rachel and her friend Kate."
Charlotte smiled and stretched toward us from her seat, extending a hand for us to shake. I glanced at their table after I greeted her, and I couldn’t help but notice that they were done eating.
Charlotte already seemed like a sweetheart, and all I had to go on was a smile and a handshake. Just like with her brother, there was something genuine about her. Living in a sea of people who wore fake smiles made you appreciate the real ones, and theirs were most certainly real.
"This isn't Rachel, Rachel, is it?" she asked, looking at her brother with great interest.
He smiled and nodded, and she instantly turned to me. Her whole posture fell as if she kicked into some other gear—relax mode. Her smile took on a whole new look as she stared intently at me. She stood and reached out for me. "Oh, honey, come here," she said. She was young and stylish, and hearing her call me honey in a warm, familiar way was a contradiction I had to wrap my brain around.
She hugged me tightly.
"I don't know what you did to my brother," she whispered. "But thank you." She squeezed, and I squeezed back.
"Rachel just finished dental school with honors," Logan said as Charlotte let me go and sat back in her chair.
She beamed at me once she got settled. "Logan was telling me about you doing dental school. That's awesome. Congratulations!"
"Thank you," I said. I couldn't calm down enough to appreciate the fact that she just said Logan had talked about me. Not to mention, I was pretty sure she referred to me as 'Rachel, Rachel'.
"Kate just graduated, too," I said with a tilt of my head in Kate's direction.
"Congratulations to you, too!" Charlotte said.
"We're celebrating tonight," Kate said. "It's our first time to get together since we finished." She glanced at Victor and Charles, which made all of us do the same.
Our sushi had just arrived, and they had their backs to us, staring at the plates.
"I guess we should get back to our food," I said.
It was a tiny dining room, and everyone was sort of trying not to stare at us.
"Any chance we can just call it September?" Logan asked, holding up his palms.
"Please just call it September," Charlotte said.
I glanced at her curiously, wondering what exactly she knew about September.
She smiled at my expression. "You need to call my brother," she said. "I think you should really call him."
"You still have my number?" Logan asked, pulling out his chair and sitting casually on the edge of it.
I gave him a quick nod, and he smiled.
"Good. Maybe you can use it."
I smiled and nodded again. "It was nice meeting you," I said to Charlotte.
"You too," she said. "Call my brother!" she added, still smiling brightly.
Kate and I walked back to our place at the bar and sat down. "What on earth was that?" Victor asked quietly as we took our seats. "Did you just walk right up to them, or what?"
"I don't even know where I'm at right now," Kate said dazedly. She stared straight ahead like she was in some sort of trance. "I seriously can't believe that just happened to
me," she continued. "Did that really just happen?" None of us said anything, so she continued, "Logan Ritchie just said all kinds of crazy boyfriend stuff to Rachel, and then his sister hugged her and acted like she was her long lost best friend." Kate paused and looked over Victor at me with huge eyes. "You were acting like you barely met him once, and he basically French kissed you and begged you to call him."
"He didn't do either of those things," I assured Charlie and Victor, who were listening intently to every word she said.
"He definitely begged you to call him," she said. "Even his sister was begging her. What in the world is going on here, Rachel? Am I dreaming?"
"Okay, is that really Logan Ritchie?" Victor asked.
None of us looked back, we just talked without really looking at each other in the process.
"In the flesh," I heard a deep voice say behind us. "You must be either Victor or Charles."
We all turned to find Logan and Charlotte standing right there behind us. Logan looked past us and smiled with a little two-fingered wave to the chef. "Thanks Tak," he said. He patted his stomach. "It was great." I turned and glanced over my shoulder to see the chef smile and bow at him.
"We're leaving," Logan said, making me once again turn to face him.
"We're just getting started," I said nudging my head toward the plate of sushi sitting behind me.
He nodded. "I just wanted to say goodbye."
"I'm glad you did," I said.
Before I could stop myself, I reached out and hugged him. The barstool made me almost as tall as he was, and I pulled him in before I could think better of it. He took me firmly in his arms before letting out a relieved sigh. He held me there for a few seconds sliding his hand onto the back of my head to press me close. The sensation of being held by him made my blood turn warm.
"I guess we can go ahead and call it September," he whispered close to my ear.
I pulled back far enough to look at him. "You think so?" I asked, smiling at him as we let go and I straightened on my stool.
"Yep," he said with that easy smile.
"It was so nice meeting you," Charlotte interjected, stepping forward to reach out for another hug.
"You too," I said.
Chapter 9
The four of us waved at Logan and Charlotte as they walked out of the restaurant. We had turned and were staring at our uneaten sushi when Kate said, "Did everyone just see what I saw, or am I trippin' right now?"
"I believe we did," Victor said.
She leaned forward and blinked at me as if she didn't know me at all—like I might be some strange person who swooped in and switched places with her friend.
I was laughing as I took a bite of salmon nigiri. I wasn't even hungry; I was just going through the motions of eating in an attempt to look like I wasn't freaking out on the inside.
"It seemed like you two were really familiar," Charles said. He and I were on opposite ends, so he leaned way over Kate to say it. His expression was totally serious, verging on grave, which made me giggle again.
"How do you know Logan Ritchie?" Victor asked.
"I got to go on a movie set one time."
"Why didn't you tell us about that?" Kate asked. "When was it?"
"It was last September, and I didn't tell you because it was no big deal. I didn't think it would amount to anything."
"He said he gave you his number," she said.
The boys were eating at this point, but Kate hadn't taken a bite, she was just looking past Victor at me.
"He did give me his number," I said, trying to act casual. I glanced at her to find that she was staring at me with an utterly dumbfounded expression.
"And you didn't use it?" she asked.
I let out another nervous laugh. "I told him I'd call him in a year," I said.
"A year? What in the world kind of crazy thing is that to say?"
I shrugged and shook my head in a self-deprecating way. "It was just a silly conversation we had," I said. "I thought he'd forget all about it."
"He did not forget!" she said with the widest of eyes. "He kept saying 'it's September', and I didn't know what he was talking about, but now that you say that, it all makes sense. He wanted you to call him." She paused. "Logan Ritchie wanted you to call him," she said wistfully.
Kate finally started eating, and the four of us sat there for the next thirty minutes while we finished up. The sushi lived up to the hype. It was a one of a kind experience to have a chef prepare what he wanted for me, and I enjoyed every bite of it. The taste of the food was probably enhanced by the fact that I was walking on air after seeing Logan.
Kate and the boys asked me lots more questions about him, but we eventually changed the subject to other things. It wasn't until the end of the meal that his name came up again, and that was on account of him buying our sushi. Our server enjoyed telling us that Logan had taken care of our check as an impromptu graduation gift, and we loved getting the news. My friends were all freaking out that Logan Ritchie had bought our dinner. We were so excited that everyone forgot I was supposed to buy ice cream. Charles and Victor had already taken off, and Kate and I were about to do the same.
"I hope you're gonna call him," Kate said, looking at me in the parking lot with an impassive stare. "Especially after he bought our dinner."
"I'll probably text him," I said, smiling.
She smiled and shook her head at me. "Smiling and acting all casual like it's no big deal…" she said, teasingly.
My smile broadened. "It's not a big deal," I said. "He's just a regular guy."
She tilted her head to the side and made a who do you think you're kidding face at me.
I laughed. "He is a normal guy," I said. "He puts his pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us."
I cringed inwardly at the phrase as it came out of my mouth, knowing I sounded just like my mom.
"I'm gonna kill you if you don't call him when you get home," she said. "And then call me to tell me what he said."
I smiled and shook my head at her. "I might."
"What? Call him or me?"
"Both. Either."
"You better at least call him. Promise you'll call him. He really wanted you to. It was so sweet."
"I probably will," I said, sitting in my car.
"You better!" she called as she sat in hers.
We smiled and waved at each other through the windows before starting our cars and pulling away.
***
I sat on my couch an hour later, staring at Logan's name in my contacts. He had simply put the name 'Logan' when he typed it in all those months ago. It wasn't my first time to stare at it, but this time I thought I might actually follow up by pushing some buttons. Weren't there some set of rules I needed to follow with this? Should I wait two hours instead of just one? Should I wait a day or two—or maybe till September like I originally said? Would calling before September void my deal with God, or was it God who put him in my path tonight?
I flopped my head onto the back of the couch, staring at the ceiling with a sigh. Then, all of a sudden, a peaceful feeling fell over me. Suddenly, I didn't care about the deal or September anymore. Suddenly, I was just a girl, and he was just a guy, and it was okay for me to talk to him. I unexplainably felt in my heart that I had no other option than to do so, and the sooner the better.
I started composing a text.
Me: "I can't believe I saw you tonight. Thanks so much for buying our dinner!"
I let my finger hover over the send button, hesitating only for a second before pushing it.
I started pressing random buttons on my phone, just because my fingers felt fidgety. I opened a couple of game apps and closed them again before setting my phone on the coffee table in front of me.
Within a minute, a phone call came in. Not a text, mind you, but a call—meaning I was about to be speaking with a live person. I saw as I picked up the phone that the person was Logan.
"Hello?" I said, doing my best to steady my voice.
"I'm patient to a fault, I guess," I said, with a smile in my voice. "I can't believe you bought our dinner."
"Where are you?" he asked.
I looked around. "My apartment, why?"
"I don't know, I guess I just want to see you again."
I laughed—not because what he was saying was funny, but more because I was just that happy.
"Because I want to see you again," he repeated. "I've been waiting for you to call for months, and if I don't see you tonight, it's gonna be at least another week." He didn't even give me a second to speak before he said, "Wait. That's it."
"What's it?" I asked. "You can come with us. You'll love it, and you'll get to meet the rest of my family."
"I am totally lost right now," I said.
Logan sighed as if trying to decide how to start at the beginning. "I'm leaving tomorrow to go to Myrtle Beach with my family. It's something we do every June. I was going to try to see you tonight before I left on my trip, but then I thought, why can't she just come with us?"
Gosh, it seemed like every time I talked to this guy, my stomach felt like it was cramped up into a tiny little jittery ball. Was he asking me to take a trip with him? It felt surreal, like I was misunderstanding the whole thing.
"Are you there?" he asked.
"Uh-huh," I replied.
"Did you hear what I said?"
"I think so."
"What do you think?" he asked. "What do you have going on right now?"
I hesitated for a few seconds. "I, uh, I'm, uh, just sort of taking a few weeks off before I head to Kenya and then start work."
"That's perfect! So, you're off right now?" he asked.
"Uh-huh," I said.
"Come with me," he said.
"To Carolina?"
"Yes. I think you're sort of supposed to since you happened to run into me on the perfect day for me to ask you. It's meant to be or whatever."
"Oh, is that what you think?" I asked. "What about September?"
Kiss Me in Carolina (Hunt Family Book 2) Page 7