Dream Kiss (Sweet N' Sour Kisses

by Cindy M. Hogan

  “You should come, too,” I said, trying not to sound like the idea had just occurred to me. “His friends are really cool.”

  She shook her head. “That’s all right. I bet Connor would want to go to Arctic Circle. Maybe Katherine will come, too.”

  I smiled. “Yeah—and I’ll come with you guys next time.”

  Ali just shrugged. “We’ll see.”

  Ali was right. After the first day we met in person, Logan and I were pretty much inseparable. If given the choice, I spent every free moment with him. Spanish class was suddenly my very favorite. I couldn’t wait to get there every other day. He made me feel special somehow. I adored him more and more each day. I loved how he talked a lot about his family. That told me that they were important to him.

  He was cute and popular with a different set of people than I’d ever hung out with before. All my friends from my middle school cheerleading days, the jocks, cheerleaders, and officers, had all gone to Davis High. It was nice to be involved again. He had a ton of friends. He immersed me in the group without much effort. In fact, he didn’t give me any choice in the matter. There was always a plan, somewhere to go. I loved always having something to do. I’d even had to stop carpooling with Ali because I never knew if I would need to drive somewhere right after or before school. Ali refused to come with me to anything, and it was really getting on my nerves.

  She grabbed me in the hall on a Friday and said, “Today. You and me after school. City Creek. Shop til we drop.”

  I glanced away.

  “Oh, no you don’t. It’s been three weeks since we’ve done anything together. You owe me.”

  I groaned. “I’m sorry Ali, there’s a party at John’s house, one of Logan’s friends—”

  “Stop right there. If I hear Logan’s name one more time I’m going to scream. You are letting him get in the way of our friendship.” Her hands flew to her hips, and she tapped her foot.

  I sighed. “You know that’s not true.”

  “Excuse me? It is true. He’s not good for you.”

  “How dare you say that? You don’t even know him. Every time I invite you to come to something, you refuse. If you’d get to know him you’d like him. Seriously.”

  She waved in a dismissive gesture. “Don’t you put this on me. I’m not going to barge into a party or something where I wasn’t invited. Your sweet little dude needs to do the inviting. I haven’t seen him wave me over or anything. Does he even know we’re friends?”

  That threw me off. Had I ever told him about Ali? She read my face and knew the answer that I wasn’t about to speak.

  She growled and took off down the hall.

  Shame filled me as I hurried to class. I would make sure I told Logan about Ali today. Then I could tell her I had and everything would be okay between us again. But seriously, I was going to invite her to come to the party today if she would have given me the chance. What she didn’t understand was that me inviting her was the same as Logan inviting her. I was in the group now, an extension of them.

  The day before school ended, he made me the happiest girl ever and asked me out.

  Want to hang out with just me today? he texted.

  Sure. I’d love to. I texted without an ounce of hesitation. Which was odd, because I’d never have thought I’d date anyone not of my same faith. I mean, we had so much fun together all the time just hanging out with everyone. The fact of the matter was, you married who you dated. And while I’d always said I would not get married anywhere other than the temple with someone who believed the same things I believed, I reasoned that marriage was a long way off. I was only sixteen. I’d already dated and abandoned several guys. And hoped there would be many more. There was no reason to think I’d be marrying Logan. Dating would not lead to marriage in this instance. I had a lot of dating in front of me. And the ones I’d dated that attended my same church…well they spoke for themselves. We were all just trying to find our way. We all had a lot of dating to do.

  My phone rang. “There is one catch, though.” It was Logan. I could imagine him tilting his head to the side as he talked to me. “My dad has my car today. So, either my mom will have to take us, or…

  It was so cute how he let his voice just trail off. “No worries. I’ll drive.”

  “Awesome. I’ll text you my address. I feel a little weird having you come pick me up, but I don’t want to wait any longer. We need some time together, alone. How does seven sound?”

  “Great. I’ll see you then.” I hung up. A raging tornado whipped up in my stomach, and I leaned over and squealed trying to release it. “I’m going out on a date with the most incredible guy.” I whispered the words, almost afraid that if I spoke them at normal level they would somehow cease to be true.

  After dinner I told my mom I was hanging out with friends tonight.

  “And what friends might those be? Ali and Connor?”

  “No. They’re doing something else tonight.” I squirmed inwardly a little bit. The truth was I had no idea what Ali was up to tonight. I hadn’t seen her since she’d refused to come to the party with me. I thought she might be avoiding me, but truthfully I hadn’t really noticed her absence. “I’m hanging out with Logan and those guys.”

  “Could you write down Logan’s number and address so that I can find you if I need you?” Her asking for that information was a not-so-subtle reminder about Cal and how much she wanted to hear I was going out with him.

  “Mom!” I yelled from the stairs. “I have my cell. Call me if you need me.” I rushed out the door. She was driving me crazy lately. Before Logan, I’d tell her where I was going to be and she was fine with it. Now she wanted everyone’s social security cards if they were going to hang out with me. I fumed until I hit the street Logan had said he lived on. Then excitement took over. I was really going on a date with Logan.

  I stared at the house numbers. 523. I needed 567. I was close. I drove slowly, checking out the neighborhood. He lived near my grandparents, but I’d never been in this particular part of their neighborhood. The homes were modest and well kept. 561. The next house should be his. I pulled forward and saw the house number at the same time I saw him. He was waiting outside for me. I gripped the steering wheel hard, trying to hold it together. He walked down his steps and driveway toward me, and I waved. He smiled.

  He opened the door and climbed in. “Hey,” he said, touching my arm. His eyes looked happy. He wore the same clothes he’d had on at school, trendy jeans with a wide, brown leather belt and a t-shirt that hung just right, accentuating his toned chest and arms.

  “Hey.” I smiled and said, “Where to?”

  “Only the funnest place in the world. The place where all kids find true happiness…”

  He let that hang there. I raised my eyebrows, having no idea what he was talking about.

  “Toys R Us, my girl. Toys R Us.” He smiled, and I cocked my head to the side. He continued. “It’s the one place that houses every exciting toy available to man, and we must investigate them. It is our mission tonight, to try them all out. Test them. We are on toy patrol. Finding the most fun, most entertaining, and most innovative toys available today.”

  When he saw me still staring, skepticism in my very being, he said, “Onward. Drive forth. We only have a short two hours to complete our mission. Off, my dear lady, to Toys R Us.”

  I couldn’t help it, I laughed and started to drive.

  “I might add that you look marvelous darling, simply marvelous.”

  He helped me channel my inner little kid as we shot basketballs through the two-foot-high hoops, scooted around on the skateboards on our butts, and tried out the various models of bikes.

  We spent time in each section of the store, and he never failed to clean up any mess we might have made. This little gesture made me like him even more. We bounced balls all around the store until an employee asked us to stop. Logan tried to assure the person that we had only honorable intentions, for we had to discover which ball was in fact the
best ball in the store. The employee was not amused.

  It shocked me when he stopped on the Barbie aisle and spent time playing Barbies with me in the Barbie houses and motorhomes. He was an awesome Ken.

  “I’m not sure how you feel about video games. I can take them in small doses, but more than that and my mind goes on melt-down.”

  Could he get any better than that? A guy who didn’t get all caught up in video games. I had to force myself not to swoon as we made our way to the couches and the game consoles. He showed me how to play several games, and then we moved on to the board and card game section of the store. We went through each game, rating them if we’d played them.

  The announcement that the store would be closing in five minutes played. He frowned at me. “How about we hide out under the beanbags and play all night?”

  I laughed, choosing not to mention the fact that I was pretty sure they had motion detectors inside the store. We made our way over to the beanbags. An employee quickly caught us, and we ran out of the store, laughing. We were breathing hard once in the car. I turned the key and music played. He put his hand on mine and stopped me from turning the engine on.

  “I’m not ready for tonight to end. How about we hang out here for awhile.”

  I looked around. It was just past twilight, and darkness surrounded us. Only a few street lamps shone down in various places around the huge parking lot. We were one of only three or four cars left in the lot, and I figured they belonged to the employees who were about to leave.

  His hand fell to my leg, and I let go of the keys, the music playing softly in the background. “You know, I was thinking of Barbie and Ken and their perfect life.” He paused and looked away from me out the front window into the dark night. “I want a perfect life like that. Wouldn’t it be cool?”

  I chuckled. “You obviously haven’t watched many shows staring Barbie and Ken. Their lives are anything but perfect. And who wants an airhead for a wife?”

  He chuckled at that. “You caught me. Do you think there is a happily ever after?”

  I leaned back in my seat. “Definitely.”

  He turned to me. “I do too. I think my mom found it with my dad. I mean she was married before, and that didn’t work out so well. The only good thing that came out of it was my brother.”

  “I didn’t realize you had a stepdad.”

  “Oh, he’s my real dad. That’s why my brother looks so different than I do. His dad was Asian. Not a nice guy. Hasn’t come around in probably ten years. Jerk.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to that. My parents were great. I mean sure they were getting on my nerves lately, but still.

  “Man,” he said, rubbing his hands down his thighs. “I didn’t mean to bring things down like that. I just want to find my happily ever after on my first try.” He smiled at me and even in the dim light, I could see sparks in his eyes.

  Was he talking about me? Did he want me to be his happily ever after? We were so young, but I couldn’t stop myself from saying, “Me, too.”

  He leaned back and started singing to the song that came on the radio. He closed his eyes and used his hand to tap out the beat on his thigh.

  I looked forward and joined him, singing ultra quiet because this was not something I did with guys I liked. He took my hand in his and after five or six songs, the windows had totally fogged over. I immediately started drawing on the window and what did I draw? A heart. When I realized it, I moved on to a star and words. When I turned to him, he had also drawn on his window. To my surprise, it was a heart with an arrow through it and an L and an B written on both sides of the arrow.

  Sideways by Dierks Bentley came on the radio, and he said, “This could be our song.”

  I’d never shared a song with a guy. I liked the sound of that a lot. My breathing sped up.

  He moved closer and wrapped his fingers in my hair, twining it around and through his fingers. Nervous, excited tremors shook through me in waves. My breaths were shallow. His fingertips trailed down my neck as he murmured the words of the song, his eyes fixed on mine. The back of his fingers slid around to my jawbone and the then his fingers traced my lips. They parted.

  His mouth sang the last words of the song as he moved in close, his warm breath caressing my skin. Closer. Warmer. His lips found mine. They worked softly, coaxing me to enjoy every moment. This was it. My dream kiss. Cue sunset. I gave in to my feelings. I didn’t hold back.

  The kiss was beautiful. So unlike what I’d experienced so far. His hands rubbed gently up and down my back with the occasional desperate pressure pulling me to him. When he deepened the kiss, heat filled me. His tongue tasted like peppermint gum and for a split second, I thought of Luke and the kiss he’d forced on me. The comparison between the two kisses seemed non-existent. There was nothing disgusting or forced about this natural kiss with Logan. It was soft, gentle, everything I’d hoped for. Our souls collided, and I couldn’t imagine them ever coming apart.

  It seemed fitting that the next day was the last day of school. Life was changing—and, man, was it was getting better. All I could think of, through the entire day of good-byes and have-a-great-summers, was being with Logan and kissing him again. As soon as the final bell rang, I dashed out and found him in the parking lot. He swooped me into a hug, then whisked me off to his car.

  We drove to a park that had hoops, and we played horse. The weather was perfect for the first week of June. I loved watching him play basketball. He made shooting look effortless. He never missed. He wasn’t cocky or loud about his abilities. He seemed genuinely pleased and sometimes shocked when he made his shots.

  I wondered how I had missed noticing who he was while Ali and I attended all the games since he was the star point guard. I guessed my attention wasn’t on the game, but on the guys around us. We had needed dates after all, and we weren’t looking to catch the attention of the guys on the court. I wished I had some talent that I could feel so comfortable with.

  After he won, he got all serious with me, taking my hand in his and bringing me over to sit on a bench under a huge crabapple tree. “You know, Brooke, I just love spending time with you.” His thumb rubbed over the top of my hand, sending a shiver up my spine.

  My insides swished together like a gathering storm. “I love spending time with you, too. I think you are amazing.”

  He narrowed his eyes slightly and kissed my nose. “I really like you.”

  I grinned, gave him a quick kiss and said, “I really like you.” If he only knew the weight of those words. If he only knew how hard I’d fallen for him.

  From that moment on, we never had to wonder if we were together. We just were. I was murderously in love with him. He was all I thought about. All the time. I just wanted to spend every minute with him, so I immersed myself in his world. I was addicted to the way he made me feel. I let him swallow me up.

  Chapter 4

  It had been a week since our first date, and my nerves were on fire. I was about to meet Logan’s parents. I wanted them to like me, but since it was only our third date, my nervousness had been ratcheted up. His mom and dad turned to us as we entered the large kitchen. She had a kind, smallish face with no features that drew my attention. She tucked a thin strand of light brown hair behind her ear before moving toward us with a smile on her face.

  “Mom and Dad, this is Brooklyn.”

  “We finally meet,” she said, opening her arms for a hug. I felt a furious blush spread on my cheeks as I complied. She pushed back from me, her hands gripping my upper arms as she continued. “You know our Logan has been talking about you for at least a good month.”

  I looked at him and bit my lip.

  His dad followed, his hand extended toward me. I took it. He was still wearing his airport police uniform and gave me a warm smile. He reminded me so much of my own dad dressed like that. “And he’s right. You are pretty.” That blush turned to a raging fire over my whole face. I looked at my feet and rocked side to side.

  “You’re
a cop?” I lifted my chin slightly.

  “Yep. Out at the airport.”

  “Cool. My dad’s an officer for South Salt Lake.”

  “Bet he sees a lot.”

  “Sure does. It’s never boring.” I realized I was still swaying side to side and forced myself to stop.

  “I’m gonna go shower and change,” he said. “And my vote is for pizza.” He left the room, and his wife laughed.

  “You two up for pizza? I was making my case for Chinese before you two came in.”

  Logan looked at me. I shrugged.

  “No shrugging allowed.”

  “Pizza’s great,” I finally said.

  “My vote’s for pizza, too. We can have Chinese next week.” Logan grabbed my hand.

  “Alright,” his mom said before picking up the phone to place the order. “Camden and Shelly will be here soon.”

  He took me on a tour of his house, pausing every few feet to kiss me. The house was nice, uncluttered and simple. I felt at ease, like I could be myself.

  His sister Shelly came storming down the stairs when the movie was half over and the pizza was cold. She grabbed a few slices and sat on a beanbag after saying hi to everyone. Camden came in shortly after her. He was a dead ringer for Taylor Lautner. I felt my jaw hit the floor. “Don’t tell me, little bro. This is Brooklyn.”

  “Yep and you better be nice.” Logan gave him a warning look.

  He put out his hand, so I extended mine. When I did, he grabbed me under the arms and threw me over his shoulder and spun me around.

  I laughed out, taken by complete surprise. I’d heard about him. He went to Davis High and people always joked that Jacob Black went to school there. It was no shocker that Camden was an actor and a model. “Don’t worry little bro. I’ll watch my language—I know a Mormon’s in the house.

  “Shut up!” Logan said. “Ignore him.”