One Little Kiss (Christian Romance)

by Kaylee Baldwin

  "It wasn't a big deal," he said.

  "It was to us. And you took Soot, which was going above and beyond home teaching duties."

  "I like Soot."

  "No one likes Soot." Tessa looked over his shoulder then glanced back at him. "He's grumpy and scratches up all our furniture."

  Soot had scratched up the back of Logan's leather chair, which had nearly made Logan kill the cat. But it endeared Soot to Henry all the more. "He's not so bad. Have you found any bug corpses?"

  Her eyes widened. "I didn't even think about that! Did you clean up for us too?"

  His cheeks turned warm. He'd spent a couple of hours vacuuming the morning before the girls moved back in and thought they knew. "Spiders don't bother me."

  "Man. We won the ministering lottery." Her eyes drifted over his shoulder again, and he glanced back to see what she kept looking at. Logan. Like everyone else.

  He slipped the glasses back on, turning the world smudgy once again. Bishop Riggs popped his head out of the door. "Henry, you ready?"

  "See you later," Tessa said, already walking toward Logan with a determined expression. He allowed himself to admire her walk before facing the Bishop’s knowing grin.

  Henry came into the office and took a chair in front of the desk. Bishop Riggs slid into his seat across from Henry. "How do you like the singles ward?"

  Henry thought back over the last three Sundays. The flirting, the social activities, the way everyone looked their best at all times, and the quietness of sacrament meeting. He didn't mind that part, actually. It was nice to hear the speaker without a hum of children's voices in the background. The rest of it was like studying the mating patterns of insects—humorous but predictable. How to answer the Bishop’s question?

  He finally settled on, “It’s interesting.”

  That earned a snort from Bishop. "True. Have you met anyone yet?"

  "In three weeks?"

  "We've had people meet and get engaged in less time than that."

  Henry laughed even though part of him wondered if the bishop was joking. "Most girls can't get over the fact I study insects." There'd been a girl his first Sunday there who had shown interest in him, despite the glasses and hair and wrinkled shirt, but he'd shut her down by talking about all the different species of venomous insects. She’d raced off as soon as she could, and no one else had bothered him since.

  Bishop's fingers steepled in front of him, and he studied Henry. "Someone will." He let the words hang in the room before he pulled his chair under the desk and grabbed his tablet. "But I didn't bring you in here to talk about your dating life."

  Good. Henry's dating life was the last thing he wanted to talk about.

  "The reason I brought you in here was to extend a calling. How would you feel about being the road show assistant director?"

  Henry's fingers tightened on the arm of his chair and he wondered if they could talk about those three-week engagements again. "The what?"

  "We're putting on a road show in November, and it has been brought to my attention that it's too much for one person to take on alone. You were suggested to me as someone who might be interested in filling this position."

  "By whom?"

  "Your roommate, Logan. He said you've done stage work before and would be a good fit for this. He was really enthusiastic about you."

  Henry nearly choked. Now Logan’s smirk after Henry received Bishop’s call made sense. This had to be revenge for taking in the cat and eating the termite. "I've been a guest on my sister's cooking segment a few times, but that's not acting. I stand in front of a camera for a few minutes and talk about how good her food is."

  Bishop folded his arms. "Look, Henry. I'll be honest with you. I don't need talent. I just need a willing person. This would be a good opportunity for you to meet new people, and it would really help out Tessa."

  "Tessa Alexander?"

  "Yes. She's the director.”

  He blinked away the image of her grateful smile. “What exactly would I be doing?"

  "You’d assist Tessa wherever she needs you. I don't know much about putting on a road show myself, but I have complete confidence in both of you."

  Henry had once promised himself he would accept any calling given to him—a promise that he was coming to regret.

  Road show assistant. He hadn’t even known that calling existed. He didn't mind getting up in front of a camera, but people might be a different story. As an assistant, he'd probably be behind the scenes, doing prep work. He excelled at prep work.

  But Tessa.

  The too-beautiful, put-together, pre-med student who was another name on the long list of women attracted to his roommate.

  What did it matter who she was attracted to? Henry was on a permanent hiatus from relationships, and being behind the scenes of a road show wouldn’t do anything to increase his desirability factor. Anticipation, something he hadn't felt in at least two years, flickered to life inside of him.

  "Why don't I give you some time to think it over?" Bishop asked, standing.

  Henry followed suit, but when Bishop shook his hand, Henry said, "I'll do it."

  "Great. Thank you for your willingness to serve." Bishop opened his office door, pausing when he saw Tessa in the foyer. “Sister Alexander!” he called, and motioned for her to join them. Tessa said something to Logan before walking toward them with her smooth movements—gorgeous and flawless and everything he promised himself he would avoid.

  Chapter 5

  Tessa walked toward Henry and the bishop, curious about the expectant expressions they held. Someone had interrupted her conversation with Logan anyway, to have him look at a bite on her arm, which opened the floodgates for more girls to join. Tessa’s stomach churned at the description of all the ailments.

  At least she’d had a few moments to thank Logan for taking Soot. If she had it her way, she and Logan would have the chance to work together a lot over the next few months.

  She shook hands with Bishop Riggs, and for good measure, shook hands with Henry again, who gave her a crooked smile.

  "Have you had the chance to meet Henry White?" Bishop asked.

  "He's my ministering brother.”

  "Oh good! He's agreed to be your assistant for the road show. We'll need to sustain him next Sunday and set him apart, but I thought you’d want to start planning things."

  Tessa blinked, wondering if she'd heard right. No. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Logan was supposed to be her partner, not Henry. Had Bishop gotten his wires crossed? She could only imagine what Jenkins might say if he found out she was working with the socially awkward, almost-doctor of bugs. Plus everyone in the ward would see them together all the time.

  "I'm not quite sure what I'm doing, but I'm willing to help wherever you need me," Henry said, after Tessa went too long without responding.

  Shame filled her just as swiftly as her disappointment had. Henry was a nice guy. Genuine. He had helped her when everyone else had run away. Even then, he was taking her obvious chagrin with grace.

  Tessa rubbed the cow charm on her bracelet, something she did whenever she needed the reminder that looks—and what people thought of you—weren't everything. They weren't much of anything really. If only she could remember that when it came to herself.

  "Maybe we can plan a time to meet later this week and start brainstorming some ideas,” Tessa said.

  Bishop motioned over his next appointment. "Let me know if you need more support from the ward and we'll see what we can do. I'm sure you're going to come up with something great."

  Tessa pulled up the calendar on her phone. She had three upcoming tests, one research paper coming due, plus Sunday dinner with her family. Why had she agreed to run this road show? Couldn't she have gotten an easy calling like a greeter?

  "Is there any way you can meet on campus?” Tessa asked. “I have time between classes on Wednesday and Thursday." She glanced up to find Henry looking over her shoulder at her schedule.

 
; He pointed at Wednesday. "I've got about an hour break between classes at five."

  "Let’s meet near the library.”

  "Perfect." After a pause while she entered it into her phone, he asked, "Is there any way you could text me a reminder the morning of?"

  "Sure. Or I can set your phone up to email you a reminder."

  His cheeks looked a little pinker than before. His glasses slid down his nose, and instead of taking them off like before, he pushed them back up. It was too bad, really. The smudgy, outdated glasses didn't do his eyes justice. "I misplaced my phone. Again."

  Tessa laughed at his pained expression. "Again?"

  He shrugged, but a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. "I get really focused at school or work and sometimes set my glasses or phone down and can't remember where I put them."

  Tessa felt her mouth drop open. "That has to cost a fortune."

  "That's why I buy the cheapest phone available." He pulled the sacrament meeting program out of his scripture case, the lack of smart phone explaining why he had a scripture case in the first place, and jotted down his number. "I'm going to get a new one tomorrow, so unless I lose it in the next three days, I should get your text."

  Tessa entered the number into her phone before she could forget and saved it under Henry's name. "I don't know about you, but I'm churched out. Should we gather our roommates?”

  They walked together to the foyer where Layla and Logan stood with a girl who had her head tilted to the side at an unnatural angle. Logan stared at something on her neck, his eyes narrowed in concentration.

  “It pinched when it bit,” the girl said. “You don’t think it was a black widow, do you?”

  Tessa shared an eye roll with Layla. The amount injuries, bites, and ailments had increased in the ward over the last couple of Sundays.

  “No, it looks like it’s a mosquito bite. You should be fine.” He ran his fingers over the bite, and Tessa wished she’d been the one to get bit by something. Now it would only look derivative.

  Logan stepped away from the girl and glanced at Henry with a self-satisfied smile. "Good meeting?"

  "It was great," Henry said, clearly being sarcastic. "Thank you, by the way."

  "That's what roommates are for."

  The vibe between them was loaded; there was definitely something going on. Tessa decided to ignore their male weirdness and spoke quietly to Layla. "Henry is my partner for the road show."

  "Henry?" Layla cleared her throat, maybe realizing how incredulous she'd sounded. Henry glanced up at his name. What the heck happened? Layla mouthed to Tessa.

  Tessa shrugged.

  Layla squeezed Henry’s arm. “Tessa’s fantastic to work with. You guys are going to be great.”

  "Wait." Logan stopped inspecting a cut on the arm of another girl, and finally gave Tessa his full attention. "You're in charge of the roadshow?"

  It had been announced at least three times that Tessa was over the road show and more information about the play would be forthcoming. But, in all fairness to him, the road show was probably low on his list of things to remember.

  "Did you know that?" he asked Henry.

  "I do now," Henry said with a wide grin. "We're going to meet this week."

  Layla linked her arms with both Henry and Logan. Tessa could never link her arms with a hot guy she'd only met a few times, much less with two. Well, one hot guy and one Henry whose standoffish presence made him more intimidating than Logan. His folded arms and wary expression screamed to leave him alone, yet as usual, Layla ignored all those physical cues and did what she wanted. Tessa had always admired her boldness.

  And Henry was actually kind of okay-looking underneath the glasses and floppy hair, if one could get past the fact that he ate bugs, and if he kissed you there could be some bug-gut passing back and forth.

  "I have an idea," Layla said. "Let's go to the Gaslight theater this weekend and get inspiration for the road show."

  "What's the Gaslight?" Logan asked.

  Henry extracted his arm from Layla's and took a step back. "It’s a local musical theater company that performs parodies of movies. It's not too far from here."

  Tessa loved the Gaslight Theater, but hadn't been there in at least a year. School got so overwhelming that even taking a few hours to do something recreational was out of the question. "Sounds fun! Are you in?"

  Logan's gaze wandered around the room like he was done with the conversation. He brought his hand down on Tessa's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Theater's not really my thing. Maybe another time, okay?

  Which she knew meant: no time, ever. She needed to face the fact that Logan wasn't interested in her. She had never been one to do the chasing, and this was another reminder of why. She had tried, and instead of getting close to the guy of her dreams, she’d be busy for the next few months with his roommate.

  “We should probably get home,” Tessa said. The Elders Quorum president had pulled Logan away for a moment, and he waved goodbye.

  Henry followed them out to the parking lot. “Where’s Addison?”

  "Probably at home." Layla slowed her steps, and Tessa followed suit, until they were even with Henry. "Why?"

  "I didn't see her here today and wanted to make sure she was okay."

  "She’s not a member,” Layla said.

  "But she sat in on our home teaching lesson."

  "And she goes to Relief Society activities and family home evenings," Tessa said. "She loves our church, but in the kind of way I love puppies. I think they're cute and I like to hold them once in a while, but I'd never want to deal with owning one full-time."

  "So she doesn't want to join the church because it would be too much work?" Henry had walked them to Tessa's car.

  "No. I'm not explaining this well." Tessa met Addison in a biology class common to nurse and pre-med majors their sophomore years. They had clicked, and when Tessa and Layla needed another roommate, Addison had been the perfect fit. Tessa had been worried that eventually how active she and Layla were in the church would get annoying, with things like prayers over meals, constant church visitors, and how a lot of their conversations were either complaining about or being excited to do their callings. So far, Addison took everything in stride, and even seemed to like it. "I don't think she's ever prayed about it and she's not interested in missionary lessons, but she finds our religion and culture fascinating."

  "So do I." Henry opened the door for Tessa. “See you later this week.” She slipped into the car, and watched him walk away. Henry was different than most guys she knew. More strange. But also kind. Working with him might not be ideal, but maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as she’d thought. Layla's hand flailed in front of her face.

  "Wake up, Tessa!" Layla snapped her fingers for good measure before folding them into her lap. "You zoned out there for a minute."

  "Yeah. Sorry." Tessa turned on the car and got the air conditioner blowing on them right away. Even though it was already September, the temperature still climbed into the upper nineties some days, and they hadn't been to church early enough to get a shady spot. "So I think I'm going to cut my losses."

  "What are you taking about?" Layla flipped the visor down and checked her lipstick, fixing a smudge with her pinkie.

  "With Logan. He's not interested."

  "How could he not be? You're amazing!" Layla said in true, loyal friendship style.

  "Come on. You saw how he barely paid attention to us while we were talking. He was quick to get out of going to the Gaslight Theater and rushed off to talk to someone else."

  "Maybe it's Henry he's avoiding, not you."

  Tessa shook her head. "I'm out."

  Layla sighed. When they got to the apartment a few minutes later, Tessa's phone rang with a number she didn't know. She answered it.

  "Tessa? This is Logan."

  Tessa grabbed Layla’s hand to stop her from leaving the car. "Hi, Logan. What's going on?" She couldn’t believe how calm she’d sounded, especially when Layla c
lapped her hands with excitement.

  "Would you like to go out on Friday?"

  "To the Gaslight Theater?" Tessa wanted to kick herself the moment the words were out of her mouth.

  He chuckled and the warmth of it rolled through her like the warm caramel topping from the hotel sundae. "I was thinking something a little less musical. I'll pick you up at six."

  She had a lab on Fridays until five, and it would take her at least forty-five minutes to get back home, barring any traffic, but Logan Richardson had asked her on a date. She'd make it work. "See you then." She hung up the phone, and she and Layla squealed.

  Chapter 6

  Henry glanced down at his watch and picked up his pace. Tessa had sent him a text to remind him of their meeting, but he'd gotten involved with a project down at the lab. Before he knew it, he was already five minutes late to meet her and on the wrong side of campus.

  As usual for September, it was hot and humid from the rainstorm the night before. He wore a pair of wrinkled plaid shorts Ava had bought for him, a reasonably clean striped oxford, and leather flip flops that had been very good to him since he bought them on his mission in Hawaii. He'd had a video conference with a professor at the University of Maryland that morning, so he'd had to look nice from the waist up, but wanted to be comfortable.

  An unexpected perk of avoiding a relationship was that he could wear anything he wanted. His professors were used to him, and he didn't get so much as an eyebrow raise that morning from his advisor, though he did take his hand off microscope slide long enough to point to the bathroom where he kept an extra bottle of gel and a comb for when they had video conferences.

  Another look at his watch sent Henry running. He rounded the corner past a row of palm trees and spotted Tessa sitting at a bench along the walkway. From a distance, everything about her looked put together. Untouchable. Her head was bent over a textbook, her back rigid, and her hands gripped the edges. She turned the page, then wrote something in her notebook. As he drew closer, he saw the lines of stress between her eyebrows, and the telltale tightness of a clenched jaw. He sat beside her on the bench, but her eyes didn't stray from the page.