by Alison Ryan
But a funny thing happened. As she ran she could feel someone running up beside her. In her peripheral vision a tall figure keeping her pace and then suddenly actually going past her.
This was not normal. No one could outrun Logan Lowery.
She sped up, intent on being the pack leader. It was just in her nature. Logan didn’t follow anyone.
But he (the person was definitely a he) met her pace again and ran so far in front of her that she gasped, suddenly slowing down.
She could seem him well now. He was tan, tall, and… hot. Really hot. But also annoying because… well, she didn’t like someone outrunning her. On or off the field.
“Hey, sorry,” he spoke. His voice was deep with just the hint of an accent to it. “I see you running all the time and I’m always impressed you keep up that pace. It’s most people’s sprint.”
She rolled her eyes, but she had to admit she liked the compliment. “Yeah? Well, that wasn’t even me going with all four cylinders.”
“Oh yeah?” the hot guy said, a very sexy smirk going across his lips. “You can go faster?”
For some reason him asking that question made it sound like some sort of sexual innuendo. Her face flushed.
“Can you?” she quipped back. She was looking right at him now. He was shirtless, his broad shoulders and pectorals glistening with sweat on his golden skin. He had longish dark hair that fell in his face. And his face… Well. Handsome wasn’t even the word.
He was beautiful.
“Maybe,” he replied. “If I’m motivated enough.”
They were both still slightly panting, something else that seemed really sexual at the moment. Logan was blown away by the tension with this… stranger.
“What’s your name?” Logan boldly asked, never the shy one.
“Solomon,” he said.
She waited for him to ask for hers, but he didn’t.
“I’m Logan,” she offered.
“I know,” he smiled at her again. “Logan Lowery. X’s star soccer powerhouse.”
Logan blushed. Her heart was racing. So he knew who she was.
“I don’t know about that,” Logan modestly replied. “I’m just a rookie for the most part.”
“You don’t play like one,” he said.
“You’ve seen me play?” Logan said, surprised. “Do you play?”
Solomon laughed, shaking his head. “No, definitely not. I tried when I was younger. Wasn’t for me.”
Logan stared at him. He had to be an athlete of some kind. It was imprinted all over his perfect body.
“What sport then?” she asked. “Track?”
Solomon shook his head. “Nope.”
She raised an eyebrow waiting for him to tell her but he just smirked at her, something that drove her crazy. But something that also turned her on.
“Baseball?”
“Nah.”
“Tennis?”
“Never.”
“Basketball?”
“Too short.”
But he wasn’t short. He towered above her and she was almost 5’10. She would have guessed he was close to 6’3.
“Well, tell me, Solomon,” she said his name for the first time. “Who are you?”
“I’m a judoka,” he replied, suddenly more solemn.
“Judo?” Logan said. “I didn’t know X had judo.”
Solomon looked down at his feet. “They have a judo club. My uncle sponsors it. But I compete nationally and internationally…” He seemed like he didn’t want to talk about it. Logan wondered why.
“That’s amazing,” she said, genuinely. “Where do you train?”
He looked up at her, the light back in his eyes again, a smile on his face. “At Sensei Shinji’s dojo. Its right off campus.”
They started walking as he spoke. Their bodies were close enough that their arms kept brushing against one another, making Logan almost jump at every touch.
She’d never in her life felt like this around any man.
“I’ve never met a judo champion,” she said.
“I’m not a champion yet,” he said. “But one day. I’m trying to qualify for the Rio Olympics.”
Logan’s eyes lit up. “Really? That’s my dream too… I’m going to tryouts in San Diego later this year actually. I probably won’t make it this time, but my dad thinks it would be a good experience.” Even just mentioning her father made her stomach drop for a moment.
“I’ve seen you play,” Solomon said. “You have a very good chance, I’d say. It’s definitely worth going for it.”
“Maybe,” she said, staring at him for a long moment. “Do you think you’ll make it?”
Solomon smiled. “Hard to say. I’m hopeful. I’m actually trying to make the Fiji Olympic team. Fiji has never won an Olympic medal. I’d like to be the first.”
He’d never shared that with anyone other than his Uncle Gavin. And here he was, sharing it with a girl he just met.
A beautiful girl. Not just physically… Though Logan was a perfect specimen of a woman.
“You’re Fijian?” she asked. “Are your parents from there?”
Duh, she thought to herself. You sound like an idiot.
Solomon’s smile fell. “My mother was.”
Logan wasn’t sure what to say. She sensed she’d walked into a topic that he was uncomfortable with. So she slowly backed away from it.
“Well, that’s really cool,” she said. “With any luck, we’ll both be at the Olympics at the same time. It could happen.”
He smiled again, this time showing perfect teeth.
Logan had never understood when her friends would say a man made them weak in the knees.
But now she got it. She was almost buckling. And her inner thighs were shaking, just standing near him.
“It will happen,” he said, confidently, looking at her so intensely that she almost forgot to breathe.
“I like that,” she replied almost in a whisper. “It will happen.”
They walked around campus for almost an hour, not talking about anything too serious, just some flirtatious banter back and forth.
Logan didn’t know what to make of it. Most men, especially college men, frustrated her completely. They wanted to talk about parties, or drinking, or hot chicks, or the latest stupid movie starring The Rock, or any other number of inane topics that Logan could care less about.
But Solomon was so different.
There was an intensity about him, something that told her he was a deep well of a man, the kind she wanted to get to the bottom of. He was mysterious but seemingly open with her. She loved how he spoke, how he walked. He had a wide and confident gait and she wondered what it was like to see him on the mat with an opponent, using his strength to takeover the advantage.
She also wondered what it would be like to have his hands on her own body. She imagined being underneath him as he entered her, how it would feel, how he would taste on her mouth…
“Logan?”
Shit. He’d asked her a question but she’d been lost in thought. She was mortified.
“Yes, sorry?” she said, shaking out of her trance, her cheeks red.
“I was saying I should probably head back to my apartment… But was wondering if I could see you again sometime?”
She could tell he was nervous, though she didn’t know why. There was nothing she would have loved more than to see him again.
“Of course,” she said, pulling out her iPhone. “That would be great.”
He smiled again as they exchanged numbers, something else that was foreign to Logan.
She didn’t give her phone number out to anyone. Who had time for men at this stage in her life anyway?
But Solomon was different.
The kind of different she felt might possibly shift the tides in what was a very tough storm in her life at that moment.
“Good to meet you, Logan Lowery,” Solomon said as he turned to walk away.
“Same, Solomon. Have a good night.”
What just happened? she asked herself.
For a brief moment, her father’s diagnosis sat in the back of her mind.
Solomon. She’d say his name in her head over and over again all that night.
Chapter Fourteen
Logan
From that night on, a little more color crept back into Logan’s life. It was unexpected, the kind of thing that she might have read about in romance novels, had she chosen to read such things.
Solomon would meet her almost every evening when neither of them had prior commitments. They’d run for a while, racing each other, Logan always winning. And not because he let her. Logan was not just fast, but also tireless. They’d collapse in the grass next to one another, Solomon panting while Logan barely seemed winded.
She loved watching him move. He was all long and lean muscle, but he had bulk to him too. Logan tended to feel like a giraffe among people sometimes, she was so tall and muscular but Solomon made her feel diminutive and soft.
Like a woman.
She couldn’t stop thinking about him. Often she’d feel guilty, knowing she should be thinking about soccer or her father or school.
But it was impossible to think of anyone but him. She rolled her eyes when friends of her fell for a guy so quickly. How could it be plausible to have a connection with someone you barely knew?
But now that she knew Solomon Kano, she understood how it could be possible.
Logan tried to visit her parents at least one weekend a month, if not more. They only lived about 45 minutes away from campus, so it was nice to be able to slip in and spend time with them if she needed to.
Her father’s illness had rapidly progressed, something that worried her and her mother both. But they constantly tried to keep a happy demeanor around him. Dr. Heflin said the attitude of the patient was as important as any kind of treatment.
And fortunately, Chuck Lowery had a great one.
But Logan could see him gradually whittling away, something that alarmed her as he hadn’t even been diagnosed that long ago.
She’d pulled her mother aside that next weekend after throwing some laundry in the wash. The sound of it buzzing covered up their conversation. Her father was just in the other room and she didn’t want him to hear it.
“Mom,” Logan said. “He looks terrible. Is this medication not working?”
Tracy Lowery wasn’t looking so hot herself. The stress of her beloved husband’s prognosis was taking its toll. She was gaunt, very thin, and with dark circles under her eyes.
“We don’t understand it,” her mother replied. “Dr. Heflin is saying he’s already becoming resistant to it. As if he had already somehow built a resistance up before even taking it.” Her mother ran her hands through her hair. “It’s pure hell watching him get sicker and sicker, Logan. I feel like I am letting him down. But I try not to lose it in front of him or let him know how scared I am. Because despite it all, he’s positive he’s going to beat this.”
Logan wrapped her arms around her mother, allowing her to cry on her shoulder for once.
“Should I come home?” Logan asked. “Move back here? I could take a semester off. You know what, I am not even asking. I am doing it.”
Tracy shook her head. “No. That would kill him. He loves knowing you’re living your life and your dream. Having you home would break his heart. He’d feel like he’d let you down. His heart couldn’t take it, sweetie.”
Logan shook her head in frustration. “I can’t just do nothing. I can’t just go to class, play soccer, see Solomon, and pretend my favorite person in the world isn’t dying. It’s killing me.”
Her mother’s expression changed for a moment.
“See Solomon? Who is Solomon?” Her mother had forgotten her grief for a moment. “Logan Lowery, you have never mentioned a Solomon. Or any boy or man before. So… spill.”
Logan shook her head. “It’s nothing. Not important. He’s just a friend.”
“He is so not just a friend,” her mother smiled. “Tell me about him.”
Logan paused. What did she even know about Solomon Kano? Their runs and their talks tended to be centered around her. Solomon knew her father was sick. He knew her entire story from birth to now. He’d asked her a million questions about herself but had actually revealed very little about himself in return.
She hadn’t realized that until just this moment.
“Solomon. Well… he’s from Fiji. But he lives here in Cincinnati with his uncle. I think his parents might be dead, but I haven’t asked and he doesn’t talk about them. It’s just something I kind of assume. He’s a judoka who is training for the Rio Olympics. He likes Scorcese movies and chocolate and peanut butter ice cream from Graeters. We eat some at least once a week after our runs.” She paused. Was that seriously all she knew about him?
“So is he your boyfriend?” her mother asked.
Logan sighed. “No. Neither of us have time for something like that. He’s just… a friend. Who makes me happy. He’s helped take my mind off things. Which makes me feel guilty.” She looked at her mother expecting a disapproving look.
But instead her mother was smiling. For the first time in a long time.
“You should invite him over for dinner,” she replied. “I’d like to meet him. I know your dad would too.”
Logan squirmed. “Ugh, Mom. I don’t know… I mean, I know I like him a lot, but I don’t know how he feels about me. I think meeting the parents might be kind of a little much?”
Tracy Lowery looked at her daughter, sad again.
“But, Logan,” she said. “We don’t know how much time we have with Daddy. I think it would be nice for him to have the experience… Of making a guy who likes you nervous in his presence.”
Logan laughed. “Oh Lord. I can’t even imagine what Dad would be like to a guy I brought home.” Logan stared out into the living room where her father was watching a Seinfeld rerun. “Mom? What if he doesn’t like me?”
“Impossible,” her mother said, leaning over to kiss her head. “You’re beautiful. Smart. Talented. You’re a Lowery.”
And with that, any point Logan might have had was made moot.
“So,” Logan said the next week after one of their longer runs and walks. “I have what is probably a very weird question.”
Solomon was spread out on the grass, his chest still rising and falling after their latest sprint. He rolled over on his side and propped his head up with his arm.
“I’ll try not to give a very weird answer,” he said, a smile on his face.
“Well,” Logan had never been so nervous. And she wasn’t someone who got nervous. “I was wondering… If you’d like to meet my parents. Have dinner with them I mean.”
Solomon looked at her, surprise marking his handsome face.
“Well, that wasn’t the question I expected,” he replied.
Logan looked down at her legs, embarrassed. He didn’t feel how she felt. This was all so stupid.
“I was talking to my mom about you and she wanted me to ask you over… But I know, it’s weird. I mean. We’re just friends,” she said. She looked up at him and was pleasantly surprised to see him grinning at her.
“Are we?” he asked. “Just friends?”
Before she could say anything else, he wrapped one of his large, muscled forearms around her waist and pulled her toward him. Their bodies were completely touching now, their sweat intermingling.
“No,” she admitted. “We’re something else. But I don’t know what.”
Without any hesitation, he attempted to give her a definition of what they were.
He kissed her powerfully, pouring his passion into her trembling body.
The kiss, unlike any Logan had ever received, left her weak at the knees and clamoring for more of Solomon. Over her initial surprise, she emptied her own voracious need into him, a hand on t
he back of his head and the other on his granite chest.
When they each withdrew, both Solomon and Logan found themselves out of breath and aching for the other. They kissed again, smaller and quicker, but neither really wanted to stop. Logan put both hands on Solomon’s chest to establish a boundary of sorts.
“Well, if that doesn’t make it clear that we’re not just friends, I don’t know what else will,” she said, but even then she didn’t believe her own words, the size of Solomon’s swelling bulge so near to her giving her plenty of ideas of other things they could do to prove their less than platonic desire for the other.
“I’ve wanted to do that since I first saw you,” he whispered in her ear, making goosebumps come up on her skin. “And yes. I’d love to meet your parents.”
She grinned, relieved to know they might just be on the same page.
Maybe Solomon was as crazy about Logan as she was about him.
Logan and Solomon drove together to her parents’ house which was right outside of Dayton. Logan wasn’t one to get nervous but she couldn’t deny it; she was terrifically anxious for Solomon to meet her father.
Solomon held her hand as he drove, amused at her clear fidgeting.
“Why are you so nervous?” he asked, squeezing her hand. “Are they not going to like me?”
Logan shook her head. “They’ll adore you. Who wouldn’t? I… I’ve just never brought a guy home before.”
Solomon looked at her, seemingly shocked at this news. “Come on. You must’ve had a million guys clamoring to get to you. I can’t be the first.”
Logan smiled. “I guess none of them quite hit the mark. Until the great Solomon Kano ran into me.”
At a stoplight before their neighborhood, Solomon kissed her for so long that the car behind them had to honk to remind them that the light was green, and it meant go.
“Solomon!”
Tracy Lowery’s hug was inescapable. She’d opened the double wood paneled front door for the couple and immediately embraced the tall, bulky, and confused Solomon.
