Kiss Me in Carolina (Hunt Family Book 2)

by Brooke St. James

  "That's assuming I'd try to sleep with you on the first date."

  "Or the second, or third, or fifth." I smiled at him and pushed at his leg again. "Let's talk about something else," I said. "I'm feeling all shy now."

  "Like what?"

  "How about sports?" I asked, absentmindedly kicking my feet as they hung from the bench.

  "Sports?" he asked. "What do you know about sports?"

  "I'm a baseball fan. I try to see at least a few Dodgers games every year. I like basketball, too."

  "Is that where you want me to take you?" he asked. "A Dodgers game? I can get us some box seats… or courtside for the Lakers."

  I laughed, "I'll bet you could."

  "So, it's a date."

  "It's not a date," I said, shaking my head at him playfully. "And the whole point of talking about sports was to not talk about dates, remember?"

  "I can't help it," he said, smiling innocently. "Our conversation just keeps going back to that."

  I narrowed my eyes at him, which made him laugh.

  We talked about baseball and basketball, which led to a conversation about music. Then we talked about a ton of random things we thought were funny. We laughed, and talked, and thank goodness, he never brought up exchanging numbers again. Several times, different groups would come up the hillside lookout, but no one ever came close enough to make us discontinue our conversation.

  We'd been sitting there for an hour or two when Logan leaned over to dig his phone out of his pocket. "Your friend's blowing up my phone," he said, looking down at it.

  I dug mine out of the small bag that was sitting on the bench next to me. "She's blowing up mine, too."

  "I can't believe they're on their way back already," he said, scrolling through the messages. "It seems like they just left."

  "They are?" I asked, looking at my phone. "I don't think I have a message saying that."

  "It was the one she just sent."

  "Crazy that we've been up here long enough for them to make it to L.A.," I said, stashing my phone back into my bag.

  "I hate it that she's coming back," he said.

  I laughed. "Is it bad to admit that I was just feeling the same way?"

  "I knew you were into me," he said.

  "I'm really not," I said. I did my best to sound convincing even though it was a blatant lie. The more I talked to him, the more I liked him. I needed to stop the situation before I got into trouble, but that was easier said than done.

  He stood right in front of me and I looked up at him from my position on the bench. We had each gotten up a time or two to stretch during our chat, but this time, it seemed like he was standing to walk back down the hill. I got up to walk with him, but he didn't move. He just stared at me with a tiny smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.

  "You're not?" he asked, referring to my proclamation that I wasn't into him.

  "No," I said.

  I smiled and broke eye contact with him as I said it.

  "You're the worst liar in the whole world," he said, with a laugh. "You'd be a terrible actress."

  "Thank goodness for dental school," I said. "And, to answer your question, I wasn't saying I don't want London to come back because of you. I was just saying it because I don't really feel like hanging out with her."

  He smiled. "And you're a little jealous."

  "No," I said. "You don't even like her, so even if I was going to be jealous over you, which I'm not, it wouldn't be because of her."

  "I'd be jealous over you," he said, causing my stomach to flip. "If you had some guy texting you all the time and telling everybody he was you're boyfriend, I'd be jealous."

  "I do have that," I said.

  His expression was comically confused like he couldn’t believe what I was saying.

  "It's really not a big deal," I said smiling at his unexpected reaction. "We've just been out a few times, it's not serious or anything."

  "I thought you said you don't date guys just to date them."

  "I don't. Not when I don't feel like it could eventually lead to marriage."

  "Oh, so now you're marrying this guy? We've been talking for two hours, and you never mention having a boyfriend, but now I find out you're practically married."

  I giggled. "I'm far from married."

  "But you could marry him?"

  I shrugged and nodded. "I guess. I mean, there's at least potential."

  "And there's not with me."

  I smiled at him, but he just stared at me like he wanted me to answer his non-question.

  "We were having so much fun," I said, pushing at his shoulder.

  "So, let's not stop," he said. He pulled me into his arms, and I was helpless to resist. He held me securely around the shoulders, and I gently wrapped my arms around his waist. I knew better, yet I could do nothing to stop myself. I was comfortable with hugs. I'd grown up in a hugging family, so I blamed my instinct to hug him on that.

  "I'm definitely jealous of this guy, whoever he is," Logan said.

  And just like that, the spell was broken. Whatever trance I'd been in came crashing to a halt at Logan's mention of Ashton.

  I let go of him and stepped back, causing him to let out a sigh. He reached out with a playful pinch to my arm. "That was good," he said. "Why'd you have to go way over there?"

  "Because," I said. "You make me feel crazy. You make me do crazy stuff."

  "You make me feel crazy, too," he said. "That makes two of us." He hesitated for a few seconds before adding, "Can I show you something?"

  I sort of nodded and smiled as I asked, "What?"

  He licked his lips. I was so distracted by it that I hardly noticed when he stepped toward me. In one quick motion, he came closer and ducked to put his lips right on mine. It was so quick and gentle that I lost my senses and went along with it. It was as if I was standing outside of my own body. Before I knew what I was doing, I tilted my head up, leaning into him. A warm wave of desire washed over me as I drank in the feel of his lips on me. They were soft and warm, and they conformed perfectly to mine. I let out a quiet whimper at the gut wrenching feeling of longing, and then pulled back to look at him. I felt like I could melt into a big gooey puddle right down on the ground.

  "Logan," I whispered. I pointed at his chest and narrowed my eyes playfully him. "You're gonna be in trouble if you keep trying to get me in trouble."

  "I'm the one who's in trouble here, Rachel. I'm just trying to go to work and have a normal day, and you've got me up here having all these feelings. I feel like I want to go have a little talk with that other guy right now—tell him you're mine."

  "Ashton?" I asked, not sure what he was talking about.

  "Is that dude's name, Ashton?" he asked.

  I nodded.

  "Like Kutcher?"

  I nodded. "It is Ashton Kutcher," I said.

  Logan looked at me sideways. "It is?"

  I nodded again.

  "Seriously?"

  I continued nodding with a straight face.

  "You think Ashton Kutcher's gonna be good husband material?" he asked.

  I cracked up laughing. "I'm just messin' with you. His name really is Ashton, though." I raised my eyebrows at him. "Guess I'm a pretty good actress after all,"

  He laughed. "You're terrible, I'm just too messed up to see it. I was tripping, thinking you'd date some other actor but not me."

  I couldn't help but laugh at his reaction. I'd been laughing for the last two hours. My cheeks were sore.

  "Tell me you didn't feel anything just now," he said, touching my arm. I knew what he was referring to, and I hesitated, wondering how to respond.

  "I can't tell you that."

  "See?"

  "That doesn’t mean anything," I said.

  "It means everything. Do you feel like that with that other guy?"

  "Do you feel like that with all the other girls?"

  "No, I don't. That's exactly what I'm saying."

  Chapter 6

  It seemed
like London was gone for two seconds. It had taken them nearly four hours, and it felt as if they had just left when I saw them walking toward us.

  Logan and I had been together the whole time they were gone. We spent some time up on the hillside before heading to his trailer where we hung out with his friends Phillip and Nico. It was fairly small, so we were right up in each other's faces, but I liked them; we had fun together. Their personalities were similar to Logan's. I could see why they were all best friends. We were in there together for about an hour, and they all treated me like they knew me their whole lives.

  Logan and I had gone back outside and were sitting at one of the picnic tables when London and Kai returned. We could see them from far off, and Logan started talking out of the side of his mouth the instant we noticed them.

  "You know I'm gonna have to get your number, right?" he asked stiffly and quietly.

  Kai headed in one direction, and London, who had noticed us by then, headed straight for us.

  "We've already talked about this." I said, without moving my lips at all.

  He looked at me, but I continued looking at London, who was smiling as she approached.

  "Please forget about that other guy," he said, looking straight at the side of my face as I continued to smile at London.

  "How about your girlfriend who's walking up to us right now?" I asked, still smiling stiffly.

  "I'm telling her something right now," he said, as if he had to prove something to me.

  My head whipped around, and I regarded him with a pleading expression. I didn't even care that he and I were staring straight at each other while she was fast approaching.

  "Please don't," I whispered.

  "Then stop calling her that," he said.

  "Heyyyy!" London said, coming to sit next to Logan at the picnic table. We had been sitting on the same side of the table, so now there were three of us on that one bench. "I had no idea we were going to Los Angeles just now!" she said, beaming at him. "That was insane!"

  She leaned over Logan to look at me. "I'm so sorry I left you for so long," she said.

  "No problem," I said. "It seemed like it went really fast."

  "I'm glad it did for you," she said. She tried to look annoyed, but she couldn't contain a smile. Her attention shifted back to Logan, and she started wiggling and jiggling in her seat. She shook her fists and let out a little squeal. "And guess what?" she said, excitedly.

  "What?" he asked, less than interested.

  "I get to be in the movie with you!" Her voice was about three octaves too high. I knew she had been trying to play it cool around Logan, but this was just too much for her to handle. She was jigging all around. "Can you believe it? I get to be in a movie! My big Hollywood debut! Well, Kai said he'd talk to the director for me. But I think he'll say yes. Kai seemed to think he would. Kai's a doll. We got along like two peas in a pod. Thank you for talking to Rachel. I didn't mean to leave her here for so long. I hope she wasn't in anybody's way."

  Logan turned away from her and looked at me with a wide-eyed please rescue me expression.

  "I stayed out of everybody's way," I said. "In fact, most of the time, I was way up there on the hillside. There's a bench up there, and I sat on it, totally alone. With no one else. Just me… alone on the bench."

  I couldn't resist teasing Logan. The more I said, the bigger his eyes got. Technically, it wasn't lying if I was being weird enough for the person to know something was up.

  "Completely alone." I added, dramatically and with a silly accent.

  Logan tried, but couldn't contain a laugh. It was obvious by the way it burst from his mouth that he'd been trying to hold it in, but failed.

  "Y'all are being crazy," London said, looking back and forth between Logan and me.

  He gestured to the hillside. "She's lying," he said. "Truth is, I went up there with her, and we made out the whole time."

  I let out an accidental laugh that I disguised as a cough. London started laughing as if that would never happen.

  Logan stood before turning to face us. "I need to go, ladies," he said. He looked at me, and pointed straight at me. "You're in trouble," he said, with only the slightest hint of a smile.

  "What happened?" London asked, like she thought I'd made some kind of dumb mistake on set or something.

  "She knows," he said, still looking at me. My eyes widened slightly as I begged him without words to please, for the love of all that is good in the world, not say anymore. He smiled right at me, enjoying watching me squirm.

  "What do you know, Rachel," she said as he turned to walk away. "What did you do?"

  Her tone was rude, which made Logan turn around. "She didn't do anything wrong," he clarified. "We've been cutting up. It's just an inside joke we have."

  He turned and continued walking, leaving me with one very curious London sitting next to me. "Did he just say you have an inside joke?" she asked, looking annoyed.

  "I think so," I said.

  "What's the joke?" she said.

  "I don't even remember," I said. It was true; I didn't remember what he had said. Oh yeah, I think he said I was in trouble.

  "He's just being silly," I said.

  "Silly?" There was all sorts of flair in the way she said the word. Obviously, she didn't like the familiarity it implied.

  "He couldn’t work till you came back," I said. "We hung out. He's a nice guy."

  "You hung out with my boyfriend?" she asked. Her emphasis was on the words hung out, as if they implied too much as well.

  I wanted so badly to say that he wasn't her boyfriend, but I held the words in my mouth. They fought and fought, and almost came out, but I somehow managed to hold them in.

  "What's your problem?" she asked.

  "I don't have a problem," I said. "I had a good day." I wanted to add, "Until you just got here," but I didn't. "Don't you have to get ready for your big scene?" I asked, instead, wanting to be left alone.

  "I'm not doing it today. Kai said it'll probably be tomorrow or Monday."

  ***

  It was never the same with Logan after London got back from her trip to L.A. She didn't let me out of her sight for the remainder of the weekend. I had hoped she'd get to walk on as an extra so that she would leave me alone, but Kai couldn’t pull the necessary strings to get her a job, so I was stuck with her.

  Once the director had everything he needed to get started, Logan became extremely busy. London and I hung out 'on set' but couldn’t really get close enough to see much. Logan made a little time to hang out with us, but I knew he wasn't looking forward to spending time with her.

  It was Monday morning when it all came crashing down. She sashayed onto the property wearing a wide-brimmed hat and oversized sunglasses. Logan was standing with a small group of people including one of his co-stars. He left them and walked toward us. There seemed to be purpose in his approach. He was already dressed for whatever scene they were about to film, and I couldn’t help but notice how sharp he looked.

  My heart skipped a beat, but maybe that was more about the fact that he wouldn't take his eyes off me. I was walking right next to London, and he didn't even acknowledge that she was there.

  "I need to talk to you for just a second," he said, lifting his chin at me slightly. He turned to look at London for the first time. "I need to talk to Rachel for a second," he said to her. "You can wait here. We'll be right back."

  Her expression reflected her displeasure.

  "Okay, so we'll be back in a second." Logan turned me by the shoulder and we walked ten or twelve paces before coming to the edge of one of the tents where we could have partial privacy.

  "What in the world, Logan?" I asked.

  "I can't take it anymore," he said. "I have to set London straight. She can't go on thinking we're talking or whatever. I don't even care for her as a person, much less want to date her."

  "Can't you just wait till she goes back home?" I asked, already dreading the backlash.

  "Please tell
me how to reach you, Rachel. The only reason I haven't told her anything sooner is because I wanted you around." He reached out and touched my arm, and it sent a shock wave running up my spine. I hadn't made physical contact with him in two days, and I had forgotten the effects of it.

  "Logan, I like you, but we can't," I whispered.

  "Why not?"

  "Because of everything I told you two days ago."

  "That's ridiculous," he said.

  "That I’m waiting for marriage?" I asked.

  "No, it's ridiculous that you felt the need to bring it up. Like you think it's was all I'm interested in."

  I looked at him with a smile, and he regarded me with an expression that seemed sincere. "Give me anything," he said. "Please. Tell me how to reach you. I'm telling her goodbye, and I don't want the same for you."

  I stared at him, not even caring that London could see us from where she was standing.

  "Let me prove it," he said.

  "Prove what?"

  "Prove that I'd wait for you."

  "How?"

  "I don't know. Test me."

  I risked a glance at London to find that she was glaring at us. I sighed as I met his eyes again.

  "Give me your number," I said. "I'll call you in a year."

  "A year?" he asked.

  "A year."

  "Why so long?"

  "Because you'll get tired of waiting and move on by then," is said. "You won't even remember me a year from now."

  "That's not true, but I'll do it if it makes you take my number." He held out his hand and moved his fingers letting me know he wanted me to hand him something. "Give me your phone," he said. "If you don't call my number by next September, I'll be forced to have Nico look you up."

  "You won't care by then," I said, confidently, handing him my phone.

  "Do you want me to forget?" he asked as he tapped out his number on the screen.

  I didn't answer him.

  I would be lying if I said yes.

  He looked me in the eyes. "You can test me all you want," he said. "I want you to. I'm not giving up."

  I smiled as put I my phone back into my purse.

  "September," he said.

  I felt like I wanted to throw myself into his arms and say why wait, let's just be together right now this very second, but I couldn't. I had to give him something, though. I had to let him know that the feelings were mutual.