One Little Kiss (Christian Romance)

by Kaylee Baldwin

  One Little Kiss

  Kaylee Baldwin

  All rights reserved.

  Printed in the United States of America.

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission of the author except where permitted by law.

  Published by

  Suite Sisters Publishing

  Copyright by Suite Sisters/Kaylee Baldwin 2018

  Photo by Adobestock/michaeljung

  Special thanks to Cookie Lynn Pub

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Epilogue

  Kaylee Baldwin

  Chapter 1

  Tessa's roommates rushed around the couch she sat on, her thick anatomy book propped up on her legs as she tried to memorize all the bones in a hand. There were twenty seven, but it might as well have been two-hundred and seventy. On her last test she'd mixed up the scaphoid with the talus, a small bone in the foot, a freshman mistake, not something she should still be doing as a first-semester senior trying to get into med school.

  It didn’t help that she could only look at the diagram of the hand—with its open veins and purplish tendons—for a few seconds before her stomach clenched and her mind blanked.

  "Tessa, they’ll be here any minute. Can I help you clean up your papers?" Addison stood in front of her with a concerned frown. She worried that Tessa put too much pressure on herself, but as the daughter of parents who lived a nomadic, carefree lifestyle, Addison didn’t know how it felt to live in the looming shadow of paragons.

  Tessa blinked away the haze of studying for hours, and kicked out her tingling leg, which had fallen asleep under the heavy weight of her book. “What time is it?”

  “Almost seven.” Layla took Tessa's water bottle and half-eaten bowl of popcorn into the kitchen. Her long, light brown hair swayed between her shoulder blades in a backwards braid she’d perfected their junior year of high school.

  Tessa double-checked the clock. She was still getting used to the transition of home teachers to ministering brothers and would normally be glad they'd reached out to come over and get to know them better. But she’d been studying for over three hours, and still felt unprepared for her anatomy test. A dull, weary ache pulsed behind her eyes.

  Layla sprayed a flowery scent over Tessa’s head, and then fluffed the vintage-style, bright yellow and pink pillows on their worn gray couch. They’d done the best they could to spruce up the tiny, sixty-year-old apartment, a fact Tessa could better appreciate when she wasn’t so worn out all the time.

  “Are you sure they won’t care if I stay?” Addison ran her fingers through her pixie-short hair, a nervous habit Tessa had come to recognize in the year they’d known each other. Addison took to most situations like she was born to them, but LDS church culture was all new to her. And having two LDS roommates meant she got a crash course in it.

  “They won’t care.” Layla stopped rushing around, her eyes taking on a teasing glint. “They’ll probably try to convert you though.”

  Addison held her hand over her heart. “If Logan’s as cute as you say he is, then that’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

  “He is,” Layla and Tessa said at the same time. They smiled at each other, and anticipation overrode Tessa’s exhaustion.

  A new semester equaled new home teachers which equaled new marriage material which equaled desperate attempts of snaring a marriageable man while making it all seem as non-desperate as possible. (If only memorizing hand bones were as easy as figuring out singles ward equations.)

  And the marriageable man in this equation was Logan Richardson.

  Tessa still hadn't met the infamous Logan Richardson, first year surgical resident at the University of Arizona medical center, but she had spotted the back of his flawlessly styled hair and broad shoulders at church, surrounded by a significant portion of the ward's female population. But that glimpse of hair was enough to release Tessa’s butterflies.

  Logan would be a perfect addition to the perfect life Tessa was trying to build. Her mom, dad, her brother, Jenkins, and his wife all went to medical school, graduated at the top of their classes, and were highly successful in their specializations. Her entire family wore success like an expensive perfume, when all Tessa could seem to manage was eau de mediocrity.

  But Logan Richardson was now assigned to minister to her. The stars had aligned and spelled out: Meant To Be.

  The doorbell rang. Tessa’s head cleared and she stuffed all of her papers in her back pack. She left her anatomy textbook on the coffee table so Logan would ask about it. Tessa could tell him she was pre-med and he'd be impressed. She'd be equally impressed when he told her he was a doctor. Somehow it would all end in a passionate kiss, a spontaneous marriage proposal, and the satisfaction of knowing she smelled of success.

  The middle details were a little fuzzy, but it all started with an anatomy book, she knew that much.

  "Ready?" Addison asked, her hand on the door, her eyes smiling as brightly as her mouth.

  “Wait!” Tessa chucked her backpack into her bedroom, checked her reflection in the bathroom mirror, and raced back to the couch where she tried to make it look like she'd been sitting all afternoon doing things like praying and reading her scriptures or pondering eternal life.

  Addison lifted an amused eyebrow.

  Tessa caught her breath. “Okay. Ready.”

  Addison opened the door and in walked masculine perfection. He had the T-trifecta: tall, toned, and tan. And when he smiled, the butterflies went fan-girl crazy. Those teeth. She'd never seen such white, straight teeth in her life. He had a magazine worthy, five o'clock shadow. He wore his white shirt-sleeves rolled to the elbow, and the gray in his tie matched the slate tone of his eyes.

  Layla let out a contented sigh, and Tessa knew they'd all fallen a little bit in love.

  "I'm Addison." Addison held out her hand to him and he took it in both of his, like he was cherishing this small amount of time with her.

  "It's nice to meet you." His voice was deep and confident, and her cheeks turned pink.

  Flustered, she motioned toward Tessa and Layla. "You do the teaching at home thing with these two."

  His long stride put him in front o
f the girls in seconds. He reached out to Layla first and then Tessa, holding her hand a few seconds longer than necessary. "I'm Logan," he said with the smallest of winks. Usually the wink thing was so cheesy Tessa wanted to smack anyone who did it, but Logan made it work.

  Tessa heard a throat clearing and tore her gaze away from Logan to see another guy in the doorway. Tall and on the thin side, he had fair skin and half of his face hidden behind thick, dirty brown glasses that had to have been around since the 1970s. His thick black hair hung around his forehead and ears. His rumpled shirt was only half-tucked in and off by one button, and his yellow and brown polyester tie hung crookedly around his neck. And Tessa was pretty sure he was wearing two different shoes. Overall, it looked like he was going for the "I rolled out of bed and borrowed my grandpa's clothes" look.

  Addison held out her hand and he shook it with an enigmatic smile. "Henry White.”

  “I’m Addison. That’s Layla and Tessa.” She pointed to each of them, and then motioned him inside. An awkward pause fell over the room while they figured out where to sit. Tessa took the couch. Her heart jumped when Logan sat beside her.

  "So, how long have you known each other?" Addison asked. After moving around so much as a kid and learning to make new friends so often, she was always the best at getting a conversation started.

  “Three weeks.” Henry sat in a chair across from the couch.

  "We’re roommates." Logan spared Henry a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes before resting his arm along the back of the couch.

  “Bishop Riggs put us in contact with each other a few weeks ago when we both said we were looking for a roommate.” Henry folded his arms, his posture stiff. No love lost there, apparently.

  Addison caught Tessa’s eye. He’s cute too, she mouthed, subtly motioning to Henry. Addison’s face turned even redder when she realized that Henry had seen what she said. His brows furrowed behind the glasses, and he looked away, checking out their apartment. His gaze zeroed in on the far kitchen wall. He stood and took long, purposeful steps to the corner behind the dining table.

  Tessa looked to Logan for a hint about was going on. His clenched jaw gave nothing but his annoyance away. They took their cue from him and ignored Henry’s strange actions.

  Addison sat in the spot Henry had vacated. "So where are you from?" she asked Logan.

  "Utah." Logan withdrew his hand from the back of the couch and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. "Orem. I went on my mission to Russia, did my undergrad at BYU, and attended med school in Texas."

  "How do you like Arizona so far?" Tessa asked, mostly so she could keep listening to his voice. Henry could do whatever he wanted in their kitchen as long as he brought Logan along with him every time he came.

  "It's hot," Logan complained, but softened it by flashing those inhumanly white teeth again. "How anyone can live here by choice is beyond me. It's so brown and ugly."

  Despite herself, Tessa bristled at the put-down. Tucson had been her home for her entire life, and she loved it. Sure it was hot and brown, but it was beautiful too, if you took the time to really see. Which she could help him do, of course, and all would be well.

  "We swim a lot," Layla said.

  Logan perked up. "Is there a pool here?"

  "There's one in the gym at school. Your student ID should give you access to it."

  They began to talk about different strokes, Logan having been a swimmer in high school, and Tessa tuned out their conversation to watch Henry. He brushed at something on the wall and held up his finger while he removed a tiny bottle from his pocket. He struggled to unscrew the lid with one hand.

  Layla and Logan were comparing high school swim stats, something Tessa could go her whole life without knowing or caring about, so she quietly excused herself to go check on Henry. She stood behind him, close enough to know he smelled fresh, like mint and pine.

  "Is everything okay?" she asked slowly.

  "Isoptera." He looked over his shoulder at Tessa. "Do you have a light I can borrow?"

  She grabbed her cell phone from the counter and turned on the flashlight before handing it to him.

  "See this?" Henry scooted over, so she knelt on the tile beside him. He ran his finger along a brown line of dirt on the wall about three inches long, extending up from the base board.

  Tessa had seen lines like those before. "Is that a termite track?"

  "It is."

  She scooted closer to get a better look. "How in the world did you see that from the living room?"

  "This is what I do."

  Tessa didn't realize how close they were until he turned toward her. She scrambled back and fell onto her backside. Henry held out his hand, a glimmer of humor in his eye. She ignored his help and got back on her knees, this time a foot further away. All Logan needed to see was her getting close to his odd roommate.

  "How do I get rid of termites?" She may have only seen a termite track once, but she knew what they did—ate up the wood of the frame in your house and if left unchecked, it could become structurally unsound.

  "Call your landlord. They'll get someone in to spray it."

  "What's wrong?" Addison said from behind Tessa.

  "Henry found termites."

  "We have termites? How do you know?" Layla had come close as well, and rested her chin on Addison's shoulder, boxing Henry into a corner between the table and the wall. He looked between the three girls, his eyes wide. This close, she saw that his eyes were blue behind the yellowed lenses. Without the glasses, Tessa could almost see why Layla thought he was cute, but as a whole package, he was too much of a mess.

  "He's an exterminator," Tessa said.

  "I'm not an exterminator." Henry brushed his fingers along the bottom of the track, unearthing a few live insects. They crawled onto his finger, and before Tessa could stop him, he popped them into his mouth. "I eat bugs for a living."

  Chapter 2

  The girls scrambled away from Henry like he had actual cooties, and Henry could breathe again. Having one beautiful woman crowding him was more than enough, but three? He had to take drastic measures.

  If Ava found out, she'd kill him.

  The thought made him smile even wider.

  He chewed the termites and swallowed them down, wishing for water. They weren't his favorite insect, but definitely not the worst either. They were easy to find in the desert, though, and always effective in chasing away women.

  "He does not eat bugs for a living," Logan called from the living room. Henry stood and went to the sink to wash the dirt from his hands. Tessa, the one who had been kneeling beside him, watched closely while he cupped his hands under the stream and took a long drink. "He studies them."

  Now everyone turned toward Henry again, and he wondered if his bug-eating ploy had backfired. He wanted less attention, not more. But they were disgusted instead of intrigued, which meant he wouldn't have to worry about any one of them trying to hook him and change him to make him socially acceptable.

  "You study bugs?" Addison asked, her expression polite, but her voice choked.

  Henry dried his hands on the towel hanging from the stove door and then took his seat next to Logan on the couch. Logan glared at him, something Henry had gotten used to seeing. The first time Logan brought a date back to the apartment, Henry had been studying a beetle on the kitchen table, and the girl had fled.

  How was Henry supposed to know that the girl had a bug phobia, or that Logan would bring her back to the apartment?

  Henry mentally cursed his sister. Ava had forced him to come back to the singles ward and room with a stranger in a downtown apartment when he had been happy attending the family ward and living in the tiny guest home of one of the members.

  Be social. Life is more than microscopes and insects, she’d said with enough of Mom's tone in her voice that Henry was forced to stop and listen.

  Henry realized he’d spaced out when Logan spoke, his tone bored. “He’s getting a PhD in entomology.”

&nbs
p; "Why?" Layla asked, her nose so scrunched he didn't think it would ever be straight in his presence again.

  "I've always been fascinated by insects,” Henry replied, warming up to his favorite subject. “Did you know there are more than ten quintillion insects in the world?"

  "I didn't even know quintillion was a number," Layla joked. "And don't tell me how many zeros it has because I want to sleep at night."

  "Eighteen," Tessa said. Henry nodded, impressed. Most people didn't know that without looking it up.

  Layla shivered, and when she looked at him, she shivered again. "I can't believe you ate those bugs. Even thinking about it makes me sick."

  Mission accomplished.

  Henry sat back and folded his arms, content to listen to Logan flirt with the girls under the guise of giving them a spiritual lesson on timing.

  "What matters most is the Lord's timing, not ours," he concluded with a wink. A wink.

  Henry had started counting how often Logan winked at girls and kept a running count on his phone, mostly for his own amusement. He didn't know people winked in real life, or that it could actually make girls sigh, but Tessa had sighed at least twice now when the wink was directed at her. They were small sighs, more like long exhalations with tiny eyelash flutters, something most people wouldn't notice, but Henry had been studying small insects for almost three years and couldn't turn off the observation of micro movements.