Kiss List (28 page)

The twins.
I was glad my dad was there to protect me against Chris if need be. Surprisingly, however, both twins looked happy and contrite.

“As much as I hate to admit it, you broke down our barriers and taught us how to be brothers again,” one of them said. That must be Chris.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” the other one – Liam – said. “You gave me the greatest gift I could ask for. Freedom. Thank you. Please come back. Don’t become the victim that I was.”

The two boys kissed me on either cheek. That earned an extra loud growl from dad but I heard a sniffle behind me, which must have come from Aunt Julie.

That was it. The girls had somehow managed to bully all the boys into kissing me and asking me to stay. Well, almost all the boys. I would never have actually expected Aaron to come. Still, it hurt that he hadn’t.

“Thank you all for coming,” I said as loudly as I could manage without bursting into tears, “but...”

“Wait!” Payton yelled. “We’re not done yet.”

And then Aaron’s face emerged from behind the crowd.

I instinctively took at step towards him and then stopped, wondering what he would have to say to me. My dad’s arm fell off my shoulder but that was okay. If I was going to face a boy I liked I needed to do it on my own. This was something dad couldn’t help me with or protect me from.

Aaron walked up to me and then everyone else disappeared. I had eyes only for him. He looked as handsome as ever. He wore a simple tee-shirt and a pair of shorts yet his lean and astonishingly toned body made them look like they were clothes fit for a prince. His tan skin, beautiful light blond hair, and light blue eyes reminded me of summer. They also reminded me how ridiculously attracted I was to this boy. Even now, with so many emotions swirling around within me, I wanted to run to him, tear off his shirt, take in
those perfect abs, and...

Aaron reached me. He smiled. I looked up at his face, suddenly feeling like a little girl again.

“Sadie,” he said. “You are thoughtful. You are kind. You are an amazing soccer player, and you...”

I was listening to his words but they were not the ones I wanted to hear. I didn’t want another speech from a guy telling me how much he wanted to be my friend. I wanted Aaron to say that he wanted me, that he thought I was special, and that he wanted to be with me no matter what. I couldn’t force those words on him, however. I couldn’t make him want to be with me.

So many things were going through my head that it took me a moment to realize that Aaron had stopped speaking. He was looking instead at something else along the front of my house. I followed his gaze and realized that he was staring at the fire lilies my mother had once planted. The lilies were not in bloom yet and they wouldn’t be for another few months. The vibrant reddish-orange bulbs, however, were unmistakable.

I stared at Aaron uncertainly. What was he thinking? I saw him reach around to his back pocket and pull out his wallet. Then he extracted something from the wallet.

It was a wilted fire lily that looked like it had been pressed in a book... and then carried around in Aaron’s wallet ever since the day I had kissed him.

Aaron cleared his throat. He was still looking at the flowers. “Every day since before the snow arrived and after it melted I have been driving around town, looking for those flowers.”

“Why?” I asked so quietly I could barely hear myself. For some reason I couldn’t speak any louder.

Aaron’s head turned sharply to look at me. “That kiss,” he said. “The one at my house during the kiss competition… I needed to know who that girl was.”

“A lot of girls kissed you that night,” I said.

“But none had the passion and yet tenderness of the one I’m thinking about,” Aaron said. I had never heard him speak like this before. I almost expected him to burst out laughing and
admit that it was all a joke but he seemed deadly serious. Aaron’s serious face was very, very cute.

“I wanted to know what girl could kiss me like that,” Aaron said. He held up the flower. “Is this your flower?”

I looked at the wilted flower. There was no denying that it was my mother’s flower. “Yes,” I confessed. I kissed you and then dropped that flower when I ran out. I didn’t want you to see my face. I thought you would be disappointed.”

“Disappointed,” Aaron asked incredulously. “Are you kidding? I wanted to ask you out even before I knew you were the fire lily girl. That night at the school before we found those photos, I was going to ask you out. I wanted to kiss you and ask you if you wanted to have dinner with me or something.”

I looked back at Alyssa. “Was this your plan?” I asked. “Leave a flower for Aaron so he starts thinking about who kissed him and then after a while bring him to my house so he figures it out? Seriously? That’s the dumbest plan ever.”

Alyssa smiled. “You never did trust me,” she said as she shook her head in exasperation. “I have faith. I had a feeling that you and Aaron were meant to be together so yes, I pulled a Cinderella and figured that if he searched high and low it would help get the point through your thick skull that he is into you. What I didn’t plan for was how he would fall for you even before he found out that you were the one who kissed him. And you’re wrong, by the way. I didn’t bring Aaron here. The girls and I helped organize this little event but Aaron was the one who thought it up and got everyone out here. So now I’m just wondering why you are looking at me when the most gorgeous guy in the school besides my Gabriel, the guy you’ve been dreaming about for years, is standing right in front of you.”

I turned back around to look at Aaron. He had brought all these people out here for me? Even after he had found out about the kiss list and seen the photos?

“Now that you know about the kiss list and you’ve seen all the photos, do you still want to kiss me?” I asked doubtfully, dreading the answer.

“More than anything,” Aaron said

The boy of my dreams wrapped his arms around me and pressed his lips against mine. Forget fireworks. I felt as if nuclear explosions were going off all around me. Every part of my body tingled. I felt the warmth radiating from his rock hard body and the sweet taste of his soft lips. I melted in the embrace of his strong muscles and felt like I was a part of him.

Somewhere at the far reaches of my consciousness I was aware that my friends had erupted in cheers, that my Aunt Julie was crying, and that my dad was growling like a Doberman who had just seen an army of mailmen. None of that mattered right now, however. Aaron Caldwell was kissing me and holding me. He had found out my deepest, darkest secrets and he still wanted me. He wanted me for who I truly was.

It was the happiest moment of my life and it was only a beginning.

Summer was almost over. I couldn’t believe how fast it had flown by. It seemed like just yesterday that Aaron had asked me out on our first official date and now he was one day away from leaving for college and his soccer team training. It was hard to think about him not being around anymore.

Well, I was just going to have to savor my last few moments with him. That wasn’t hard. I looked over at Aaron lounging on the grass, catching his breath from a soccer drill we had just completed. He was dressed the exact same way he had been when I tripped over a bench at the beginning of the school year – red shorts and no shirt. I felt a familiar warm tingle run through me as I gazed at his beautiful shirtless body. The difference now was that I no longer made a fool of myself when I was around him. At least not too much, anyway.

I walked over to Aaron and lay down on the grass beside him. He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me in close. He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.

“Ew,” I said. “You’re all sweaty.”

Aaron laughed and pulled me in tighter. His skin was warm and slippery with sweat but I didn’t mind. For some reason Aaron’s sweat never bothered me. He just seemed to clean and hot for it to be gross.

“Are you going to miss me?” he asked.

“No, because we are going to have video chat dates every night,” I said firmly. “And I’m going to come to visit you at least once a month and you’re going to come back every holiday. We’ll make this work.”

“I know we will,” Aaron said as he kissed me again.

A phone started vibrating. We both looked instinctively over at where we had left our excess clothes, water bottles, and phones.

“It’s mine,” Aaron said. “I’ll get it.”

I sighed. “Okay, just hurry back. I want as much cuddle time as I can get.”

“Hey, what’s up?” I heard Aaron say. I didn’t want to eavesdrop on his conversation so I zoned him out. I lay on my back and stared up at the perfect cloudless sky. I would miss these moments with Aaron but a year wasn’t too long and who knew what would happen next year? Maybe I would end up at the same school. My dad warned me to apply to all the schools I was interested in academically and said that high school relationships rarely worked out but things with Aaron felt different. Sure I was going to pursue my own academic and athletic goals, but I still believed that Aaron and I were meant to be together.

Aaron had spoiled me over the summer. His parents were often gone for work-related trips and they had made his brother get a job as a camp counselor in some other state. For some reason, the
Caldwells didn’t seem to want Nate to spend too much time around Lakeville. Aaron wouldn’t talk too much about it beyond saying that it was a long story and that Nate had a somewhat unsavory past. Anyway, my family had more or less adopted Aaron for the summer as a result. To my amazement, my dad and Aaron got along extremely well. They actually sort of became friends and even teamed up against me on more than one occasion, though I always made sure to make Aaron pay for that. I had gotten to spend so much time with Aaron that I now felt like I had known him forever. And just when I thought he couldn’t get any sweeter, kinder, or more loving, he managed to prove that he could.

“Are you an
f’ing moron?” Aaron yelled. “I swear, I’m going to beat your ass when you get home.”

I looked at Aaron in shock. I had never heard words like that come out of his mouth before. He was now shouting into the phone and his face with red with anger.

Aaron did not see me watching him – he was too transfixed by the conversation. After a pause he shouted, “Well then I’m going to come back home the first holiday I get... Thanksgiving, I guess... and I’m going to beat the crap out of you. You idiot. You dumb idiot. We’re going to talk more about this. Okay, yeah, get packed. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked Aaron as soon as he hung up the phone.

Aaron let out a long sigh. “My idiot brother,” he said. “The moron got expelled from his school. Something about getting caught in bed with a girl.”

I frowned. “I thought Nate was at an all-boys military school,” I said.

Aaron sighed again. “He was,” Aaron said. “Unfortunately, the commandant of the academy has a daughter.” Aaron groaned. “My brother never thinks with his head. How’s he going to get into colleges with this on his record? It’s not like it’s his first offense. He’s a brilliant soccer player – maybe good enough to go pro one day – and he’s actually really smart when he’s not being stupid. He could accomplish so much if he just tried.”

“So what’s he going to do now?” I asked. “I mean, where’s he going to go to school?”

Aaron shook his head. “Where do you think?” he asked. “Nate is going to come home and go to Lakeville High School. And I’m not going to be there to keep him in line. He doesn’t even get home for a few more days and by then I’ll be gone.”

I could tell how upset Aaron was. Despite all the names he had just called
Nate, I knew that Aaron loved his brother more than anything. I stood up, walked over to Aaron, and gave him a reassuring hug. “Don’t worry,” I said. “You’ve still got me here. I can help keep him on the right path. Maybe get him in with a good group of friends who can be a positive influence for him. Plus, think about all your friends who will still be here. They can help. Dylan, Noah... well okay, maybe not Noah, but you get the point.”

Aaron hugged me tightly. “I don’t know,” he said uncertainly. “I’ve never seen anyone as good as Nate at getting into trouble.”

“Come on,” I scoffed. “He’s just one person. Lakeville is your school. He’s walking onto your turf. Just use your resources and you can force him to behave. I believe in you.”

Aaron’s body seemed to relax. He looked down at me and smiled. “You’re right,” he said. “You know just what to say to make me feel better. You’re a genius, you know that?”

“I do but it’s always nice to hear you say it,” I said with a smile.

Aaron leaned down and kissed me. It was as magical as the first time his lips had ever touched mine.

We kissed for quite some time and then Aaron hugged me again. He stroked my back. “Yeah,” he said. “Lakeville is my school, not Nate’s. This will work. We’ll straighten him out.”

“Absolutely,” I said. “Now can we go back to your house? If I’ve got less than 24 hours with your
somkin’ bod I want to make the most of it.”

“Is that all I am to you?” Aaron joked. “Some piece of eye candy you can ogle and feel up whenever you want?”

“Nope,” I said with a smile. “That’s just a nice perk.”

As we left the park I made two resolutions to myself. The first was that I was going to do everything I could to show Aaron that I loved him and was serious about making our long-distance relationship work. The second was that I going to make sure Nate toed the line at Lakeville. If Aaron wanted his brother to turn things around, then I was going to make sure that happened.

Nate Caldwell had better prepare himself. He was about to become a paragon of virtue and academic achievement… even if had to tear him down and build him back up myself to make that happen.