“Feeling suddenly slightly liberated and relaxed, I looked over athim. His eyes fixed on the seat in front of him. His hands werein his lap, fingers dancing around in the air as if he was anxious.“I know I love you because even when you just punched me inmy stomach…and by the way, that hurt” he stopped and smiledat me. “I wanted to kiss you.”As soon as the words left his lips, my mouth popped open. Mycheeks were hot. The kid in front of us was grinning. He lockedhis eyes on me and waited for my response. Nosy little kid.”

“Look back at history,” he said, after a minute or two. “Mostgreat and remarkable men weren't tame or politically correct.They were raving loonies. They acted out. Heroes are badasses,not alter-boys.”“You don't think Jesus was a hero?” I asked.“Jesus was the bad-ass,” he said, chuckling a little. “...talkabout somebody knowing how to make some noise.”Nick confused me. Half the time what he said soundedcompletely hypocritical. The other half of the time, what he saidsounded completely insane. He always had an opinion though,no matter how nonsensical it was to me. I admired that abouthim.“You think Jesus would throw a book at someone?” I asked,before I could stop myself.His eyes popped open. I dropped my pen again. He sat upstraight and focused his eyes on me.“I'm not Jesus,” he said simply.No kidding.”

“I stumbled away. I pressed the back of my hand to my mouth and just looked athim. "What was that?"His chest rose and fell heavily. "A kiss.""Why?""Why?" He laughed. His blue eyes suddenly looked so sad. "Because I've wanted to do that for twenty years.”

“Luce," he said at last, his voice soft. "what do you want me to do?" He paused, waiting for my response, but I wasn't sure what he was asking, so no response came. "Please, just tell me," he continued. "Tell me what you want me to say, and do, when it comes to Adriana or any other girl that looks my way, and I'll do it. You want me to fire a spit wad between their eyes? So be it. You want me to flip them off any time any one of them looks my way? You got it. You want me to poke my eyes out so I can't see another one of their suggestive smiles again?" he trailed on, half of his face squishing together. "Well, that would suck, but I'd do it. For you." Cradling my face in his hands again, he leaned forward so his eyes were staring into mine from half a foot away. "Just tell me, baby. What do you want me to do?”

“I open the back door of my car for Ginger to buckle the baby in.She smiles and goes to it. I spin around and I'm face-to-facewith Logan Kilgore.“Hey, good lookin',” he says, leaning against my door to blockmy path.“What do you want?” I ask, cracking a slight smile as I wait.He's wearing a dirty, Auburn Football t-shirt, worn out jeansand the same bedraggled baseball cap he always wears. His hairis sticking out just around the edges of the cap in messy twigsand the occasional curl. His curious eyes are dancing aroundlike maybe he's in a very good mood. Despite the obvious, he'skind of beautiful, a little.“Not a thing,” he tells me before turning to walk away. “...wasjust passing through, wanted to say hello. See you.”I watch him amble away. Ginger shuts Chucky in and opens thedoor across from mine. She stops before getting in to look up atLogan too.“He's kind of charming,” she tells me, giggling a little.“No offense, but you thought Doug was charming,” I tell her,skeptically.“Good point,” she agrees, before getting into the car.”

“Hi" he said"Hi""I'd like to kiss you" He waited a moment for my response, then added, "Or, if you rather, we can dance, as long as we can get you unstuck." "I think I'm in deep.""Me, too," he said, looking into my eyes.His head moved closer to mine. Then he lifted his hand, cupping my cheek ever so gently. His lips touched my lips, light as a butterfly, once, twice.The kisses were so lovely, so lovely I couldn't help it-I did a totally stupid, uncool thing. I sighed.I heard the laughter rumbling inside Nick and I started to pull away. But his arms wrapped around me. He held me close and pressed his lips against mine. A thrill went through me. I kissed him back-I didn't think about it, just kissed him with all that my heart felt.”

“Two minutes into the dance, I'm sitting in a metal chair in thedark, listening to a really annoying Justin Bieber song blaringover the crackling speakers. The song changes. Everyone startsto pair off. I look over at him. He's looking around. Please, Jesusdon't let him ask me to dance.“Hey,” he says. “You wanna...”“No,” I interrupt.I catch him chuckling out of the corner of my eyes. This danceis really stupid. I'm over it. Before I can finish my thought, he'sstanding up. I look him over.“Come on,” he says, tugging at my hand. “Lets get out of here.”