Chapter Nineteen
EMMA
I didn’t talk to Logan for the rest of the afternoon, despite his attempts at getting me alone to do so. I made sure to spark up whatever conversations I could with Mark and Rachel, my own parents, and even Abby (even though she didn’t talk back) and then encouraged Mom and Dad to leave soon after we were done eating.
I’m not even sure I said goodbye to him.
I knew I was being kind of a jerk, but I didn’t know why, exactly. Why should I care what he thought about me, anyway? It wasn’t Logan I was trying to impress, it was Matt.
With a sigh, I set my book down on my nightstand and stared up at the ceiling. It was close to midnight and I had made no attempt at trying to fall asleep. I wasn’t very tired; I was too busy feeling annoyed. Still, I wanted to get up at a reasonable hour in the morning, so I leaned over to turn off the light when my phone buzzed next to my book.
Weird. Who would be texting me at this time of the night? Probably Chloe or Sophia, who I was sure stayed up as late as they could every night while not under their parents’ supervision. Turning on the phone, I expected to see either of their names staring back at me, but instead, it was Logan’s.
Logan: u awake?
My first thought was to not respond, but I knew that was pointless. His bedroom window faced mine, and obviously he was sending this text because he saw my light was on—therefore, he was assuming I was awake and he would send text after text for the rest of the night until I finally responded. Sure, I could just turn off my phone, but I hated to admit I was curious as to why he was contacting me so late. So, I texted him back.
Me: No.
It only took him a few seconds to respond.
Logan: nice try. I see a light on
Me: So?
Logan: so…we need 2 talk
Me: About what?
Logan: meet me outside
Me: Why would I do that? It’s late.
Logan: matt would be so impressed if he knew u snuck out of the house
Logan: he likes rebellious girls
I rolled my eyes at that. Whenever Logan wanted to get me to do something nowadays, he would just throw out Matt’s name and tell me he liked girls who did those sorts of things. Sadly, it seemed to work on me most of the time.
Me: Okay. Fine. Give me a couple minutes, I’ll meet you outside.
Logan: great. I’ll be waiting in ur driveway
Tossing my phone aside, I changed out of my sleepwear and threw on a pair of jean shorts, a dark gray graphic tee that read Keep Calm and Read a Book, and slipped into a pair of sneakers before exiting the bedroom. Slowly and quietly, I tiptoed down the hallway, making sure to take extra care as I passed my parents’ bedroom. The noise of the stairs was going to be the biggest challenge, but luckily the creaking was mild, and I made it to the bottom with no problem. Grabbing my keys off the decorative table in the foyer, I headed out the door, locking it behind me.
Logan was already waiting for me as I exited the house. “I can’t believe you actually did it,” he said in a half-whisper as I approached him.
“Me neither,” I half-whispered back. My gaze flickered down to his hands, where he was holding onto a flashlight and a blanket. “What’s with the props?”
“We’re going on an adventure,” he replied, flashing me a grin.
I glanced at him skeptically. “An adventure? In the middle of the night?”
“Those are the best kind.” He turned on the flashlight. “Walk with me?”
“Walk? To where?”
“You’ll see,” he said mysteriously as he began to walk down the street.
The sensible part of my brain tried to encourage me to turn right around and go back inside the house. But the foolish part of my brain—the part that won out—told me to follow him.
So, I did.
I fell into stride beside him and we remained silent for a few steps, listening to the sounds of crickets chirping and frogs croaking in the distance. I loved the sound of nature at night in the summer; it was one of the many reasons I loved living on our street. There were only five houses: mine, Logan’s and Matt’s, and two houses farther down belonging to seasonal families that hadn’t made it up for the summer yet. It was a private, dead end street surrounded by woods, so there were a lot of nature sounds to be heard on a regular basis. Some of them were frightening, but for the most part, I found the other sounds to be therapeutic. Sometimes, I would just sit out on the deck at night, close my eyes and listen.
“I wasn’t disgusted, you know,” Logan said suddenly.
I turned my head and blinked at him. “What are you talking about?”
“You insinuated earlier that you thought I was disgusted at seeing you in a bikini, but I wasn’t. I’m sorry if that was the impression you got.”
“Oh,” I said, biting my lower lip and staring down at the ground as we walked. I was hoping this conversation wouldn’t be brought up again.
“The truth is, I thought you looked hot.”
My breath hitched in my throat. Did Logan Reynolds just tell me he thought I looked hot? Was he feeling okay? I resisted the urge to reach over and feel his forehead to see if he was burning up.
But I was too distracted by the fact my own face was burning up. “Um…” was all I managed to get out.
Logan chuckled softly. “I’ve made you uncomfortable, haven’t I?”
“No,” I lied. I was just thankful for the fact it was pitch black out and he couldn’t see me blushing.
“Right,” he said, drawing out the word. “Look, Emma, I just didn’t think it was a good idea for you to go that party. Your naiveté would have made you an easy target with all the guys there.”
“My naiveté? What are you talking about?”
“See? You’re even naive about what you’re naive about.” He stopped walking and motioned to his right. “We’re here.”
I wanted to press him further, but my confusion over why we’d stopped walking took over. “What do you mean, we’re here? This is an empty lot of land for sale.” I pointed to the FOR-SALE sign stuck into the ground in front of us.
The land was put up for sale a couple years ago and an out-of-state couple purchased it and had the space all cleared out in preparation of building their dream home there. But apparently something fell through and before they started building, they put the land back up for sale, leaving an empty lot at the end of a long, dirt driveway shaded by trees.
“I know. It’s perfect,” Logan said, stepping onto the end of the driveway.
“Wait, we can’t be here,” I said.
“Why not?”
“Because this is trespassing.”
Logan rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on, Emma. Nobody is going to care. Nobody is even going to know we were here.”
I folded my arms over my chest and kept my feet planted firmly to the ground. “It’s still illegal.”
“Even more reason to do it, then. Matt likes girls who break the law,” he said with a smirk.
It was my turn to roll my eyes. “Seriously, Logan, I am not setting foot on this property.”
“Okay, I can work around that.”
I was wondering what he meant by that as he dropped the blanket onto the ground, stalked over to me, wrapped his arms tightly around my waist and lifted me off the ground.
“Logan!” I exclaimed in a whisper. “Put me down!” I attempted to push myself away from his chest and out of his grip, but to no avail. He held on tight as he carried me over the property line and after only a few steps, he slowly lowered me back to the ground.
“There,” he said in a low voice. “You’ve set foot on the property. You have now broken the law and there’s no undoing it, so you might as well make the best of it while we’re here.”
I would have been furious with him at that moment had I not realized he was still holding on to me, his hands now resting loosely on my hips, his chest still grazing mine, his face close enough that I could feel the slight tickle of his breath against my skin…
Swallowing hard, I pushed him away as forcefully as I could. He had some nerve, getting me to trespass and invading my personal space like that. Why did I keep willingly hanging out with him?
Retrieving the blanket from the ground, Logan pointed the flashlight at me and said, “I think you’re going to like what we’re about to do.”
“Which is what, exactly?” I asked as we began to walk again.
He said nothing until we reached the end of the path and the lot opened up to about an acre of nothing but flat, grassy land.
He pointed at the sky. “We’re going to stargaze.”
I gaped at him. “We’re going to what now?”
“Stargaze. It’s where you gaze. At stars.”
“Yes, I know what stargazing is, genius. I’m just surprised, that’s all. What inspired this?”
Logan shrugged as he set down the flashlight and opened the blanket, laying it out on the ground. “I got the impression you were mad at me earlier, and I wanted to make it up to you by having us do something I figured you would enjoy. Do you enjoy looking at stars?”
“Of course, I do,” I said with a nod.
“Well, so do I.”
That had to be a lie. There was no way that Logan liked stargazing. That was way too boring and nerdy of an activity for him.
“Okay…” I said as he sat down on the ground and motioned for me to join him. Absent-mindedly, I obeyed him, taking a seat next to him on the blanket. “But why did we have to come here to stargaze instead of just doing it in one of our backyards?”
“What’s the fun in that? This way, I got you to do a couple things you normally wouldn’t do, like sneak out of the house and break the law. Besides,” he said, “being here gives us privacy. We can talk without having to lower our voices, since there’s nobody around to hear us.”
I wasn’t sure what there was to talk about, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least lie back and tune him out while I searched the night sky for shooting stars—one of my favorite pastimes when I was little.
As soon as I was on my back, he lay down next to me—so close our arms were just barely touching. A strange, unfamiliar feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. If I didn’t know any better, I would have said it was nerves. But not the kind of nerves I got when I thought about flying, or the kind I’d gotten on the Ferris wheel the other day. No, these nerves felt different. They sort of fluttered in my stomach before traveling to my chest and quickening my heartbeat.
“You know, my mom and I used to do this all the time,” he said suddenly.
I turned my head to look at him. He was staring up at the sky with a wistful expression on his face, most likely recalling fond memories from his childhood.
“She would bring me outside to look at the stars every opportunity she could get,” he continued. “Sometimes, she’d even wake me up in the middle of the night if there was some sort of event like a meteor shower or a lunar eclipse. She loved this kind of stuff and wanted to make sure I did, too.”
Arching a brow, I said, “And do you?”
He smiled. “I do, as a matter of fact. But don’t tell anyone because they’ll think I’m a nerd. Like you.” His smile turned to a smirk when I poked his shoulder with my finger.
I sighed as my eyes traced invisible lines between some of the stars, designing my own constellation. “I miss your mom,” I said softly. It was true. Heather Reynolds was breathtakingly beautiful, caring, funny, and sweet. In a lot of ways, she was always like a second mother to me, and my heart broke the day my parents told me she’d passed away.
I could only imagine how Logan felt.
“Me too,” he said quietly, all visible signs of mirth gone from his face.
I could tell this was a topic Logan didn’t want to delve too deeply into, so I refrained from saying anything more. Instead, I waited for him to speak again.
“So,” he said finally, a minute or so later. “You still into Matt?”
His question caught me off guard. Was I still into Matt? Of course I was still into Matt. Why wouldn’t I be?
“Um, yeah, I am,” I said. I turned onto my side and propped myself up on my elbow. “And I’m starting to wonder when you’re going to come through with what you promised.”
He turned and positioned himself similarly to me, so we were now facing each other. “Hey, these things take time. Good things come to those who wait.”
“Yeah, well, I’m beginning to think it’s never going to happen.” I plucked a piece of grass out of the ground and flicked it in his direction. “I don’t get the impression he’ll ever be into me, no matter how much you try to change me.”
“What are you talking about? I saw you guys holding hands at Justin’s party the other night.”
I snorted. “He was just helping me up from where I was sitting on the dock. You happened to arrive right after I stood up.”
“Oh.” He plucked his own piece of grass out of the ground and twirled it between his thumb and forefinger.
“What about Riley?” I found myself asking, lowering my gaze to the ground. “Are you two a thing?”
He let the blade of grass drop. “Me and Riley? Nah. I mean, I don’t know. She’s definitely my type, but we haven’t talked about getting together or anything.”
“Something tells me she’d like to.”
Cocking an eyebrow, he said, “Oh yeah? What makes you think that?”
I tapped a finger on my chin as I pretended to think about it for a moment. “Hmm, let’s see. She seems to enjoy stripping in front of you. And finding whatever reason to touch you. And texting you half-naked selfies. The girl wants you. Bad.”
Logan grinned and raked a hand through his hair. “What can I say? I’m irresistible.”
“That can’t possibly be true. I’m able to resist you.”
He scoffed. “I’m sure in the right situation, even you’d be unable to resist me, Dawson.”
I shook my head adamantly. “Nope.”
“Come on, the signs are all there. You’re touching me all the time—”
“Yeah,” I interjected, “to hit or punch you because you just said or did something stupid.”
“And you couldn’t wait to strip for me yesterday—” he continued like I hadn’t even said anything.
“Because you practically begged me to,” I pointed out.
We held each other’s gaze for a moment before starting to laugh and collapsing onto our backs again.
“In all seriousness,” I said as our laughter subsided, “Have we even made any progress where Matt’s concerned? Has he said anything about me? Have you talked to him about me yet?”
“Uh…not yet.”
“What are you waiting for? Am I that much of a lost cause that we need to take all summer to fix me first?”
He gave me a lopsided grin. “No, it’s not that. It’s just…I thought it would be better if this all happened organically, you know? I don’t want to just tell him point blank that he should date you. I want him to come to that realization on his own. Trust me, you’ll want that, too.”
“Okay, but…” I clasped my hands together over my stomach and began twiddling my thumbs. “I haven’t really had many interactions with him yet. How is he supposed to come to the realization he wants to date me if we never even see or talk to each other?”
He appeared to mull that over for a moment. “Good point. Okay, how about this? He’s coming over to my house tomorrow to hang out. What if I suggest we do a group get-together sometime? Like you, me, Riley and Matt. We could all go mini golfing or something. It will give the two of you the chance to get to know each other a little better, and it will give you both an idea of what it would be like to date each other.”
The corners of my mouth tipped downward into a frown. Why did Riley have to be included in this? I didn’t really know her that well yet, and so far, she’d given me no reason not to like her, but I couldn’t help but feel incredibly insecure around her. She was beautiful and perfect. But I just had to remind myself it didn’t matter—she was Matt’s cousin, therefore not my competition.
“That sounds great,” I said. I felt a sudden kink in my neck and reached a hand up and started massaging the spot.
“You okay?” Logan asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “My neck hurts a little, that’s all. You forgot to bring pillows.”
He chuckled. “Here,” he said, stretching out his arm to the side. “You can rest on my arm.”
I lifted my head and he slipped his arm underneath. I was immediately surprised by how soft he was. He was certainly no pillow, but I expected him to feel as hard as a rock, knowing how much the guy worked out. Maybe it was because he wasn’t flexing, or maybe it was because anything was better than the ground.
Absent-mindedly, I moved closer to him and rested my head on his shoulder.
“Is that better?” he asked softly, turning his head slightly so his words vibrated against the top of my head.
I yawned as I nodded. “Much better, thank you.”
If I hadn’t been overcome with a sudden, overwhelming wave of sleepiness, I would have seriously questioned the position we were in right then. If anyone were to stumble upon us, they’d most likely mistake us for a couple having a romantic moment under the stars. But there was nothing romantic here. We were just two neighbors—barely even friends—gazing up at the stars together. For a few minutes, I think we talked about the constellations. We marveled at the possibility that some of the stars we were looking might have burned out long ago. We even took guesses as to which ones they might be. At one point we witnessed a shooting star blaze across the sky and we each made a silent wish.
Eventually, my eyelids grew heavy and I think I might have mumbled something about it being late and how we should get home.
It was the last thing I remembered before closing my eyes and drifting off to sleep in the warmth and comfort of Logan’s embrace...