By the time I returned to the store, after changing into dry clothes, Travis had already left. Fortunately. Yes, there might have been a good chance I regretted what I’d told him about my parents. Why couldn’t I have left it at, “Why yes, Travis, my parents are dead.”?

What was so wrong about him believing that? It sure was better than him knowing that I wasn’t lovable and the people who counted the most had just given up on me.

Not that it mattered what he thought…because it wasn’t like he cared. He wasn’t looking to settle down with a woman and have a happily ever after. He just wanted to make his grandmother happy.

Had I expected him to give me the freaking brilliant idea for the fundraiser? Heck no. That alone made pretending to be his girlfriend worth it. Did I believe he would be able to convince the building owner to let my store stay? No. Not really. But at least some good would come from it when it came to the youth center.

I mean, hello, who wouldn’t want to see a bunch of hockey players go Magic Mike?

After dinner, I turned on my laptop. I was due at the center soon but wanted to work on next week’s column before I left.

Dear Dr. Lovejoy, I typed, but instead of contemplating next week’s question, my thoughts drifted to the one place they shouldn’t have gone—to the kiss in my office.

I could have strangled Lisa when she walked into the room—or hugged her. I wasn’t sure yet which was better. The kiss had been nothing more than a teaser of what I could expect if I’d let things go further.

Did I wish for them to go further? The correct answer was no…except that would be a lie. The way my body reacted to the tease of a kiss meant I was in deep trouble. Yes, I had kissed a lot of guys before. Okay, maybe not a lot, but enough to recognize the difference between those kisses and the one with Travis. His were in a whole other universe.

The problem? I hungered for more than that kiss. A whole lot more than Travis Hamilton was capable of giving. I longed to fall in love with a guy and for him to return the sentiment. That wasn’t asking too much, right? I also longed for a guy who would prove to me that he would never give up on me—the opposite of everyone else in my life.

But maybe this deal with Travis wouldn’t be so bad. I wasn’t just talking about the fundraiser and the chance to keep my store where it was. If he was amenable to it, maybe the deal would include us kissing.

With all those perks rolled into one tidy package, what could go wrong?

Right—back to my column.

I’ve been seeing a guy for a few weeks and really like him. But now I have to do the unthinkable…introduce him to my friends. My past boyfriends were jerks and because of that, my friends are insanely overly protective of me. What should I do?

Sincerely,

Finally Found A Good Guy

I mean, who hadn’t dealt with overly protective friends when it came to boyfriends?

Had Hannah ever been that way? You’d better believe it. But that probably had more to do with the abuse I’d suffered in foster care than anything else. She never wanted to see me get hurt again. Which meant a guy had a better chance of surviving a face-to-face meeting with a Siberian tiger than if he pissed Hannah off.

Dear Finally Found A Good Guy,

The first thing you need to ask yourself is if this boyfriend is everything you think he is. Given your track record, there is a chance you’ve fallen into your regular pattern of being attracted to the wrong guy. If you are positive this guy is different, then you’ll need to give it time before you introduce him to your friends. Make sure he is ready to stand by your side no matter what. A guy who is strong enough to survive whatever your friends throw at him is more likely to stick around for the long haul. In time, he will win your friends’ trust. But if you throw him to the tigers too quickly, your relationship might not have a chance.

At least I didn’t have a pattern. I mean, sure, most guys didn’t make it to date #3, but some had. Hannah had a pattern—a pattern of not giving guys a chance beyond the first date.

Yes, the two of us were quite the pair.

“Will you play foosball with me?” was the first thing Nikki said when I entered the game room at the youth center. The foosball, ping-pong, and hockey tables awaited eagerly to witness my defeat.

I sucked at them all—but at least I was slightly better at foosball.

Nikki and I got into position. “How was school today?” I asked her. Nikki was seven years old and lived with her single mother.

“It was okay. We had a spelling test.” She made a face, her eyes crossing comically.

I laughed. “Went that well, huh?”

“I hate spelling tests. They’re sooo boring.”

“I’ll agree with you there.” Fortunately, God created a life-changing invention called spell check that saved my ass more times than I cared to admit.

I pushed the ball through the hole in the table and the game began. It was only a minute before Nikki scored on me. As much as I would’ve liked to pretend I had let the ball slip past my goalie, it just wasn’t the case.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” Nikki asked.

I shook my head. “No, I’m single.”

She contemplated that for a moment. “Do you want a boyfriend?”

“You don’t need one to be happy.” How was that for a non-answer?

Those early Disney animated princess movies had it all wrong. They had little girls believing you could only be happy if Prince Charming came along and swept you off your feet. But who needed Prince Charming when you were a smart and independent woman? And it was my generation’s job to teach girls that.

Yes, I took my responsibility very seriously.

“What about a girlfriend? Would that make you happy?”

The corners of my mouth twitched up. “No, I’m definitely into guys. But what I mean is that I run a successful store. That makes me happy.”

“Momma’s got a new boyfriend.”

“Does he make her happy?”

Nikki and I could have almost been sisters. Only difference was that while her father wasn’t part of her life, her mother loved Nikki. She willingly sacrificed everything to ensure her daughter felt loved.

Nikki grinned. “Very happy. Maybe he has a brother for you.”

I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing out loud. “Don’t worry, I’m doing fine without you checking if he has a brother.” Or a cousin.

“You sure? Because I really don’t mind.” She said it so seriously, I couldn’t help the laugh that burst free.

“I’m sure.” Of course the memory of Travis kissing me picked that moment to flash in my brain.

He’s probably not even that good a kisser, the reasonable voice in my head said. My lips sighed dreamily—or maybe that was me—and I asked the voice how it enjoyed living in delusional land. The kiss in my office might have been brief, but it had been knock-my-socks-off amazing.

Which left the one burning question I was afraid to ask: would a deeper, fuller kiss be the equivalent of rip-off-my-panties earth-shattering?

I guess I’d be finding out soon enough.

Only I would keep my panties firmly in place.

Which wouldn’t be too hard—I just had to remember the humiliation I’d experienced back in high school.

What happened?

It was Travis’s and my junior year. Our teacher had paired us together for our history project. Yes—there was a good chance I’d been slightly crushing on Travis since transferring to the school two months before that. He had been dating one of the popular girls until their recent breakup.

I was positive he wouldn’t be interested in me. Unlike his ex-girlfriend, my clothes weren’t fashionable or trendy. According to her, I wasn’t good enough to walk the same planet she inhabited.

Nice, huh?

Another awesome lesson I had learned back then was that I was pretty much an open book. She had seen me staring at her ex-boyfriend and decided I was nothing but a creepy stalker. She even threatened to tell the school if I didn’t keep away from him.

Anyway, back to the history project. The day I showed up to work on the project with Travis, my heart was beating something fierce—thanks to Kendra’s threat and my crush on him.

And then I got the update. Travis wasn’t going to be my partner. I had to do the project myself. How did I find this out? His ex-girlfriend had been more than delighted to share that with me. She always was a generous person. She also told me that Travis hadn’t been interested in working with a reject like me. A reject who was part of the foster-care system.

The good news in all of this? I got top marks on the project.

The second piece of good news? I whipped his ex-girlfriend’s ass on it. Of course, she took this like the spoiled brat that she was and accused me of cheating. The teacher ignored her. Apparently he wasn’t her #1 fan, either.

So there you had it—the reason for why I shouldn’t have liked Travis. Or at least why teenage me had been destroyed by Kendra’s comments. But after spending time with him during the past few days, I was starting to question the truth of what she had told me.

Now that I thought about it, I didn’t remember seeing Travis much during that final month of school. He had been there, but not as much as before. He’d barely been in our history class. But because of my teenage insecurities, I had been easy prey for Kendra and her cruelty.

Now satisfied that she didn’t have to help me find a boyfriend, Nikki got down to business—which involved beating my ass for the next two games.

And while this was happening, I tried not to think about pretending to be Travis’s girlfriend, tried not to think about the kiss he and I had shared. And I also tried not to think about how much I craved kissing him again.

Right—I would’ve had better success swimming across the Atlantic…to England.