Page 11 of For Emery

“What do you think you’re doing?” my mother hissed when Emery was out of earshot.

I wrapped my arms around my knees, knowing I didn’t have a damn clue what I was doing.

“She’s fragile. You know it and I know it,” my mother continued.

“She’s tougher than she looks,” I assured her.

“She’s also fifteen. You’re almost eighteen, Jordan.”

“I know that.”

“And despite the age gap, you know what else could happen. Your daddy had the talk with you.”

“Please don’t do this right now,” I groaned.

“Do what? Give it to you straight?”

“She’s my best friend. And if you must know, she’s never kissed a boy before. She wanted me to be her first.”

I watched as the knowledge registered. My mother was a hopeless romantic and quickly stifled a grin. And though the news hit her like Cupid’s arrow, she still pegged me with her eyes. “You promise that’s all it was?”

I thought for a beat longer than I probably should have, then nodded.

She inhaled a deep breath before releasing it. “From now on when she’s here, I want the door open.”

I nodded, knowing she meant when Emery visited during the day. She clearly had no idea of our nighttime sleeping routine.

But it didn’t matter. Emery wouldn’t return tonight. I just wondered what awkwardness tomorrow night would bring.

Emery

I closed Jordan’s front door and stepped outside, my smile stretching a mile wide. He kissed me. Jordan Grady finally kissed me. And it didn’t even matter why.

My body hummed as my fingers drifted over my lips. They were prickly in the most delicious way as I traced the path Jordan’s lips had taken. Was that what love felt like? Because I was pretty certain, since I was eight years old, I’d loved Jordan Grady. He was the boy who saved me. The one who protected me. The one who made my darkest days bright.

I stared up at the stars speckling the sky. We country folk were privy to a magical display. And tonight, they were even more spectacular because Jordan kissed me. He actually kissed me. He’d been my first kiss. And if things went the way I hoped for, he’d be my last.

I knew how he’d always looked at me. I knew he’d only ever seen me as his best friend. But now that we were in school together, something had changed. The jealous way he glared at me when I walked by him in the hallways with different boys. The way he dropped everything and everyone to catch up with me when I walked alone. The way he tried to avoid being around girls whenever I came around.

He had to feel something.

But where did we go from there?

We’d kissed. That was for darn sure. But had he been truthful when he said he was only doing it first so no one else could?

I’d never been kissed by a boy before, but I was pretty confident the way he kissed me wasn’t the way you kissed your best friend. How long would he have kissed me had his mom not interrupted? Would he have stopped or would it have gone farther?

I knew I was only fifteen, and I definitely wasn’t the type of girl to lose my virginity to just any ole boy. I planned to wait. Until I was married. Until my future was a definite. If my mom and stepdad’s relationship taught me anything, it was I wanted only the best for me. And I was willing to wait to get it…and give it.

I nearly floated across the lawn separating our houses and approached my front porch, dropping down so I could stay outside a little while longer. I was too blissed-out to step inside to have reality slap me in the face. I wanted to enjoy the elation filling my body. I wanted to bask in the knowledge that I’d finally been kissed by a boy. A boy I would willingly give my heart to if only he’d let me.

“Emery?” my mother whispered from inside the house.

I swung around.

She stood in the doorway looking at me through the screen door. “I need you to get inside right now.”

The urgency in her voice had me jumping to my feet. “What’s wrong?”

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