Eagle-eye Granny was better than any video camera ever made and that’s a fact. You see I spent most of my summers at her house, and that was pretty much the only time when any of us in the neighborhood had time to get into trouble—during those long, lazy summer days. Otherwise it was an endless parade of school, homework, chores, dinner, and bed. You know the routine.
In the summer, we got to stretch out a bit, spread our wings. We were all over the neighborhood and out of the watchful eyes of our captors for long periods of time. Now when I say “get into trouble”, I don’t mean that we ever did anything really bad. No. We were all pretty good kids and like most kids at that age—twelve to fourteen—basically just grateful to say a swear word or two out of earshot of any adult.
The particular summer I want to tell you about I turned thirteen. Yep, I was just a budding teenager. Well, there was this boy who had moved in to the neighborhood a couple of months before school had ended and all the girls just drooled over him. You could always tell when he was walking down the hall in school because of the chorus of giggles that would erupt as he strolled by.
He had dirty blonde hair, big brown eyes, and he was muscular. Very. Sort of grown up looking for the age of fourteen for sure. And he had this smile that wasn’t quite a smile, too. Like he was daring you to make it burst into a full-blown grin or something.
Anyway, he lived about half a mile from me. Sort of convenient. LOL All summer long we flirted back and forth. You know how kids that age flirt. Love taps. What’s a love tap? Well, that’s when you don’t know how to really flirt and so you hit or poke your crush. Lol He’d chase me and hit me. I’d chase him and hit him back.
Well, summer rolled into August and kept right on going. It was one week before school was to start again and something hadn’t happened yet. The Kiss. I’d been thinking an awful lot about kissing him, too. AND wondering if he was thinking the same. It’s just as hard to tell what a boy is thinking as it is a man, isn’t it? But he finally made his move.
Every day we were all expected at dinner, of course, then we were allowed to roam a bit more before dark. But after dark? Not the girls. The boys could stay out late. Not the girls. And we all know why, don’t we? LOL I’ve often wondered why it is we can’t get into the same kind of trouble during the day as we do at night.
It was time for dinner and our group of friends dispersed, each going in the direction of their house. I was walking along the path to my house when I heard a thunderous sound behind me. I turned to look and it was HIM! He ran past me, stopped, and turned around.
“Meet me in your granny’s gazebo at nine.”
He took off running again. HUH?
“I can’t go out that late. I’m not allowed!” I screamed at his backside.
He kept running and never replied. So then I had to go all through dinner wondering if he heard me or just ignored me. AND? How the hell was I going to get outside to meet him? My stomach was in knots.
I made it through dinner and went to my room. No TV. Unusual for sure but I couldn’t stand to be in the room with anyone. My mind was on HIM. During the summer we were allowed to stay up late but granny had this thing about bedroom doors being open until it was bedtime. So being in my room didn’t do me much good. Every time Granny walked down the hall she could clearly see me. Finally, I did the only thing I could do. I lied. Yep, up and lied to my granny. As soon as I took a bath I told her I was sick and wanted to go to bed. And I just knew I was going straight to Hell. But at the time Hell didn’t seem so bad when compared to meeting HIM.
So with lights out and door closed, I got into bed with a change of clothes just outside the window. LOL As it was summer, the window was open—no AC in the house. The fan in the corner was humming its little song, and I worried that I would not be able to hear Granny if she turned the door knob. The clock on the night stand ticked ticked ticked. After a few minutes, Granny opened the door. I pretended to be asleep. She placed her hand on my forehead, checking for fever, and then quietly left the room, closing the door.
Fifteen more minutes to go, and it was a long fifteen minutes. Looking back on it now? God, it was like I was about to take part in a Black Ops adventure. Lol All I needed was that black and green paint on my face and I’d be all set to crawl out that window and into the moonlight—stealth mode, wiggling on the ground and making my way to the target. Or something like that. LOL
Finally I’m out the window skimming into my pink shorts and t-shirt and running around the house to the back of my granny’s yard to meet him. I got to the gazebo and he was nowhere in sight. I sat down and waited. About a minute later he put his hands over my eyes from behind me and said, “Guess who.” LOL Well, it was all kind of silly, and I haven’t thought about any of this in years, but he did come around and sit next to me—knees and hips touching.
After waiting forever and ever, he leaned over and touched his lips to mine. His lips were dry and tight. It was probably his first kiss too. The kiss didn’t make me all dreamy-eyed or get me started on wedding plans either. LOL But I do remember the scent of Bazooka bubble gum. He was chewing some and didn’t offer me any. So my first kiss was uneventful except for the major scolding I got when I climbed back through my window to discover Granny sitting on my bed laying in wait—AND all that anticipation of something special about to happen. Granny and me had a nice long chat. I fessed up and all was well.
Now the hero and heroine in my new contemporary novella, Twelve Days of Love had a much better first kiss. Had my first kiss been like theirs I’d have been picking out silverware patterns for sure! Here’s a sneak peek at that first kiss for Eden and Nick.
First Kiss Excerpt:
At some point she’d turned and mimicked his position, making them eye level. Their glasses were empty, so was the bottle. He reached over, smoothing her silky hair from her face. His fingers trailed down her cheek to her chin, tilting it upward. She closed her eyes to reveal dark, crescent lashes.
Leaning in, hesitant, he brushed his lips across hers in a soft, languid caress. Her mouth moved slightly and a little moan sounded low in her throat. More. He slid his hand around to her nape and brought her closer. He deepened the kiss, releasing only a fraction of the passion burning inside him. She opened for him and their tongues entwined. The tension in him slowly eased and gave way to his heart. A rush of emotions blended with his physical needs and life suddenly had real meaning for him.
Nick had died and gone to heaven.
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Tender yet erotic, Nick’s kiss ignited sexual yearnings inside Eden she’d tried so hard to ignore whenever he was around. For months, he’d continually awakened her desires, and not for one second had she guessed anything would come of it. But here they were, sharing a kiss.
Eden wound her arms around him, reveling in the taste of his mouth, the hint of lemon drops forever on his breath, his tongue dancing with hers. As his hands roamed across her back, the kiss became fevered and before she knew it, her leg had moved between his.
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What was YOUR first kiss like?
