"Let me ask you something," he said.
I waited, my insides twirling around. I'd do about anything for him not to be mad.
"What if next time you let me kiss you?"
The next time. That there'd be a next time meant he wasn't all that mad.
"Would that be okay?" he asked.
I swallowed hard. "That would be ... fine."
"Just fine?" he asked.
Better than fine. It'd be heavenly. Amazing. Perfect. I ran out of adjectives.
"No, more than fine."
He smiled and took hold of the ends of my hair, rolling it between his fingers. "Okay then. 'Til next time."
-----
Jackson Phillips moved in next door to Lucy MacKenzie, bringing with him a childhood memory of summer came and a dare. Kiss Jackson Phillips.
But what a fourteen-year-old would do to impress her friends changes in three years. Plus, Jackson isn't the same as he was. He's taller, more handsome ... and far wiser.
Clean Reads for teens by best-selling author, SUZANNE D. WILLIAMS. A novella of 24,000 words.