“Okay, you’re on, Rhett.”
I tug on her arm a little bit. “Come over here.”
She kicks her shoes off and climbs across the mattress until she’s resting in the crook of my arm. She fits next to me like she’s always belonged there, and I realize this game isn’t going to be as easy as I thought it was. Now that she’s close, all I want to do is scoop her up and hold her, forgetting about the game entirely.
But as soon as the first question flashes on the screen, it’s game on. “What famous document begins: "When in the course of human events. .?”
I yell out, “The Declaration of Independence!”
“Wrong!” She yells, even though it’s the right answer.
“Why is it wrong?”
“You forgot to say, “what is” before your answer. No kiss for you.”
“Okay, fine, but give me a chance to redeem myself. I’m not a quitter.”
The next question is up. “What Alabama city saw state troopers attack Civil Rights marchers on Edmund Pettis Bridge?”
“What is Selma!” I yell with excitement. I got it right and remembered her rule. “I owe you a kiss, Kinsley West.”
She pushes up on her elbow so she’s looking down at me, and for a minute, I think she’s about to cash in without waiting for me to kiss her first. “Now?”
“Now’s good.” I cup her cheek in my hand, not even caring we’re missing questions. I have what I want already. “You’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever kissed, Sunny.” My lips inch closer to hers, but right before I have her, she turns her head, giving me her cheek instead.
“I’m sorry,” she says, hopping off my bed, and reaching for her sneakers. “I should go.”
“What’s wrong? I wasn’t trying to pressure you. You know that, right?”
She concentrates on her shoe laces, not even looking at me when she speaks. “I’m sorry. It’s not you. I just can’t do this.”
Before I know what’s even happening, she’s running out of my bedroom toward the stairs. I’m hot on her heels for the simple fact that she can’t keep running away from me like this. Not until she explains why it keeps happening. “Talk to me, Sunny. What’s going on?”
She runs her fingers through my hair, both frustrated and angry, but I can’t figure out why. What did I do to make her so upset when we were fine a minute before? She doesn’t look like she wants me to touch her, but I do anyway, resting my hands on her shoulders. “Tell me, Sunny. I want to make this better.”
“I don’t want to run away from you, Rhett. I really don’t.”
I rub her back the way I did in class this morning. “Then don’t. Stay with me.”
“Can we sit down on the couch for a minute? I’m sorry.”
“We can go anywhere you want. I don’t want you to leave, but I don’t want you to be upset, either.”
“The couch is fine.”
I lead her over to the sectional, sitting her on my lap. “Start at the beginning and don’t say it’s nothing—because it’s definitely something.”
She nods her head, and I sigh in relief. I’m not sure I could take another rejection from her when I’m trying to show her how much I care about her.
“Yesterday in your car, that was my first time.” She pauses, her voice quivering as she says the words to me. “You were my first kiss, Rhett.”
I lean my head back against the couch, closing my eyes as I whisper to myself. “Shit.” Kinsley shifts on my lap, and I realize I need to say something to her. Something that isn’t a swear word. “You mean you’ve never done anything—like ever?”
My sweet girl shakes her head and I can see the moment she panics, the moment she assumes I’m not going to want a thing to do with her now that I know how inexperienced she is. She stands up, immediately pulling my jersey over her head and handing it back to me. “I’ll call Carson for a ride.”
Is she crazy? “Whoa, wait a minute. You’re not leaving.” I didn’t want Carson near her before, but now that she’s told me she’s as pure as they come, I don’t even want his name to fall from her lips.
She wrings her hands together, nervously. “You don’t want me to leave?”
“No, not at all. Sit down, please.” I hand my jersey back to her. “And put this back on. I still want you to wear it to the game.”
“Really?”
I wait for her to pull her head through the hole, and once it’s back where it belongs, I continue. “I had no idea, Kinsley. I assumed you were experienced. I mean, I was hoping you weren’t, but if I had known last night was your first kiss, it wouldn’t have happened in my truck.”
“Does everyone assume I’m a slut because I don’t have parents telling me what not to do?”
Laughing, I shake my head. She took what I said the wrong way. “No, Sunny. Nobody thinks that. I assumed it because I’m attracted to you, and I know a lot of guys in school are, too. I never thought I’d be the first one to kiss your lips.”
“Now you’re talking nonsense, Rhett.”
“You don’t see yourself the way I do, but trust me, I wouldn’t make it up, and I really wouldn’t want to be with you if you were a slut. I mean, flash was kind of a slut, but -.” She smacks me in the chest before I can continue. As hard as I try not to laugh, I can’t hold it in.
“She was slutty, wasn’t she. I still can’t believe I did that.”
“Shit happens, but let’s talk about this kiss.”
She groans like it’s a painful topic. Nothing about kissing Sunny will ever be painful. It only hurts when I can’t kiss her. “Do we have to?”
“We have to, Kinsley. I should have done so much better. Your first kiss should be so awesome you run home and write about it in your little, pink diary. The one with the tiny metal key you keep under your pillow.” Again, she laughs at me. I assumed all chicks had a diary. At least they always seem to in the movies.
“I don’t have a diary, Rhett. At least not since I was ten.”
“Well, even if you don’t, you should want to gossip about it—like girls do. Did you tell Becca we kissed?”
She looks down at her hands again, biting on her bottom lip. “Not really.”
“Because it wasn’t memorable. See, I gotta do better.”
“It was memorable, Rhett. I was just terrible at it, and didn’t want anyone to know I messed it up. That’s why I ran away. You caught me off guard, and then I panicked.”
She’s gone an entire day thinking she’s a terrible kisser. “You’re really serious right now? Kissing you was awesome, Sunny. Really fuckin’ awesome.”
“You don’t want to hurt my feelings, so you’re being nice.”
“Holding a door for you is nice. Carrying your backpack is nice, too. Nothing about kissing you is nice. It’s the best thing ever.” I inch my way toward her. She gets one warning this time. “I’m going to kiss you again, right now.”
I reach out for her porcelain skin, holding her face like it could shatter if I’m not careful. This kiss is already more intimate than our first. I’m not holding her so she can’t run away. I’m holding her because she deserves to be cherished.
Never taking her eyes off me, she leans into my arms, slowly licking her lips with her tongue. My eyes fixate on that bottom lip of hers as her teeth rake over it ever so slightly. I watch her until I’m too close to see and can only feel.
We start out slow, and like I told her before, nothing about kissing her is nice. As her lips tangle with mine, she gains more and more confidence. Little by little she stops worrying and starts feeling it the way I am. Already it’s ten times better than the kiss we shared in my truck—this is the one that matters. This kiss is our game changer.
I show her with each swipe of my tongue exactly how much I want her—that she’s mine. Laying her down on the cushions, I’m careful not to put my weight on her as I move over top of her, but she’s latched onto my shirt so tightly, she doesn’t give me a choice to go anywhere other than where I’m at.
My arms are shaking from holding myself up for so long, but I don’t want to stop kissing her. I pull away for a second, my eyes darting back and forth between her lips and her gorgeous brown eyes. A slow, easy smile breaks out on my face. “You’re sure you’ve never done that before, Sunny?”