Chapter Fifteen

Happy Monday... Woops, it's Tuesday. After a four day weekend, I was lucky to be able to find my way to my office. Remembering what day of the week it was became sort of irrelevant. And, to top it all off, it was an insanely busy day filled with exciting things like reviewing piping & instrumentation diagrams and material selection guides. If any of you wondered why I long to be a writer, that last sentence should tell you. Bluchhh.... boring. And it's my life. At least they pay me. A little.

Ohhhhh.... Chapter 15 has all kinds of good Logan scenes in it. I truly love Logan. Sweet, handsome, rich, famous. I NEED a Logan. My husband and kids would get over my defection eventually. Elyssa would maybe even understand. :) Just kidding, but seriously, what female wouldn't love a Logan? Okay, I'm gushing, but he is a figment of my imagination. I'm supposed to like him. I just hope you all do too.

Enjoy Chapter 15. It's happiness and sunshine and fluttering butterflies, and I like the happiness ans sunshine and fluttering butterflies. Smile

Chapter 15


“Kate… go flip the hamburgers for me.” Mom’s voice rang through the open back door.
“Yeah, Kate. Go flip the hamburgers,” Logan mocked. The splash of water alerted me to his attack. Before I could react, I was pushed under.
“Arrrr…. Pltttt! Logan!” I came up spitting water and launched myself at his chest. I’m small, but I’m also strong. No way was some weak little Hollywood boy going to dunk me and get away with it!
I might even have been successful if that same Hollywood boy’s tanned, muscular, perfectly sculpted, partially naked body hadn’t distracted me. God, I loved Houston and my backyard pool. There was nothing like a parentally sanctioned reason to see your boyfriend nearly naked.
“Oh, no you don’t… Come here,” Logan purred (in a masculine way, of course). He pulled me to his chest, kissing me deeply.
“Kathryn Swanson! Flip the hamburgers,” Mom called to me again.
“Don’t worry, Kate. I’ve got them,” Kyle folded his tall body out of the lawn chair and headed towards the grill.
Kyle was only one of the changes to my life in the past few days. I swear if my life didn’t stop changing, I was going to get whiplash. Just when I got used to not hating Kyle and his past with Mom, I started liking him.
Then there was Logan. He’d arrived at my house about five minutes after I hung up with Melanie and hadn’t left since. Okay, he went back to the set and to the hotel at night, but when he wasn’t working or sleeping, we were together.
I cried myself to sleep while Logan held me that first day - the shock of Melanie’s understanding and Erik’s anger and had hit me hard once the adrenaline of my calls had worn off. I felt terrible crying about Erik in front of him. Sure, Logan was my present, but Erik was a huge part of my past. My head still hurt when I thought about how I’d hurt him, but since that first day I hadn’t cried again.
Logan and Kate. Kate and Logan. My heart still sang with the thought of us. Kogan or Late….. You know, like “Bennifer”. Ha! I was just waiting for the gossip magazines to start calling us something. They certainly were paying us enough attention to expect some creativity. It still weirded me out that anyone cared about my love life, but for some bizarre reason, everyone did.
With all this drama in my life, I forgot about the 4th of July. It just snuck up on me. And I loved the 4th of July. There were parades and cookouts, hotdogs and hamburgers, and bottle rockets and sprinklers. Plus spectacularly enormous firework displays. Mankato always had the best firework displays. The 4th of July would have been my favorite holiday if someone had just thrown in some presents.
“Thanks, Kyle. Mom always burns the hamburgers. Wait until you see how she destroys potato salad.”
“Funny, Kate. I don’t seem to remember you having too much trouble eating four helpings of my famous potato salad last 4th of July.” Mom laughed as she walked out the backdoor. Her words might have been directed towards me, but her eyes were only on Kyle as he flipped the burgers. It’d been like that for awhile now. Gag me! Gross!
“I didn’t want to hurt your feelings….” She really wasn’t a great cook, but tradition dictated I eat multiple servings of her undercooked, overly seasoned potato salad.
“I’m sure I’ll love it, Bridge. The great Anna – retired FBI agent, mother, fighter of terrorists, and keeper of poor Jake’s heart – can do anything, including making a 4th of July potato salad.” Kyle’s arm snaked around Mom’s waist and pulled her close. “Jake would tell Anna she was fabulous.”
Kyle bent Mom backwards into a low sweeping dip and kissed her full on the lips. As he spoke, his voice and demeanor transformed his bathing suited body into the chivalrous persona of Jake, Anna’s ex from Midnight’s Dawn and determined suitor from Dawn’s New Light. Jake, right! Kyle might be an amazing actor, but even I (or maybe especially me) could tell it was an excuse to touch my mother. Now that I almost forgave him for being Mom’s first love, I sort of got a happy feeling in the vicinity of my heart when I saw Mom blush prettily. She deserved to be happy.
But, come on, there were other people around. Get a room! Oh, God, No! I definitely didn’t need that picture in my mind!
“If we’re going into character…” Logan transformed into the villainous Peter, pulling me roughly into his arms. “Kathryn, you are mine, and no one, especially your mother, can save you!”
His mouth punished mine passionately. The water lapped around us gently as I melted into him. We broke apart when laughter and clapping broke out from the porch. Mom and Kyle! Kill me now! I’d just practically made out with my boyfriend in front of my Mom and her “friend”. Ichhh!!
“Very Peter, Logan. Now let my daughter go. Kate at least. You can keep “Sarah” if you’d like.”
Oh, yeah. Savannah. I’d tried not to think of Savannah over the past few days. I specifically didn’t think about Logan kissing Savannah – even if it was while in character. I frankly didn’t like to think of Logan anywhere near my traitorous ex-friend. Knowing that he didn’t like the idea either only helped a little bit.
“No way, Bridgette. I’m keeping Kate. I’ll let Sarah rot in the bowels of the oilrig. She can go up in smoke with it when I blow it up.”
“It’s a shame I have to rescue her,” Mom grimaced. I agreed. I personally liked the idea of Savannah spread in little pieces across the Gulf of Mexico.
Kyle laughed as he flipped the hamburgers off the grill and onto a plate. That plate joined Mom’s infamous potato salad, chips, dip, fruit, and an enormous plate of chocolate chip cookies on the large, umbrella covered picnic table. “If you three are done trying to figure out how to kill Savannah, I think we can eat.”
Though killing Savannah seemed a perfectly pleasant way to spend the afternoon, Logan and I climbed out of the pool and joined Mom and Kyle at the table. Mom loaded my plate high with food. I inhaled the heap without worrying about the fact that my bikini would show even the slightest stomach pudge (Hello! Nobody can hide that amount of food. Even if they are normally thin!). If I couldn’t have presents on the 4th, I would eat. It was my tradition, and Logan would just have to love me - stomach pudge and all.
Which of course he did. Well, maybe not “love” but definitely a bone deep connection combined with an overpowering chemistry. It was way amazing!
I was contently watching the chocolate chips in my chocolate chip cookie melt in the blazing Texas sun, overstuffed and content, when Kyle spoke. His voice was strangely formal. “Kate, I was hoping I could ask you something today.”
Well, I had been content.
“Okay….,” I replied. Oh, hell. What now? Mom looked as surprised as I felt. Not a good sign.
Kyle first looked at Mom and then back at me. His eyes were heartbreakingly tender. “Kate, I know you’re aware your Mom and I used to date. It’s been a long time, nearly eighteen years now, but I’ve never forgotten her. She was, is, my great love.”
Kyle’s eyes were drawn to Mom’s once again. The look that passed between them was embarrassingly intimate.
“Kyle, you don’t need to…,” Mom said.
“Yes, I do, Bridgette.” He kissed her reassuringly before turning back to me.
“Kate, you and your Mom have been alone for a long time. It must be hard for you to see her with me now.”
Hell yes, it was – or had been, but I was wrong. If the look in Mom’s eyes was any indication, Kyle Thomas was the fulfillment of her dreams, more than any career or movie would ever be.
“So, I’d like to formally ask you for permission to be a part of her life, your life. I love her, Kate. I made a horrible, unforgivable mistake giving her up once; I can’t conceive of doing it again.”
“Kyle…,” I started before my throat closed up. Mom had been mine for a long time but there had been empty spaces. Spaces that even as a child I’d been aware I couldn’t never fill. I’d accepted those spaces and ignored them until they seemed normal. But they weren’t normal. The radiant joy shining from Mom since she reunited with Kyle proved that.
Kyle’s face was hesitant as I stood up from my chair. “Kyle, I …,” I stepped towards him and held out my arms. I didn’t finish my sentence before being pulled into his embrace.
“Thank you, Kate. This means more than you will ever know.”
I peaked around his shoulder to see a look of radiant joy on my Mom’s face. “Be happy, Mom. I love you.”
Instantly, Mom joined our hug. “I love you too, Katie,” she whispered.
The happy feeling from earlier in the day while watching Mom and Kyle expanded and grew. This was the way things were supposed to be; I was certain of it. Along the way, life got in the way, but incredibly, Mom and Kyle found their way back together.
They waited until they thought Logan and I wouldn’t notice, but as soon as the table was cleared and the food put away, Mom and Kyle made their excuses. People to visit, things to do…… Logan and I laughed as we watched them hurry out the front door. They had waited eighteen years. I (almost) couldn’t even find it in myself to be grossed out by the whole scene.
As the afternoon transitioned into night, Logan and I slipped into his sleek silver car to head downtown for Houston’s version of fireworks. I doubted they would be anywhere close to as amazing as Mankato’s, where you could lay on the grass surrounding the local college and watch the fireworks boom overhead. There wasn’t an option to miss them, though, not with Logan beside me this year. He’d be setting off a whole different version of fireworks than the city of Houston.
“You know, Kate, it would have been easier if we had called a car to drive us over,” Logan said as he got out. We’d parked in a tall parking garage blocks from the park where the fireworks would be shot off.
I waited to speak until he came around the car to open the door for me (nice mid-western boy that he was).
“That would sort of ruin the incognito look we’re going for, don’t you think?”
We’d changed into our “normal teenagers out for a casual night on the town” look before leaving the house. I wore Capri jeans and a t-shirt, flip flops, and the required hat – in my case a girly trucker hat. Logan wore the guy equivalent – jean shorts, t-shirt, tennis shoes, and a Houston Astros baseball cap. I felt a bit exposed without my sunglasses, but we’d decided sunglasses at night would scream “movie star.” In the last month, I’d learned that screaming “movie star” wasn’t as cool as I always thought it would be. Tonight, I wanted my new boyfriend to myself. No photographers, over excited fans, or friendly Texans were invited.
“I suppose so,” he grumbled.
“Plus this way, you can hold my hand while we walk,” I said.
“There is that,” he grinned at me with an evil look in his eyes that I’d learned meant wonderfully sinful thoughts. “Or, I could just do this.”
He twisted around to lift me up and sit me on top of the car trunk, pulling my legs around his waist. When my legs were securely clasped, he positioned his hands on my rear and pulled me even closer. I could feel his hardness as he kissed me with unrestrained desire. I lost all sense of time and space as I kissed him back. Only when we were panting for breath, did he pull back.
“Or,” I gasped, “ you could just do that.”
We both laughed as he set me down on the ground and reached into the back seat to grab a blanket. “Katie dear, you are definitely too delicious for words. I’ve wanted to do that all day.”
“And I’ve wanted you to do that all day. But, come on Mr. St. James. Let’s go see some fireworks. We can make our own later,” my eyes smoldered with the desire he’d set loose. Savannah had one thing right – little Katie had a wickedly passionate side.
Okay, on my good days, maybe slutty.
We made our way towards the park hand in hand. The sidewalks were packed with families and couples heading in the same direction. Although we did get some strange looks, nobody approached us.
The park was even more crowded than the sidewalks, especially near the bandstand where the Houston Symphony was playing patriotic music. We avoided all of that, choosing instead a partially deserted grassy spot well away from the stage.
We spread the blanket on the soft grass and laid down moments before the distant lights of the bandstand dimmed and the first boom shot through the air. A radio played, adding a patriotic musical score to the play of light across the sky and the roar of the exploding fireworks.
Logan and I lay quietly in each other’s arms. We didn’t speak. Being together was enough. The flashing colors, the deafening sound, the light breeze playing in the leaves above our heads – it all served to weave a magical spell around us. Our hearts beat in time with each colorful explosion.
As the last flash of the finale shot into the air, Logan leaned over and gave me a kiss. It was soft and sweet – a sharp contrast to the passion of the garage, but in spite of the innocence of the kiss, my heart started to beat faster.
That I, simple Kate Swanson from Mapleton, Minnesota, was lying in the arms of Logan St. James was incredible. That Logan St. James was just a normal guy who could enjoy hamburgers and fireworks and kissing me while laying on a blanket in a park was even more incredible.
“You will never regret choosing me, Kate. I swear I’ll make this your best summer ever.” Emotion laced his words.
Promises, promises… I smiled up into his beautiful eyes and willed his lips forward for a second kiss. He was right. Tonight was just the start. I could feel it in my heart. Mom and Kyle were finally together. Logan and I were together. It was going to be the most spectacular summer ever.

© 2008-2009 Elizabeth Johnson