She was so embarrassed. Why would anybody ruin her name paper? She looked over to see her table buddy Jason (The Boy!) smiling a toothless grin from ear to ear as he patted her chair “I think this is your seat, Kit Kat,” he said.
All the kids started laughing and Katie just slumped down in her chair, furious at her table buddy aka The Boy aka Jason Sloan.
Jason never admitted to being the one who had defaced her beautiful rainbow-colored name paper but she knew deep down in her heart he was the culprit. And she would never forget it, just like no one ever forgot the nickname. From that day on, Katie Lawson was Kit Kat.
Well, to all the kids in Harper’s Crossing Elementary anyway.
Present Day
His deep voice interrupted her thoughts now.
“Wow, all this time and you know it’s me without even having to turn around. I guess that means I still got it,” he said with his trademark cocky tone. A tone that had always amused Katie, not that she would ever let him know that. His ego was big enough.
Jason had had girls swooning over him for as long as she had known him. In fact, Katie maintained to this day that their sixth grade math teacher, Mrs. Carson, had had a crush on him. Whenever Jason would turn on the charm, usually to get out of detention for not completing his homework or being tardy, Mrs. Carson would just smile as her cheeks turned a light shade of red and say, “Oh, Jason, if you were just ten years older…”
Mrs. Carson never finished the sentence but Katie always knew what she meant, and Jason never got detention—at least in that class.
It’s not like his charm only worked on older women either. Jason had always had girls eating out of his hand and he knew it. There wasn’t a single girl in Harper’s Crossing who wouldn’t do just about anything to get Jason’s attention.
Well, there was one girl. Katie.
“Oh yeah, you still got it, Mr. Sloan,” Katie said, forcing herself to speak, trying to buy herself even a few more seconds before she would have to face him. “If by ‘it’ you mean the maturity of a five-year-old, then yes, you definitely still have it.”
Her words sounded strained between her shallow breaths. Not only was she having trouble keeping the oxygen from escaping her lungs, it also seemed as though all of the oxygen had somehow disappeared around her. Deliberately and methodically, she slowly breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, trying desperately to remain as calm as possible.
She reminded herself firmly that she had to be calm in hopes of staving off panic attack #2. She absolutely couldn’t think about how humiliating it would be to fall to pieces in front of Jason or fear would take over—her heart would start to race, her breathing would quicken, and it would all be downhill from there. Reaching up with heavy arms, Katie shut the trunk of the car so that she could lean on it for strength.
“Come on Kit Kat, you know you always loved that nickname,” Katie heard Jason say playfully, but his voice sounded as if it were coming from a long distance, across a great expanse. She felt his hand grasp her arm, and then she felt her body being turned in his direction.
As Jason’s fingers wrapped around her arm, they caused tingling sensations in places located much lower south and not nearly as innocent as the place where he was touching her. Hmm, that wasn’t a very good sign. It also wasn’t doing a whole heck of a lot to help her in the campaign to keep her heart rate under control and slow her breathing. Nope. Not one little bit.
As she turned, her eyes alighted on a broad chest that—oh my, yes—filled out his white t-shirt quite well. Her mouth instantly filled with saliva like one of Pavlov’s dogs. Hmmm, she thought, so this is what they mean when they say something looks ‘mouth-watering.’ She totally got it now! In an effort to avoid drooling, she swallowed, but to her own ears it sounded like a shockingly loud gulp.
Slowly, Katie moved her eyes up the length of the solid, strong, statue-like figure standing mere inches away from her. She paused momentarily to admire—against her will—the smooth olive skin at the base of Jason’s neck. She couldn’t help herself. It just so nicely contrasted with the stark white color of the t-shirt’s v-neck it was peeking out of.
Unconsciously, she licked her lips and saw the pulse on Jason’s neck jump. Her eyes darted up to meet his golden brown ones, which caused the aforementioned tingling places to start pulsing.
Katie felt her heart beating so hard she thought it might beat right out of her chest. And the mantra began.
You can breathe. Just breathe. Breathe in and out slowly. You can breathe.
*
As Jason stood in front of Katie, who was wearing a simple grey tank top and blue jeans, he was momentarily paralyzed with shock at the effect she had on him.