An Old Fashioned Romance

From Love Me by Marcia Lynn McClure

He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. He seemed simultaneously relieved and rattled. “Then don’t let him kiss you,” he rather ordered.

“But…why not?” she asked. Jacey had no intention of letting Chris Santore kiss her, yet his interest in the matter had far more than merely peaked her interest. Her heart hammered, her body tingled from his touch as she ventured “Somebody’s going to kiss me first someday. At least, I hope someone will.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Me.” Jacey stopped breathing, her arms and legs bursting into goose-bumps, the butterflies in her stomach suddenly multiplying a hundred fold.

“You’re teasing me and I don’t think it’s very funny,” she said. Surely he was teasing her. Surely he did not mean it. Yet, every fiber of her being hoped he did.

“I’m not teasing,” he mumbled, taking her face in his hands. Jacey was surprised at the way her mouth suddenly grew hot and began to water. She couldn’t tear her gaze from his perfect face, held her breath again when his thumbs traveled over her lips.

“Don’t let him kiss you, Jacey,” he whispered. “Don’t ever let anybody kiss you…anybody but me.”

Jacey’s heart beat with such force in her chest it was nearly painful, she felt like crying, laughing, sobbing all at the same time. Tears gathered in her eyes as she looked up at him. Could he really be serious? Was he telling her, he cared for her? Cared for her as more than just a childhood friend?

“R…really?” Jacey stammered. It couldn’t be! It was the fabric of every one of Jacey’s dreams…his adoration, his love.

“Really,” he whispered, as he gazed down at her, his thumb caressing her cheek.

“Nobody? Ever?” she asked, unable to believe what was happening. She smiled as a tear escaped her eyes and trickled over her cheek and teased, “Not even Donny?”

He chuckled and shook his head. “He’s married,” he said.

Jacey nodded and breathed a giggle, saying, “Not even Elvis?”

“The king is dead, sexy angel,” he said, brushing her other cheek with the back of his hand.

“Just you then?” she asked in a disbelieving whisper.

“Just me,” he told her.

Jacey couldn’t stop more tears from escaping her eyes and traveling over her cheek as she whispered, “Okay, then.”

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