Free I Kissed The Boy Next Door by Suzanne D. Williams

enough.”
    I stuck my hands deep in the soapy water. Travis would have to get it out of his system. He got like that sometime. He’d have something in his noggin and he couldn’t shake it loose until he’d examined it from all angles.
    “You know if you hurt her I’ll kill you.”
    I blew out a loud breath, letting him know I was still listening.
    “Why would I hurt her if I love her?”
    My chest compressed, and it was like no air could get in or out. I gulped once, twice, and gripped the sides of the sink.
    “Sis? You all right?”
    No, I wasn’t all right. I was hyperventilating because Jackson Phillips said he loved me right there with me in the room. I sank to my knees on the cold tile.
    Jackson and Travis both rushed to my side, but Jackson won, lifting me up.
    It was a number of minutes before feeling came back in my limbs and my breath returned to normal. By that time, I was seated in Jackson’s lap with my head on his neck.
    I pulled myself upright and focused on his face. “Did you … did you say what I heard you say or was I imagining it?”
    He was grinning. “What did you hear me say?”
    “Well, it sounded like ‘I love her’ to me.”
    He shifted me in his lap. “Yes, I believe I did say that.”
    “Did you … did you mean it? I mean, you wanted to kiss me, and I wanted you to kiss me. And so you did. And I enjoyed it. But was it … was it … because …”
    “Because I love you?”
    “Uh huh.”
    He ran his fingers up and down my arm, something that made me all tingly. “Let’s see. You said, ‘I look at him and my heart turns to mush.’ That sounds like love to me.”
    “I think I’m turning to mush,” Travis said.
    I stuck my tongue out at him. “You’re just jealous.”
    “Of you? Hardly. I don’t want to kiss Jackson.”
    This made Jackson laugh and before too long, I was laughing too. What a stupid thing for my brother to say. He excused himself from the table. “I think I’ll go catch up on some emails and bypass all this mushy stuff, then you two can get on with your kissing and declarations of love.”
    Travis left the room, and I turned around in Jackson’s lap. I was facing him then with my back to the counter.
    “So … is that what you said?”
    He wasn’t getting out of this. I’d heard him say it to Tray. The least he could do was repeat it to me. He had this sparkle in his eye, which told me a bunch.
    He cleared his throat. “Okay. I’ll say it, but then you have to say it too.”
    Well, saying it for me was easy because I’d been in love with him since summer camp three years ago, so I nodded. “I’ll go first,” I said.
    I rubbed my throat as if I needed to get worked up for it, and open ed and closed my mouth. He was smirking now.
    “I, Lucy McKinsey, am in love with my neighbor, Jackson Phillips.”
    He chuckled, wagging his head back and forth. “You crack me up,” he said.
    “Well, you are my neighbor, and I am in love with you. Okay, so now your turn.”
    He squirmed in his seat and pulled at his collar, funning with me about it being hard to say. Then he took a swig of water.
    But when he went to speak, he leaned over and grasping the back of my head, tilted my neck way back. He then kissed me right on the throat.
    Heavens. That was almost as good as being kissed on the mouth.
    And he raised himself up even with my eyes. “I love you, Lucy McKinsey. Will you marry me?”
    My eyes bugged out, and I gasped for air. Then I saw he was laughing again. I pounded him in the arm. “That’s not funny, and I believed you for a second. You shouldn’t tease a girl like that. We plan these things our entire lives. Why I pictured my wedding when I was five.”
    “Five? Who were you going to marry at age five?” he asked.
    “Billy Felton.” I stated this absolutely because I could remember it plain as day. Billy Felton and I were going to move into the garage together. Of course, in my five-year-old brain, my mother was still there; she was just