BY CLIFF SMELLEY
A kiss in middle school.
What more could you ask for when it comes to a Valentine’s Day story? Two young people who knew from that very moment that they had found their true love, becoming school sweethearts and eventually marrying each other.
Logan and Ciara Johnson’s love story isn’t quite that simple. The relationship didn’t last long beyond that kiss in middle school.
“She just completely ripped my heart from my chest and broke up with me,” Logan said.
Ciara eventually moved away from Bradford County. She and Logan both married other people.
Cupid’s arrow had to fly a circuitous route in this story of Ciara and Logan. In fact, he was probably reconsidering this whole matchmaking gig as Ciara and Logan reconnected, but refused to acknowledge at first that they were in love.
“I would say we butted heads for a little bit and didn’t want to admit it for a while,” Logan said.
In the end, they owned up to the obvious — they were in love — and, in essence, began their life together in 2016. They will celebrate two years of marriage on April 23.
“It was meant to be,” Logan said.
Unexpected reunion
After Ciara moved back to her hometown of Suwannee, it may never have dawned on her and Logan that they would be a part of each other’s life in the future. They grew apart and married other people.
Still, Ciara never forgot about Logan. Her first son (and second child) was born with a smile on his face. She thought of Logan, who was always a happy person. Therefore, she gave her son the name Logan.
“He’s the first person I thought of,” Ciara said.
Ciara and Logan both had children with their first spouses. After those marriages ended, neither gave thought to remarrying. Logan, who has two daughters, said his thought was, “I’m going to get these girls raised. When I get them raised and out of the house, I may go look for somebody to sit on the porch with when I’m older.”
“I had zero aspirations for going out and getting into a relationship,” he said. “I was deadest against it.”
A mutual friend of Logan’s and Ciara’s asked Ciara, “Did you know that Logan Johnson is single again?”
Ciara admitted she was in a dark place at that point in her life. Because of her previous marriage, she had no interest in another relationship. Yet Ciara, who said she comes from a broken family, remembered how Logan had always been her “safe place” as a youth. That had to do with just how upbeat and happy he was.
They ended up reconnecting, communicating through text messages and Snapchat. That lasted a month before they decided to get together in person, meeting at a party.
“We started hanging out and never quit hanging out,” Logan said. “It just clicked.”
Logan said he and Ciara share the same interests and have similar personalities. However, as time progressed, neither wanted to admit that their relationship was becoming more than simply hanging out and having a good time.
“The feelings and everything were there,” Logan said. “We just had to get past our own ignorance, I guess.”
Ciara said, “I went my whole life not ever finding a click with anybody. Having that click with him, which was so natural, scared me, honestly.
“I would say we butted heads a little bit and didn’t want to admit it for a while.”
Yet Ciara was the first to embrace the fact that they were a couple. Logan was somebody who made her feel loved. She didn’t want to lose a person who came to have so much meaning in her life.
“Once I got a hold of it, I didn’t want to let go,” Ciara said.
Logan says he and Ciara both were simply scared of a future they hadn’t planned on, but they finally made it official, so to speak in July 2016. Logan said that’s when they “put a label on it.” They were officially a couple.
“We were so difficult,” Ciara said. “Most people just get together.”
A family is created
“Once we made it official, ‘The Herd’ was formed,” Logan said.
“The Herd” is the name for the children: Logan’s daughters (Rylin, 10, and Arizona, 8) and Ciara’s three children (Blakeleigh, 17, Logan, 12, and Braxton, 10).
When it’s time to go somewhere, Ciara said they’ll say, “Johnson Herd, load up.”
Even though Ciara and Logan have no children together, all members of “The Herd” are their children.
“We laugh and say we’ve got our own set of twins because Rylin and Braxton are only six days apart,” Ciara said.
Logan said, “People tell me the boys look just like me. I’m like, ‘Yeah, they do.’ I just go along with it. I don’t even like saying we’re blended, even though we are. They’re my kids.”
Ciara said she once received a comment from somebody saying, “Can I just point out how weird it is that all five kids look like they could be from you and Logan?”
“They fight like they’re brothers and sisters,” Ciara said.
Marriage for real
For all intents and purposes, Logan and Ciara considered themselves married, though that didn’t become official until April 23, 2022.
“I called her my wife years before we got married,” Logan said.
They had talked about seriously about marriage, and Ciara admitted she did want him to ask her to marry him, but they also had a mindset of, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”
Logan finally decided it was “broken” if it didn’t become official.
A trip to Georgia for a softball tournament Blakeleigh was playing in included a side trip to Covington, Georgia, where “The Vampire Diaries” TV show was filmed.
“I had been watching it since it first aired,” Ciara said.
Unbeknownst to Ciara, Logan had brought along a ring. As they were taking in the sights of Covington, Logan suggested they take a photo of Ciara looking at the city’s clock tower.
“When she turns around (after the photo), I’m there on a knee,” Logan said.
Logan said he planned the proposal in complete secrecy, knowing that Ciara is “good at figuring stuff out.”
“There were no signs. There were no hints,” Ciara said. “Usually, he’ll give himself away.”
Upon seeing Logan with the ring, Ciara said her surprise gave way to tears.
“I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. This is real. This actually just happened.’”
Life together
Things may have clicked for Logan and Ciara, but we’re all different in ways, so that was an adjustment for them to make.
For example, the best way for Ciara to tell Logan she loves him is through physical touch.
“She’s more words of affirmation, but you don’t really have to tell me you love me if you hold my hand,” Logan said. “If I’m on the couch, come sit by me and put your legs on me. Come sit on my lap. Come up and kiss me on the top of the head when you walk by.”
Ciara remembers the first time Logan snuggled with her, saying her thought was, “What the heck is this?” She wasn’t a snuggler or an overly affectionate person by nature.
“I think where I’ve grown in our relationship and where I’ve given him that security is I’ll go out of my way to make sure I hug him,” Ciara said, admitting that now she loves to snuggle.
Conversely, Logan had to realize that wasn’t the way for him to tell Ciara he loves her. As noted earlier, she needs to hear it in words.
“What I need is also what I’m very good at giving,” Logan said. “I had to learn that just because it’s what I need and what I’m good at, that’s not what she needs.”
If it’s not by words, Logan can express his love by cooking up something good. Ciara loves his cooking and said she gets mad whenever they go out to eat as a family because “everything he cooks is 10 times better and way cheaper.”
The most delicious thing Logan could cook for Ciara is a steak.
“It’s always steak,” she said. “Steak’s the way to my heart.”
Logan said, “She thought Texas Roadhouse had the best steaks. She told me I ruined her favorite restaurant.”
If they have a date night, they love visiting St. Augustine and eating at Sunset Grille.
“My dad’s got a motorcycle,” Logan said. “If the weather’s right, we love taking that into St. Augustine. We’ll go eat at Sunset and then we’ll just go walk around downtown.”
Ciara said, “I love the history of St. Augustine. It’s just the whole vibe.”
If it’s not Sunset Grille in St. Augustine, Logan and Ciara are happy eating chicken wings anywhere, though WingHouse is a must stop if they’re ever in Daytona Beach. Ciara said they both like their wings spicy, though she said Logan also likes “weird flavors.”
Ciara said she knows what she likes when it comes to food, and that’s all she cares about getting. Logan, meanwhile, is up for trying anything.
“When I go to a restaurant, I don’t even have to look at the menu,” Ciara said, adding that Logan’s apt to say, “Oh, this sounds crazy and colorful and possibly disgusting, but I want to get it.”
Logan said he and his daughters will try anything “as long as it doesn’t eat us first.” He’s proud of the fact that he’s helped Ciara’s children be more like him.
“The kids now will step way out with me,” Logan said. “They’ll try it.”
If a date night doesn’t involve St. Augustine or eating chicken wings somewhere, then it might just be at a sporting event.
“I wasn’t a sports person before him,” Ciara said. “Now, you tell me we’re going to watch Icemen hockey, or we’re going to a Shrimp’s game, or we’re going to hang out with one of the teams at Bradford, and I’m like, ‘That’s a date.’”
Ciara, of course, attends BHS athletic events her daughter, Blakeleigh, is a part of, but she’ll attend other sports events at the school as well — even when Logan’s schedule doesn’t allow him to accompany her.
She’s all in on sports, though she’s still working on a total understanding of some of them. Logan laughed when saying that Ciara can’t wrap her head around why punts and have different rules attached to them.
However, she understands the rest of the game just fine and is the one who sends BHS football updates to Logan when he’s at work.
“Now, I have the love for the game,” Ciara said.
Valentine’s Day
What does Valentine’s Day for Logan and Ciara involve?
Well, it’s not cards or flowers.
“I’ve never really been a card person,” Logan said. “You can read a card, or I can look at you and tell you (how I feel).”
As for flowers, Ciara said, “I don’t know why a flower signifies love when it just dies.” In fact, her wedding bouquet was fake flowers, “so I could keep them forever.”
Logan said he’ll buy Ciara her favorite chocolate — Ghiradelli caramel squares.
“I don’t do the traditional heart-shaped box of stuff. I get her what she likes,” Logan said.
Ciara loves to give gifts during holidays and birthdays, so she’ll come up with something to give Logan.
The best Valentine’s gift, however, is being with each other.
“We’re more, ‘Let’s spend time together,’” Ciara said. That could be enjoying a meal out together or simply sitting at home, watching a movie.
That’s the key — they’re comfortable with each other now. It may have been quite the journey to get to that point, overcoming their own stubbornness and fears, but love found a way.
Even if it left Cupid wiping his brow once his tough task had been accomplished.
