By the time the kids were off to bed I was completely worn out. This Christmas had killed any last trace of interest I might have ever had in becoming a teacher, and almost put me off the idea of having kids of my own. Who could deal with that kind of insanity day after day after day? At least I knew my cousins would be going home soon and my life would go back to normal, but my uncles and aunts wouldn’t get a reprieve until the little monsters graduated from high school!
I collapsed onto my bed and pulled my stack of notes from my nightstand. After lunch with Dylan I’d added a few carefully gleaned items to my lists, and with them I was able to eliminate a couple more contenders. I was starting to run out of room on my girls sheet, so I decided to create a separate page for each of the ones that remained.
The list was down to eight possible matches now, and only one of them really leaped out at me—Miranda Sabin. We’d been lab partners in chemistry our sophomore year, so I knew a bit about her. She was on the varsity drill team and liked sports. While she wasn’t as brainy as Gail she did get decent grades, and she liked action and horror movies which was a big plus. I was pretty sure I had a winner with her, but I had to make double sure that I got it right this time. I didn’t want a repeat of the fiasco with Gail. What I really needed to do was pick up a few more clues from Dylan before I made my final decision. I’d have to figure out some way to spend time with him again soon.
Early the next afternoon I went over to Walker’s house for a cookout. We’d planned it before school let out—just our little group of five since Dani was out of town. I’d considered inviting Dylan, but I couldn’t afford to draw too much attention to us if I wanted the matchmaking to work out.
When I got to the house I let myself in the gate and walked around to the pool. It was a perfect day for a cookout—it was warm for December and the sky was clear and bright, reminding me of Dylan’s eyes. I gave myself a mental kick and pushed the thought away. I had to quit doing that.
Quinn and Walker were tending the grill, and the heavenly smells rising from it made my mouth water.
“Hey, Allie,” Walker called out. “Make yourself at home. There are plenty of drinks inside, and snacks on the counter.”
“Thanks.”
I gave them each a quick hug and went through the sliding doors into the kitchen. Delaney and Molly were there munching on chips and watching a video on Molly’s phone, and Laney glanced up as I came in.
“Finally! You made it!”
“I didn’t know I was on a schedule.”
“Well, you were. Remember that next time, young lady, or you won’t be invited back and you won’t get any more of Walker’s steaks.”
I opened my mouth to fire off a retort then shut it again. Walker’s steaks were to die for and Laney was his girlfriend. Best not to take stupid chances.
Molly closed the video on her phone. “Speaking of, we’d better go keep the boys company while they cook or they’re liable not to let us eat.”
We filed out onto the patio and found another guy, Glen, standing with Walker and Quinn. He was one of Molly and Quinn’s gamer friends, although he didn’t normally hang out with our group much. He was tall and kind of slim, especially standing next to Walker and Quinn, with soft, reddish brown hair that tended to flop down over his eyes. He smiled as we came out and Molly gave him a big hug.
Quinn pretended to frown. “Careful. You might make me jealous.”
“As if,” Molly said, and blew him a kiss before turning back to Glen. “I’m glad you could come.”
“I’m glad you invited me. My parents are both working and this sure beats eating a microwave dinner at home alone.”
My heart twisted a little at that. Dylan was probably home alone. I’d have to text him in a little while and check up on him. And why was I thinking about Dylan again? While I took a lingering sniff of the grill, the others sat down in the chairs around the pool. When I got there the only one left was next to Glen, who smiled at me again as I sank into it.
“So what have you been up to so far on your vacation, Glen?” Delaney asked.
He shrugged. “I replayed a couple of old games while I was waiting for the new releases to hit the shelves. Binge watched the new season of Fear the Walking Dead. That’s about it.”
She rolled her eyes in mock exasperation. “You are such a nerd.”
“Geek, Laney. The correct term is geek.”
“Whatever. Haven’t you gone out at all?”
“Nope. I’ve been a home body since Kerri and I broke up after homecoming.”
Molly laughed. “Ah, the great Xbox versus Playstation breakup.”
“That’s the one.”
Delaney glanced at me then turned her smile back on Glen. “Still working on your Kawasaki?”
“No. I finally finished the engine rebuild over Thanksgiving, so it’s all done. I rode it over here.”
“Nice! I want to go see it later. And maybe I can talk you into giving us a ride.”
That obviously pleased him. “Sure!”
I felt a little chill at the thought of riding a motorcycle. That was how Dylan had wrecked his leg. No way was I getting on that thing! They continued to talk about it while Walker and Quinn went to check the steaks.
“Almost done here, beautiful,” Walker called over his shoulder. “Will you bring me the tray?”
Delaney hopped up. “Got it!”
I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes. The sun felt good, even if it wasn’t cranked up to summertime levels. Another wave of cooking smells wafted over me as Walker began piling steaks onto the tray Delaney had fetched, and my stomach rumbled.
“Here, I’ll help you with that,” Molly said, handing glasses of tea to Walker and Quinn. “You two sit for a while. Laney and I will finish up inside while the steaks rest.”
I was a little surprised that they hadn’t asked me to help, but honestly I was pretty lost in the kitchen. Who else could screw up ramen noodles in the microwave?
“Been busy over the holidays, Allison?” Glen asked.
“We have a ton of family staying with us and I’ve been stuck watching the kids a lot, but I managed to go out a couple of times.”
Walker gave low chuckle. “Tell him about your adventure at Caroline’s.”
Why not? So I told the story, editing out the parts about how Dylan and I both ended up there because we were hurting, while the others laughed.
As I finished, Glen grinned. “It was a good thing Dylan was there. Getting hit in the head with a ketchup bottle would have to hurt.”
“If Dylan hadn’t been there I would have left as soon as they came in.”
Walker cocked his head at that and gave me a measuring look, but my answering glare only made him smirk. Fortunately he decided to keep any comments about me and Dylan to himself, because the last thing I needed was any hint of what I was up to getting back to Dylan through Quinn or Glen. Molly poked her head through the sliding glass doors, putting an end to the issue for the moment.
“All right, guys. Come and get it.”
We filled our plates in the kitchen then went to eat at the picnic table in the backyard, and somehow I ended up sitting next to Glen again. It only took a couple of sidelong glances from Delaney to ignite my suspicions, and after another leading conversation opener for Glen I knew I was right on the money. Delaney was trying to set me up with Glen!
I clamped my jaw in annoyance. The nerve! Like I couldn’t get my own boyfriend if I wanted to? What a meddling little wretch! I seethed through the rest of the meal until I was able to corner her alone in the kitchen afterwards.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I demanded.
She gave me her best innocent look. “What do you mean?”
“Glen.”
Her shoulders slumped as she realized she’d been busted. “I thought that since Seth has a girlfriend, it wouldn’t hurt for you to have another option.”
“I’m perfectly capable of finding a boyfriend on my own,”
I growled. “So cut it out.”
“Fine! I was just trying to help.”
“I don’t need help.”
“Okay, I get it. I’m sorry.”
Her feelings were hurt so she went to snuggle up with Walker, leaving me alone in the kitchen. I felt bad for jumping on her that way, but if I didn’t put the brakes on now she’d never quit. Besides, now I had a chance to text Dylan away from prying eyes.
Me: How’s your afternoon going?
Dylan: Quiet. Just chilling at home
I should have gotten Quinn and Molly to invite him to the cookout. It certainly would have caused Delaney’s little scheme to blow up in her face!
Me: Want to do something tomorrow?
Dylan: Sure. Anything in particular you’d like to do?
Me: No idea
Dylan: I’ve got a couple. How about I surprise you?
Me: I love surprises
Dylan: Good. I’ll text you in the morning. Is 9 too early?
Me: No, the kids will wake me up long before then
Dylan: OK. Got to go, Mom is calling
Me: Talk to you tomorrow
Excitement prickled through me and I wanted to bounce around the room like one of my little cousins on a sugar high. I could hardly wait for tomorrow.
Dylan texted me at 9:00 sharp.
Dylan: You awake?
Me: Yep. So what are we doing? More Netflix?
Dylan: Nope. It’s a beautiful day. We should get out and enjoy it before the weather turns again
Me: I’m good with that
Dylan: Go casual. I’ll pick you up in an hour
Me: I’ll be ready
I poked my head outside to see if it was as nice as he’d claimed. It was much like the day before, sunny and warm enough to enjoy being outside. Nothing like wearing shorts the week before Christmas. I picked out some jean shorts and lingered over a lacy black top before settling on a t-shirt instead. When a boy says casual, go with the t-shirt.
An hour later I climbed into his truck and looked at him expectantly. He was dressed like me in jean shorts and a t-shirt, so I was glad I’d decided against the lace top.
“So where are we going?”
“How does a road trip sound? With a Christmas theme. We can make a day of it. We’ll do the circle around Corpus Christi Bay—Corpus, Port Aransas, the ferry to Aransas Pass, and then home again. At each spot along the way we’ll stop and pick up something Christmas-y. We can have lunch in Port A. I know a couple of good places right by the ferry landing.”
Excitement bubbled up through me and I grinned at him. “I like it!”
I’d get to spend the whole day with him. There was no telling how much new information about him I could pick up along the way.
When Dylan grinned back, I felt warm all over and my heart did a happy little flip. The boy really was dangerous. How many hearts had he broken when he was going through his bad boy spell after his accident? Fortunately I was still all about Seth and prepared against his charms.
What I wasn’t prepared for was The Best Day Ever. Both of us sang along to his CDs at the top of our lungs as we drove along with the windows down enjoying the briny air. I felt wonderfully alive and giddy just from being out with him, but at the same time I was comfortable and let go in a way I never did with any of the other boys I went out with. Probably because he was a friend and my goal was to set him up with someone else. Whatever the reason, it was easy being around him, easy for me to be myself. I didn’t care that I wasn’t all dressed up or that the wind had wrecked my hair, and I forgot that I was supposed to be taking mental notes about what he did and didn’t like. Instead I leaned back in my seat, stuck my feet out the window, and savored the moment.
As we sang together our eyes would meet and we grinned at each other like lunatics while the air seemed to crackle with electric tension. I’d never experienced anything like it before, and while I knew it was a dangerous mistake I couldn’t help myself. It felt too good to quit.
When we got to Corpus we stopped at the Water Street Market to look for our Christmas souvenir. Dylan bought an adorable sock monkey dressed in a Santa outfit, and handed it over to me as we walked back to his truck.
“Need to do any more shopping?” he asked.
“I’m good.”
“Then we’re off to our next stop.”
We drove across the causeway to Mustang Island with the water all around us glittering like jewels in the sunlight. It was a glorious day, bright and wild, and I felt so alive and bursting with energy that I could barely sit still. Apparently I’d been cooped up with the kids too much and had been more desperate to get away than I’d realized.
In Aransas Pass Dylan took us to a small restaurant where we ate lunch on the patio so we could see the ferries going back and forth from the landing. We didn’t talk about anything special, nothing I could remember as significant later, but we never seemed to stop laughing. It was weird because I hadn’t realized before what a great sense of humor Dylan had. Or maybe it was just the day and I would have laughed at anything from the sheer joy at being away from the kids.
This time I was the one who found our souvenir—a snow globe with Santa inside, only instead of driving a sleigh with reindeer he was in a speedboat being pulled by dolphins. Dylan liked it a lot so I let him keep it. My sock monkey Santa was cuter, anyway. With that taken care of we rode the ferry over to Aransas Pass.
“Come on,” Dylan said, taking my hand and pulling me to the back of the boat.
“Where are we going?”
“I want to see if the dolphins are following us.”
“In December?”
“Some of them stick around all year.”
To my surprise a handful of them appeared to chase after the ferry, their sleek bodies gliding through the water to match our speed with effortless grace. Dylan watched in rapture as they leaped and dove through the wake of the boat. The smile playing on his lips drew me in and I could hardly tear my gaze away. I’d never realized how full and soft his lips were, how kissable they were. I shook my head to clear it of what were becoming some very uncomfortable thoughts. The last thing I needed to be thinking about was Dylan’s lips. Those lips were going to belong to some other lucky girl soon, and I had no business wondering how they’d feel against mine.
But I couldn’t help dwelling on how different Dylan was than I’d expected. There was nothing about him of the bad boy who’d burned his way through what seemed like half the girls in school a year ago. He wasn’t even much like I’d seen him when he was dating Dannika. He was more relaxed and playful now, and hard as I tried I couldn’t deny how attractive he was just being himself. It was almost enough to make me forget about Seth. Seth, who I’d been obsessing about for over a year.
But even that realization couldn’t jar me out of my good mood, and as we drove across the final causeway towards Aransas Pass I couldn’t imagine anywhere on Earth I’d rather have been.
Our final Christmas souvenir was an inflatable snowman on a sled. We’d stopped at a convenience store to get some bottled water and the display was by the coolers. We both took one look at it and laughed.
“We have to get one for Walker’s pool,” I said as I pulled down the box.
“Absolutely!”
A quiet settled over us as we headed home, and for a while we rode in silence. It had been a wonderful day, but now it was coming to an end—and I didn’t want it to. I wasn’t ready for it to be over. As we got to the edge of Aransas Pass Dylan pointed past me out the window to a weathered, rustic building close to the waterfront.
“Dolphin Tours?” I asked.
“They take you out on a boat and get up close and personal with the dolphins. The guides know most of the local dolphins by sight. We should go sometime.”
“That sounds fun.”
The sun was a ball of red fire in the west as the afternoon faded, and the air cooled off as it dropped towards the horizon. When we stopped for gas we rolled up the win
dows and Dylan dug behind my seat for a long-sleeved shirt. He handed it to me, but before he could put the seat back something caught my eye.
“You skateboard?”
A wistful smile tugged at his lips. “I used to before. Not so much now. You?”
“Never been on one.”
“We’ll just have to do something about that, won’t we?”
He drove us around to a deserted street which led towards the marina and parked. The only sounds around us were the lonely cries of seabirds and the drone of an occasional car passing on the highway.
“All right,” he told me as he put the skateboard on the pavement. “Get on.”
“I’ll break my neck.”
“Come on, you can do it.”
“All right, but if I end up in the hospital you get to explain it to my parents.”
I was wobbly as he helped me up, and I didn’t want to let go of him. I really wasn’t sure about this because I tended to trip over my own feet if I wasn’t careful. Dylan kept a hand on my arm to steady me while I got the feel of it.
“Balance. Just relax and keep your balance. All right, now I’m going to push you just a little to get you moving.”
His hand moved to my lower back and guided me with firm pressure. The warmth of its presence made it hard for me to concentrate so that I kept falling off, and I was scared that the board would come out from under me and I really would get hurt.
“You’re overdoing it. Thinking too much. Relax and let go. Feel the skateboard under you.”
I took a deep breath. Dylan had his hand on me. I was safe. He wouldn’t let anything happen to me. Calm settled over me and I quit worrying. Before I knew it we’d made it a dozen yards and I hadn’t fallen off once.
“Huh. That’s not so bad,” I said.
He pointed to the street leading down to the docks, which had a small incline. “Try that. It’s easy.”
The Perfect Match Page 5
