Page 121 of The Fake Out

The song changed but we didn’t separate. A beat passed, then another.

“Are you going to tell me the story?” I finally asked.

He grinned. “It goes like this: Mom and Dad met in college when they both took a required art class their freshman year. Mom liked Dad right away, but Dad has always been a little shy, kind of quiet. And you’ve met Mom; she never stops talking.”

I smiled at the affection in his voice.

“One day, she asked if he wanted to get lunch and he said yes. And that’s how it went for the next three years. Mom invited him places; Dad accepted, and so on. But it was purely as friends. Drove Mom crazy. She didn’t mind he was quiet, but she did mind that he held his feelings so close. About the closest thing he said to pretty words was, ‘It suits you.’”

“For three years?”

“Three whole years.” Chris grinned. “In all that time, Dad had never asked her out or even made a move on her. So, Mom got fed up. One day, she laid into him, told him she was tired of never knowing where she stood with him, and she was done.”

“Uh-oh.”

“But, and this is the important part.” He pulled me even closer. “Dad looked right at her and said, ‘I tell you I love you all the time, I just don’t say those words. But you suit me just fine.’”

My heart dropped to my feet and then slowly climbed back up. Like a roller coaster, except I had no idea where the top or bottom were. I was going in blind.

Chris cupped my cheeks with his hands and tilted my face, so I had no choice but to meet his eyes. “You’re freaking out.”

“I-I-I am not freaking.”

I was totally, completely, undeniably freaking out. This might be the freak out of all freakouts in a few seconds. The roller coaster had reached the summit and I might puke on the way down.

“You’re freaking out, Sprinkles.”

I flushed. “I am not.”

“I expected that.” He smiled, his eyes warm. “You’re terrified.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re scared. Like a skittish horse.”

“I am not a horse.” I stomped my foot like, well, a horse.

“It’s okay, I’m patient.”

“I don’t need you to be patient. Because I’m not scared and I’m not freaking out and everything is fine. You surprised me. Can I not be surprised when… when… you said the thing you said?”

I watched his smile turn into a grin and realized he’d done it again, taken me from certain meltdown to annoyance.

“I just have to prove it to you,” he said, more to himself.

“Prove what?”

He kissed me, slow and sweet like time was merely a suggestion, his thumbs idly tracing my cheekbones. It went on and on, warming me from the inside out. That kiss went a long way to making me forget what I’d been freaking out about to begin with.

When he pulled back, my eyes blinked open, and I uttered the only eloquent thing to express my feelings. “Whoa.”

“Yup. Whoa.” He took my hand and led me off the makeshift dance floor. “We’ll talk about it. I’m sure you’ll come around to my way of thinking. I have a PowerPoint presentation even.”

Maybe he was right. Maybe there could be more between us. Maybe we were suited for each other. Maybe…

But something caught my eye in the crowd and my stomach dropped.

Because that’s when I saw my father.