Part 28 (2/2)

She pulls back, then buckles her seatbelt and tosses her feet on the dash. Her hand goes right for the stereo. ”Where to, Mr. Grant?”

”How long do you have?”

”As long as you want.”

I put the car in gear and pull out onto the road. ”Feel like meetin' my parents?”

”They're home?”

I smirk. ”They will be, in about three hours.”

She tucks her hand in mine, givin' me an evil grin. ”I think we can pump one out in three hours.”

I speed the rest of the way home.

Epilogue.

”You look da... dang s.e.xy. Stop freakin' out.”

Hayles fixes her hair one more time in the sideview mirror before standin' up. ”You sure? I've never done somethin' like this.”

I step back to study her outfit. She hates it when I do this. When I let my eyes rake over every curve, every part of her, and yeah, I check out her b.o.o.bs way longer than she likes, but can you blame me?

”Knock it off, you perv!” She punches my arm and I grab her hand, pullin' her toward me.

”Don't ask me to check you out if you don't mean it.”

She rolls her eyes. ”You'll do it anyway.”

”Is that a bad thing?”

Another punch. I laugh and kiss her, stoppin' her from answerin' me with another wisea.s.s comment. She's good at it. The kissin' and the comments.

”Okay, I think I'm ready.”

”You sure you don't want to just, stay in?”

She shakes her head. ”You're supposed to be showing me off!”

”I know, I know.”

I wrap my hand around her waist, and pull her to the restaurant. Mom and Dad are in there, probably talkin' about why I asked them to meet me and Hayles here. Mom goin' into all these cheesy romantic things while Dad's pretendin' to listen, but really wantin' a drink.

”Hayley!”

Mom has adopted Hayles. It's good for them, I know. Mom wantin' that daughter, and Hayley needin' a mom who doesn't care what size pants she wears. Still, I wish she wouldn't hog my girlfriend so much.

They hug, and I pull Hayley's chair out for her. She still blushes whenever I do stuff guys are supposed to do. Wonder if she'll ever get used to it.

”Okay, okay, tell us! Are you two getting married?” Mom's enthusiasm and a.s.sumption makes me spit the water I just put in my mouth all over Dad.

”Thanks a lot.” He grabs a napkin and wipes his face off, chucklin' behind it.

”No, Mom. We're not getting married. We just graduated.”

”Some people do that you know.” She smiles and winks at Hayles, whose blush has not disappeared.

”Not us. We do the whole marriage thing without the rings first.”

Oh no. She's not tellin' my parents about our s.e.x life.

”You know, fight and threaten to throw clothes out on the lawn.” She smiles. ”And if he doesn't put the seat down next time, I'm nailing it to the toilet.”

They all laugh, includin' me.

”All right, so no marriage. But tell me what it is! I'm dying!” Mom bounces up and down in her seat, and so does Hayles, matchin' her excitement. Dad laughs behind his gla.s.s.

”Well, I got into U of O,” I stutter.

Mom grabs Hayley-not me-into a big hug and Dad claps a hand on my back.

”That's great, kid.”

”Thanks.”

Mom lets go of Hayles, whose face has permanently turned the color of those tomatoes Mom threatens me with, and says, ”Congratulations! And that's close too so we can still visit you and Hayley.”

Whoa, wait a second. Do they think...?

”We're not going to live together.” Hayles giggles, savin' me from that conversation. ”Just going to be in the same school. You know, so I can help him pa.s.s his cla.s.ses.” She nudges me, and I keep her hand. Don't know why she gets so nervous about every date. I guess I'd be nervous if I went out with her and her parents, but she's so good at everythin'.

The rest of dinner goes pretty much how it goes at home. Mom and Dad embarra.s.sin' me while Hayles joins in occasionally, but her hand stays on my knee, lettin' me know she does it all *cause she loves me.

I tell Mom and Dad I'll be out late, and they give me those stupid looks like, *we know, we know' and then hugs, then they take off. I help Hayles into the Dodge-my Dodge-and her feet are on the dash before I even get in.

The drive isn't silent, since she sings the whole time. I don't mind that there's no conversation. This is our thing.

I pull up to the apartments just around the corner from U of O. Hayles got a roommate as soon as she found out she was goin' there and moved out about two seconds after that.

She still hasn't met Daniel, but she doesn't seem to care.

”Will you come inside?” She unbuckles. ”I have something for you.”

I'm always up for the invitation to go in with her, but from her expression I know I'm not gettin' lucky tonight.

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