Time's Daughter (17 page)

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

Dolled up.
That was exactly what I looked
like—a porcelain doll complete with ringlets framing my face. I
hadn’t let my mom put me into a frilly dress. I might as well have.
It was the only thing I was missing to complete the look. She’d
done up my face with make-up from her personal stash, forced me
into one of her black dresses when she’d heard Alex preferred the
color and then tortured my hair for a half hour.

Mom’s thin index finger and thumb fussed with my
curls long after she’d declared it perfect. “It’s called an
up-do.”

“
It’s called a half hour of my life
I can never get back,” I said.

“
I’d do your nails too but you bite
them too much.”

“
And he’ll be here soon.”

I was a little nervous about that part. Would he
knock on the door?
Was I supposed to introduce him to my mother
if he did?

The knock on the door seconds later answered one of
my questions.

“
I’ll get it!”

My mother’s exclamation answered the other. She
slammed the bathroom door shut on her way out, perhaps giving
herself a head start before I stopped her. I decided to hide
instead.

I was left staring at my “dolled up” face, thinking
about how ridiculous I looked. The black-lined and dusky
eye-shadowed eyelids made my blue irises appear darker, a dusting
of bronzer on my cheekbones made them looked higher, and the
brownish-red lipstick added three years to my look. I could easily
pass as nineteen tonight.

“
Hi?”

“
Hello,” Alex’s deep voice greeted
my mother. “I’m Alex. I believe I have a date with your daughter
Aeon.”

My heart skipped.
A date with Aeon
. I had a
date! With Alex. It was so unreal!

“
I’m Tiffany. Come on in. She’ll be
out soon. She’s probably in there wiping off all the make-up we put
on. Have a seat.”

I shook my head in dismay. As usual, Mom was too
forthright.

He broke the short silence. “That is a lovely
cross-stitching.”

Alex was remarkable. Of all the things we had on
display in the living room, he’d picked the one thing that would
please my mom most.

“
Thank you, Alex. My mom made that
for me.” Pride warmed her tone.

“
She’s very talented with a
needle.”

“
Thank you. She was. She made this
afghan as well.”

I saved him from an accounting of everything else
Gran had made us by emerging from the bathroom. My mother was
seated on the other end of the couch from Alex and he had his back
to me. I grabbed my purse from the table and stepped closer to the
door where he could see me without craning his neck.

He turned slightly and his eyes widened. I couldn’t
tell if it was surprise or if my appearance disturbed him. Alex got
to his feet with a sudden motion.

He was all dolled up as well. While he wore black
pants as usual, he had on black leather dress shoes and his black
button up shirt had a slight pattern to it that was invisible
except in certain light. The significance of it wasn’t lost on
me.

“
I see you’ve met.” I forced a smile
despite my nervousness.

Alex’s head bobbed. “Your mother was telling me
about the cross-stitching.”

“
The Siamese cat in a garden.” I
gestured to the framed piece on the wall by the sofa. “Her
favorite. How did you know?”

He smiled slightly. “It caught my eye.”

“
Gran made that for me,” Mom said.
“Because she knew I loved cats.”

Alex turned back to her. “Do you have one?”

“
No, Aeon is allergic.”

His focus was on me again in an instant. I covered
my mouth with my hand to hide the smile I knew would be there. A
cough obscured my slight laugh.

“
I’m ready when you are,” I
said.

My mom waved. “Have a good time.”

Alex’s long legs carried him near the door in half a
second. He followed me into the hallway but not before waving at my
mom. He’d parked his car front of the building with the flashers on
as though concerned about the law but not wanting me to have to
walk far. Still behaving the gentleman, he opened the passenger
door, waited until I was in and then closed it gently. I watched
him walk around the front to open his own and as I did so I noted
there was no cameraman waiting in the back like I’d assumed there
would be.

“
What happened to Peter?” I said as
soon as he’d sat.

Alex faced me in confusion as he turned on the
engine. “Peter?”

“
Your cameraman?”

“
Oh.” He pulled onto the street. “I
thought yours would be with you.”

“
I thought yours would be with
you
so I sent Guy away after work.”

Alex chuckled. “I guess we’re camera free.”

I went quiet—suddenly uneasy about being truly alone
with him.

Alex glanced at me. “You look…amazing.” His quiet
voice turned mischievous. “That must be some magic comb of yours.
If that’s after one and a half times, do you turn into a goddess
after two?”

A snort escaped my nose. “That has to be the
cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard.”

His lips crinkled together in a wince. “Ouch. Tough
Crowd.” He laughed lightly. “It was pretty bad, wasn’t it?”

After a soft laugh with him I said, “I’ll say.”

“
So, you’re allergic to
cats.”

The topic had come up sooner than I’d expected. My
gaze swiveled away. “Yes.”

“
Well, you’re not sneezing now so
I’ll take that as a good sign.”

My cheeks reddened. I could think of nothing to say
so I remained silent.

He filled the quiet with, “I didn’t have a lot of
advance notice so unfortunately tonight won’t be spectacular. But I
don’t think I could have waited until next weekend to ask you
out.”

The bronzer Mom had used on me had been wasted. My
cheeks would be naturally dark because he’d have me blushing all
night.

“
Plus I’m kind of at a
disadvantage—being new to the area and all. I asked a few people
for advice. They all told me to take you to make-out point.” Alex
chuckled a little nervously. “That isn’t really my style. Serves me
right for asking hormonal teenagers. So I’m winging it. Go easy on
me.”

Alex’s idea of “winging it” was to take me to a
restaurant that had amazing food and a talented live band. The
band—a quartet of guitarist, violinist, violist and cellist—played
string versions of popular songs I hadn’t known I liked. More than
once I caught myself ignoring the band altogether so I could stare
at Alex and he me.

“
I think I won’t mind the cold now,”
he said over the main course.

There was significance in his intent delivery—as if
he meant he wouldn’t mind it because of me. Would I ever get used
to the things he said?

“
Mute girl, you’re really living up
to your name,” Alex chided gently.

“
Sorry.” I blushed for the hundredth
time. “This is my first date.”

“
Mine too.”

“
You’re joking,” I said with a laugh
and an incredulous shake of my head.

“
No.” He let the word stretch as he
turned his head to the right in a half shake.

“
I don’t believe it.”

Alex set his fork down atop his plate. He sat back
in his seat, peering at me with a singular focus. “Why?”

“
Because…” I let my voice trail off
while I considered how to answer. I couldn’t look at him while I
thought. His gaze made my nervous. “You’re…”

“
I’m what?” His mouth toyed with a
smile.

I gestured at him. “Well, look at you.”

“
That’s kind of difficult without a
mirror.”

“
You’re so handsome.” I blushed and
dropped my gaze to the plate in front of me. “Every girl looks at
you when you walk into a room.”

Alex leaned forward against the table. “Do you know
want to know why I knew I had to meet you?”

“
Why?”

“
You were the only girl who
didn’t
look at me when I walked in the room.”

I lifted my gaze again. “But I did.”

His gaze was fixed on my face with such a serious
gleam that I almost couldn’t hold them. I made myself anyway. “You
might have glanced but I didn’t see it,” he said. “You didn’t gawk
at me like they all did.”

“
I knew what it was like to be
gawked at because of the rude stares they were giving Guy and
me.”

Alex nodded as if he understood. “It made you stand
out from everyone else. I didn’t even notice the cameraman until
you walked into the photography studio with him trailing behind.
I’d seen you twice before that.”

“
Twice?”

“
History and lunch.”

“
Oh.” I blushed. There was a short
pause. “Alex?”

“
Hmm?”

“
Something has been bugging me. Why
did you start ignoring me halfway through last week?”

His throat worked as he noticeably swallowed. He
picked up his fork and poked at the steak he’d ordered—perhaps
because it gave him a reason to avoid looking at me. “It was
because of what happened with the drunk driver.”

“
You
followed
me?”

Alex nodded. “Yes. I saw how you saved your
cameraman. I thought you were… Well, you know what I thought you
were.”

A Time witch
. But I was worse than that. I
was Time’s daughter.

“
I knew my family was going to flip
out,” he said. “When I got home they were already trying to figure
out who was responsible for the shockwave. If they’d found you they
would have acted first and asked questions later.” He paused,
lifting his gaze. “And to be honest, I was furious. They’d told me
we’d be safe from all that if we moved here. I’d hoped I could have
a normal year for once.”

“
I’m sorry, Alex.”

And I was. I hadn’t known about the other part of
the world as long as he had. But I could understand what it was
like to be different.

He set the fork down and smiled. “I’m okay with
being abnormal now.”

His smile didn’t stop me from frowning. “I wish I
could say the same.”

Alex shook his head slowly as he sat back in his
seat. “I can’t imagine what it must be like to wake up one day and
know you’re different.”

I laughed suddenly. “Oh, I’ve always known I was
different. Just didn’t think I was
that
different.”

His expression warmed. “Well, I think you’re
awesome.”

“
And I think you have weird
opinions.”

“
Is it too soon to ask you to be
mine?”

I stared at him in wide-eyed shock, unable to think
a single thought. A thrilled carried up my chest and heated my
face.

“
I’m going to take that as a yes.”
Alex laughed nervously, dropping his attention to the
table.

There was a long silence while the band played a
love song and I tried to think of something to say. We hadn’t
gotten through our first real date. Barely an hour had passed since
he’d picked me up from home. Yes, it was too soon but for some
reason I didn’t want to tell him so.

“
To be yours?” I repeated his words
back to him. “What does that even mean?”

“
You know.” He shifted
uncomfortably. Alex glanced up at me from beneath the fringe of his
eyelashes. “If someone asked you if you were taken, you’d have to
say yes.”

“
Do people ask that? I mean, you
didn’t.”

“
I guess what I meant…” Alex’s hand
went behind his head as his face scrunched up. He gave a single
laugh. “Well, this is
awkward
.” The hand returned beside
him. “I’m just going to come right out and say it.” Alex looked me
in the eye. “I want to be able to call you my
girlfriend.”

I jerked as my eyes bugged out. “Girlfriend?” I
couldn’t stop the word from coming out of my mouth in surprise.

“
Oh, burn.” His eyes and mouth
wrinkled in dismay.

“
It’s not like that,” I said. “It’s
just… I hadn’t expected that.”

He looked at me again. “I don’t know why not. I’ve
been acting like an idiot since I met you.”

“
Wouldn’t I have had to see you
acting like a not-idiot first to know the difference?”

“
Good point.”

“
So if you called me your
girlfriend, then I’d have to call you my boyfriend,
right?”

Alex laughed. His hand was behind his head again,
rubbing nervously. “That’s kind of the idea, yeah.”

“
All right.”

He stared at me for a moment. “All right?”

That cautious question made me grin. “Yeah, you can
call me your girlfriend on one condition. Your family
never
does that thing they did to me again.”

Alex’s eyes seemed to darken as his pupils dilated.
He dropped his hand back to the tabletop. “They won’t. You saw to
that yourself.”

“
But what about those other
three?”

He looked toward the band. “They’re not happy but
they wouldn’t do anything like that.” Then as suddenly as the
serious expression had appeared on his face, it faded into an
adorable grin when he glanced back. “Especially not after I tell
them you’re my girlfriend.”

My cheeks warmed again. “You know there are rumors
circulating at school that you’re gay.”