Knowing You (The Jade Series #2) (7 page)

He parks the car. He comes around and opens my door, then double locks the car, making it chirp twice. This town, or at least this part of the town, doesn’t look that safe and he’s probably worried the car won’t be there when we leave. I’m actually kind of worried about that myself.

The inside of the bowling alley isn’t quite as bad as the outside. It has bright orange vinyl seating in the lane area and a small snack stand in the back, next to an arcade.
 

“I guess we’re keeping score the old fashioned way,” I say, noticing that there are no electronic scoreboards.
 

“Maybe we could just skip keeping score. We both know you’re going to win.”

“You never know. You might find that you’re really good at bowling.” I lead him over to the counter where an old guy with a long white beard is standing. His arms and neck are covered in tattoos.
 

“How many games?” he asks, skipping any type of greeting.
 

Garret looks at me. “One?”

“We have to do at least two.”

“Two,” Garret tells the guy.
 

“You need shoes?”

“Yes,” I answer, seeing Garret’s confusion. I forgot to tell him that some people actually buy these shoes, rather than rent them. If I’d told him, I’m sure he would’ve went out and bought a pair so he wouldn’t have to wear the rental shoes. “Size 7 for me.”

The man reaches under the counter and grabs the red and blue checkered shoes. I laugh seeing Garret’s expression as he eyes the shoes.
 

“Twelve for me,” Garret says.
 

The man pulls out the shoes, which resemble clown shoes in that large of a size.
 

“That’ll be $18,” the guy says. “Lane 4.”

Garret pays him, then we go to lane 4 and put our shoes on. I laugh even harder when I see Garret in those shoes. “I have to get a picture of this. Can I borrow your phone?”

He doesn’t answer. He’s too busy staring at his shoes. “Okay, why do mine look ridiculous and yours look almost normal?”

“Because you have huge feet.” I pull on his arm. “Come on. Let’s pick out a ball.”

I take him over to the rack of bowling balls. I pick a bright green 10-pounder and he gets a red 16-pounder.
 

“Okay. So you just walk up to the lane and aim the ball at the pins,” I say, demonstrating it. I release the ball and get a strike. “See? It’s easy.”

Garret steps up to the lane and throws the ball. It goes right in the gutter. The same thing happens when he tries again. He rolls his eyes as he turns back around. “Yeah, this is gonna be fun.”

“You just need to warm up.” I record our scores, then go up and bowl a split. I go again and get a spare.

Garret’s impressed. “Damn, you really
are
good at this.” He goes up and rolls another gutter ball and another one after that.

“You know, they have these things they put in the gutters for kids,” I say as I pick up my ball. “Do you want me to ask the guy if we could get those for our lane?”

Garret stands there with his arms crossed. He hates being bad at stuff just as much as I do. “Just bowl, smart ass.”
 

At the end of game one, I have 158 points and he has 63.
 

“Well, that was humiliating,” Garret says sitting next to me.

“At least you got some points. Are you having even a tiny bit of fun?”

He smiles. “I may be losing, but I like who I’m with.” He puts his arm behind me and nods toward the lane. “And I get a great view from back here.”

“A great view?” I ask, then realize what he means. Good thing I wore these jeans. They’re the only ones I have that give my butt some shape.

“Do you want a drink or something to eat?” He gets up and glances back at the snack stand. “On second thought, let’s just stick to drinks. Want a soda?”

“Sure. I have to use the restroom, so I’ll meet you back here.”

When I get out of the restroom I see Garret at the snack stand talking to two girls. They look like they’re still in high school, maybe tenth or eleventh grade. Both of them are smiling up at Garret like he’s the hottest guy they’ve ever seen. He probably is. He’s the hottest guy
I’ve
ever seen, at least in person.

I walk over to him. “Do you need help with those?”
 

Garret seems relieved to see me. “Yeah. Here’s your soda.” He gives me one of the drinks, then grabs my hand, signaling to the girls that he’s on a date. They don’t seem to care as they continue to smile at him.

He drags me back to the lane. “I know I said I wouldn’t hold your hand again, but that was an emergency. Those two wouldn’t leave me alone. The one girl asked me to go to her house so she could—well, never mind.”

“What? No way!” I look back at them still standing at the counter. “What did you tell them?”

“I told them I was here with my girlfriend.”
 

I notice that he’s still holding my hand. “So you lied to them?”

He looks at me and flashes that perfect smile. “I don’t know. Did I?”

I feel my cheeks blushing. Garret is the only guy who has ever made me blush. I don’t even know why I’m blushing. Ever since I met Garret my stupid body keeps betraying me, doing all kinds of things I don’t want it to do and I have no control over it. It’s really annoying.
 

“We’ve only been on this date for a few hours so I’d say it’s too soon to call me your girlfriend.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” He releases my hand. “So should I go first this time?”
 

We finish up another game, with me getting 178 and Garret getting 86. I don’t think he even cares about the score. He just wants those shoes off. We return the shoes and head out to the car, which luckily is still there.

“So now what?” I ask once we’re in the car.

“Dinner. What do you feel like eating?” He starts the engine and turns the heat on.

“You didn’t already plan something? I gotta tell you, Garret, I thought you were the type of guy who would make all these big plans for a date, especially a first date. But you didn’t plan anything.”

“I usually do plan it out. But I tend to go a little over-the-top and I know you don’t like that type of thing, so I thought we’d just wing it.”

“What do you mean by over-the-top? What would you have planned for tonight?”

“I wanted to take you into the city. You’ve never been there, right?”

“What city? New York City?”

He laughs. “Yes. I was going to take you to this restaurant there that’s at the top of a hotel. It has a great view of the city. It’s close to my dad’s apartment, so I’ve been there a few times. They have really good food.”

“You guys have an apartment in New York?”

“Yeah. My dad has a lot of meetings there so sometimes he needs a place to stay overnight. We also have an apartment in London and one in LA.”

In addition to that, Garret’s family has five other houses, although he assures me they’re much smaller than his house here in Connecticut. That house is so big that the first time I saw it I thought it was some type of fancy hotel.

“So you were going to drive all the way to New York City for our first date?”

“I usually don’t drive there. Parking is impossible. I take my dad’s car service. But we could’ve taken the train, too.”

“That sounds fun. Why didn’t we go?”

“I didn’t think you’d want to. First of all, you don’t like noisy places and that city is nothing but noise. And second, I knew you’d say I was spending too much money.”

“I guess. But I really want to see New York City. I’ve always wanted to go there.”

“Really? Dammit. I should’ve just taken you there.” He checks his watch. “It’s kind of late to head there now. We’ll do it next week. Next Saturday. We’ll leave early so we’ll have time to see stuff.”

“Are you just assuming I’ll go on another date with you? We haven’t even finished this one yet. Maybe I’ll say no.”

“You’d seriously say no after I wore those stupid shoes for you and let you kick my ass in there?”

I punch his arm. “You didn’t
let
me kick your ass. I just kicked your ass, period.”

We hear laughing and glance up to see the two high school girls from the bowling alley heading toward Garret’s side of the car.
 

“Kiss me,” he says, keeping his eyes on them.
 

“What? Like right now?”

The girls are almost at the car. Garret turns to me, then places his hand behind my head and pulls me in for a kiss. I don’t protest because I’ve been dying to kiss him all night. He keeps it innocent, no tongue action, but I’m sure the girls who are watching us think we’re doing more. I hear them walk past us, mumbling something about how all the good guys are taken.
 

Garret slowly backs away. “Sorry about that. Again, it was an emergency.” He doesn’t sound all that apologetic. “Those girls are aggressive.”

“I’m glad I could help you out.” I lean back and put my seat belt on.

He pulls out of the parking lot and takes off down the road.
 

“Wait. We didn’t decide where to eat,” I say.

“I know where to go.”

“But you said you wanted me to pick it out.”

“Yeah, well, I asked you out, so I should pick what we do. You were right. I should’ve planned something. If you don’t like what I pick, then you’ll have to ask
me
out next time.”

“What’s with the attitude all of a sudden?”

“I’m just taking charge of this date. That’s all.” He reaches over to hold my hand and this time I let him. “Now tell me how you learned to bowl like that.”

We drive back toward Moorhurst, passing the campus and driving for another half hour until we’re almost at his hometown.

“Garret, we’re close to where your parents live. Aren’t you worried they’ll see us?”

“Katherine would never let my dad take her to the place we’re going. It’s not expensive enough. And I told you, I’m not listening to them anymore. If they have a problem with us dating, I really don’t care.”

We get to the restaurant. It’s an upscale Mexican place. The inside has colored lights and a fountain. I’ve never heard of half of the stuff on the menu, but I find some familiar tacos to order.

“Now THIS is Mexican food,” Garret says as he dips a chip in some fresh guacamole. “Not that shit Mexican you ate from that taco stand by campus.” He’s referring to the taco stand that seems to make everyone sick except me.

“The taco stand is still in business, so it can’t be that bad.” I try some of the salsa. “Although I admit that the food here is way better. And I like the atmosphere. It’s fun. You did good, Garret.”

His cocky grin appears. “I don’t know what I was thinking letting you plan our date. You probably would’ve picked that taco stand for dinner if I let you.”

“Nah. Probably the burger joint by the dry cleaners.”

“That place is just as disgusting. Well, that confirms it. I’ll be planning the dates from here on out.”

“I still haven’t agreed to go out with you again.”

He nudges my foot under the table and smiles. “You will.”

Our food arrives and just as we start to eat, a mariachi band stops by our table singing some type of love song. It makes me laugh, not just because of the song but because they’re not very good. The main singer is way off key. I try to hide my laughter because the guy is really trying hard.
 

Garret sees me struggling. He sets his fork down, then reaches over and holds the hand I’m not eating with and gazes into my eyes. The mariachi guys notice and assume their music has caused Garret’s romantic gesture. The bad singer nods at Garret and gets a huge grin on his face, singing even louder.
 

I’m practically in tears trying to keep from laughing. I give Garret a look to cut it out, but he’s enjoying this way too much. He picks my hand up and kisses it.
 

Finally, the song ends. Garret takes some money from his wallet and gives it to the guy.
 

“Muchas gracias,” the singer says. He points to me. “Beautiful girl. You two are a lovely couple.”

“We are, aren’t we?” Garret says, smiling at me, then back at the singer.

“You two get married some day. I sing at your wedding.” He reaches in his pocket and pulls out a business card.
 

“Thank you.” Garret takes the card, then looks at me. “Jade, he could sing at our wedding. Wouldn’t that be great?”

I kick his foot under the table. “Um, yeah. Great.” I turn to the singer. “Thanks again. It was very nice music.”

The guy nods and moves on to another table. Garret releases my hand and goes back to eating like the whole scene didn’t even happen.

“Did you have to do that?” I ask him. “You knew I was dying over here. They would’ve left if you hadn’t started that hand-holding crap.”

He shrugs. “I didn’t want them to leave. I was enjoying it.”