Summer Burns (13 page)

"
Trust me, it
'
s better this way. The whole damn family
'
s in there.
"
I jabbed my thumb over my shoulder.

"
Do you have a curfew?
"

I laughed.
"
With the amount of wine in there tonight, I doubt anyone would remember if I did.
"

He smirked as he put his hand on my elbow and walked me to the car.
"
You look very pretty,
"
he said as he opened the car door.

"
You do too,
"
I said. And realized what I
'
d actually said.
"
Oh geez, I mean, uh. You look nice.
"

He grinned.
"
Thank you.
"
He closed the door and walked around the car.

I tried not to fidget while he got in and got situated.

Though it wasn
'
t working, at least, not as well as I wanted, because he totally called me out on it.

"
Nervous?
"

"
Yeah. First date since
..."

"
I figured.
"
He grimaced, and suddenly I felt really stupid for even mentioning Jake. Gah. Here was a guy, wanting to take me out, who
'
d served with him, and wanted to pay his respects, and, and
...

Ugh. I
'
m an idiot.

"
I
'
m sorry. I shouldn
'
t have mentioned it. I
'
m just
...
I
'
m nervous. But I
'
m not. But I am.
"

"
Truth be told,
"
he said, stroking his car keys,
"
I am too.
"

"
Really?
"

He nodded.
"
I haven
'
t been on a real date in quite a while.
"

I rested my elbow on the window.
"
So what are we going to do on this date then?
"

"
Is there still a mini-golf place in town?
"

I grinned.
"
Yes there is. Over on Fourteenth street.
"

"
Perfect.
"

Yep. I was thinking it sounded pretty perfect too.

~*~

"
Oh my God, did you see that? I was right there!
"
I said, waving my arm. My golf ball just skirted the hole, and darted across the green.

"
I see a gal who just lost the round.
"

I stuck my tongue out at Hennessey.

He laughed. And what a great sound it was. He
'
d been doing it all night, in between the smart-assed remarks that had me laughing all night as well.

At first, he
'
d been very quiet and reserved.

But as the evening progressed, he relaxed.

And maybe because he did, so did I. I mean, I was making this out to be so many things in my head that I didn
'
t know what I was doing. I
'
d waffle between the whole
"
dating
"
thing and
"
just friends having fun
"
thing and I was making myself nutty.

Being here, right now with him, it
'
s more about the having fun than anything else, which is what I needed.

Two grown-ups just having fun. I wasn
'
t going to make it into more than that.

We went to the next hole--the last one--and it was a wind mill.

"
Okay, this will not be fun,
"
I muttered as I walked up to the tee box.

"
Whatcha doin
'
there, Summer?
"
Matthew asked.

"
Getting ready to make my shot.
"

He raised his eyebrow.
"
And who, exactly, won the last hole?
"
We
'
d been playing that winner got the first shot on the next hole. That loosely translated into Matthew getting to shoot first every single time, because I am no golfer.

I rolled my eyes.
"
You did.
"

"
So I get to go first,
"
he said, and playfully hip-checked me out of the way.

I stepped back and watched him line up his shot.
"
Be careful, that windmill looks pretty darn mean.
"

He glanced back at me.
"
I have timing.
"

"
Uh huh,
"
I said.

He said nothing and hit his ball.

And naturally, it went right between the windmill
'
s arms and through the hole, popping out on the green below us, lined up perfectly to roll right into
...

"
You have got to be kidding me,
"
I said as his ball fell into the hole, giving him his tenth hole-in-one for the night.

He grinned at me, that super smug look he
'
d had all night.
"
You going to take your shot?
"

"
Don
'
t know why I bother,
"
I said.

"
It
'
s just about lining up the shot.
"
He stepped out of the way as I took my place. He happened to be fairly close to me, and for a moment, I didn
'
t mind the intimacy.

Not that it meant anything.

Because it didn
'
t.

Right?

"
Uh huh,
"
I said as I lined up my shot. It wasn
'
t that I couldn
'
t hit a mostly-straight shot, it was more the timing of the windmill arms swinging in front of the hole that would block my shot.

I watched, and waited for what I thought was the perfect amount of time, but sure enough, when I thought I
'
d timed it just right, the swinging arm came down and blocked my ball from going into the windmill.

"
Ugh,
"
I moaned.

Matthew picked up my ball and brought it back to me.
"
It
'
s all about timing, hon. That
'
s it.
"

I raised my eyebrow, not saying a word about him calling me
'
hon.
'
Because lots of guys said stuff like that.

It didn
'
t make my heart patter at all.

Nope.

No way.

I studied the texture of the fake grass as he handed me my ball, because I didn
'
t want him to see that very likely, my cheeks were the same pink as the golf ball.

"
Let me help you.
"
His voice was deeper. Or maybe I just thought it sounded more intense in the moment.

I was probably just overthinking it.

"
Uh,
"
I muttered as he stepped behind me.

His arms wrapped around me, and I could smell all those nice manly smells, and wait. Was he wearing cologne? Some nice woodsy, musky stuff.

Guy smell.

A smell I hadn
'
t really smelled in a long time--when one doesn
'
t count the guys who come in with way too much cologne on at the beauty shop. This was nice.

Warm and inviting.

"
It
'
s about the timing,
"
he said, his cheek right next to my ear, and his breath was warm.
"
Watch the windmill.
"

I turned to look, mesmerized by his voice and the close contact. It had been a very long time since I
'
d felt a man
'
s arms around me like this.

Even if it was for mini golf.

And I felt kind of stupid for the warring emotions inside over it.

"
One, two, three, four.
"
He counted, what, I wasn
'
t sure. But he kept doing it in my ear, and I think he was counting the time of the windmill arms.

I don
'
t know.

I didn
'
t really care.

He guided my arms back, still whispering the count in my ear, and together we hit the ball. I watched it roll down the green and slide between the windmill arms, and right into the hole.

Just like it was supposed to.

And sure enough, just like his did, it popped out on the other side, and fell right into the winning cup.

"
See, it
'
s just timing.
"
He still had an arm around me.

And I didn
'
t care, either.
"
I guess so,
"
I said, still sort of tingly from the way he
'
d been holding me.

He ran his hand over my shoulder before letting go.
"
You can do it.
"

"
Uh huh.
"

"
Now we
'
re tied,
"
he said. His gaze held mine, and I wondered if I wasn
'
t the only person noticing the physical contact.

And my first impulse was to run away. I didn
'
t actually run, I just stepped down toward the lower green.

But it was enough to break the sudden, grown-up attention between us.

"
I
'
m pretty sure you won, because both those shots were all you.
"

"
Are you complaining?
"
he asked, still standing on the upper green, and making him look even taller.

I shook my head.

Nope. I wasn
'
t complaining at all.

Chapter Ten

"
I
'
d never heard a burp that loud in my life,
"
Summer laughed as they reminisced about high school. The dusky sun washed her features, making her look absolutely beautiful in the light. Her bangs flickered in her face, and she kept brushing the strands out of her eyes.

Yep. The park was way better than sitting inside some dark donut shop.

He grinned.
"
Well, I
'
m sure, if you had been in the locker room when all the guys were there, you would have heard some good ones.
"

"
Hey, she startled Coach Brenner. To this day, I can still see his face, peaking around the corner, looking partially stunned and partially impressed that Melissa could do that.
"
She picked at the donut in her hand, and ate a little bite.

They
'
d stopped at a local donut shop, and originally were going to stay and talk, but the shop had a live band playing, and he suggested the park instead.

It wasn
'
t too hot tonight, not horribly stifling, anyway, as the sun went down.

"
I
'
m impressed she stunned Coach Brenner. That guy could belch,
"
he said.

"
We girls weren
'
t all sweet and nice down there in the locker room,
"
she said.