True Love and Magic Tricks (8 page)

I rip out the fourth magazine perfume
sample, strip out of my shirt, and slap the sample to my chest. It
might be completely bonkers, but I think I’ve lost my mind a little
bit.

“
Kaylee bug?” Dad yells up
the stairs. “There are…
people
here.”

Oh my gosh, Dad!
Embarrassing much? He has to call me bug, then
he’s gotta point out that I
never
have people over.

“
Ugh,” I grumble in the
comic tee I’m wiggling my face through. “Be down in two
seconds!”

Mr. Pippi shifts in his cage, and I
blow him a kiss after making sure my braid is smooth. I didn’t do
my normal easy going pigtails, opting for a more elegant braided
look, but my fingers keep reaching for two braids to twist out of
habit.

Before I step from my room, I shove
the box of blue love notes back under my bed. Maybe I’ll try to
subtly bring them up tonight and confirm my suspicion that it’s
been Nate this whole time.

I’m surprised I don’t
tumble down the stairs and land on my face with how fast my feet
want to move. Lexie’s eyes go straight to my newly painted
toes.
Dating a Royal
she deemed appropriate, even though blue is not my
color.

Ryan’s flicking his key ring around
his finger, talking about some sort of mechanical who-knows-what
with my dad as he looks past him out the door to whatever car
Ryan’s driving. There’s some other guy there too, next to Lexie,
and it takes me waaaaaay too long to realize… that’s my
date.

I blink a few times, double
and triple taking glances at Nate. He’s wearing this unbelievably
tight black shirt. I mean so tight I’m seeing nipples. Okay, no
judgment. It’s fine. He looks good in anything. Really. What
size
is that?

Instead of his signature smile, he
gives me the head bob, which is fine too. But not really for my dad
who insists on shaking his hand. Nate looks like he’s going to, but
then fumbles out with a fist-bump. He totally just fist-bumped my
dad.

Oh Nate, please start talking and
prove to him you’re just this adorable, nervous guy, and you’re not
a complete jer—

“
Wow, you look…
finger-licking,” he says to me. My eyes jump out of my head, and I
whip my neck to catch Dad’s reaction. His neck is slowly turning
the color of an eggplant.

“
I’m not familiar with that
expression,” Dad says, crossing his arms. “Please explain it to
me.”

Nate gulps and tries to crack a grin.
“She looks good. Tasty. You know, like finger-licking…
food?”

My hand comes up over my
eyes. Maybe I’m hallucinating. But when I bring my hand back down
we’re all still there. Ryan and Lexie are sharing equal expressions
of confusion. My dad’s neck strained so much I can see the tendons.
And Nate’s standing there
winking
at me.

Oh sweet mother…

“
I have my phone,” I say,
trying to keep the perk in my voice. I hop down my last step, kiss
Dad on the cheek, and give him an encouraging smile. It doesn’t
work.

“
It was a compliment, you
know,” Nate says, crossing his arms to echo my dad, but he fumbles
on it, looking like he’s confused about which arm to put over the
other. He opens his mouth to continue, but I’m afraid what’ll come
out, so I push him outside, mentally begging him to keep his trap
shut till I close the door. Ryan flips his keys again and says,
“We’ll meet you there?”

Nate nods, and my brow
crinkles when I notice the two cars parked in the drive. Okay, so
we’re driving separately. No big deal. Just curious why they
all
came to my house to
pick me up.

Dad waves from the window, and then
does the lame phone sign to let me know to call if I need rescuing.
I smile and signal back. And a sick weight plops in my stomach
because I wish Mom was here to pacify him while I’m out.

“
So,” Nate says, opening
the door for me, “I know it’s not a five star place, but
they
want to go to
Skippy Lee’s.”

“
Skippy Lee’s tastes like
five stars.” I nudge him with my shoulder. “Don’t worry about
it.”

He rolls his eyes and shuts the door
behind me. Geez Louise, what is up his butt tonight? I quickly
sniff myself to make sure I’m not emanating some weird
funk.

Ryan backs out of the drive just as
Nate starts the engine. He gulps, shaking his head and breathing
really weird before pushing his foot on the accelerator once…
twice… three times, revving the engine like he’s in a drag
race.

I look over my shoulder at
Ryan who’s laughing, and
he
starts revving his engine. Lexie smacks him
upside the head and motions for him to just drive. Agreed,
girlfriend.
Boys
.
Though, I didn’t peg Nate as a guy who liked to compensate with his
car.

“
Where’s your deck of
cards?” I ask, looking around every inch of the cab.

He shrugs, the tight shirt bunching on
his shoulder. “I cleaned.”

I attempt a smile. “Sorry, I didn’t
mean that it was dirty before. I just thought… I don’t know, that
you kept them around.”

“
I do more than just card
tricks.” He throws me a grin, which comes off extremely suggestive
and throws me back a little.

“
Um, okay.”

His eyebrows pull in, and he shakes
his head and stares out the windshield. We pull up to a red light
next to Ryan. I wave like I haven’t seen them in years, and they
both laugh. At least they’re in a good mood tonight.

Nate revs the engine again, egging
Ryan on to do the same.

“
Oh please don’t race him,”
I say, trying to keep my tone light, but I mean it. We’re still in
a semi-residential area, and who knows what dog or kid or cat or
whatever will come jetting onto the road after a ball.

He does that grin again,
like he doesn’t know if it belongs on his face, but it’s there so
he’s going with it. I open my mouth to emphasize that I
really
don’t want him to
gun it, but the light turns green, and both Ryan and Nate’s tires
squeal, and I’m thrown back into my seat.

“
Damnit, damnit, damnit!”
Nate’s shouting as the car shifts from first to second to third and
Ryan’s still pulling ahead. My blue nails dig into the seat, heart
thudding through my ears, and my vision goes blurry. Nate doesn’t
seem to notice my absolute shock and terror as Ryan cuts him off
and slams on his brakes, making Nate do the same. The seatbelt
locks across my boobs, stealing the breath right out of my
lungs.

“
I should’ve known.” He
waves at Ryan’s car in front of us. “He tunes that thing up like,
every week.”

I keep quiet, trying to calm my heart
rate. My fingers slowly uncurl.

“
Wait,” he says, finally
glancing in my direction. “Are you okay?”

I manage to unstick my tongue. “I… I
told you not to.”

His eyebrows shoot up, eyes wide.
“Holy crap, I’m sorry. I thought… Girls like fast cars,
right?”

My fingers twist around my braid, and
I shake my head. “Not this girl.” I stare at my knees, trying to
calm down. Nate looks like he wants to put his hand on mine, but he
doesn’t. I get control of my heart, feel like smacking him upside
the head, but I just turn and look out my window.

He audibly gulps. “Got it.”

We pull into Skippy Lee’s parking lot
a few minutes later, and his phone is out. He’s typing like a mad
man. After a good forty seconds, I sigh and open my door, meeting
up with Lexie in the entrance.

“
I hope you smacked him for
encouraging that display of macho-ism,” I say, nodding at Ryan. He
holds his hands up like he’s totally innocent.

Lexie rolls her eyes and tweaks his
nipple through his button-down. He’s rubbing it out when Nate
slides in behind me. Thank the heavens he’s not texting.

“
Hey, Ryan and I can get
the food if you guys… uh, I mean
ladies
… want to grab a
table.”

Lexie laughs and
thank goodness
because
it means he’s not acting normal. I hope he pulls something out of
thin air or blushes or something normal
for him
soon. Or you know, give me a
compliment other than something that sounds like it’s an
advertisement for fast food.

I put on a big smile and kiss his
cheek. It has to be nerves. So I’ll try to reassure him. “Thanks,
that’d be great.”

Lexie turns to Ryan with pouty lips
and bats her eyelashes. The girly reaction makes me laugh.
Especially when Ryan groans and says, “Bacon burger. I
know…”

“
Extra, extra
bacon.”

Ryan’s nose crinkles, and Nate leans
in when he sees my half-confused, half-amused
expression.

“
Ryan’s a vegetarian. She
does this to him all the time.”

I flick my eyes to meet Nate’s, and my
stomach hops on a downhill slide. He sounds like normal Nate.
Normal, sexy, adorable, yummy—

His lips slam on mine with
no warning, no how-do-you-do, no prelude music. My eyes are still
wide open when he pulls back, and his cheeks are splashed red when
a shaking hand taps my rear-end. “Go get our table,” he
orders.
Orders.
If I hadn’t had such a great time with him… well,
every other time
we’ve
been together, I would smack that mouth for doing what it just
did.

“
Oh-kay.” I share a look
with Lexie and Ryan who seem just as dumbstruck as I feel. “Could
you get me a—”

“
I got it,” he
sputters.

“
But you don’t know what
I—”

He places a trembling hand over my
mouth, then attempts that awful smirk I saw in the car. “Trust me,
‘kay? Promise I’ll get you something good.”

The back of my eyes start to prickle,
and before I can let him see just how disappointing this date is so
far, I grab Lexie’s wrist and yank her to the dining booths. I
don’t look back once, afraid if I do I’ll see whoever that jerkwad
is that decided to possess Nate’s body tonight.

“
Please tell me he’s not
like this usually,” I whisper-yell to her the second we sit
down.

Lexie taps her pink nails on the
napkin holder. “I think he’s nervous. I’ve never seen him rev the
engine on that car since he owned it. And um… sorry, I wouldn’t
know if he’s into PDA so I don’t know if that’s normal.”

“
I don’t mind him kissing
me if it’s like… I don’t know… not so rushed and sloppy and isn’t
followed by a smack to my butt and a ‘get our seats,
woman!’”

“
I’m sorry. Give him a bit.
Knowing Nate he probably ‘date studied’ all night by watching
movies. He’s just trying too hard to be like
those
guys.”

I cluck my tongue and nod
at the tabletop. “I want
him
, though.”

She shrugs. “Then tell
him.”

Holy balls, she’s totally right. I
don’t have to tolerate this nonsense! I won’t embarrass him in
front of his friends, but if he keeps it up, I’m so spilling in the
car on the way to the movie.

“
Thanks, Bestie,” I say,
and even though her eyebrows rise at the name, I don’t care. She’s
on my side here, and I’m stealing her as my new best friend. Or I
should say my first best friend… outside of Mr. Pippi.

“
Here’s your cow gut and
pig spine,” Ryan says, and trays slide under our noses.

Lexie’s face brightens as she unwraps
her bacon loaded burger. She takes a massive bite and says, “Thank
you, buh-ddy.” Then she puckers up like she’s going to kiss his
cheek with all that food in her mouth, and Ryan shoves her face
away.

Nate bumps into me as he
sits, throwing me a nervous grin. “I got you my normal… it’s
amazing
.” He pushes the
burger in my direction. It looks good, but I can already tell it’s
not going to be my thing with all the stuff piled on it.

“
Thanks,” I say anyway. I’m
a big girl who can try new things… after I pick off the tomatoes
and onions and pickles and wipe the mustard off. He makes a
derisive noise with his mouth when he sees me reorganizing my
burger before taking a bite. My lips purse together to keep from
telling him he would’ve known all this if he’d let me order my own
dang food.

To keep the attention away from
whatever weird chemistry is—or isn’t—happening between Nate and I,
I nod at Ryan’s tray and ask, “What do you eat here?”

He half-grins and picks up a carrot
from his salad. “Vegetables.”

“
Rabbit food,” Lexie
snorts.

“
Don’t knock him for
wanting to save little animals,” I defend, finally getting my
burger vegetable-free.

“
Oh, it’s not because he
wants to save lives.” Lexie laughs, and Ryan wrinkles his nose at
her. “He just doesn’t like the taste.”