Page 35 of Stone Promises

Mallory has turned me down twice since last night. Making excuses about being busy and how I’m only in town for a few more days. I don’t care if I’m leaving in two days or two years, I want to take her out on a proper date. I’ve always wanted to do that, ever since I was little. I’m just not going to beg.

That’s not true. I probably would beg. But I’m not quite there yet. No, I’ve got something else in mind.

I dribble the ball around her driveway, working on my trick shots. I’ve been to Ethan’s gym every day this week practicing for this moment.

I smile when I hear a car turn into the driveway behind me. And even though she shot me down, I’m pretty sure I see her smile through the windshield of her compact car. I step aside so she can pull into the garage. She exits the car, arms piled high with folders. I run over to help her out before she spills them all over the garage.

“Hi. Thanks,” she says, willingly letting me take the load from her.

I nod to the heavy pile of papers in my hands. “How much homework do you give those kids? I thought you’d be one of those cool teachers who doesn’t pile a ton of work on your students.”

“First off,” she says, scolding me with a hot-teacher look that has me needing to adjust my pants, “Cool teachersdogive homework. And second, I’ve been a bit otherwise occupied this week and haven’t had a chance to grade these papers yet.”

“Otherwise occupied?” I ask, looking down at her with raised brows. “I only occupied you for two nights. Whose ass do I have to kick for occupying the other two?”

She rolls her eyes at me. “No one’s,” she says, walking towards the door to the house. “Come on, you can put those down in the kitchen.”

I follow her in, happy to have my foot in the door so to speak. I put her things down and turn around to face her. “Why won’t you go to dinner with me?”

She sighs, shaking her head. “It’s not a good idea, Chad. Someone could see us. I don’t want to cause a stir. And you’re leaving soon.”

“You keep saying I’m leaving soon. But why does that mean we can’t be friends?”

She stares at me. She stares at me hard. Her eyes tell me everything she’s thinking.

“Shit,” I say, finally realizing the obvious. “I’m not going to do that again, Mal. I promise to stay in touch this time. I’ll even come back. Or you can come see me. Don’t shut me out. Please?”

Okay, so maybe itistime for begging.

“I don’t know,” she says, leaning against the counter. “It’s just all so complicated.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” I tell her.

She sighs again. She’s going to say no, I can feel it.

“Let’s play for it,” I say, nodding towards the garage.

“You want to play HORSE to get me to go to dinner with you? You do realize you never win, don’t you?”

My lips curve into a devious smile. “I’ve never been this motivated before,” I say. “Plus, I’ve been practicing. And I’m starving. I haven’t eaten all day, so can we hurry this along?”

Her eyes go wide. “Tonight? You want to do dinnertonight?” She looks over at the pile of papers on the counter. “I can’t, Chad. I have so much to do.”

“First, it’s Friday. You have all weekend to grade papers. Second, if you really need them graded that badly, I’ll help you.”

She gives me that scolding hot-teacher look again. Damn, she has to quit doing that. “You’llgrade papers?”

“It’d be fun,” I say. “I always wanted to be a teacher you know.”

“Yeah, I know. I know everything about you.” She looks down at the floor, frowning. “Well, I used to.”

I step up next to her. “You can again, Mal. Just give me a chance.” I nod to the door that leads to the garage. “Come on. Let me try to win that date.”

She shakes her head. “Not a date,” she says. “Just dinner.Ifyou win.”

“Game on, Mal.” I take her hand and drag her behind me out to the driveway.

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