Page 82 of The Dating Dare

She skipped a little to keep up with Seth’s long, impatient strides. When they reached the entrance, he reached out and covered her eyes.

“Hey,” she protested, tugging at his hand.

“Close your eyes. You can’t look, yet.”

“Okay. Fine. Just so you know, you’re raising the expectations really high with all this fuss.”

“I’m confident it’ll meet your expectations,” he said, sounding a smidgen smug. He led her by the arm into the restaurant and clicked on the lights. “Are you ready?”

“Just show me already. The suspense is killing me.”

When he took his hand away, her mouth dropped open and no sound came out. He’d moved all the tables and chairs to one side of the dining hall and strung the entire room with lovely droplets of decorative light. And glittering star garlands hung from the ceiling as though the stars were spilling out of the night sky. At one corner, silver helium balloons happily spelled out the wordPROM.

“Oh, my God,” she gasped.

“Did you just say the Lord’s name in vain?” Seth’s eyebrows crept up to his hairline.

“An ‘oh, my God’ is warranted under such circumstances.”

“Do you like it?” he asked hesitantly.

“I love it, Seth. All of it.” She turned to him and caressed his cheek. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. You don’t know how happy it makes me to see you happy.” His voice broke at the end. “Okay. Before I become a slobbering mess… do you want to take our prom pictures?

“Prom pictures?” She laughed, super into the idea. “How? Where?”

Back at playing Mr. Mysterious, he said, “Please come with me.”

She followed Seth as he made his way to a corner of the dining hall that was blocked off with a tall screen. He moved the screen to one side, revealing a setup with a gentle gray backdrop, lighting, and a camera on a tripod.

“I can’t believe this,” Tara breathed. “You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?”

“I hope so. There was no way I was going to disappoint you.”

“I’m in awe. This is like Santa coming to your house on Christmas morning to open presents with you. It’s wonderful.”

“Good. You deserve it, and more,” he said.

They shot their traditional prom pose picture, angled perfectly so her corsage and his boutonnière were in full view. Then they got creative. Seth stood behind her and pretended to bite her neck like a vampire. She jumped on his back in an impromptu piggyback ride, swinging her arm high in the air like an overzealous cowgirl. They stood ramrod straight side by side and wore their very best poker faces. Of course, they didn’t forget the silly shot, where Tara pretended to pick Seth’s nose while he wore hisduhlook.

By the time they finished their photo shoot, they were laughing so hard that Tara sank to the floor, hugging her aching ribs. Taking in sips of oxygen between bouts of laughter, she said, “Stop. Stop it. I can’t breathe.”

“What? I’m not doing anything. You stop it.”

“Okay. I need to stop looking at you, because you keep getting that look on your face. I can tell you’re trying not to laugh.”

“Fine. I’ll go hide behind the screen,” he whizzed, and promptly did that.

That sent Tara into another bout of giggles. Then, slowly, very slowly—between random snorts—she finally stopped laughing and was able to take in a full breath.

Seth poked his head out from behind the screen, and asked, “Safe to come out?”

“I think so.” She took another deep breath to make sure.

He reached her in two strides and helped her to her feet. He cradled both of her hands in his, and ducked his head to meet her eyes, wearing the most endearing smile. “May I have this dance?”

“Yes.” Butterflies took flight from her stomach and fluttered around her racing heart.

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