Page 21 of One Little Problem
“Maybe we should make our own constellations,” I suggested.
“How would you make yours?” he asked. I looked up at the sky, considering how to put my mark on it while I could feel that his eyes stayed on me, like I was the better view.
I gestured and he did look up to see what I decided. “That would be mine,” I told him. I pointed to an area that was basically encompassing everything we could see from our vantage point.
“You’re taking up almost the whole sky.” He sounded a bit incredulous but not really surprised.
“Exactly, I’m larger than life.” I grinned at him without shame. “What about yours?”
“Nothing too creative, I’d just wanna spell out my name.”
“Mine’s not that creative either, just taking up space.” Pun! Again!
“Maybe we can work on the creativity next time.”
“Next time? Why not now?” I’m not Cinderella; I wasn’t going to turn into a pumpkin if he didn’t get me home on time… That’s not how it goes, is it?
“There’s no rush. Might be nice to have something, something ongoing, we could do together. In case this ‘not dating’ thing goes on for a while. And even if it doesn’t, we could still keep this going, this is nice.” I turned my head and kissed where I could reach, which was around his cheek. “Good idea?” he asked.
I nodded. “You have them occasionally.”
He lowered his voice and said, “I won’t tell if you don’t.”
“Deal.”
* * *
Luke and I didn’t do candlelight dinners or bouquets of roses, but we were pretty romantic all things considered. Especially for a small town like this. Gazing up at the stars together was our thing. That was pretty cool. And different from the nicknames or the finding our song because we didn’t plan it or discuss it, it happened naturally.
Luke drove me home and we had the windows rolled down, so cool night air drifted in and the stars above were twinkling just like they had in the planetarium but that had been better because Luke was closer there. “We could stay out a little later,” I tried.
“Your Dad would kill me.” We were on a boring stretch of road with nothing to illuminate it but the stars and moon way up overhead. The planetarium may not have had much more light, but the glittering objects above had been much closer and Luke had been close too, so I had a better view. I wanted to get a better view of him now. Even if my eyes would close automatically when our lips met.
“He thinks I’m with Alicia,” I reminded Luke. And Dad seemed to buy it, so lying was awesome.
“Don’t want him to kill her.”
No, he liked Alicia. “She died for a good cause,” I told him in somber, noble tone. “I’ll remember her and tell her story.”
“I know we’re still dating, and one day your dad will know again, and he still scares me.” Couldn’t see his face clearly, but his voice sounded appropriately frightened. My big tough guy was a frightened puppy who feared scary movies and overprotective fathers. Okay, maybe I didn’t want a better view; I just wanted to close my eyes and kiss him.
“He might not even be home,” I tried, just saying stuff and hoping it worked. Though, that might actually be true…
“Another guy’s night?”
“To be another, there’d have to be one first.” I grimaced. “He’s dating.”
Luke made a noise of acknowledgment. “Oh yeah, you mentioned that.” He remembered! We should definitely be kissing. Remembering deserved kissing. “Wanna talk about it?”
“No, I’m good.” I wasn’t trying to be a macho guy, why would I aim for something so out of my wheelhouse? I didn’t want to avoid my feelings or bury them deep down. But I didn’t want to talk about my dad dating either. I wanted to talk about that even less than, I don’t know, Lydia being naked.
“Hey, that’s how I got into problems last time,” he pointed out softly but wasn’t pushing.
That’s because you’re dumb, I was smart enough to not say. I didn’t need to snap at my boyfriend. “Yeah but to talk about it… I’d have to know what to say. I don’t.” I didn’t have a great feeling about it, but I didn’t know why. It had been a while since Mom. Dad deserved to be happy. Go away stupid bad feeling.
“Well, if you need me for anything—"
“Oh, I will start a list,” I told him immediately because I was not a strong enough man to pass up that opportunity.
