Page 111 of Kiss an Angel

“Thank you.”

Having exhausted that path of conversation, he turned back to Heather. “Me and this guy Jeff—you don’t know him, but he’s pretty cool—we were thinking we might hang around there for a while.”

“Okay.”

“Maybe we’ll see you.”

“Yeah. That’d be cool.”

Silence.

“Okay, see you.”

“Yeah, see ya.”

As he stumbled off, a dreamy expression came over Heather’s face, followed, almost immediately, by uncertainty. “Do you think he likes me?”

“Definitely.”

“What am I going to do if he asks me out tonight, like between shows or something? You know Dad won’t let me go.”

“You’ll have to tell Kevin the truth. Your father’s very strict, and you’re not allowed to date until you’re thirty.” Once again, Heather rolled her eyes, but Daisy didn’t let it put her off.

She considered Heather’s dilemma. It would be good for her to have a romance, even a twelve-hour one. She needed to behave like a normal teenager for a while instead of someone doing penance. Still, she knew Heather was right and Brady would object.

“How about if you show Kevin around? He’ll like that. Then if you go sit over by the trucks, your father will be able to keep his eye on you, but you’ll have some privacy.”

“I guess that’ll work.” Heather’s forehead wrinkled with entreaty. “Will you talk to Dad and make sure he doesn’t embarrass me?”

“I’ll talk to him.”

“Don’t let him say something stupid in front of Kevin. Please, Daisy.”

“I’ll do my best.”

She dipped her head and poked her index finger at her empty french fry container. Once again her shoulders slumped, and Daisy could see the guilt cloud descending.

“When I think about what I did to you, I feel like such a shit—creep! I meant creep.” She looked up. “You know I’m sorry, don’t you?”

“Yes.” She didn’t know how to help her. Heather had tried to atone for what she’d done in all the ways she knew how. The only thing she hadn’t done was go to her father with the truth, and Daisy didn’t want her to do that. Heather’s relationship with Brady was already difficult enough and that would only make it harder.

“Daisy, I’d never . . . I mean that thing with Alex was just because I was immature. He was so nice to me, but I’d never come on to him now or anything, if you were worrying about that.”

“Thank you for telling me.” Daisy busied herself collecting their trash so Heather wouldn’t see her smile.

The teenager wrinkled her nose. “No offense, Daisy. He’s sexy and everything, but he’s really old.”

Daisy nearly choked.

Heather gazed over at the registers where Kevin was finally placing his order. “He is so cute.”

“Alex?”

Heather looked horrified. “No! Kevin!”

“Ahh. Well, Alex is no Kevin, that’s for sure.”

Heather nodded solemnly. “That’s for sure.”

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