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But she could only stomach one thank you to encompass all of them when they climbed back into his car, stuffed. “Thanks for paying.”
He turned over the engine and gave her that now recognizable teasing smirk. “Anything for my angel.”
twenty-two
tully
Tully’s study materials were already packed by 10:30 in the morning. That left her with a little less than an hour and a half to spare. They agreed when he dropped her off at home after Betty’s to meet at Nathan’s house at noon to continue on with their studying for his quiz on Monday. Luckily, with the spare time, she pulled out her statistics and began working on some harder problems that had been giving her some grief in class the last couple of days. Out of all the subjects she’d taken, statistics was probably the most senseless of them. Nothing about it was practical, so it took her a bit more work and questions from the teacher than usual.
Like Nathan, she also had a quiz on it next week, followed by her midterm exam the week after.
It was kind of nice though, studying with Nathan. Once she got him going, she could give him some time to look over his stuff while she worked on hers. She should have tried doing something like this study-buddy thing before, because even though she never had trouble having the motivation to study, it felt like she was far more productive with him around.
The telephone in the kitchen began to ring while she read over a confusing part in her textbook a few times. She ignored it, waiting for someone else to pick up, but when it stopped ringing and started up again, she remembered that her parents had left earlier to go meet up with some friends from their wilder days, and Joliet had left shortly afterwards. At least, that’s what Tully guessed since she hadn’t barged in and demanded she answer the phone while her sister had her own in her bedroom.
She rose up and walked to the device, rattling on the receiver, and picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Hey, angel,” Nathan’s voice immediately made Tully huff. Again with that damn nickname. And it didn’t even matter when they were alone. She wasn’t sure why he seemed so intent on using it in private. Probably because he enjoyed driving her crazy.
“That would have been embarrassing for you if it wasn’t me who answered.”
“I knew it was you. I recognize your voice.”
That made her pause and tilt her head as if Nathan could see her. Luckily he couldn’t, though, because he would see her startled brows draw upwards. Sure, she recognized his voice too—even if he hadn’t used the nickname—but it was weird to think that he would recognize her equally. She wasn’t really that memorable. “Why are you calling? I’m not late. We agreed to meet at noon.”
“That’s why I’m calling. I’m going to need to change plans.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, we can’t meet up at my place. My mom didn’t tell me until right now that she is hosting one of those weird parties where they fawn over Tupperware and there’s going to be about a dozen housewives crammed into our living room,” he said. Tully could even hear the smile on his face, and she had to admit, it was an amusing picture to imagine. “So I thought we could meet at your place instead.”
Tully frowned. “No way.”
“Why not?”
“We’re supposed to keep the studying thing separate from the dating thing. Joliet can’t stumble on us going over notes.” She didn’t think it necessary to mention that Joliet wasn’t home right now. Joliet ran on her own spontaneous schedules so she could show up at any moment and Tully would rather not be put into that situation.
“If she walks in, we can just say we were making out or something.”
Tully paused again. The tickle of embarrassment painted her cheeks, and she rubbed the back of her fingers against them. “How about the library instead?”
“I always fall asleep in libraries.”
“Of course you do,” she sighed, and leaned back against the wall. “Any other ideas then?”
“Hmm,” he sounded like he was thinking hard about it, and she tapped her foot waiting for him to come up with a solution. He might cancel, but likely not. He was the one with the quiz on Monday. “What about the park? It’s a nice day. I think I’ll work better in the sun than cooped up in a room.”
“Which one?”
“The one right across from the theater. It’s got a nice area with a bunch of tables.”
Tully considered it for a moment. It was right in the middle of the downtown area, but he wasn’t wrong. That park was one of the nicer ones in Richmond. A little noisy, but that never bothered her much. In the winter they even put an ice skating rink in it. “Okay, that works. What time?”
“Let’s keep it simple and stick with noon. Do you need a ride?”
“I can drive.”
