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“I’m good,” he stuttered after a long pause. “Morgan and I are going out later too,” he threw in. “She’s taking me to a human cadaver art exhibit.”
“Um . . . that sounds kind of disturbing.”
His tan cheeks pinked. “It’s science.”
“Well, you have fun with that. I’ll see you later. Bye, boys.” I waved to Ryker and Axel before turning around.
“Hold up, Grace.” Brooks, in a surprising move, hopped over the hedge like he was seventeen again. He made my heart skip a beat or two. “Ryker and Axel, give me a minute to talk to Grace.”
The boys took off, tossing the football between them. That left me stunned, staring at Brooks in his tight hug-my-butt jeans. He looked better now than back in high school. Which wasn’t helping my situation any. I was supposed to be looking forward to Peter, but all I could think about was Brooks.
I bit my lip. “Can I help you with something?”
He let out a heavy sigh. “As a matter of fact, I was hoping you would meet me at the hospital tomorrow morning while my mother takes Carly and the boys to the airport.”
I tilted my head. “Is everything okay?”
He swallowed hard. “I haven’t seen my father and . . .”
“You want someone to hold your hand?” I guessed, giving him a crooked grin.
“Yes. I mean, figuratively, yes.”
Ugh. Of course. These dang F words were getting on my nerves. “Why don’t you take Morgan with you?” After all, they were dating, and since they loved going to see cadavers, the hospital should be a real treat for them.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Morgan doesn’t understand the intricacies of it all. And my parents never understood her, so bringing her would add more tension to the situation.”
Oh, his parents understood her all right, that’s why they didn’t like her. It was Brooks who’d never understood her and how manipulative she was. For being so smart, Brooks was an idiot. If his girlfriend couldn’t understand the details or importance of him trying to mend his relationship with his father, I would say it was time for him to get a new girlfriend. I had a suggestion of who that could be, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to date an idiot.
He stepped closer. “Please, Grace, you understand the situation better than anyone. And since you’re so close to Tom, I thought it would be best to have you there. I promise not to keep you long.”
“Well, I was planning on spending most of my Sunday there to read Twilight to him; I suppose I could meet you there. What time?” I must be a masochist at heart.
“Nine? Is that too early? We could make it later, if you plan on having a late night tonight,” he asked nonchalantly.
“We can only hope it will be a late night, but nine will work either way.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Er . . . Great. Thank you.”
“See you tomorrow.”
“Is this another blind date?” he asked, seeming reluctant to say goodbye.
“They always are.”
“Testing your facial recognition theory?”
I wrung my hands together. “Yep.”
“What is that again?”
“I don’t want to bore you with the details.” Because they made me sound like a whack job. “I need to get going.”
“Of course. Sorry I kept you.”
“No problem. Good night.” I turned to go.
“Grace, you look great. Your date is a lucky man,” he rushed to say before hopping back over the hedge.
I turned back to face him, but he was already jogging toward his nephews. I watched him for a moment. He picked up Axel and swung him around. It was too adorable for words. Unfortunately, the dang voice was not as at a loss for words as I was. He’s the one.
Please stop saying that! I marched toward my car, determined to hear a saner voice tonight.
All the way to the restaurant, I blared Rick Springfield, trying to get Brooks off my mind. Unfortunately, Rick was singing Brooks’s and my song, “Affair of the Heart.” It should be noted that Brooks didn’t know we already had a song. I found myself playing it more times than I should have. I knew how silly it was. It had been twenty years, and I knew nothing about him now. Even so, I felt like I knew him better than most people in my life, and somewhere inside of him lived the boy I’d loved. Obviously, though, he loved Morgan. Why else would he agree to check out dead bodies?
I had to push him from my mind. I needed to focus on Peter. I changed the song to “Jessie’s Girl” and instead sang “Peter’s Girl” to see if it had a ring to it. I wasn’t feeling it, but who knew, this date could be life changing for me.
~*~
I sat across from Peter at this fantastic burger place in downtown Fort Worth. It wasn’t too far from our spa and happened to be a favorite restaurant of mine. This was no run-of-the-mill burger place. We are talking they put fried mac and cheese on top of burgers. It was genius, and it spoke to Peter being fun. It was better than checking out cadavers. And they had the Texas Rangers game playing on ten screens. Total score. Although it did remind me of a certain someone who shall not be named who got me hooked on baseball and the Rangers when we were in high school. To be honest, I was surprised He Who Shall Not Be Named was watching cadavers over his beloved Rangers. Not thinking about it.
