AllFreeNovel
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“I don’t dance.”
“That’s fine. We don’t have to dance. But Nina will probably force me on the dance floor for a few songs.”
“Why isn’t she bringing a guy?”
“Because she’s dated all the eligible guys in town and she refuses to date outside a twenty mile radius.”
“Then she’ll always be single.”
“I keep telling her that and she says she doesn’t mind but I know she does. It’ll be interesting to see how she acts around Josh tonight. Her ex.”
“The cop?”
“Yeah. He’ll be there with this girl who went to high school with Nina.”
“Does she still have feelings for him?”
“Nina? Yeah. Totally, but she refuses to admit it. I’m predicting she’ll get really drunk to cover up the hurt she’s feeling seeing Josh with someone else, and then we’ll end up driving her home.”
“I’m not sure I want to stay that long. I was hoping we might leave after dinner.”
“Oh. Then I’ll just stay there with her and take her home in her car.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to be there with you. I just don’t want people bothering me all night.”
“I understand.” And I do, because I’ve been in his shoes. When I moved here, going into town made me sick to my stomach. But unlike Kyle, who will be bombarded with questions all night, people avoided me, assuming I was a horrible person because of my dad. Now it’s a month later and things are much better. A lady even smiled and said hi to me at the store the other day.
“This is it,” I tell him as we approach the field across from the firehouse. “You can just park out here and we’ll walk. Everything’s set up behind the firehouse.”
“It’s outside?” He pulls up next to a truck and parks.
“Yeah. Is that a problem?”
“No, but you might get cold later.”
“I brought a jacket.” I pick it up from beside my feet where I had it sitting. “I’m going to leave it in the truck for now.”
It’s nice that Kyle worried I might be cold. Just like it was nice he made sure I got safely inside my house last night. He really is a nice guy.
Kyle opens my door and helps me out of the truck. As we walk toward the firehouse, he takes my hand.
“We’re starting already?” I ask, holding our joined hands up and smiling.
“Is that a problem?”
“No. I just know you’re not really loving the idea of being my fake date tonight so I thought you’d want to put off the act as long as possible.”
“It’s not an act. As far as I’m concerned, this is a date. Arealdate.”
“But I thought you didn’t want that.”
He stops and turns to me. “I can’t give you a longterm relationship, so if that’s what you’re looking for, then we can’t do this. I thought we already discussed this.”
“We did. And I’m fine just keeping this casual. Dating for the summer or however long you’re here. I just wasn’t sure you still wanted that. You kind of blew me off last night at dinner.”
“I didn’t blow you off, or I wasn’t trying to. I just had my mind on some things and wasn’t completely there.”
“What was your mind on? Your book?”
