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“A friend.”
“A lady friend?” The hopefulness in Mom’s voice makes me laugh.
“Yes, Mom. I’m going out with Sara Ellis.” It’s probably not a good idea to give her more information than necessary, but I’m hoping if she knows who I’m dating, she’ll stop trying to set me up with her friends’ daughters.
“Oh, I love her. Bring her over for dinner. How about Sunday night? That’ll be perfect. Your dad can grill up steaks. It’ll be a special occasion.”
Well, shit. If I don’t bring Sara, Dad’s going to be pissed at me for messing with his chance to get red meat, which Mom knows will bother me since Dad and I are finally getting along again.
I glare at her, shaking my head. “You’re something else.”
Mom’s grin is triumphant as I kiss her cheek to say goodbye. “Tell Sara I say hello.”
I roll my eyes. Scheming, manipulative woman. But what would I do without her?
* * *
Sara squeezesmy hand as we pull into the parking lot of La Mensa. The summer sunshine is still going strong, brightening what would’ve been the dark corners of the lot. I park my car and wait for Sara to tell me she’s ready. I didn’t make a reservation, so we’ll probably have to wait on a table for a while, but I didn’t want to make her feel guilty if she decided she wasn’t ready to go inside.
I glance at Sara to make sure she’s not having a panic attack and find she’s staring at the corner of the lot where the car was parked.
“Hey.” I wait as her eyes slowly meet mine; fear is mixed with so much strength, it takes my breath away. “You can do this. You’re strong, capable, and have the skills to kick ass.”
She stares at me, seeming to gather all her courage to overcome the rising panic I see in her eyes. Then she nods her head and opens her door. I jump out of the car to meet her on the other side, and we walk towards the building. The minute we step through the doors, Sara takes a deep breath, her shoulders relaxing while a small, triumphant smile lines her face.
“I’m proud of you,” I whisper into her temple as we walk up to the hostess stand. Sara squeezes my hand, letting me know she heard me. “Table for two, please,” I ask the tiny high school girl behind the podium. She tells us it will only be about fifteen minutes, which I think is the universe’s way of rewarding Sara’s bravery.
And true to her word, fifteen minutes pass when we’re able to get a table. As soon as we sit down, I put in an order for breadsticks, and Sara and I both order glasses of wine.
The minute those baskets of breadsticks land on the table, Sara is well on her way to being back to normal, which naturally makes me laugh. A good breadstick can go a long way to making you feel better. And if this is all it takes for me to keep her happy, I’ll happily go broke buying them for her.
“How much longer until your house is done?” Sara asks around a bite of bread. Her eating habits crack me up. She told me it’s because she grew up with four brothers who were like a hoard of hungry crocodiles when it came to food. I think she just couldn’t care less what people think. Either way, I love it.
“About a month. I just hope Mom doesn’t come up with more ideas for redecorating. Oh, hey, speaking of my mom, she shanghaied me into forcing you to come over for dinner on Sunday, if you’re available.” I cringe. “Please be available. She told my dad he could grill steaks since it’ll be a ‘special occasion’. He’ll be so mad at me if I don’t make sure you’re there.”
Sara laughs, apparently finding my pain hilarious. “Sure, I can be there.”
“Thank you.” I squeeze her hand across the table. “And just know, I would’ve gotten you out of it if I could.”
“I don’t mind. You know I like your parents. It’ll be fun.” She shrugs her shoulders, a happy smile on her face.
“You know, it actually might be kind of fun. I’ve never brought a girl home before.”
“What about Rebecca?”
I shake my head. “She wasn’t a small-town kind of girl, so my parents always came to Greensboro. Or I came home alone.”
“Weird. You didn’t bring any girls home when you were in high school?”
“Nope, I didn’t date much in school. I was too mad at the world.”
“You know, I had the biggest crush on you back then.” Pink tints her cheeks at her confession.
“Really?”
“Yeah, I even tried flirting with you once, and you looked at me like I had three heads.” Her laugh is filled with embarrassment.
“Wow, you’ve had to deal with way more of my asshole tendencies than I thought. Sorry about that.”
