Matt counted to ten.
"They"re knocking on the door." Tyler hit a few more letters, hit Send, and had a beep in seconds. "Gramma answered the door."
"Enough," Matt grumbled between his teeth. He wondered if Kat"s texting got on Farrah"s nerves as much as Tyler"s got on his.
Of course, as annoying as it was, it would make a great conversation starter.
"What are they doing now?" he asked as they turned onto his parents" street.
"Gramma is taking them downstairs and Gramps is already there."
Matt turned into the driveway. "Why don"t you text them and tell Kat to tell Gramma and Grampa that we"re letting ourselves in?" Which was the first useful thing he could think of that Tyler had ever texted.
"Kat says Farrah is really hungry. She left her supper on the counter to take Kat to Gramma"s house."
Another bit of useful information. Maybe the constant texting was good for something after all.
He opened the door and Tyler followed him inside.
He found everyone in the bas.e.m.e.nt, kneeling in front of the box of puppies huddled against the mother dog.
As if right on cue, Farrah"s stomach made a loud grumble. Even from the side, looking down at her while she knelt and he stood, he could see her cheeks turn red. Her ears, too.
"Anybody want supper?" he asked.
"Farrah does!" Kat called out, causing Farrah"s face to turn even redder.
He held out his hand as she scrambled to her feet, but she didn"t take him up on his offer to help. "Guilty as charged," she mumbled, the color in her cheeks fading just a bit.
"I know the perfect place to go." They would get a basket of warm garlic bread sticks to nibble on until the main course was delivered, which was always a long time at this place. He could make the time last even longer with a good appetizer. He already knew Farrah loved chocolate cheesecake, and they had one that was absolutely magnificent. With little chocolate chunks and gooey sauce.
While they took their time, from bread sticks to closing coffee, he"d be sitting across the table from her, staring into her sparkling emerald-green eyes.
Or better yet, he could sit beside her, so he could hold her hand when they weren"t eating.
But in order for that to happen, someone else had to come to give him an excuse to sit beside her. That would make the night perfect, sitting side by side with Farrah in a dimly lit restaurant at a nice secluded corner table, with a romantic little candle in an amber-colored gla.s.s thing flickering to heighten the mood.
He cleared his throat. "Anyone else want to come?"
Tyler and Kat both turned their heads and gave him the strangest look, like they couldn"t believe he"d asked such a stupid question.
Maybe it was stupid. He wasn"t going to try to hold Farrah"s hand in front of Tyler and Kat. He didn"t want to give them any ideas or, worse, encourage them. It would be worse if his parents wanted to come. Even at his age, there was something about sharing a meal with a girl in front of your parents. They weren"t at that meet-the-parents stage. He didn"t know what stage they were at. All he knew was that they weren"t there. But the invitation had already been extended. He couldn"t uninvite his parents. He"d been raised better than that.
His parents turned and smiled. "We"ll pa.s.s," his mother said.
Matt didn"t know what he felt more, relief or guilt or a combination of both.
His mother turned toward him. "We have a pot roast in the oven and it"s almost done. Why don"t you stay and eat with us? You"re all invited."
Matt"s stomach sank into his cowboy boots along with his appet.i.te.
Farrah turned and smiled back. "Are you sure? I don"t want to impose."
His mother smiled. "You"re not imposing if you promise to help with the dishes."
Matt rolled his eyes. "Mom, are you trying to save electricity by not using the dishwasher again?"
"Not really. I just-"
His father didn"t let his mother finish her sentence. "Yes," he said with no hint of remorse that he"d let out her secret.
"I would love to help with the dishes."
Matt forced a smile. "Me, too."
Both his parents turned to him. "Really?"
"Yes, really."
"I"m going upstairs to get everything ready. Matt, would you like to set the table?"
"Sure."
Apparently tonight was meet-the-parents night, after all. Except they weren"t dating. Yet.
In order to make that happen, he needed help, and he knew where to get it.
Cindy nudged Farrah in the ribs. "I think he likes you."
Farrah gritted her teeth as she reached up to get the big bowl from the storage cupboard of the church"s kitchen. "I don"t know what you"re talking about."
The youth group"s hockey team had just finished practice, so it was time to get the snacks together while the teens put the sports equipment away.
Usually Farrah prepared the snacks alone, but today Cindy was helping. Typically she helped the teens stow the nets, sticks, and vests, but for two weeks in a row, Luke had been unable to come, so they needed another referee. Both times, Matt had volunteered. Now it was Matt who was helping put everything away.
"During the halftime break, everyone noticed how he sat beside you."
"That"s because the only empty chair was beside me."
Which was odd. Usually there were lots of empty chairs. Tonight there had been exactly the number of chairs for the number of people present, almost like they"d been counted. As well, everyone had sat very quickly. The flurry had been like of a game of musical chairs with her elementary school cla.s.s, except that everyone got a chair. In the commotion of everyone finding a seat at once, the only empty chair remaining was beside her, which was where Matt sat.
She had no idea what the joke was, but after everyone was seated, a group of the girls sat huddled together, all firmly planted on their chairs with their heads together, giggling.
Farrah suspected that something was rotten in the state of Denmark. Or at least in a certain suburb of Seattle.
Cindy dumped the last bag of chips into the bowl. "I heard rumors that you were going out on a hot date to Jazz Alley Sat.u.r.day night."
Farrah"s hands froze in the middle of tugging the lid off the dip container.
"I"m not going anywhere all weekend. I have papers to grade."
"What?" Cindy stared at her, her eyes wide. "But I heard him telling the boys that he got tickets for a great show and he had a special evening planned."
"Don"t look at me like that. If Matt"s going out on a date tomorrow night, good for him."
Farrah tried to tell herself that she truly was glad Matt was finally going out with another woman. For the past two weeks, she"d spent almost every evening with him. Almost every day, Kat had summoned her to take her to Matt"s parents" home with some excuse about why neither Cindy nor Luke could drive her. She"d helped Kat and various members of the youth group tend to the puppies and their ever-increasing appet.i.tes and energy, and every time she was there, so was Matt. She"d ended up not spending much time with the puppies but sitting back with Matt, talking and supervising and directing all the helpers.
She didn"t know how they"d done it, but Kat and Tyler convinced her to volunteer one evening a week at the animal shelter. It was an amazing coincidence that it was the same evening as Matt.
Or not.
The approaching din indicated that the teens had finished putting everything away and were coming in, hungry. This time, instead of just the girls, nearly the whole group crowded into the kitchen, removing all the food, plates, cups, and both punch dispensers in one trip, like a wake of vultures.
She gave the counter one last wipe then joined the crowd in the meeting area, where there was one empty chair, exactly beside Matt.
The room was almost eerily silent as she walked toward that chair, feeling the heat of every eye on her. She wondered if it was her imagination, but a couple of the boys gave Matt a brotherly punch in the shoulder, and one of them, in what was probably supposed to be a hushed tone, wished him luck.
As she sat, a few of the teens started talking, but the room was nowhere near the usual volume or excitement levels after a practice game.
Matt shifted his body toward her, picked up her left hand, and brushed his fingers over her developing calluses. "You know how we"ve been doing guitar lessons on Friday nights lately."
She nodded. "I"ve been meaning to talk to you about that. This weekend I have to-"
He raised one hand to stop her from finishing. "I hope you don"t mind, but I thought we could skip the lesson on Friday because I got tickets for Jazz Alley on Sat.u.r.day. There"s this great ensemble playing, a guitarist, a ba.s.s player, and a drummer. I haven"t seen them, but a friend said the guitarist is great. I think being up close to him would be a great learning experience for you."
Her mouth opened but no sound came out. She"d heard one of the other teachers talking about the same show, and she knew the tickets weren"t cheap.
As she thought about it, the room fell silent.
If she wasn"t 100 percent sure then, she was sure now. Everyone was watching.
Cindy"s words about the tickets echoed through her head. Cindy, Kat, Tyler, and likely the entire youth group, had already known. Now everyone was watching, waiting for her answer.
"I-I don"t know," she stammered.
"Aw, come on, Farrah!" one of the boys called from across the room. "It"ll be fun."
"My mom says the food is great," one of the girls resounded from the other side.
The boy beside her began to play air guitar then moved his hands as if playing a double ba.s.s. "I downloaded a few of their songs. The ba.s.s player is awesome."
She turned to Matt. "There isn"t any way I can say no and save face, is there?"
His ears turned red. "I"m sorry. At first I only told a couple of the boys, and before I knew it, things got kind of out of control."
She glanced around the room. Everyone was staring at them. A few of the girls looked like they were holding their breath. "Ya think?" she asked, making no attempt to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.
Instead of turning to Matt, she turned to the group. "Sure," she said loudly so everyone would hear. "That sounds like fun."
Everyone cheered. As the ruckus died down, a few of them started texting, including Cindy.
"I think she"s telling Luke," Matt whispered in her ear.
Farrah covered her face with her hands. "This can"t be happening," she muttered.
"Why not? We"ll have fun."
She stood, grabbed his arm, hauled him to his feet, and dragged him into the kitchen.
"Kiss! Kiss!" the teens yelled. In the background, she could hear Cindy telling them to calm down and mind their own business.
As if that were likely.
"Contrary to popular opinion, this is not a date. I"m only doing this to not disappoint the teens. I"m not going to date you."
"Why not? Everyone"s really happy for us."
Farrah waved one hand in the air. "This is ridiculous. Look at us. When I retire, you"ll still have over a decade left to work."
"I run my own clinic. I set my own hours and hire staff. I don"t have a regular nine-to-five job."
"No. In running your own business, you work twelve-hour days, six days a week. I"ve already seen the way this works with Cindy and Luke."
"But I have more staff than they do. I work like this because I have nothing better to do with my time. Now I do."
Farrah didn"t want to guess what he was leading up to. "I meant that I"ll be retired, and you"ll be out working."
"So? Lots of women work part-time or stay home while their husbands work. I wouldn"t care if you stayed at home and I worked."
"But what if I wanted to travel? Do things? Go places?"
"Like I said, I"m self-employed. I have staff. I can arrange any time off I want."
Farrah waved one hand in the air. "But by the time you finally do retire, I"ll be ready for a nursing home."
"I doubt that. I don"t understand what the difference is between that and the other way around, where the man is older than the woman and he retires first and she keeps working."
"Because, uh..." She didn"t know. Her friends were all her age, and even though all of them had husbands who were older, they weren"t that much older and both were still working. She didn"t know how it was going to play out when one of them reached retirement.
"Then let"s not worry about it and take it as it comes. Besides, we can"t disappoint our fan club out there."
"Fan club?"
"They all want this to happen. You heard them."
Unfortunately she had. And if she was honest with herself, she did like him. She just couldn"t help but feel that the large age difference was wrong, and nothing was going to make it right.
"It will be fine to have fun together, but aren"t you looking for something permanent?"