Heroine

Ch 37 - In My Head

"We should have just stayed up there forever," I pouted as Adam opened my front door for me. "We had enough food to last the whole weekend at least."

"If we stayed there forever, then we wouldn't ever get to go on our second date." Adam smiled sweetly down at me in our entryway. He closed the door and smirked at me. "I already know what we're doing."

"Let me guess, you found a portal to the center of the earth where we'll ride a T-Rex through the jungle," I teased as I kicked off my hiking boots and tossed them at the bottom of the stairs. "Or are we going to climb the stairs to heaven and eat cotton candy in the sky?"

"Maybe I set the bar a little too high with this first date." He grimaced. "I was thinking more like dinner tonight and a movie after?"

"Two dates in one day? You're going to burn through the one thousand I agreed to." I bit back my smile.

"I thought it was one million?" He raised an eyebrow. "Maybe we shouldn't tonight if it's only a thousand dates."

"No! We can do it tonight," I said hastily, wiggling my eyebrows. "I'll just amend the agreement to two thousand."

"Oh, good." He grinned and stroked my cheek with the back of his finger. "We're not going to do that thing where we pretend we don't want to spend every second together."

Relief washed over me at his words. It didn't seem real that he was as into me as much I was into him. "I'm not very good at playing it cool anyway."

"Huge understatement," he said playfully. "Do you want a few minutes to get the sand out of your hair?"

"Yeah," I sighed. "See you in an hour?"

"An hour?" His eyes drifted over me. "It's dinner at my place, not prom."

I made a face and he backed up with a grin.

"Alright, take your time." His lips brushed my cheek. He glanced over my shoulder and smiled mischievously. "Later doc."

My mom stood behind me, her jaw tight and face pale. She didn't say anything as her eyes darted between the two of us.

Adam winked at her before he closed the door.

My palms rested on my cheeks and I squealed the moment I heard the door click. I rested my back against the front door as I thanked God for giving me such a wonderful life. Happiness had never filled me so intensely as it did right now. I smiled at the floor as I pushed off the door to head upstairs.

"Rose," my mom grabbed my attention with her weightless voice.

"Yeah?" I asked, unable to stop smiling even for a moment.

"Did—" her voice was tense and she flexed her hands at her side. "How was your date?"

I sighed and stepped toward her, holding my hands to my heart. "So amazing."

"I'm ready!" My dad rushed into the room, slinging his book bag over his shoulder. "Heya, Rosie. How was your date?"

"It was so cool!" I beamed. "Adam took me on a hike to this private beach— Wait. How did you know we went on a date?"

"Adam," my mom sneered. "The linebacker with the five o'clock shadow and criminal record told us this morning. I found him tearing through our fridge like a wild bear. He chugged half a gallon of milk straight from the bottle. Guess we didn't need it."

My dad smiled, ignoring her. "So, Adam, huh? He's a good kid."

I sighed. "Yeah, he's—"

"Kid?" My mom widened her eyes at my dad. "He may be 19 on paper, but he is no kid. He is a grown-ass man with some kind of sinister plan for our daughter." She turned to me, crossing her arms in a defiant posture. "I've been asking around about him. You should hear the way people talk about him."