Small Town Sweethearts

STS - Chapter 15: Bonding

Chapter 15

Lacey’s POV

              “Wear this!” Amelia’s words were punctuated with a lacy black top shoved in my face. She was trying to fix my crisis, but wasn’t really helping.

              The current crisis was that Kai was picking me up in half an hour, and there was nothing to wear in my cavernous closet. Nothing.

              Every woman goes through this problem, but I think I had it worse as I looked over the shirt. “It’s the middle of December, Mel. I can’t wear that.”

              “Yes, you can. When you shiver, he’ll give his jacket to you, and then he’s one more layer closer to naked!”

“Amelia Ann Lamar! Brayden has changed you.”

“Oh please. I’m always thinking this, but I never speak it.”

“Yes, well, you should stick to silence.”

“Whatever. I want to see my boyfriend’s abs all I can, so you must be a lesbian.” We both burst out laughing at that, because we loved boys wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much for our own good. And abs—we loved abs. “I still say you should wear something lacy, Lacey. It fits.” We giggle again at her cliché pun, and then go back to searching my closet. This time, Amelia produces a black shirt with lace only on the sleeves and a little on the back.

“This would be cute with a scarf.” She shoves the garment in my face to examine.

“It’s still la—“

“—shh. I already told you to steal his jacket,” she interrupts me. I roll my eyes, but end up wearing it with an orange scarf and combat boots. Just as Amelia is finishing fussing with my hair, the doorbell rings from downstairs, and a sliver of anticipation cracks through me. 

“Okay, Mom isn’t home yet, so you’re covering for me,” I tell Amelia, knowing she’ll know exactly what to tell my mother. Then we both race down the stairs, but at the same time try not to act too excited. Dating is way too complicated.

I smile as I open the door, revealing Kai grinning back at me, looking worthy of drool. Amelia still hangs by the stairs, so I take a step forward and kiss his mouth lightly. “Hi.”

“Hey, princess,” Kai chuckles at me, and then waves to Amelia. “How are you, Mel?”

“I’m great, thanks. Now take care of my girl. And Lacey, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do—which is pretty much nothing. Be good, children!” She winks at us and slams the door closed, leaving me blushing and Kai laughing at my best friend’s antics.

I turn around to face Kai’s truck, and we walk slowly toward it. He opens my door for me, which makes me blush, and then gets in the driver’s side. I’ve always loved Kaidan’s truck. It smells like him and compliments him perfectly, all leather seats and very high tires.

“So what’s on the agenda?” I ask, clicking my seatbelt into place.

“You can’t get mad,” he tells me, which worries me, but I let him finish. “My mom wants you over for dinner.”

“Kaidan Phillipson!” I seem to be saying full names a lot tonight . . . “You can’t just spring that on me! Dinner with your family? I’m not dressed for dinner with your family! I would’ve dressed more . . . school girly! They’re . . . oh God I’m going to kill you!” Through my entire rant, Kai kept driving and grinning to himself, letting me get it all out.

“Shh. They already love you. You look absolutely perfect—I really like the whole rocker chick thing. It’ll take an hour, at most, and then I’ll take you wherever you want. How about the night train? This time, I’ll get you home before curfew.” Kaidan takes my hand as he speaks, twining our fingers to calm me. I look at him, the brightness of his blue eyes rivaling the light coming from the dash in the dark car.

Sighing, I mumble a “Fine,” and he takes the matter as settled.

“What are you so worried about?” he asked. “Honestly, you couldn’t be any better for their idea of the perfect girl for me.”

“Is that why you’re dating me? Because they want you to?”

“Absolutely not. I’m with you because you’re beautiful and smart and sweet but just dumb enough to want me back, and if they hated you, I’d still want you.”

“Well, dang. I can’t complain with that . . .” I mutter, taking our tined fingers and kissing his hand.

Satisfied I was done overreacting, Kaidan sped up a little, and soon we were sitting in front of his house, the engine idling. He pulls out the key and jumps out, opening my door for me before I could protest. I slide out of the truck and Kaidan takes my hand.

All the sweet things he’s doing makes me think he’s trying to fix the way he sprung this on me, but I don’t complain. As soon as we step into the door, Lola is squeezing me in a crushing hug, and then Angie is, and they pull me into the kitchen as Kai winks and disappears into the living room, from which football noises float from.

“I’m so sorry to make you do this out of nowhere,” Angie tells me with an apologetic smile. “But you have to understand that you’re the first girl he’s brought home since his freshman year, and I’m just so excited.”

“It’s fine,” I laughed, forgetting all my reasons for stressing. “I don’t mind at all. Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Umm . . .” she mutters, looking around her kitchen. She tosses me an oven mitt. “If you get the bread out of the oven we’ll be set.”

I do as I’m told, and then sit in a stool by the counter, as Angie refuses to let me do anything else to help. I look down at the countertop, where Lola is working on some kind of pie.

“It’s apple,” she tells me with a laugh. “I hope you like apple.”

“Apple is perfect,” I answer. “Hey, what’s Kai’s middle name?”

She gives me a puzzled look. “Samuel. Why?”

I laugh at her expression. “He, well, wasn’t very nice today, and I didn’t know what his middle name was so I couldn’t properly yell at him.”

Lola busts out laughing, completely understanding. “Next time, just smack him.”

I nod and giggle along with her. “I will. Lord knows he needs it!” We both let out a fresh round of mirth at that.

At dinner, I see Daniel and Aaron, and they both smile and hug me. “Great to see you, dear,” Aaron tells me, and his obvious approval makes me happy.

Dinner goes well, much to my surprise. Kaidan sits beside me and refuses to let go of my hand, which makes eating hard, but is a sacrifice I’ll gladly give up. When we’re done eating, I help Lola and Angie with the dishes. I wash, and recruit Kai to dry for me.

We slip out quietly after that, because Kai says his parents will want to talk to me and he would rather avoid that.

“Night train?” he asks, glancing from me to the road as he drives.

“Yes!” I answer, delighted at the thought of the train.

“Is it bad I’ve begun to think of it as our place?”

I melt. “Awh no. I love it. I want it to be our place. I mean, it’s the place we started, so it should belong to us.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Kai flashes a movie star grin at me, and pulls off the road, grabbing a few blankets from the backseat and a flashlight from the glove box. We step out of the truck, and already the train whistle sounds through the air. We look at each other and take off running through the trees, both wanting to reach the clearing first.

He holds me for as long as curfew allows on the blanket, kissing my forehead and cheeks and fingers.

I’m falling for this boy, falling so hard I couldn’t stop if I tried.

“You better catch me,” I murmur, so quietly he barely hears me. He has no way of knowing what I’m talking about.

“I will, princess. I promise.”

I’M BACK! Again, I’m so sorry about the long wait, but I think I’m finally over my writers’ block. Let me know your thoughts on this chapter!

              -Sparkles