Kiss List (Book I of the List Series)

Chapter 12 - A Warning

Dylan and I were officially dating. The announcement brought squeals of joy from my girls and ones of jealousy from all the other girls at school who found Dylan's playfulness and boyish looks irresistible.

"He is so cute and such a nice guy," Alyssa gushed.

"Forget nice," Payton said. "I would grab hold of that fine ass and..."

"Anyway," I said quickly, blocking out whatever vivid and very inappropriate thing she was doubtless about to say, "it's still really early but yeah we're having fun."

Getting my dad on board wasn't so easy, however. The first time Dylan came over to pick me up for a date I thought my dad was going to kill him. I managed to cool him down with the promise that Dylan would come over for dinner so dad could get to know him better.

When Dylan arrived at the door for dinner I was convinced things were not going to go well. He was wearing khaki pants and a nice tucked-in dress shirt. He had actually combed his hair, which for him just looked weird. He looked like he was going to church or something instead of a casual dinner. He even brought flowers for me. I had never seen him so nervous. During the entire first half of dinner, dad just glared at Dylan. For some reason Dylan reacted by adopting 19th century mannerisms. He stood up every time Caroline or I did and he kept on calling my dad "sir."

It wasn't until my dad asked whether I thought my soccer team had a reasonable shot to qualify for state that Dylan finally opened up and showed his true self.

"Oh, they'll definitely make it," Dylan jumped in before I could. He picked up a steamed carrot with his fork and stuffed it into his mouth. He swallowed and then said, "At least, they will if Sadie keeps on playing like she has been."

"So you've been playing well?" dad said to me.

"Well?" Dylan said as he unsuccessfully tried to lift another carrot to his mouth. It slipped off his fork and landed with a splat in the middle of his mashed potatoes and gravy. "She's the best player in the state. We'd be playing a lot better if we had her on our team, that's for sure. I've never seen anyone play like her. You must've played with her a lot when she was growing up, sir."

My father couldn't help it. His chest swelled with pride at hearing the praise about me. He asked Dylan about how Dylan's soccer team was doing. Get Dylan talking on the subject of soccer and he can go on for hours. His eyes lit up excitedly as he spoke and his passion was obvious. This was the Dylan I knew. Though I don't think he wanted to, my father was soon taken with Dylan as well. Dylan was just too funny and nice to dislike. Soon the two of them were talking like old pals, which was definitely not cool with me because it led my dad to discover a new activity he could enjoy: embarrassing me in front of Dylan.

"And when she was three," dad said with tears of laughter in his eyes, "we went to a hardware store and she told me she had to go to the bathroom. I told her to wait. I let her get out of my sight for two minutes and there she was sitting on a model toilet..."

"Okay dad, I think that's enough," I said in panic.

No sooner had I gotten Dylan away from the dinner table than Caroline snatched him away again. She asked him if he wanted to see her paintings. Of course he said yes and she dragged him up to her room to show them to him. My jaw dropped when I saw how often she touched his arm or batted her eyes at him. The little brat was trying to steal my man!

By the time Dylan was ready to leave for the night I was horrified. I led him out to the front porch and closed the door behind us. "I'm so sorry for..." I began.

Dylan waved me off. "Are you kidding?" he said. "I had a blast. It was hilarious."

I rolled my eyes. "Well I'm glad you at least enjoyed it," I said. "I was horrified."