“Yeah, well, it’s his life too. I want to make sure he’s happy,” Poppy grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. “I think LSU might hold too many memories for him, and Cornell doesn’t have the type of football program that he is used too. So, I’m thinking Ohio State. The medical school is solid, and maybe he could coach there.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” I said.
The football game was close, and the score was tied 14-14 at half time. I left Brooke and Poppy to go get some sodas for all of us. On my way back to our seats, my path was blocked by Mrs. Morris. If I had thought her attire at our meeting earlier in the week was inappropriate, it had nothing on her football game outfit. High heeled stiletto boots that looked dangerous enough to kill and a tight leopard print dress weren’t exactly showing school spirit.
“Mr. Branigan,” she purred, rubbing her hand down my arm.
My own hands were full of three soda cups, so I was unable to defend myself against her advances. “Oh. Hello, Ms. Morris,” I said, taking a step back.
“You know you can call me Missy.”
The referee blew the whistle to start the third quarter, and thankfully Mrs. Morris turned to walk away. But not before rubbing her barely encased breasts against my upper arm as she whispered, “Find me after the game.”
Uh, yeah. Not a chance.
Poppy looked amused when I returned, obviously having witnessed my uncomfortable moment with Ms. Morris. Brooke, however, was intently focused on the game, not even bothering to look at me when I sat down beside her and handed her a soda.
“A friend of yours?” Poppy teased.
I scoffed. “Not even close. Mrs. Morris is a parent of one of my students.”
“She looked very friendly,” Brooke observed. With satisfaction, I noted a hint of jealousy in her voice.
“I’m not interested in being her friend,” I said in a low voice. “In fact there’s only one person I’ve met here that I’m interested in.”
Finally she looked at me, and a slight blush crept over her cheeks. I smiled before settling back in my seat and enjoying the rest of the game. Our team held the opponents to 14 points and scored a touchdown in the last two minutes to win the game.
When it was over, we walked with Poppy onto the field to congratulate Ford on the win. Her earlier annoyance with Ford disappeared as she jumped into his arms and kissed him hard on the mouth.
“Congratulations!” Poppy squealed.
“Thanks, babe,” Ford said, chuckling at her enthusiasm. “Wait for me here. I have to talk to the guys in the locker room and then we’ll head home to celebrate.” He gave her another wink and said goodbye to Brooke and I before following his team into the locker room.
“Do you want us to wait with you?” Brooke asked Poppy.
“Oh, no. I’ll be fine. It’s like I’m back in high school waiting for my football player boyfriend to shower after the game.”
Brooke and I walked slowly toward the parking lot. It was a warm night, and the stars were out. As we drove back through town I found myself thinking of a reason why we shouldn’t go home just yet. However, in the end, I didn’t want Brooke to feel obligated to spend more time with me. She was sort of a captive audience right now, and I would rather her be a willing participant.
When I parked the car, I walked Brooke to her back door. The lights inside the house let me know her grandmother was home.
“Thanks for driving,” Brooke said.
“My pleasure.”
Brooke hesitated a moment before opening the screen door. That was my cue. The hint I needed that she didn’t want the night to be over either.
“Brooke.”
She turned back with her hand still on the door.
“Yes?”
“We didn’t start out getting to know each other the way I had hoped. Now I feel like there’s this awkwardness between us…because of what happened.”
Brooke nodded and looked down, not meeting my eyes.
“Would you like to go out with me, Brooke?”
Her eyes shot up to meet mine. “What do you mean?”
I cleared my throat and reached to loosen my tie before remembering I wasn’t wearing one. It must be the impending rejection that had me feel like I was choking.
“I’m asking you out on a date, Brooke. Though it seems I’m out of practice if you don’t know what I’m trying to do.”
“No, I know what you’re asking. I’m just surprised,” she said with a small smile.
“Uh…good surprised?” I asked. Normally when I asked a woman out, she replied with a yes or the occasional no.
“Oh! Definitely good surprised,” Brooke exclaimed. “Yes, I’d love to go out with you, Adam.”
She stopped talking abruptly, and I sensed there was more she wanted to say.
“But? Because I sense the dreaded but coming,” I said, taking off my ball cap to run my fingers through my hair. “Go ahead. I can take it,” I joked. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel bad about not wanting to go out with me.
“Oh my God, no. There is a but, but it’s not what you think. I definitely want to go out with you. But there’s something I have to show you first. And then you might not want to go out with me.”
I put my cap back on my head. “There’s nothing you can show me that would make me not want to take you out. Unless you’re really a man.” I thought back to the very few memories I had of our first night together. “No, that’s definitely not it.”
Brooke slapped my arm playfully, but then her expression turned serious again. Then she did the last thing I expected and pulled a folded piece of paper out of her bra. Lucky paper.
As she unfolded it, she spoke quickly. “So, I haven’t always had the best luck with guys. I tend to…be kind of slutty.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but Brooke stopped me.
“Don’t bother. You remember how we woke up last Saturday morning.” She was still holding the mysterious paper in her fingers. “So my friends, Leah and Lindsay, wrote up some dating rules for me to follow. Poppy told me to give up men altogether, so this isn’t quite as bad.”
Thank God for that.
“And they said I had to show these rules to any guy that asks me out…and he has to agree to follow them. Or I have to say no.”
Brooke’s big green eyes looked up at me from underneath her thick black lashes. I didn’t care what that stupid paper had written on it. I would follow any damn rule she wanted me to, if she would just keep on looking at me like that.
“Well, I don’t want to jump the gun. But there’s basically nothing that I wouldn’t agree to,” I said.
Brooke nodded and held the paper out for me to take. Okay. Let’s see what dating rules I would need to follow for the privilege of taking out this beautiful redhead standing in front of me.
Chapter Eleven
Brooke
Adam took the paper out of my hand, and his eyes skimmed quickly over the page. It seemed like hours passed while I nervously waited for him to respond. When he had asked me out, I almost didn’t tell him about the paper tucked in my bra. I didn’t want to risk him saying I wasn’t worth the trouble like Chet had. But I had made a promise to myself to follow through with this. Otherwise, I would keep making the same mistakes.
When Adam finally looked up from the paper, there was a glimmer of amusement in his eyes and a smile on his face. “This is it?” he asked.
“Yes, that’s it. Why are you laughing?” Oh, shit. He was going to say this was a joke, and he didn’t want to bother with me.
“I was expecting something a little more…strange.” He tapped the paper with one finger. “These are all pretty standard. In my experience at least.”
“Really?” I asked hopefully.
“Well, yeah. I’m assuming a real first date would entail something like dinner and a movie.”
I nodded.
“And no kissing on the first date? It will be hard to resist, but I think I can manage. The ant
icipation makes it better, right?”
We both looked at each other and then started laughing. Since we had already slept together, it seemed kind of silly that we had to refrain even from kissing.
“No sex until the sixth date. That’s reasonable. And no sex until we’re in an exclusive relationship? Well, I can tell you right now I’m not going to be dating anyone else.”
I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face.
Adam smirked as he reread the last rule. “This last one could be interpreted in more than one way. But having met Leah, I can assume what she meant by this.”
I had forgotten about that last one, and I could feel my cheeks heating. I wasn’t a prude by any means, but I had never in my life had an actual discussion about sex with a guy I was dating. We just had sex and that was it. I knew how to do it, but I didn’t know how to talk about it.
Adam’s eyes met mine, and he smiled a genuine smile. “That’s a given,” he said simply, echoing Lindsay’s words from this morning.
Adam and I had made plans to go out the following night on Saturday. It was ten minutes before he was supposed to pick me up. Or rather walk across the driveway and knock on my door. I was pacing back and forth in my bedroom, second guessing my outfit. Adam wouldn’t tell me where we were going, so I had to choose a multi-purpose ensemble. After trying on almost everything in my closet, I had settled on my favorite dark jeans, heels that showed my freshly painted lavender toes, and a silver sequined tank top. I left my hair down and straightened it so it hung in a glossy sheet halfway down my back.
I knew I looked good. That wasn’t what I was worried about. It was real date etiquette that I was lacking in. What would we talk about? There hadn’t been much talking in my relationship with Chet or any of the other guys before him. At least kissing was off the table, so I didn’t have to worry about the end of the evening. Although that part of the date was usually my specialty.
My phone rang from where it sat on the top of my nightstand, and my stomach dropped. I really hoped it wasn’t Adam calling to cancel. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Poppy’s name on the screen.
“Hello?”
“Hey, I just wanted to tell you to have a good time tonight,” Poppy chirped cheerfully.
“Thanks,” I mumbled.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, picking up on my mood from just that one word.
“I’m just really nervous.”
She laughed. “Seriously? What do you have to be nervous about?”
“Um, everything. What if he doesn’t like me? What if he thinks I’m boring? Didn’t you get nervous when you and Ford were first getting together?”
“Of course I was nervous around Ford. But that’s me, and the fact that he was always yelling at me didn’t help. You’re the most confident person I know, Brooke. I mean, come on, you could walk up to any guy anywhere without blinking an eye. Oh! Wait…”
“What?” I snapped. It was nice that Poppy thought I was confident. And I was in most situations, but this was different.
“You really like this guy,” she stated simply. “That’s why you’re nervous. And you can’t rely on your usual…skills. Leah and Lindsay told me about the rules.”
“Exactly! I have to win him over with my sparkling personality. When we really know it’s not my personality that makes me popular.”
Poppy laughed in my ear. “Oh, Brooke. You have a great personality. Adam seems like a really great guy. I think he’s the perfect guy to get you on the right track. And if it doesn’t work out with him, then at least you’ll know what to look for next time.”
Poppy was so smart and logical. When she put it like that, I could almost get a handle on my nerves. Almost.
She asked what I was wearing, and gave me a few more words of encouragement before we hung up. No sooner had I ended the call than my doorbell rang. There wasn’t a doorbell on the back door. Was he at the front door?
Grabbing my small purse and shoving my phone inside, I ran down the stairs as quickly as possible in my heels. Gram was already out for her Saturday night dinner club, so it was up to me to answer the door. I peeked through the peephole, and sure enough, there was Adam on my front porch.
I smoothed down my hair and took a deep breath before swinging the door open. Adam stood there, looking absolutely adorably handsome in navy cargo shorts and a white button down with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He wasn’t wearing his glasses, and his hair looked as if he had attempted to style it. I made a mental note to get him into the salon as soon as possible.
The thing that caught my attention, though, was the large bouquet of yellow, red and pink daisies he held in front of him. He gave me a crooked smile, and my heart rate picked up. Who knew flowers and a smile could turn me on?
“Hi, Brooke.”
“Hi, Adam.”
We both stood there for a few seconds just smiling at each other. Then he pushed the flowers toward me.
“These are for you.”
I brought the bouquet to my nose and inhaled. “Thank you. They’re beautiful. Come in for a minute while I put them in water.”
Adam followed me through the formal living room, which Gram calls the parlor, and the dining room before we reached the kitchen. I pulled a large glass vase from a cabinet and filled it with water.
“You look beautiful tonight. You always look beautiful,” Adam said from behind me as I arranged the flowers in the vase.
I looked back at him over my shoulder, still feeling nervous and suddenly shy. “Thank you.”
Once I had the flowers arranged and on the kitchen table, we walked back through the house. Adam held the screen door open as I locked the front door. He put his hand on my lower back as we walked to his car. And he opened the door for me and closed it after I slid into the passenger seat. If this was what first dates were like, I was never going on a second one. Oh, wait. No kissing on the first date. And I really wanted to kiss Adam.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” I asked.
“Nope. Although I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon enough.”
He looked at his phone when we were stopped at the main stop light in town, and I could see he was looking at a map. He had already scored major points for the flowers and the car door opening. And now he was taking me somewhere he obviously had to research since he was new in town.
We drove out of town and south along East Lake Road. There were several lakeside restaurants on this side of the lake. When we passed Lindsay and Grady’s house, I pointed it out and gave Adam the cliff notes version of how they met and got back together five years later.
It was easy to talk about something other than myself, so I was still chattering away when Adam turned into the parking lot for the Manning House. I had never actually been to this particular restaurant, but it always looked so romantic when I had driven by.
It was a large Victorian house set right on the lake. Adam ushered me inside and gave the hostess his name.
“We have tables inside or outside,” the hostess said.
Adam turned to me. “What would you prefer, Brooke?”
I looked around and took in the muted lighting and small tables inside and the large deck I could see through the windows. “Outside. If that’s alright with you?”
“Outside, please,” Adam said to the hostess.
We were seated at a table at the far end of the deck, directly over the lake. No matter how many times I saw the lake at sunset, it never got old. The waiter came to take our drink orders. Ten minutes later we gave our food orders, and I sipped on the white wine Adam had ordered a bottle of for us to share. We had covered all the basic small talk - what we had done that day, the weather, how nice we both looked.
Adam placed his forearms on the table and leaned forward. The silver watch on his left wrist caught the setting sun. “I know talking about past relationships is a big first date no-no, but I have the feeling it will be a big help in getting to know you, Brooke. So, I
have to know what prompted Leah and Lindsay to give you a list of rules to follow.”
My first instinct was to play dumb and deny any knowledge of why I had to have the very simplest of dating rules written down and tucked into my bra at all times. But something about Adam made me want to talk to him. To tell him the truth about myself.
With a sigh and big gulp of wine, I said, “In case you couldn’t tell from the night we first met, I’m kind of a whore.” I meant it half-jokingly, but Adam didn’t seem to see the humor in my statement.
His expression immediately turned dark, and his voice was low and firm when he said, “Brooke, I don’t ever want to hear you say that again.”
The steel in his voice caught me off guard, and he seemed very much like the principal he was during the week.
“I was just joking. Sort of,” I mumbled.
My right hand was nervously straightening and re-straightening my silverware. Adam reached across the table and took my hand. Rubbing his thumb over my fingers, he said in a softer tone, “I’m sorry if that came across a little harsh. I just don’t like hearing you talk about yourself like that. Some women might deserve that label, but you’re not one of them.”
I shrugged but didn’t want to say anymore. Adam refilled my wine glass with the hand that wasn’t holding mine.
“Tell me why you said that, Brooke,” he prompted, his brown eyes focused solely on me.
So I did. I told him about my first “boyfriend” in high school, although he was actually someone else’s boyfriend. I was just the girl he called when his real girlfriend wouldn’t put out. That lovely relationship lasted from the beginning of my junior year until we graduated and he left for college.
Adam didn’t say anything as I talked. He just continued to hold my hand and listen. His expression was completely neutral, and I had no idea what he was thinking.
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