by Gwenda Bond
And I suspected Clark wouldn’t mind being my date.
A knock sounded downstairs, and my stomach dragons gave another whirl. “That might be Clark,” I said.
Lucy darted out of the room. She came right back and, with true disappointment in her voice, said, “Nope. It’s James and Devin and a girl.”
“Good,” Maddy said, “because you’re not quite ready.” She pulled out some lipstick and advanced on me. I started to cringe away from her. “No you don’t,” she said.
“Lois, hold still,” Mom put in. She and Maddy exchanged a long-suffering glance.
“Fine. I know when I’m beat.” I did as they commanded, presenting my face for Maddy’s efforts. “You’re not sad to not be going with Dante tonight?”
“Stop talking,” she said, dragging the wand over my lips. “And no, I never even wanted to go until I got your text. Now it sounds like fun. Anyway, we had a talk today at school and it wasn’t even that weird. So I think it’s all for the best.”
“Good,” I said, and turned to the mirror to check out her handiwork. My lips were a soft, sparkly plum color.
Lucy’s face appeared right below mine and she puckered her lips. She asked, “Can I have some?”
Mom laughed. “Maybe in a few years, my astronaut-to-be.”
Another knock at the door sounded downstairs. This one had to be Clark. Lucy zipped out of the room and didn’t return.
“I’m ready,” I said. “I’m not going to keel over from nerves because I’m totally ready.”
Maddy grinned at me. “You do know you just said that out loud, right?”
“Of course.” Well, mostly. I gave myself one last inspection in the mirror. Hey, it was me, and I knew Clark liked me.
“You’re sure about the shoes?” Mom asked.
“Yes.” I stomped one of my trusty black boots for good measure. I wasn’t willing to sacrifice comfort to the dance gods.
“Then you’d better get downstairs,” Mom said. “You know your dad answered the door.”
Ack. “Say no more,” I said, grabbing Maddy’s hand and pulling her along with me.
When we got down the stairs to the living room, Clark stood hesitantly inside the front door while Dad did an impressive job of looming in front of him.
Clark was wearing a charcoal suit with a light blue tie and he looked… even better than usual, which was saying something.
Lucy had taken a spot next to Dad, where she could gaze up at Clark. James, Devin, and his date were sitting on the couch, all spiffed up too. Maddy went over to sit on the arm of the couch beside James. Mom moved past me; my guess was to intercede with Dad and make him be nice.
“Um, hi,” I said, lingering on the bottom step.
Clark looked past my dad and saw me. His eyes lit up, and he stepped right past my dad, who turned with his mouth open. People didn’t walk away from Dad without being dismissed very often.
“Lois,” Clark said, coming over to me. He had another tulip bouquet with him. Yellow this time.
I fidgeted. “I know the shoes are dumb.”
“No,” he said. “They’re perfect. You’re beautiful.” He leaned in a fraction, and a lock of black hair fell over his forehead. Somehow it only made him cuter. “You always are.”
My cheeks went up in flame and my heart pounded and I wanted to make everyone else in the room vanish. Why had I proposed a group date again?
We were kissing or bust tonight. It was going to happen. Mom had heated up leftover lasagna for an early dinner and I’d even decided to forgo the garlic bread.
Now would have been a great time… if we were alone.
“Thanks,” I murmured. Then, louder, I added, “Stop.” I hoped my tone made clear I didn’t mean it, that it was for the benefit of our audience.
I looked over to find Maddy, James, Devin, and his date, Katrina, watching us.
Maddy said, “The cuteness level of you two together should be illegal.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Are those for me?” I asked Clark, about the flowers.
He gave me a wink, and then turned away from me, back toward Dad. “No, I realized I forgot to bring flowers for all the women in the house last time. Lucy, will you forgive me?”
Aha, he wasn’t turning to Dad. He was turning to Lucy.
Lucy blinked and blushed and beamed and finally managed to get her hands out to accept the bouquet. She hugged them tight to her. “Thank you, Clark,” she said. “You can come visit anytime you want.”
Dad shook his head. “Well played, son.”
A honk sounded outside, and Mom went to check at the door. “It’s your cab. Quick, everyone line up out front for a photo!”
We left the house in a clump and stood and smiled, then piled into a taxi van that barely fit us all. Clark and I got in first, then Devin and his date. I noticed James giving Maddy a hand up into the car, and they sat together in the front row. He smiled at her and said something that made her laugh.
Hmmm…
“No interfering,” Clark said, low, and offered me his hand. I put mine into his.
“You’re no fun.” I realized with horror what I’d said. “I didn’t mean that, it was a joke.”
“I’m familiar with your sense of humor,” he said, squeezing my hand.
“Oh, right, good,” I said. “There’s something you should know…”
“What is it?” he said.
“I can’t dance.”
He took that in, then burst into laughter. “Me neither. This should be interesting.”
“Or humiliating.” I smiled at him. And he smiled back. We were a couple of grinning fools. “It doesn’t matter though.”
“No,” he said, “not even a little.”
The ride to the hotel where the school had rented a ballroom for the dance was full of talking and in-jokes and laughter. But I mostly concentrated on the feeling of my hand in Clark’s, on how our shoulders touched. I was determined that we would finally have our kiss and I wouldn’t screw it up and knock off his glasses this time.
When the taxi stopped, everyone piled back out. James insisted on paying, and offered Maddy his arm on the way in. She accepted it.
“You guys go ahead,” I said to them. “We’re right behind you. I just want to talk to Clark for a sec.”
Maddy grinned at me, and gave me a queenly wave with her free hand. “See you in there,” Devin said, holding Katrina’s hand.
“Am I in trouble?” Clark asked.
“No, I just want you to myself for a minute.”
The neighborhood we’d gotten out in was a busy one, lots of cute little shops and eateries. “Let’s take a stroll,” I said.
“Sounds good to me.” Clark took my hand in his, swinging it between us. People in Metropolis usually got growly at this kind of behavior, taking up sidewalk space in a way that screamed tourist. But we must have been too cute for obnoxiousness. Everyone we passed seemed to have a smile for us.
“Hey,” Clark said, “I want to take you out one more time before we go home. I have a surprise thing tomorrow. Just for the two of us.”
“What is it?” I asked, trying to press away my disappointment that he was leaving so soon.
“You know,” he said, “we really need to work on your understanding of the word surprise.”
“Just spill it, Smallville.”
“I found a movie theater that’s showing His Girl Friday and The Front Page tomorrow night.”
“You’re kidding!” I said. “My favorite movie! Or maybe tied for favorite with Madwoman now. How did you find out about it? What’s The Front Page?”
“They’re both adapted from the same story. It’s a special classics follow-up to Madwoman. I think I like journalism. Maybe I’ll pick up some pointers.”
“I can give you pointers,” I said,
and turned a grin on him.
He swung our hands again. “So… why’d you want to wait to go in, besides knowing I can’t dance?”
“Like I said, I wanted you to myself for a moment. I’m greedy that way.”
“Lois…” Clark’s expression turned serious as I watched his profile. “You should know, if I ever have to go away… I promise I’ll come back. Always. This trip. It’s made me see how much good there is to do in the world.”
“Speaking of cryptic things,” I said, pulling him to face me. I looked into those blue eyes that were becoming familiar, and which still made my heart beat faster and my knees weak in moments like this. In most moments, to be perfectly honest.
Stupid eyes. Stupid knees. Stupid heart.
I’d been wondering when we’d talk about this. Now was apparently the time. I’d been thinking about the back door at the lab, about Strange Skies, putting them together with other things.
“Whatever your big secret is, I’ll figure it out,” I said.
“I know,” Clark said, still serious.
“In fact, I probably already have figured out some of it.”
The same response, accepting of it. Accepting of me. “I know.” He put his hands on either side of my face, cradling my cheeks.
And then I went on tiptoe and he leaned down, and we finally kissed—for real. Our lips fit together perfectly, again and again. Soft, sweet. Real.
Our first real kiss was better than fireworks and flying and front-page news all rolled into one.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wanted to take a moment to say a few quick thank yous here, because Team Lois deserves nothing less. My eternal gratitude goes to Warner Bros., DC Comics, and Switch Press for trusting me to give the first lady of DC Comics a new chapter, and all their support along the way. A special thanks to my editor at Capstone, Beth Brezenoff; marketing doyenne Shannon Hoffmann and her entire team; cover designer Bob Lentz; publicity goddess April Roberts; publicity goddess across the sea Georgia Lawe; and everyone at Capstone/Switch Press. Most of all a thanks to the real Team Lois, the fans of this amazing character both before these books and now, who have been such a joy to get to know and whose support for this series is so very much appreciated. And last but never least, to my agent Jenn Laughran and my partner-in-life-and-crime-fighting Christopher Rowe, who are my super heroes.
Gwenda Bond is the author of the Cirque American series and the Lois Lane series as well as the young adult novel The Woken Gods. She has also written for Publishers Weekly and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications, and just might have been inspired to get a journalism degree by her childhood love of Lois Lane. She has an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and lives in a hundred-year-old house in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband, author Christopher Rowe, and their menagerie.
Visit her online at gwendabond.com or @gwenda on Twitter.
Lois Lane: Triple Threat is published by Switch Press
A Capstone Imprint
1710 Roe Crest Drive North Mankato, Minnesota 56003
www.switchpress.com
Copyright © 2017 DC Comics.
SUPERMAN and all related characters and elements © & ™ DC Comics. WB SHIELD: ™ & © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (s17)
STAR38085
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on the Library of Congress website.
ISBN: 978-1-63079-082-0 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-1-63079-083-7 (ebook)
Jacket and book design by Bob Lentz