Bittersweet (16 page)

We walked down to a small boathouse. It contained tools and oars, a couple of kayaks, and jet skis.

“You sure you don’t want to waterski?”

I nodded.

“I tried once when I was twelve. I nearly drowned. I don’t want to repeat it.”

“How’d you almost drown?”

“I can’t swim.”

He paused in his perusal of the boathouse.

“At all?”

“No. My mom enrolled me in swim lessons when I was seven, but I couldn’t hear the instructor and was too shy to speak up. So I never learned. The instructor told my mom I wouldn’t listen.”

He looked perplexed.

“Your mom didn’t do you any favors. No waterskiing, but I am going to teach you how to tread water. We’ll take the big boat then.”

He snatched a set of keys labeled “Big Boat” off the wall. Creative. There were three other sets of keys, each with its own label. “Fishing Boat,” “Speed Boat,” and “Yacht.”

Dallas pointed at the keys.

“Unless you want to go fishing.”

I laughed. “No, but I would like to try the yacht.”

He shrugged. “Okay.” He moved to switch the keys.

“No, I’m just kidding. I’ve never known anyone with a yacht before.”

He held onto the Big Boat keys and seemed unbothered by my comment.

“The yacht really is too big for this occasion, we usually only take it out when my parents throw big parties with lots of people. Like the Fourth of July. You should come. We take out all four boats and spend the day on the lake. At dark we watch the fireworks over the water.”

When was he going to get that I didn’t like water? Or boats? He’d definitely figure it out today. Especially if I drowned.

We walked out of the boathouse and made our way up to the house. The grass was trimmed and even. My yard at home never looked that nice. An old man with a pair of gardening shears met us about halfway up the hill.

“Bob!” Dallas exclaimed. “Can you get the big boat ready?” He handed over the keys.

Bob nodded and changed course, muttering something about the trees never getting trimmed.

“Let’s go meet my folks. Bob will need about twenty minutes or so to get the boat ready. Besides, we need food.”

A door on the back of the house opened into the garage. Dallas grabbed a cooler and pointed to a picnic basket.

“Grab that, will you?”

The door from the garage led straight into a wide-open kitchen with a monstrous island that had at least twenty stools around it. A tiny blond woman was slicing peppers.

“Dallas!” she exclaimed as we walked in the room. He approached her and she planted a big kiss on his cheek. “I never see you anymore.”

He set down the cooler on the counter.

“I’m working too much, Ma.”

“Working or dating?” she asked, pointing the knife at me.

He motioned for me to come closer. Then he took my hand.

“This is actually our first real date. Ma, this is Savannah. Savannah, Ma.”

She set the knife down, wiped her hands on a towel, and embraced me.

“Lovely to meet you. I hope my son hasn’t been too uncivilized.”

I shook my head. If I had known I would be meeting his mother I would’ve worn something a little more appropriate.

She held me at arm’s length and looked me up and down.

“I love your hair. So daring. Most women can’t pull that off, but it suits your face.”

I blushed and ran a hand over my short locks.

“Thanks. It was kind of a hasty decision.”

“Oh, a story. Do tell.”

Her eyes were wide and I could tell she genuinely wanted to know. I looked over at Dallas. He rolled his eyes.

“You’ll have to forgive Ma. She loves stories. Normally I would tell her to leave you alone but I want to hear this one too.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and found a good picture of my pre-shaven head.

“This is what my hair looked like before I took a razor to it.”

Dallas took the phone from his mom and studied it.

“I like the way you look now better.” He passed back the phone and began to dig around in the fridge.

“Me too,” said his mom. “But I bet your mother was devastated.”

“That is an understatement.” I shivered at the memory. Then I realized that if I hadn’t shaved my head I wouldn’t be here.

“I was off school one day,” I began. Dallas’s mom didn’t have to know all the gritty details of my suspension. “I wanted to paint my nails. But the color I wanted was over at Candie’s, my best friend’s house. We had keys to each other’s place. I was going to just grab the color and go home.”

I stopped and took a breath. Both Dallas and his mom were staring at me; they had the same eyes, wide and intense.

“When I opened the door to her room, I saw something I didn’t quite expect. Apparently, Candie was home. She was in her bed and lying on top of her, naked, was my boyfriend. They didn’t even notice me.”

Dallas’s mom leaned closer to me. “What did you do?”

“Locked myself in her bathroom to calm down. I found my nail polish in there. So I left a note on her mirror with it.”

“What did it say?”

“I hope the condom broke.”

Dallas’s mom laughed.

“But that doesn’t explain your hair.”

“Oh, that. Well, when I got home I shaved it all off in anger.”

That was only a little white lie. The other part would take too long to explain.

“A worthy cause,” she said matter-of-factly.

Dallas came back from the fridge loaded down with meat and cheese. “You wouldn’t be here if your boyfriend hadn’t done that. And then you never would have met me, so I’m glad he was an asshole.”

His mother nodded and cocked her head in thought. “But you are a horrible storyteller. I think I will have to rewrite that one. Do you mind?”

I looked to Dallas for an explanation.

“Ma’s a writer. My brother and I stopped telling her things ages ago because they’d just end up in a book. She’s asking for your permission to use that story in one.”

“Oh. Sure.”

She looked up at me. “I need to speak to Dallas privately. Do you mind excusing us for a second?”

She didn’t even wait for my response before hauling Dallas back into the garage. I didn’t want to raid the pantry without Dallas so I waited for him at the bar.

“Oh, hello hotness.”

I spun and found myself facing Paris.

He blinked. “Savannah, I didn’t recognize you. I thought maybe you were one of Ma’s book club friends. Sorry. You do look hot though.”

“Do you address all of them like that?”

He shrugged. “Only if they’re skinny.”

“Does it work?”

“Most of the time.” He pulled up a stool. I smiled at him. Only Paris could get away with such a thing. Come to think of it, so could Dallas, but I couldn’t imagine him doing it.

“What are you doing in Dallas’s house?”

“We’re brothers, but somehow that manages to get lost in the introductions. What are you doing here?”

“Dallas is taking me out on the lake.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Getting serious, huh?”

Dallas came back in the room with a frown, his mother following closely. She tugged on his arm and gave him the same look he gave me when he wanted something.

“Come on dear. It’s perfect. I just need a few details from you. Please. She’s the perfect protagonist and you make such a good love interest. Please. Just think about it.”

Dallas turned on her.

“Ma, you are not turning my dating life into one of your damn books. Come on Savannah, let’s get out of here.”

Paris interrupted before I could say anything.

“I want to go waterskiing. Can I tag along?”

Dallas looked surprised to see his brother sitting there.

“This is a date, so no.”

“Aw come on. I was dumped last night. Please.” He stuck his lower lip out and pouted. On some people that would look annoying, but on him it was a bit endearing. Not enough to let him come along with us, but still cute.

Dallas looked at his mother. “Write his story, mother. It’s tragic. Leave mine alone.”

She waved her hand dismissively. “I’ve written his story many times. It
is
tragic, but it’s getting old. It’s the curse of his name. Paris never gets the girl. I’m sorry, darling, if I’d known it sooner I wouldn’t have named you that.”

Paris laughed. “But then you would’ve had to break the tradition.”

“What’s that?” I asked, helping Dallas load grapes and strawberries into the picnic basket.

“In our family, and I’m including cousins far and wide, we name children after the city they were conceived in. It started two generations ago and is expected to continue into the eternities. So if you and Dallas have too much fun on that boat, your girl would have to be named Minnie,” said Paris.

I blushed and their mother swatted Paris on the arm.

Dallas stuck his head back in the fridge. “Paris, where are the chocolates?”

“You mean the box that had the note, ‘do not eat’?”

Dallas shut the door and glared at his brother. “Yeah, that one.”

“I ate them. You’ve got good taste, brother.” Paris wiggled his eyebrows at me.

I spoke before a fight could ensue. “No worries. I brought some.”

“That’s my girl. See, Paris, the reason you have problems is that you always pick the wrong girl. I know how to pick the right one.”

I noticed the subtle use of “one” instead of “ones” and my stomach flip-flopped.

“Hey, I had every intention of pursuing Savannah, you just got to her first.”

Oh boy. Time to get out of the kitchen.

Dallas’s mom must’ve thought so as well. “You two go have fun. Will you be back for dinner?”

Dallas shook his head. “I want to watch the sunset on the lake. I’ll see you guys tomorrow. Ma, Paris’s story isn’t quite so tragic. The girl that just dumped him did it because he slept with three other girls.”

Ma’s face went pale. “You what?” she screeched at Paris.

Dallas nodded toward the door. I picked up the basket and he grabbed the cooler.

Out on the lawn, he smiled at me.

“I’m sorry. They can be a little intrusive. You handled it like a champ.”

“Dallas to Paris, I would’ve thought it would be the other way around. Paris sounds like a honeymoon destination.”

“Mom and Dad were poor when they got married. Dallas was actually where they honeymooned. But mom’s writing career took off the year I turned two and Dad made some good investments. By the time they got around to my brother they were traveling all over the place.”

“What books has your mom written?”

“A lot. She publishes under her maiden name, Alexandria Champagne.”

I practically dropped the basket. “Your mother is
the
Alexandria Champagne?”

Dallas rolled his eyes. “Not you too. Seriously, it’s not that big of a deal.”

“No, Dallas, you don’t understand. I’ve read every single one of her 38 books. Some, multiple times. I’m like her biggest fan.” Life just got a gazillion times better. Maybe I was dreaming. Hot guy, my idol, and real feelings. This was all too good to be true. Tomorrow I would wake up in my bed in Albert Lea and realize that none of this happened.

“You can fangirl my mother another time. Today you are mine.”

We arrived at the dock and found a monstrous boat idling.

“The yacht’s bigger than this?” I asked.

Dallas pointed three docks over to what looked like a house.

“That’s the yacht. Come on.”

I followed him onto the boat and took a seat. He smoothly brought the boat away from the dock and slowly made his way onto the lake. The breeze blew in my hair and I had to admit it was nice out on the water.

“You wanna drive?”

I shook my head.

He sighed. “Okay, we’ll go out a little further.”

After a few turns around the lake Dallas turned the motor off and we drifted. He took off his flip-flops and his shirt. I had to look away so that he wouldn’t see me blush, but I wanted to stare at those washboard abs and pecs.

“Let’s go for a swim.”

I didn’t look at him as I answered.

“I don’t swim. Remember?”

“Yeah, but you are coming in the water with me, whether you like it or not.” He sat down on the bench in front of me. “I won’t let you drown.”

“But I won’t be able to hear you.”

“You won’t need to. When I talk to you, I’ll look directly at you and shout.” He grinned.

“You won’t need to shout.” I muttered and climbed off the bench. He watched as I slid off my shorts and took off my t-shirt. I expected him to look away like I did, but he stared openly.