“Kringle. Come here, boy.” Puppy paws skid down the hallway as Kringle races straight towards me, turning the second he sees Robert and jumps all over him.
“Hey boy, I missed you too. Are you taking good care of your momma?” Kringle barks back as if he knows exactly what Robert is saying. “Good boy.” He scratches him behind the ears, and they head outside.
“I’ll go get his ball.” Making my way back to my bedroom, I grab Kringle’s ball and write, “Winter Formal?” on it before going outside, making sure my palm is over the writing.
“What took so long? I was about to come find you.”
“It was under my bed.” I hold the ball up, getting Kringle’s attention before throwing it. “Go get it, boy.”
Kringle runs at full speed, chasing the ball. “Bring it here, boy.” I’m fortunate enough to have a dog who listens incredibly well. Robert helped me train him over the break. He is such a smart puppy.
I watch as Robert bends down and takes the ball out of Kringle’s mouth. As he prepares to throw it, he stops mid-throw and notices the writing on it. He looks back at me as I chew on my thumb, trying to contain my smile.
“Pres, you know I would love to go with you.” Kringle looks at Robert and then to the ball almost as if he is willing it to go sailing through the air so he can chase it. Robert moves towards me, kisses me with such longing, I feel as if my heart is about to break. “I really have missed you; you know that right? This isn’t just hard on you, but me too.”
“I know. We’re both busy right now. You have baseball, and soon I’ll have choir competitions and extra rehearsals. But you’re here now, so let’s enjoy the time we have.”
We play with Kringle for a few more minutes, Robert’s arms wrapped firmly around my waist as my head and back rest against his chest. I’ve gotten used to being more affectionate towards him in front of our parents, and now being away from him doesn’t seem normal.
“Hey, you two. Come on in. I brought dinner home.” I hadn’t even realized Mom had come home early.
“Sounds great, Mrs. D. Be right there.” He kisses my temple before we head inside.
Chapter Eighteen
Olivia is spending the weekend out at the ranch with me while her parents go out of town. Today we’re finally going on our double date, and though the guys haven’t told us where they’re taking us, they did ask us to dress warm and to be ready by nine in the morning. We had the day off from school and decided to put it to good use. The thought of spending the entire day with Robert sent butterflies soaring in my stomach.
Liv looked in the mirror one final time to check her outfit. “How do I look? She’s in a cream V-neck thermal sweater, black skinny jeans with calf-high grey fur-trimmed snow boots, and army green utility parka. The fur trimming the hood of her jacket matches the fur on her boots, and she’s lightly curled her blond hair. She is snow bunny perfection. “I can’t believe it’s an outside date. I hate the cold. Do you know what it could be?”
“No clue. Brice hasn’t told me anything, but I trust him. Think of it this way—the colder you get, the more you’ll get to snuggle up next to Trey.”
Her eyes light up at the prospect of getting closer to Trey. “At this rate, I’ll be in his clothes after an hour. You do know it’s like twenty degrees outside right now. And snowing.” She looks outside and a frown forms on her pretty little face.
I am silently laughing at her misfortune. “Liv, trust him, and try to have fun today.”
I finish getting ready just in time to hear Robert’s truck pull up the gravel drive. Pulling on my long black parka and white knit beanie with a brown fur poof ball on top, I follow Kringle down the hall and out the front door. I’m not sure which one of us is happier to see him. Kringle runs to Robert before I even get outside and I watch as they play together.
“Hey boy,” he laughs as Kringle hops on his hind legs trying to give kisses. Robert squats down and roughly rubs his fur, baby talking to him while I take in the sight before me. “I’ll play with you later tonight, but right now, I’ve gotta spend some time with your momma, alright?” Kringle whines, looking back at me and then back to Robert, his head tilted off the side as he paws at Robert’s feet. “I know. But she had my heart first.” He looks at me and gives me a smile causing the already present butterflies to multiply.
“Hey, beautiful.” He stretches his hand out to me, pulling me into his chest before placing a tender kiss on my cheek.
“Aww. Mommy and Daddy are so perfect.”
I instantly feel my cheeks heat up as I bury my face into Robert’s chest, his arm casually draped across my back. A deep thwack causes me to turn my head in time to see her backhand Trey in the chest.
“You look beautiful too, baby.” Trey offers back, slightly forced as Liv rolls her eyes. Robert and I laugh as he pulls me back into him, my head resting on his chest, listening to the way his heart beats when we’re together. “Way to make me look bad, man.”
“Follow the master, and I’ll teach you the ways of love, my friend.” Liv, Trey and I laugh as Robert refers to himself as a love master. “Yeah. Yeah. Get in the truck. We’ve got about an hour’s drive from here.”
I slide into the front passenger seat while Trey and Oliva take the back, anxiously awaiting to see where we’re going.
*****
-Two Days Earlier-
“So, I guess we’re double dating,” Trey mentions as we’re walking into the locker room after practice. Presley is waiting for me to take her home; and my attention is currently focused on spending some much needed time with her. “Got any good ideas?”
This would actually be Presley’s and my first official date, and I want to make it memorable for her. “Actually yea. There’s a place I’ve wanted to take her for a while now. Since there’s no school on Friday, we can go then and spend the day together.”
“Cool. What is it?”
“I found a dog sledding place about an hour away.”
“Dog sledding?” He stops packing his bag and stands there looking at me. “I don’t know, man; Liv hates the cold.”
It’s actually kind of funny how tiny little Livie Lou Who scares the crap out of Trey. “Trust me. You’ll be fine.”
“If she kills me, my death is on your conscience.”
Closing my locker and collecting my bag, I shout back over my shoulder, “Guess you’ll have to keep her warm then.”
-Present Day-
“Brice are we lost?”
I’m beginning to hate the name Brice. It sounds so foreign coming from Presley’s lips, and I know she hates saying it as much as I hate hearing it. When we’re alone, my name is always on her tongue, but when we’re in a group, she usually finds some other way of getting my attention. I’m not ready to come clean to everybody and she seems to understand. I’ve already decided to use my birth name when I go off to college; it’s the name I put on my applications, the name I’ll have printed on my high school transcripts, and the name coach has sent off to the scouts. “Nope. Almost there though.”