We finally found the spot and dug up the little metal box. It contained a logbook and a random assortment of junk: a green plastic army man, a playing card, a ten-sided die. We hadn’t thought to bring anything with us to add, so we settled for writing our names in the logbook, then headed back to the Jeep.
“Shotgun!” Cherie called. She looked a little embarrassed about having said it, but I understood.
“That’s only fair, since you had the back seat on the way up.” But it didn’t work. Matt still talked to me more than her as we drove home. Back in town, she gave it one more try. “Are you sure you don’t want to come in for a drink?”
“Thanks, but Jared’s sister-in-law is expecting us at her house for dinner.”
The lie surprised me, but I tried to nod convincingly. “Yeah, we really need to get going.”
Matt relaxed visibly once she was gone. “Let’s go get that beer I owe you.”
“You do realize that this is a pretty small town. Anywhere we go, there’s a chance she’ll see us, or one of her friends will see us, and she’ll know you lied.”
He slumped. “Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.”
The idea of spending another hour or two together definitely sounded better than going back to my empty house, and I was pleasantly surprised that he seemed to feel the same way. “We actually could go to Lizzy’s. It’s Saturday. She’s probably halfway expecting me to show up.”
Brian wasn’t home, but Lizzy was. And as I’d predicted, she wasn’t surprised to see me. She did, however, raise her eyebrows at Matt. He excused himself to find the bathroom, and she immediately turned on me.
“On a date?”
“It’s not a date.”
“It sure looks like one.”
“It isn’t.”
“He sure seems to be spending a lot of time with you.”
“He’s new in town. He doesn’t know anybody. That’s all.”
“Jarhead,” she said in exasperation, “if you think that man doesn’t have other options, even in this town, then you must be blind. He chose you.”
I knew she was right. Hadn’t I just seen him lie to Cherie so he could spend the evening with me? And she wasn’t the only single woman in town by any means. She might have been the only one who’d gone to the trouble of tracking him down at his house, but that only meant she was the most aggressive of the lot. But he was adamant about being straight, so where did that leave us? I blushed, thinking about it.
“What are you two talking about?” Matt asked as he strode back into the kitchen. “Looks like you’re embarrassing Jared.”
“Hair,” Lizzy said, without missing a beat. “Can you believe that mess he has on his head? I keep telling him to get it cut.”
Matt frowned at me and inspected the dirty mop on my head. I tried not to flinch under his scrutiny. I suddenly had great pity for the animals at the zoo.
Then he turned to Cherie, eyebrow up, a ghost of a grin on his face. “I like it.”
And that’s when I knew I was a complete fool, because my heart swelled up and threatened to burst through my chest, and I knew I was turning tomato red. Matt had already turned and vanished into the living room.
“I don’t know who he thinks he’s fooling,” Lizzy hissed at me, “but this is definitely a date!”
Chapter 7
He dropped by the shop several times after that, always right at closing time, and we went out for dinner. It surprised me that he seemed to be seeking me out, but I was thrilled at the same time. He was easy to talk to.
Lizzy invited him to her house for a Memorial Day barbecue. He seemed happy to be included, but two days before it was supposed to take place, he came into the shop to cancel.
“Lizzy, you’re going to have to give me a rain check on dinner. My parents decided to drop in for a visit this week.”
“No problem,” she said, without even looking up from her inventory list. “Bring them along.”
He looked a little startled by that. “No, I couldn’t do that.”
Now she looked up. “Why not?”
“I couldn’t intrude like that.”
“Don’t be silly. The more the merrier.”
“Ummm….” He suddenly seemed terribly uncomfortable. “I appreciate that, Lizzy, but it’s really a bad idea. You’ll end up regretting it. Trust me.”
She laughed. “My goodness, are they that bad?”
But he didn’t seem to be joking at all when he answered her. “Yeah. They really are. You know that nasty uncle in all the movies who ruins every holiday? That’s my dad. No kidding.”
She studied him for a minute, tapping her finger on her lip, like she was trying to decide how serious he was. And then she got that determined look on her face, and I wanted to tell him he might as well give up now, because Lizzy would get what she wanted. “Matt, you’ve never met my parents. They’re insane. I’m talking certifiable wackadoo. Jared, tell Matt. My parents are totally fucking loony.”
“Well—”
She didn’t wait for me to finish. “Seriously, Matt, your parents can’t possibly be worse than mine.”
“I don’t know—”
“Great! Then we’ll see you at five thirty.” She returned to her inventory list as if the topic was closed.
Matt blinked, baffled, like he wasn’t quite sure what had just happened. “Oh. Okay. Well, thanks, Lizzy.” He cocked his eyebrow at her, although she was still looking down, so only I saw it. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He started to leave, but then stopped before going out the door. “Lizzy, my dad drinks a lot.” It sounded like a warning.
“No problem.”
They arrived right on time. Matt’s mom, Lucy, was about five-four, big-boned, but skinny, with hair that was somewhere in the transition from brown to gray. Her green eyes looked sad and nervous, and her fingers never held still. She fidgeted with her necklace, her earrings, and her hair constantly.
His dad, Joseph, was big. He was as tall as Matt with the same dark hair and military cut. He’d obviously once had the same athletic physique as well, but now had a tiny bit of a beer belly and the red, bulbous nose of a hard-core drinker.
They brought a bottle of wine with them, all wrapped up in a pretty foil bag with a bow. As soon as Lucy handed it to Lizzy, Joseph said, “I’ll take a glass of that now, if you would.”
Matt and I followed Lizzy into the kitchen. Matt was definitely not himself. I’d never seen him act so nervous and unsure of himself. His parents were obviously a bomb, and he was just waiting for them to go off.
“We’ll definitely have enough to drink,” Lizzy said cheerfully as she opened the wine. “I bought three bottles of wine, two red, one white, and a case of beer. And there’s plenty of hard stuff in the cabinet too, if he wants something stronger.” She pointed to the liquor cabinet before taking the open wine and several glasses and heading back into the living room.
I started to follow her, but Matt grabbed my arm. I was surprised to see something like terror on his face. “Why did she buy all that alcohol?”