“Of course. I’ve been on lots of dates.” I didn’t add that most of them had been coerced and with Madison. He didn’t need to know that.
“What about kisses?” His eyes gleamed. “Have you ever had one of those?”
“That’s not any of your business.” My cheeks burned.
“Which means no.” He snickered. “Okay, fine. But what about a real relationship? Because I can’t see how anyone could possibly measure up to all these.” He pulled his phone out and tapped it a few times before squinting at the screen.
“You took a picture of my list?” I grabbed for his phone, but he just held it away.
“Like this one. Number twelve.” He continued to squint at the picture. “Must be willing to spend money annually on family pictures. What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t want a miser that won’t let me record our family history. Now delete that.” But before I could get anything else, Jade announced that she had to go to the bathroom.
“I’m going to take care of this,” I said, peering up at the sky, which had lightened slightly. “But you’d better have that thing deleted by the time I get back. And no posting it to social media or anything. I will have your head.”
“Duly noted.” He waved but didn’t look up from his phone.
Thankfully, the lightning had abated by the time I had to get Jade out of the car seat. I ran her inside the house and let her use the bathroom there. As I was waiting, I dug into my purse to find my phone, only to realize that I must have left it on the front seat. As soon as she was done, I hurried us back as fast as I could, but not fast enough. And just as I’d expected, Derrick had my phone, and the slight upturn of his mouth promised trouble.
“Give that back.” I held my hand out. To my surprise, he did as I asked, but the smile didn’t leave his face as I scrolled to see what he’d gotten into.
“You read my messages with Sam? What is wrong with you?”
“He texted you, by the way. I heard the phone buzzing and wondered if it was your mom, so I picked it up.”
“And you read my texts?” I paused. “Wait. How do you know my password?”
He just gave me a sly grin. “It’s not like you hide your screen whenever you unlock, and your password’s only four characters.”
I gaped at him.
“Anyhow,” Derrick shrugged, “I almost feel sorry for the poor guy.” He linked his fingers behind his head and leaned back. “According to your list, he seems, from what I gather, to be the perfect man.” He nodded at my phone. “But from what I can see, you’ve done nothing but push him away since he first met you.”
I shoved the phone back into my purse indignantly. “You’re unbelievable.”
“But seriously.” He sat forward and leaned toward me, his blue eyes locking onto mine. “What is wrong with him? Because you obviously haven’t taken the bait from the most perfect man in the world.”
I snorted. “Sam’s nice, but he’s not perfect. And he doesn’t keep all the rules. Not yet, at least.”
“And which one is this poor sucker guilty of breaking?”
“Number four.” I skimmed the text messages to make sure Derrick hadn’t answered back for me.
“Number four.” Derrick pulled out his phone again. “Has to make the first move.”
“Asking five times in a month if he can borrow a whiteboard marker isn’t making a move,” I said as I turned around to check on Jade. Nor, I added in my head, was meeting at the bookstore to “study”. But I wasn’t going to say that part out loud.
“Ouch.” Derrick laughed. “Harsh much?”
I shrugged. “My life. My list.”
At this, he laughed. “Granted.”
I stepped back, thankful the rain had stopped. “And here I was, thinking you were all mature in your uniform.”
“Shows how much you know about me.” His eyes glinted as I closed the door. He pulled the truck forward about a foot then rolled the window down. “See you at church.”
29
