Pix eyeballed him as soon as he stepped through the door.
“Who are yeh?” he grumbled, pushing past Hailey and winding up to “welcome” Tage, but Hailey stepped between them.
“Uncle Pix!” she yelled with her hands up. “This is Tage Adams. I go to school with him. He’s here to pick me up for a dinner…uh…date.”
She turned to Tage, who held the rose out to her, looking absolutely terrified. Hailey smiled as she accepted it, saying, “Tage, this is my uncle, Pix.”
The two shook hands, Pix grudgingly and Tage hesitantly, while Frog looked on with his arms crossed.
“Well,” said Hailey, quickly ushering Tage out the door. “Tage will bring me straight home after dinner,” she said, already guessing her uncle’s orders.
Pix grunted as the door closed behind them.
“I’m sorry about that,” she said as Tage led her to his mother’s car. He didn’t open her door.
“It’s alright,” he said, settling behind the wheel before he unlocked the passenger door. “Did I look scared? Cause I was. Your uncle’s sort of a pugilist legend.”
“He’s harmless,” Hailey laughed as she scooted inside, relieved to find a hard plastic console separating them…and surprised Tage knew the word “pugilist.” “So, where we going?”
“Station Square. I booked us a dinner on board one of the clippers.”
“A river cruise?”
The night suddenly got longer as Tage drove at a snail’s pace to the north.
“You’re not afraid of the water, are you?”
“No.”It’s not the water that scares me, she thought as she looked out the window, wondering what she should say next.
“I didn’t know if you’d let me take you out again, so I wanted to do something special,” he said quietly. He sounded nervous, though she didn’t understand why. Every teenage girl in the area wanted to date him.
Every girl except Hailey. She didn’t want to be at the center of anyone’s attention—not without her dance shoes, not without Holly. She certainly didn’t want to be associated with the most talked-about boy at school. She could already hear the next day’s gossip.
As the car crept north, her belly flip-flopped, and after an uncomfortably long pause, she tried to strike up a chat. She drew in a breath to speak but then snapped her mouth shut.
Don’t say that, that’s stupid—he can’t be nervous.
“Why are you nervous?” she asked, saying it anyway as they pulled up to the docks.
“I’m not…do I seem…I guess I am a little nervous. You’re just different from anyone I’ve ever dated—”
We’re not dating.
“—and I guess I just really want you to have a good time tonight,” he said, shrugging as he got out of the car.
Hailey put her rose on the dashboard and followed him.
“Otherwise, you won’t let me take you out again.”
When they got to the ramp, he finally offered his hand, and Hailey took it, glad to see him remember at least some of his manners as they boarded the triple-decker ship.
He led her to a table on the top deck near the rail and pulled her chair out for her. Breathing in the river air, Hailey closed her eyes, enjoying the moment as music from the live band on deck filled her ears.
Maybe this won’t be so bad after all,she thought.
Then Tage’s phone beeped, and he actually pulled it out of his pocket at the dinner table—without excusing himself. He then read a message, half-smiled, typed one in response, and staged his phone face-up next to his plate.
Hailey bit her lips together, resisting the urge to toss his phone overboard.
