Amy laughed, imagining how different it must have been, growing up in a home of all boys. “I wonder if Kassy’s going to ever have a girl,” she said. “So far it looks like she’s in for whatever your mom endured. Houseful of testosterone.”
Jace shook his head. “Oh, man. I feel sorry for her. Of course, my mom is a saint. Dang, I admire that woman.” He glanced out the window for a blink, then set his gaze back on Amy, that soft, almost grin at his lips. “Thanks for agreeing to go out with me. It’s funny, but you’re pretty much the only girl at Red Cliff High that I didn’t dare ask out.”
Amy blinked, shook her head, and worked to put at least some sort of sentence onto her lips.
“Not that I dated every girl there, of course. Hardly more than a handful, really. But you’re the only one Iwantedto ask out but didn’t.”
A young waitress came with two tall glasses of ice water and slid them onto the table. “You guys ready to order?”
Jace shook his head. “Sorry, Lisa. I haven’t even let her look at the menu yet. We’ll take a look now.” He flashed her a dazzling smile.
Poor girl.Jace couldn’t know what kind of effect that grin had on women.
“No problem,” she giggled. The young thing bit her lip and threw a thumb over her shoulder. “I’ll come back in a minute.”
“Thanks.” Jace picked up his menu. “Guess we should get serious here,” he said, flipping it open. He scanned over it while Amy mentally moved back to what Jace had said only moments ago. Her ears had heard it; that part was obvious by the way her breath nearly hitched right in her chest. But her brain was still working on the idea. He wanted to ask her out back in school? She could’ve sworn he’d said a similar thing in the wine cellar on graduation night. Why hadn’t he, then? She’d flirted with him. And she’d rarely flirted with anyone back then.
It took time to settle into that revelation. Jace Burns, one of the most-wanted guys in her entire graduating class, had actually wanted to ask her out. Thehadn’t daredpart was too much to take in so she left it alone, accepting that, for whatever the reason, he hadn’t.
Until now.
A fact that she allowed herself to relish as the evening went on. The food arrived, and the conversation carried on. Memories from their past, talk of their school days and everything they’d missed in between. She told him that her parents were on their dream trip across America in a Winnebago, and subsequently, she was taking shifts at their auto body shop a few times a week until they returned. Beyond that, Amy didn’t talk much about the present, but she was curious. Did Jace have plans to move back? Was he set on staying in California? Was he in need of some favor that would involve her position at Chanel 5?
The truth was, she didn’t want answers to those questions yet. They could spoil the evening. Amy thought back on the way she’d interrupted that kiss in the cellar with her ill-timed, nervous laugh. Should she try and make up for that tonight? Or was kissing on the first date too forward?
No, she assured herself. She’d already missed out on the chance to kiss him once, she couldn’t let another opportunity pass her by. Even if he wasn’t planning to stay, Amy would finally get that kiss.Ifshe didn’t chicken out.
She recalled Jace’s mention of a probability method and forced herself to apply it here. Chances of kissing him tonight once and for all. She hedged, wrestled with the hundred percent answer she wanted to give, then settled on the more realistic conclusion. If she had a ball cap to remove, something that could encourage the action, her chances would increase greatly. As it stood now, chances of kissing Jace Burns: fifty percent.
