My cheeks feel like they’re on fire.
“Is that what it was?” Lili asks, looking between me and Merrick with a furrow in her brow.
Oh no.
“What?” Mom questions. Confused.
“Why you two stopped talking. What messed up your friendship. Did you—”
Before she can finish her question, Mari lets out a high-pitched screech from the living room, and Lili rushes to tend to her.
Me and Merrick share a look.
Mom, completely unaware of anything, says, “You boys gonna go out later? They’re having some sort of movie thing at the park tonight. Setting up a screen and having some local vendors out. Might be fun.”
“I’m sure Merrick’s busy, Mom. Plus, he’s famous. He doesn’t want to be out and about.”
He turns his head to inspect me, then focuses his attention on my mom. “I’m actually not busy at all, and that does sound fun. You think you can convince your son to go with me?”
Mom wipes her mouth with a napkin and smiles. “Of course he’ll go with you.” She pins me with a stern look that dares me to say otherwise.
“I thought I was a grown man.”
She laughs. “You’re still my son, no matter how old you are. Take your friend out. Be nice.”
“You’re not worried about being seen?” I ask, barely looking at his handsome face.
“It’ll be dark, right?”
I shrug.
Mom gets up to take her dishes to the kitchen, but she fastens her gaze to Merrick before she walks away. “I expect to see you around here while you’re in town, okay? You two were as thick as thieves growing up. I always felt like I had two sons.”
Merrick smiles at her. “You keep making food like this and you’ll have a hard time keeping me away.”
She laughs and swats his shoulder.
“So, I guess we’re going out tonight,” I mumble.
15
Merrick
Present Day
“All right, let’s go,” Ali murmurs, making his way through the front door of his mom’s house.
“Don’t sound so excited.”
“I’m not.”
Clearly, Ali didn’t spend the rest of the afternoon and early evening as excited as me about our night together.
“My car or yours?” I ask, ignoring his shitty mood.
He shrugs. “Doesn’t matter to me.”
“I’ll drive then.”
Once inside the black Escalade I rented, I start it up and begin making my way toward Meadow Acres.
“I’m glad your mom forced you to come out with me.”
Ali snorts. “Yeah, she’s fun like that.”
I sneak a glance at him and notice he’s staring out the window. He’s barely looked at me for more than a few seconds today.
“Why haven’t you been looking at me? Am I ugly now or what?” I joke, hoping to lighten the mood.
He makes a noise I can’t quite figure out. Did he laugh? Is he annoyed?
“I’ve never been to this outdoor movie thing,” he says, changing the subject. “So I don’t know what to tell you to expect.”
“That’s fine. We can figure it out together. We’ve done that before, right?”
Again, he makes a noise in the back of his throat. Pretty sure he’s annoyed by me.
We don’t speak until we’re at the park and looking for a place to sit.
The grass is littered with blankets and chairs, and a lot of people. I spot a few vendors selling popcorn, hotdogs, and pretzels. The drink station has one half dedicated to all your non-alcoholic stuff, and the other half offering beer to people of age.
“Want something to eat?” I ask.
He gives me a look. “I’ll get it. I don’t need you to be recognized right away. What do you want?”
“Whatever you get is fine.”
“All right. Pick a place for us to sit and I’ll find you.”
I decide sitting toward the back where there’s less people is probably best. We don’t have blankets or chairs, but that’s okay. I’m not really here to watch the movie, I just want to be near Ali.
A few minutes later, Ali approaches with his hands full.
“I got everything. Hotdogs, pretzels, popcorn, and I decided to get Coke instead of beer.”
“Cool. Thanks,” I say, taking some of the items off his hands.
“Still not really sure what the movie is,” he says, sitting next to me.
“That’s all right. Doesn’t really matter to me.”
His eyes cut to mine briefly, but he doesn’t say anything. We get halfway done with our food before I decide to speak again.
“What do you do now?”
After swallowing his food, he answers, but he doesn’t look at me when he does. “I’m a science teacher at a high school, and I coach the football team.”
“No shit?” I ask with a laugh. “That’s cool, man.”
“Yeah, I like it.”
“Your sister said you were in town, so where do you live now?”
He lets loose a little sigh. “Chaparral.”
“Oh, so not too far away.”
He shakes his head and pushes his hand in the bag of popcorn, still not looking at me.
“So, you’re free all summer?”
Because I’m studying his face pretty hard, I notice when his brows furrow slightly. His eyes once again flicker in my direction, but only for a second.
“I have some plans with friends, but yeah, I guess I’ll be pretty free.” He chews his food, takes a sip, then says, “Why? You gonna be here all summer?”
“Probably.”
The movie starts, and it’s some animated family movie, but I don’t care. I’m more focused on getting Ali to actually look at me for more than two seconds. I want him to ask me questions instead of just giving my questions the quickest responses.
“Maybe I can hang out with you and your friends.” I throw it out there, hoping he’ll have more to say.
He surprises me when he starts laughing, and though I don’t know why he’s laughing, I can’t help but smile. I’ve missed his laugh, and that tiny dimple that appears on his left cheek.
“What’s so funny?” I finally ask.
“You don’t want to hang out with me and my friends.”
“Why not? As long as they’re cool and won’t be all weird around me, I’ll be fine.”
“Okay, maybe I’ll keep that in mind,” he says, leaving me wondering what
