She shrugs uneasily."I have bad memories of them from when I was little.They’ve always been dirtbags.They used to bully the Shadowpine kids.Let’s just bring the food with us.”
She's lying.And it hurts, because if she has any problem at all, I should be the one to solve it for her.
But I'm keeping the biggest secret of all.The truth about her father—what he was really doing.If I told her, she'd hate me.Or she wouldn't believe me.
I can't tell her.Which means I can't ask her to trust me.
“We’ll go,” I say abruptly.We grab our food and head for the truck.The drive back is quiet.
When we pull up to the Shadowpine property, Danny and Coral climb out.Coral looks through the open door at Henrietta.
"That was the weirdest date ever," she says to Henrietta.“Are you going to do it again?”
"It wasn't a date!"Henrietta and I say at exactly the same time.
Coral grins."See?Even when you're trying to disagree, you agree."
She shuts the door and heads inside with Danny, walking with her pregnant penguin-like waddle.
Henrietta and I sit in the truck.The engine is still running.
"Well," she says."That was a disaster."
"Complete failure."
"We can’t even ruin a date.What’s wrong with us?"she says in exasperation.
I have no answers.
She reaches for the door handle, then stops."We should try again.Just to be sure."
"Tomorrow night?"
"Tomorrow night.Let’s make it really, really bad this time."She gives me a severe look.“Do worse!”
“I’ll try.”
“I have every confidence in your ability to show me the worst time of my life.”
“Uh…thanks?”
She gets out.I watch her walk to the door, and I don't drive away until she's inside.
Then I sit in my driveway gripping the steering wheel and think: I'm in so much trouble.
Chapter Ten
Andrew
We’ve had a week of chaperoned dates which have failed to suck.
Movie night – I picked a violent war flick, imported in from human territory and playing at our local drive-in, which I assumed would either offend her or bore the pants off her.She loved it.And I discovered an alarmingly bloodthirsty side to my fated mate.
Did she have to get so excited about the villain’s severed arm flying across the screen?
Damn it, we have so much in common.
Board games – she wasn’t bored.She just beat me, repeatedly, and she and Coral snickered about it.