Perfect Couple

She set her jaw and shook her head.

He raked back his chair. Everyone in the restaurant turned to stare. He blustered out of the restaurant, hitting the swinging front door so hard that it took several moments to close behind him. Kaye looked sick.

Without missing a beat, Sawyer swept up Aidan’s untouched plate and set it in front of Brody, above his usual dish of fish sandwich and vegetables.

“Thanks, buddy,” Brody said.

“You’re welcome, buddy.” Sawyer rounded the table and bent close to Kaye’s ear. He said, so quietly I could hardly hear him, “I love your hair like that. You look very pretty.”

She blinked in surprise, then stared across the restaurant at him as he headed toward the kitchen. After the kitchen door had already closed behind him, she mouthed the words “Thank you.”

Even though I didn’t believe Aidan had meant to hurt Kaye’s feelings so deeply, I did think he was being insensitive to her. He should have known better after dating her so long. Or cared more. And I wasn’t too surprised when Tia leaned over and whispered to me that we should both spend the night at Kaye’s house. When Kaye and Tia and I needed each other, boys came second. Whatever adventure Brody and I might have had after dinner, it would need to wait.

Brody drove me home to pack. As we got back on the road again, headed across town to Kaye’s house, I asked, “Did it freak you out when Noah and Quinn were holding hands in the movie?”

He was silent for a few seconds. “Was I acting weird?”

“You kept looking over at them.”

He laughed uncomfortably. “A little. But Noah is so happy. I mean, if the guys on the team would leave him alone about it, he’d be happy. This town is full of people who are out, but they’re not seventeen, you know? It took cojones to do what he and Quinn did. They stood up for themselves. If they can do that, they can get through anything.”

As we drove on in silence, I thought about the couples who’d sat at the table. Other than Will and Tia, Quinn and Noah seemed the most stable. Kaye and Aidan were starting to act like Kennedy and me. I could only imagine Kaye must feel lost, especially after spending all of high school together with Aidan.

“Are you mad I’m going over to Kaye’s?” I asked Brody.

“No.” Pulling to a stop at a traffic light in a quiet intersection, he glanced over at me and smiled. “Disappointed.” He accelerated as the light changed. “How about we meet up tomorrow? Would you like to go surfing? Can you surf?”

“Yes. Badly.” Surfing was something most of my friends knew how to do. We’d learned when we were too young to know that the small waves on the Gulf Coast weren’t worth the trouble. Canadians probably felt this way about swimming in frigid water. But the downgraded hurricane way offshore might produce good waves tomorrow.

I snapped my fingers. “I don’t have a surfboard.”

“I’ll bring Sabrina’s for you.”

“Will surfing still be safe as the storm gets closer?”

“Define safe.”

Right. To take advantage of the thrill, we’d have to swim in waters that were far from calm. Kind of like dating Brody. But some thrills were worth the trouble. I’d enjoyed my day with him enough that I was willing to take on the next challenge.

15

KAYE LAY TUMMY DOWN ON her bed, her bare feet swinging behind her in the air, while Tia slipped on one of my A-line dresses and I pinned the side seam to fit her slender body. There wasn’t enough material in the bottom to let the hem out. What had been a minidress on me would be a micromini on Tia. She didn’t mind.

I’d brought a few other dresses I would tailor for Kaye. She and Tia kept trying to talk me out of it. “I worked hard on all my clothes,” I said, “and I don’t want them to go to waste. I’m really attached to some of the dresses, but they do seem kind of stuffy now. I might keep a few for myself and alter them with a shorter hem or a lower neckline. But if I wear them again, do you think people will say I’m not being consistent? They can’t figure out anymore whether I’m supposed to be Old Harper or New Harper?” I’d told them what Kennedy had said about me trying to dress like Grace, which still bothered me.

“Consistency is overrated,” Tia said over her shoulder as I pinned her other side. “Some days I look cute, if I do say so myself. Some days I oversleep and don’t bathe. I like to keep people guessing.”

Straightening, I sniffed her hair and didn’t smell anything. Mostly she bathed.

“Brody told me he wants me to wear my glasses sometimes because they’re sexy and he likes surprises.”

“I would be wearing my glasses, then,” Tia said at the same time Kaye said, “Oooh, that sounds like an invitation. So, you guys made up? You seemed really happy tonight.”

I nodded, smiling as I thought about our day together, and my new collection of gratuitous biceps photos. “I have fun with him. He’s hard for me to get used to, though.”

“Because he’s talking about football the whole time,” Kaye asked, “and you don’t understand?”

“No, he doesn’t talk much about football. I guess I’ve always dated guys who constantly make fun of stuff and show off how smart they are. Brody doesn’t do that. Sometimes he says things that aren’t even sarcastic.”

“It sounds to me like you’ve never dated a guy who wasn’t an asshole,” Tia said.