A Creed in Stone Creek - Linda Lael Miller [41]
Melissa smiled. Nodded. “Tom?”
He was turning away. “What?”
“Why don’t you ask Tessa for a date?”
He looked all of fourteen as he considered that idea. His neck went a dull red, and his earlobes glowed like they were lit up from the inside. “She might say no.”
“Here’s a thought, Tom. She might say yes. Then what would you do?”
“Probably have a coronary on the spot.” Tom sounded pretty serious, but there was a tentative smile playing around his lips. “Same as if she said no.”
“So you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
“That’s about the size of it,” Tom said.
“I dare you,” Melissa said. When they were kids, that was the way to get Tom Parker to do just about anything. Of course, she hadn’t tried it since playground days.
He flushed again, and his eyes narrowed. “What?”
“You heard me, Parker,” Melissa said, jutting her chin out a little ways. “I double-dog dare you to ask Tessa Quinn out to dinner. Or to a movie. Or to a dance—there’s one next weekend, at the Grange Hall. And if you don’t ask her out, well, you’re just plain—chicken.”
Instantly, they were both nine years old again.
Tom stepped closer and glared up at her. “Oh, yeah?” he said.
“Yeah,” Melissa replied stoutly.
“You’re on,” Tom told her.
“Good,” Melissa answered, without smiling.
“What do I get if you lose?” Tom wanted to know.
Melissa thought quickly. “I’ll buy you dinner.”
“As long as you’re not cooking,” Tom specified, looking and sounding dead serious.
This was a bet Melissa wanted to lose. “I’ll recruit Ashley,” she said. “She can do those specially marinated spare ribs you like so much.”
“Deal,” Tom said, without cracking a smile. Even as a little kid, he’d been a sucker for a bet.
“Wait just a second,” Melissa said. “What if I win? What happens then?”
“I’ll take over as chairman of the Parade Committee,” Tom told her, after some thought.
“Deal,” Melissa agreed, putting out her free hand.
They shook on it, then Tom turned and stalked back to the gate, through it and down the sidewalk to his car. “Just remember one thing!” he called back to her.
“What?” Melissa retorted, about to turn around and open her front door.
“Two can play this game,” Tom said.
Then he got into the cruiser, slammed his door and ground the engine to life with a twist of the key in the ignition, leaving Melissa to wonder what the hell he’d meant by that.
He made the siren give one eloquent moan as he drove on past her house and vanished around the corner.
“Damn,” Melissa said, as the answer dawned on her.
Now she’d gone and done it.
Tom would lie awake nights until he came up with a dare for her. And it would be a doozy, knowing him.
But she didn’t dwell on the problem too long, because she had things to do. Like go over to Ashley’s, thereby braving the wild bunch, who might well be swinging from the chandeliers in their birthday suits, to steal a main course and a dessert from one of the freezers.
“NEXT TIME,” Steven told the rearview reflection of a chagrined Matt, as they drove out of town, “it would be a really good idea to talk it over with me before you go inviting people to our place for supper.”
Matt was no pouter, but his lower lip poked out a-ways, and he was blinking real fast, both of which were signs that he might cry.
It killed Steven when he cried.
“I was just trying to be a good neighbor,” Matt explained, sounding as wounded as he looked. “Anyhow, I like Ms. O’Ballivan, don’t you?”
“Yes,” he said, tightening his fingers on the steering wheel, then relaxing them again. “I understand that your intentions were good,” he went on quietly. “But sometimes, if that person happens to have other plans, or some other reason why they need to say no, it puts them on the spot. There’s no graceful way for them to turn you down.”
Matt listened in silence, sniffling a couple of times.
“Do you know what I’m saying, here?” Steven asked, keeping his