A Creed in Stone Creek - Linda Lael Miller [81]
Steven leaned in, not touching her, though his breath made her lips tingle. “Yes,” he said. “I’ll go to the dance with you, Melissa O’Ballivan, but only if you agree to pick me up in the roadster.”
The tension subsided slightly.
“What’s going on?” a customer yelled to a friend on the other side of the café.
“Melissa asked that Creed fella to the Grange Dance!” the friend boomed.
“It’s about time she had a date,” commented someone else.
“Good,” Melissa said. Then she turned on Tom and glowered up at him. At the edge of her vision, she saw Tessa coming out of the kitchen, looking lovely in her jeans, sleeveless white top and blue cobbler’s apron smudged with flour. “Now it’s your turn.”
Steven, after one lingering look of sheer appreciation, excused himself quietly and went back to the counter, where Alex waited with the plans.
The clientele was still being unusually quiet.
“Have a seat,” Tessa said, her glance moving questioningly between Melissa and Tom. “Ella will be right with you.” Ella was the other waitress.
Melissa flashed Tessa a bright smile. “We were hoping you could wait on us personally,” she told her friend. “Would you mind?”
“Not at all,” Tessa replied, dusting the flour smudge off her front with a few slaps of one hand. “On my way.”
As soon as Melissa and Tom had seated themselves at a table in front of the window, Tessa was there, order pad in hand, pencil at the ready.
“Coffee for both of us, please,” Melissa said.
Tom sat directly across from her, brooding. He wouldn’t look at either Melissa or Tessa.
Melissa kicked him under the table.
Tom started, as though he’d been off in some other world and had just come in for a crash landing.
He looked up at Tessa, his hands so tightly interlocked that his knuckles showed white, and blurted out, “I guess you wouldn’t want to go out with me or anything.”
Melissa sighed.
Tessa’s cheeks turned pink. “I—I mean—”
And nobody in that café, except for Steven and his architect that is, made any pretense of minding their own business.
“See?” Tom said to Melissa.
“Are you talking about—a date?” Tessa faltered.
“Probably wants you to go to the Grange Dance with him on Saturday night,” said that same helpful redneck who had spoken up before.
“Oh,” Tessa said.
Tom ears turned bright pink.
Tessa spoke again. “Tom Parker,” she said, “look at me.”
Surprised, Tom did as he was told.
Tessa leaned down, so that her nose was almost touching his, and said, “Now, say whatever it is you want to say. I want to hear it from you.”
A sunburst of a smile broke over Tom’s face, a mix of hope and cautious joy. “Will you go out with me? To the dance on Saturday night?”
Tessa straightened. Her face revealed nothing whatsoever.
Tom didn’t move.
Melissa didn’t breathe. If she’d thought for one moment that Tessa would turn Tom down, she wouldn’t have opened her big mouth in the first place.
“Yes,” Tessa said, at long last. “I think I will go to the dance with you.”
The whole place erupted in cheers and whistles then, and Tom went even redder than before.
Melissa let out her breath and sneaked a sidelong look at Steven. By then, even he was caught up in watching the saga unfold, just like everybody else in the café.
“That’s good, then,” Tom said. Now that he’d made his pitch, he seemed to be at a loss for titillating conversation. “That’s real good.”
Tessa smiled, her own color a little high, and turned to go behind the counter for the coffee order.
“Thanks for kicking me,” Tom said to Melissa. “I think you broke my shin.”
“She’s going to the dance with you!” Melissa whispered, thrilled that her good friend hadn’t been shot down, especially with the whole town looking on. It would have been her fault, at least in part, if that had happened.
“And you’re going to the dance with Creed,” Tom replied very quietly, grinning. “Not that I thought for one second that he’d turn you down.”
Melissa looked toward Steven, just to make sure he was still out of range and, seeing that her Saturday night date was busy shaking hands and exchanging parting words with Alex, turned