Chapter 8
Madeline
When my dad and Ms. Nash came inside half an hour later, I was sprawled out on the family room couch, pretending to talk to Cooper on the phone.
“You’re so sweet,” I cooed. “But don’t you dare send me flowers.
Everything is forgiven. As we say in the theater, ‘all’s well that ends well.
’” A pause, a giggle. “See you tomorrow.”
To be clear, my involvement in this pretense wasn’t because I wanted my father to stay single.
But the fact that he was nearly fifty and was interested in a woman who was thirty-four sort of screamed midlife crisis.
Looking for a trophy girlfriend was a bad idea all around, and finding one who was Cooper’s mother—yeah, I was so not a fan.
I ended my nonexistent phone call, sat up, and turned my attention to Ms. Nash and Dad.
Normally, he would’ve watched me with raised eyebrows and said, “Who were you speaking to?”
Not this time. He and Ms. Nash put things in the cupboards, chatting, and seemed to have missed not only my Shakespeare pun and pronouncement of flowers but my entire phone conversation.
I strolled into the kitchen, smiling dreamily, and leaned against the kitchen island. “Ms. Nash, please tell Cooper he doesn’t have to buy me flowers. I mean, I would feel bad if he did.” I gave her a secretive look. “Although if he does, my favorites are peonies.”
“What?” she asked. I finally had her and my father’s attention.
“Why would he send you flowers?” my dad asked.
“I told you we worked things out,” I said, like the answer should be obvious. “And now we’re . . .” I rolled my hand in the air, searching for the right phrase. “Kind of dating.”
My father and Ms. Nash exchanged a look.
“Kind of dating?” my father asked as though he didn’t believe it. Which, I suppose, was what I got for complaining about Cooper so much.
“Yeah.” I fiddled with my necklace while I thought of what to say next.
“Turns out that sometimes there’s a fine line between flirting and making a guy go through every shelf in the library to find his textbooks.
” I ran my pearl pendant back and forth on the chain.
“So juvenile of us, right? I’m glad Cooper made me realize what was really going on. ”
Ms. Nash tilted her head in question. “How did he make you realize that?”
My first thought was to say that he kissed me, but I immediately vetoed that idea.
I couldn’t say that sort of thing to my dad, let alone Cooper’s mom.
I went with the second thing that came to mind.
“He told me he’d secretly had a crush on me for years.
Everything made so much more sense after that.
” I fluttered a hand. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. ”
Ms. Nash and my dad exchanged another look.
When she turned to me, the skepticism was clear from the dip in her eyebrows. “He never said anything to me about a crush.”
“That’s the definition of secret,” I said.
Her eyebrows continued to furrow. “He had a crush on you while he dated Layla?”
Layla was the homecoming queen he’d dated at the end of last year. “Yes,” I said because I’d already committed to this story.
“And while he went out with Amber and Stephanie too?” she asked.
Why did Cooper have such a long string of girlfriends, and was Ms. Nash going to list every single one of them? “Yeah,” I said. “I was always seeing someone else. Our timing has been terrible.”
If our parents compared notes about when I’d dated my exes, they’d know I was lying.
And okay, maybe it was a stretch to believe that Mr. Popular Quarterback didn’t know how to flirt with me, so he’d resorted to pranks that broke a few laws and made an entire school hallway smell like decaying chicken.
But still. They were acting like I didn’t rate a secret crush.
I slid my pendant across the chain faster. “I think Cooper has problems expressing his feelings.”
“He wouldn’t be the first,” my father said.
Good. Dad believed I rated Cooper’s attention. Ms. Nash still looked skeptical, or at least confused, by the turn of events.
“Anyway,” I said, straightening. “I told Cooper that you wanted us all to go out for ice cream after the game, and his exact words were, ‘We’re not going out with our parents for our first date. That’s lame.
’” I should get bonus points because this totally sounded like something Cooper would say.
“So we’ll have to pass. But if you go, you should take Claire.
” Because I’d feel better knowing they had a chaperone.
“I see,” Dad began, using his lawyer voice, and not in a good way. “You two made plans when you knew we still hadn’t decided on your punishment and you might be grounded?”
I shrugged. “We figured since you invited us to go out for ice cream after the game, we weren’t grounded.” I smiled hopefully. “You ought to let us off with time served.”
“I wouldn’t count on that sentence,” he said. “Where did you plan on going for this first date?” Of course he asked that. Dad treated every date like it was a mission briefing. Time. Place. Exit strategy. Background of the boy in question.
I had no answer. Cooper and I should have gone over more details before I rolled this story out. I shrugged again, trying not to squirm. “I don’t know. He wanted it to be a surprise.”
“Sounds like he’s full of surprises,” Dad said.
Ms. Nash clicked her tongue. “He certainly is today.”
“He is,” I agreed and tried to look smitten by this fact.
Dad glanced at me again, his expression unreadable, which was somehow worse than readable. “I need to take Nicole home. I’ll talk to you when I come back.”
The two of them strolled toward the door to the garage, heads bent toward each other as they spoke in hushed voices.
That had not gone as well as I’d planned. The moment they were gone, I called Cooper. I didn’t even bother saying hello, just, “Here’s the latest update to our story.”
I gave him a rundown of the conversation with our parents so he’d know what his mother was talking about when she asked him where he wanted to take me Friday night.
“I hope it’s somewhere nice,” I said brightly.
“Wherever it is, we’ll need to get our story straight after we pretend to go there in case our parents ask about it. ”
“I’ve had a secret crush on you for years?” He let out a disbelieving huff. “Why did I trust you to do this right?”
Whatever. He probably thought the idea of him liking me was impossible. “You could have worse secrets, you know. Don’t tempt me to invent some to tell her later. Also, what did you say to your mother about me that made her so disbelieving that you could have a crush on me?”
“Nothing. Maybe you’re just not as good an actress as you think.”
Doubtful. I knew how to act like I was in love. “My Juliet brought people to tears. The problem must be with you, -Romeo.”
“Speaking of doomed romances, don’t expect flowers.”
“I’m not. That was the point of asking your mom to tell you not to buy them for me. Easiest instructions ever. Now, where do you want to go for our first date?” I thought of a steak restaurant that was good. “How about the Fire Grill? You strike me as the sort who likes eating a lot of red meat.”
“Do you know what that place runs?”
“Yeah, and I’m worth it, especially since we’re not really going. You had the New York strip. I had the cilantro grilled chicken. It was delicious, and now it will always be our place.”
“Why would you order chicken at a . . . Our parents just pulled up.” Cooper didn’t say anything else for a moment.
I wasn’t sure why I held my breath, waiting, but I did.
“He’s walking her to our door. Does this mean he’s coming inside?”
I hadn’t had enough time to prepare Cooper. He could blow the whole thing if he folded under my father’s scrutiny. My dad could cross-examine a saint into confessing. “Remember to act natural. Take deep breaths and channel a time when you were in love.”
“I don’t need acting lessons.”
I paced across the kitchen. “You sort of do, though. I mean, even when you dated Layla, you didn’t seem all that into her. And if I’m being honest, ditto for Amber, Stephanie, and whoever came before that.”
He sputtered something under his breath. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, that’s part of the problem. You have to sell this so well that your mother worries about us. You need to pretend like I’m more than just another addition to your line of trophy girlfriends.”
More sputtering and his voice went low. “Do you even know how to have a conversation without insulting people? Maybe I should take this opportunity to divulge some of your secrets to our parents.”
“Don’t do that.”
Loudly, he said, “I think you should aim higher than a career as an amusement park princess. I mean, sure, you might get lucky and be cast as Cinderella, but you might also get stuck in the parade as one of the singing mice. Don’t give up on college so easily.”
I rubbed my forehead and hoped my father was being as inattentive to Cooper’s phone conversation as he’d been to mine. “Thanks for that. I need more lectures from my father about taking my grades seriously.”
“I bet Selena would do some of your college assignments just like she does your trig ones for you now.”
The boy was better at improv than I’d given him credit for. “Cooper, you’re a jerk.”
His voice went soft and teasing. “Right back at you, babe.”
“Babe?” I repeated. “You call your girlfriends babe? No wonder your relationships never last more than a couple of months.”
He laughed. “They don’t usually. But you’re not just some trophy girlfriend.”
“I’m going to hang up now. I suggest you say goodbye too because if my dad asks to speak to me, you’re going to have a hard time explaining why I’m not on the line.”
I didn’t wait for his response.
Really, Cooper was going to be the worst fake boyfriend ever.
c c c
Dad didn’t stay long at the Nashes’. I was standing in the bathroom washing my face when he stuck his head in the doorway to talk to me.
It wasn’t unusual for him to check in with me before I went to bed.
He worked late a lot, so half the time I would eat dinner by myself, and by the time he got home, I would be ensconced in my bedroom doing homework.
Or sometimes I would just go over to Selena’s for dinner and wouldn’t come home until the evening.
Her mother made the best street tacos in the city. I never missed a taco night.
His tie and jacket were gone, discarded sometime during his time with Ms. Nash. He regarded me with narrowed, disbelieving eyes, a reminder that he was a lawyer and used to grilling people in court. “So, are you serious about dating -Cooper?”
Had Cooper done something to blow our cover? I slowly toweled off my face. “Why do you ask?”
“He’s not your usual type.”
“Well, you know, trying something new is a good idea.”
Dad leaned against the doorframe. “Mmm-hmm. Do the two of you think if you start dating, Nicole and I will believe you’ve reformed your relationship, and you’ll avoid getting any punishment?”
Not good. He was looking for ulterior motives. “Dad,” I said in amused disbelief, “You’ve seen Cooper, right? The guy is gorgeous. How many reasons do I need to date him?”
Dad’s eyes were still narrow. “Did he get more gorgeous today than all those times you called him a seven-headed hydra of catastrophe?”
That was an insult from the play The Matchmaker. It had been too good not to reuse. “Yeah.” I rinsed out my washcloth and didn’t meet his eye. “Weird how that happens.”
“Right, weird,” Dad said. “So the consequence for your school pranks is that you’ll be grounded for two and a half weeks.”
For a moment, I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right. “Two and a half weeks?” I’d never been grounded for that long. There were people who committed actual crimes who didn’t go to jail for that long. “Two and a half weeks?” I repeated.
I’d only been grounded for a weekend that time I drove to LA to go shopping, knowing full well that driving out of Silver Creek was against Dad’s rules. He was positive that if I left the city boundaries, I would either crash my car or get kidnapped.
“It was going to be four weeks,” he said, “but Nicole and I decided to let you be ungrounded for the last weekend.”
Not him. He hadn’t decided that. This ridiculously long sentence was coming from Cooper’s mom and I suddenly felt sorry for what his childhood must have been like. “Nearly a month? That’s cruel and unusual punishment—”
“Although, since we already planned to go out for ice cream with the Nashes after the game on Friday, you can see Cooper when our families get together then. You’ll just have to wait a while for your first official date.”
I groaned. I was not only grounded, I would have to act like I cared about the football game and hang out with Cooper and his family afterward.
That was more punishment than my father realized.