14. Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fourteen
Rafe
Sunrises in Ireland are just different. I can’t pinpoint it, really. I’ve seen all sorts of sunrises, even those shielded by cloudy skies and drizzling rain, but everything about them here is calmer. Slower. As if the sun itself knows I need a break from the real world for a little while.
I sincerely doubt Luna is awake this early, not after the late night we had, so I find contentment in staring out the window, watching sheep enjoy their breakfast. My mind wanders this way and that before finally drifting back to the day it all started.
I’ve thought a lot about that fateful day, but now, rather than shove it out of the way in favor of focusing on the now, I let it fill my senses.
It actually all started with a dare…
“Did you hear anything I said, Rafe?” Case waves his hand in front of me, ensuring I lose the game I’m playing. With a grunt, I drop my handheld on the table and look at my brother.
“What now?”
Case rolls his eyes and the other guys at the table laugh. “I said, why don’t you ask one of the girls on the cheer squad?”
“Ask them what?” I mumble and cram a bite of pizza in my mouth.
The entire table erupts into laughter again while my older brother chuckles and shakes his head. “You really haven’t been listening to anything anyone has said at this table. We were trying to convince Hayden to ask Olivia Marchand on a date.”
I pause chewing and scowl. “What’s that got to do with me or the cheer squad?”
Case sighs and scrubs his hand down his face. He’s annoyed, so Novan steps in. “We dared him to ask her out, which led to a whole series of dares, and now it’s your turn, little bro.”
My gaze drifts toward the cheer squad at the table three rows down, two rows across.
It drifts there quite a lot during lunch since that’s where Luna Parsons, aka the girl of my absolute dreams, sits with the rest of her friends.
She’s popular. A hit with everyone, and while the popular people at Coldstone Creek High School aren’t stuck-up or mean in any way, there is still some unwritten code that they only date each other.
Even in a small town, there’s a pecking order, and the lonely gamer boy is at the bottom of it.
Then it hits me.
“Wait, are you daring me to ask out one of the cheerleaders? Me? Like…like me?”
“Yes, like, like, you,” Case teases. I love my brother, but if he thinks I’m going to stand up, cross this cafeteria, and ask out just any random girl on the squad, he’s nuts.
I don’t care if the Thomas clan has some name to uphold where courage, bravery, and admittedly…
stupidity, are concerned. There is no chance I’m embarrassing myself to that degree.
And then it happens.
Luna’s gaze shifts the slightest, and it locks with mine. My whole body goes weak and my nervous system sounds the alarm. Don’t do anything stupid, Rafe. Don’t do anything at all. Except, for some reason known only to God, I stand.
“Uh…Rafe…what are you doing?” Case asks, his tone a warning. “I was joking. Rafe?” I take a step. “Rafe, dude, sit down! What are you doing?”
“Rafe?” Hayden stands and grasps my shoulder, but I’m committed now. I don’t know exactly what I’m committed to at this point, but I’m on the move.
“Rafe?” Novan’s nervous call is the last thing I hear.
I block them out when Luna looks away from me, robbing me of her beautiful gaze.
She’s in a conversation now with some other boy, and not for the first time, the maniacal monster of jealousy comes to life in my stomach.
I stand a little straighter, walk with more purpose, and this gets the attention of people at other tables.
I can’t be sure, but I think they’re watching me.
I wouldn’t blame them, especially since seeing me do anything but playing games or coding is a shock.
I’ve not thought any of this through, not even a little.
All I can think about is getting her eyes back on me so I can drink in that innocent, warm smile and sparking gaze that makes me feel like a completely different person.
When she looks at me, I feel like a person.
Not another Thomas brother that falls into a stigma, but an individual.
Someone she sees who doesn’t blend into the background.
It's all in my head, of course. Still, if I’m going to make a fool of myself and ask someone on a date who is bound to say no, it’s gonna be her. Might as well rip off the Band-Aid all the way and kill two birds with one stone.
When I arrive at her table, her friends all look at me expectantly.
“Hey, Rafe,” one says, but I can’t remember her name. She’s nice, sits a few seats in front of me in geometry, but my eyes are glued to Luna.
She looks at me and smiles.
And I lose all composure. My heart pounds. My head screams at me that I’m a fool. But I’m in too deep now.
I scratch the back of my neck and try to grin, but I’m positive it presents as more of a grimace.
“Uh, hi, um…I was wondering…Luna, if you…you want to go out with me sometime?”
The whole cafeteria goes silent as the grave. All of Luna’s friends turn their heads to look at her. I know what they’re thinking. I’m not good enough for her, just a gamer with zero future who’s probably asking her out to boost my own status.
Luna blinks a few times and stares at me.
I’m one heartbeat away from running out the door, leaving Coldstone Creek, and never returning when she says…
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
“What?” her friend asks and glances between us.
“You would?” I ask, unsure I heard her correctly.
“Yeah, sure.”
“Okay. Uh…cool.”
With that, I practically bolt across the cafeteria and back to my table, where my friends and two of my brothers sit completely dumbfounded.
I endure hours of staring, snickers, and even my brothers ensuring I know what I’m getting myself into before school lets out.
Once I’m free from the confines of classes and work, it actually hits me.
I asked Luna Parsons out on a date.
And she said yes.
I run a hand through my dark hair and release a long, slow breath while gathering my things for a long weekend of little more than homework and working on the app I’m trying to develop.
Doing something like this can help me with college applications, so it’s important that I focus on getting it just right.
I slam my locker door shut and work to swallow down the nerves that have been edging in since the final bell rang.
Novan and Case have soccer and wrestling practice, so I drove my own car to school.
I’m sure I’ll end up at Sweet and Salty doing my homework while I wait for Mom and Dad to finish work, then I’ll head home to the chaos of the rest of the family.
I’m so lost in thought that I almost don’t see the petite, beautiful girl leaning her back against my car until I’m standing right in front of her.
Luna smiles and pushes off the car so I can unlock it.
I can’t do anything but stare at her because I had not anticipated coming face to face with her again today.
“Um…” It’s all I can think to say as my entire body betrays me.
Sweating profusely does not begin to describe the situation, and playing it cool is not a phrase in my playbook.
Existing, blending into the wallpaper, ignoring the world around me—those I can do.
This? Talking to Luna? Nope, I can’t do that.
“So…” she says, drawing it out while stuffing her hands in her jeans pocket. “You didn’t get my number, and I don’t know yours, so…I’m not sure how we’re going to communicate about that date.”
Geez. What a moron. I smack my forehead with my palm and wince. “Ow.”
Luna giggles, which brings a rare smile to my face.
“Oh, wow. I like it when you smile.” Her cheeks redden, and she looks away, which is good because I’m pretty sure mine match hers. Coupled with copious sweat, it’s not a good look.
I have no moves. None. All I have are fanciful dreams of taking this girl on a date, but none of those seem remotely appropriate now that she’s said yes. Actually, I can’t afford half of them, so what’s left are embarrassing renditions of me sweeping her off her feet by—get this—just being me.
“So, did you mean to ask me out or…I mean, I only ask because you don’t really seem like you want to know?” She’s second-guessing herself. Dare I say she’s…nervous? Why she would be nervous around me is anyone’s guess, but it gives me a fraction of a molecule of confidence.
“No, I…I really do want to take you out. I was nervous. I’m still nervous, in case you couldn’t tell.”
“Maybe a little,” she says and smiles again. “I’m kind of nervous, too, actually. I don’t really know as much about you as I do your brothers, but I’m up for hanging out if you want.”
“You want to go with me to Sweet and Salty?” I offer, gripping my keys so tight they’re going to cut into my palm.
She shrugs and points to my beat-up car. “You driving?”
“Sure. Hop in,” I say and try to control the maniac-sized grin that makes my cheeks ache.
She rounds the car and yanks on the door, and I remember it’s broken.
“Oh, sorry. One sec.” I meet her on her side and yank it harder, then hold it open for her.
Once she’s inside, I shut the door and go back to fighting that grin.
I just won the lottery, and every guy in the lot knows it.
They watch as I pull out with her in my passenger seat, and I cannot deny how good it feels. She is here of her own accord.
Halfway to my parents’ bakery, she asks, “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Have you decided what you want to do? Like for the rest of your life, I mean? I want to major in history, but my parents think it’s probably a waste of money.
I’d love to work for a museum, you know, like as a curator.
It would be so amazing to travel the world and discover new things and…
oh, sorry. Sometimes I ramble a little when I’m nervous. ”
I glance at her and let loose that grin I’ve been holding in.
I know what it looks like. I see it on my brothers’ faces all the time; it just doesn’t usually grace mine all that much.
Still, it says I know things she doesn’t, that I have a sneaky little plan she can’t help falling for, that I might be a bit more trouble than she calculated.
It’s not true, necessarily, but we Thomas boys can’t help what our grins do to girls.
Luna arches her eyebrow and bites her lip. “What?”
“Nothing, Pom Poms. You can talk all day about what you want to do when you graduate. I like seeing you happy,” I say like some kind of teenage Casanova. What? Where did that even come from?
“Pom Poms?” Her brows raise even higher now.
My cheeks burn but I’m going with it. Might as well let her see how weird I am now, get it out of the way so she can’t say I didn’t warn her.
I pull into the lot and turn off my car before responding. “You are a cheerleader,” I argue. “It was meant to be a cute nickname, but if you hate it, it’ll never grace my lips again.”
With that statement, she glances down. At my lips. Holy cow, Luna is looking at my lips. Suddenly, I don’t know what to do with them, but it seems my DNA does. The stupid grin spreads wide again and Luna’s lips part.
“I’m in trouble,” she whispers. I’m not even sure I hear her right before she bolts from the car and heads toward the front door of my parents’ bakery. I hurry out and lock the car so I can open the door for her. And I don’t know why, maybe pushing my luck, but I offer her my hand.
She stares down at it, then her eyes travel up my arm to settle on my face. I’m not grinning now. I’m freaking out. Panic sets in, and there is no doubt she reads it all over my face. Her features soften and she takes a deep breath.
Luna takes my hand.
And the second we enter Sweet and Salty, I know I can never let her go.
I am abruptly brought back to reality when two familiar hands cover my eyes, and Luna’s floral scent envelops me. Though I’m fully aware of the person who has me in her grip—both literally and metaphorically—I can’t help wondering if we’re different people from who we were back then.
“You okay?” she asks, resting her chin on my shoulder.
I reach up behind me and hug her head while she wraps her arms around me from behind. “I’m good. I was sitting here thinking about the day I asked you out. Do you know that started off as a dare?”
Luna scoffs and comes around to sit in the chair beside me. “I did not, but it doesn’t surprise me. That crowd you hung out with was always trouble.”
I almost spit out the sip of coffee I took while she was talking. “Two of those were my brothers.”
She raises an eyebrow and smirks. “You say that like it changes the intent of that sentence in any way, shape, or form. Case and Novan were brats in high school. We both know that, and Hayden was a pain in the rear.”
“Fair enough, but we all grew on you. And Alex, obviously.” I motion across the water as if it distinguishes that I’m pointing to two people we haven’t seen in a very long time.
Luna exaggerates a sigh. “Fair enough.” She sits forward and blocks the sun from her eyes. “What do you want to do today? I have a lot on my list, but suddenly it all seems so…touristy.”
“Well, there’s nothing wrong with that. We could go into town and see what we can find. I’m sure there are some fun off-the-beaten path things we can do if we ask the locals.”
“Sounds good to me. I’m ready when you are.
” She offers me her hand, but this is so much more than a simple gesture.
It’s her trusting me again, letting me lead, just like she did that first date we shared at my parents’ bakery.
And I think maybe we are the same kids in love on the inside, and if there’s growing up to do, we can do that together too.