A Proscriptive Relationship (61 page)

“
I don’t,” I said quickly, causing his smirk to grow.

“
Okay, Chris, I have Holly’s bag here,” my mom said, suddenly reappearing with my backpack in hand. “It’s got everything she needs.”

I stared at her in bewilderment. “What? For what?”

“
Staying over, silly,” she responded, rolling her eyes. “I told you I’m working late.”

“
But—but,” I spluttered, turning to Mr. Heywood, to my mom, and back again. “Wait a second. Did you guys have this all planned out beforehand?”

He gave my mom a secret smile. “It seems like I’m the favorite babysitter, Holly.”

“
Babysitter?” I repeated incredulously.

My mom quickly clapped her hands together. “Chris, didn’t you say you had to go to the grocery store? If you don’t hurry, it will close.”

“
It’s only seven!”

He glanced at me, raising an eyebrow. “I guess we should get going. Here, I’ll take Holly’s bag.” He held out his hand to my mom, taking the backpack from her hands. “Ready, Holly?”

“
Yeah,” I muttered, shooting my mom a dirty look.

Mr. Heywood dipped his head to my mom. “Nice seeing you again, Lynn.”

“
You too!” my mom chirped. “Come by for dinner sometime! Holly’s not the only one who likes your company.”

“
Mom!”

Mr. Heywood chuckled, hoisting my bag over his shoulder. “I can take a hint. We’ll make plans soon. Take care.” He turned and went out the door, leaving my mom and I alone.

“
You’re creepy, you know that?” I said, frowning at her.

She only smiled in return. “Holly, guys like Chris don’t come around every day. He’s a once in a lifetime catch, honey. When I met your father, it was the same for us. I don’t want you to lose him. And he doesn’t seem to want to lose you either.”

Taken aback by her honest remark, I found I couldn’t say anything in response.

“
Besides, he
is
a good person to have around to babysit you,” she continued in a thoughtful voice. “He’s very reliable.”

“
Bye, mom,” I said, brushing by her. I was eighteen. I didn’t need a babysitter.

She laughed. “Bye, Holly.”

By the time I climbed into the passenger seat, Mr. Heywood had already buckled up and turned on the car. As soon as I snapped my seat-belt he pulled out of my driveway. The radio was turned off, leaving us in an awkward silence. My mind raced, trying to think of something to say to fill the quiet.

“
Your mom’s something, huh?” Mr. Heywood started, sparing me. “She’s funny.”

I grunted in responding, causing him to laugh. “She’s kind of crazy. It’s like she expects us to get married,” I told him, glancing out the window.

“
I wouldn’t mind.”

I stared at him with wide-eyes. “What?”

Mr. Heywood glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “Not now, but in the future, I wouldn’t mind.”

“
Really?”

“
Is it that hard to believe?”

I shook my head quickly. “No! Well, yes. Or rather . . . I don’t know,” I mumbled, embarrassed.

Mr. Heywood chuckled. “Holly, I love you. Why wouldn’t I want to marry you? You’re just too young right now.”

My heart skipped a beat, and for a moment I lost all train of thought. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to having Mr. Heywood say those three words so casually. Finally his words registered, and I pursed my lips. “You’re not.”

He smirked. “Holly, we haven’t even gone a date yet. We can discuss the future in the future.”

“
True,” I responded, grinning at him. From the corner of my eye I saw we were whizzing by the grocery store. “Um, Mr. Heywood?”

He didn’t respond. I frowned slightly. “Mr. Heywood?”

Still no answer.

“
Mr. Heywood!”

“
Sorry, my father isn’t here right now,” he responded in a business-like voice. “Please leave a message after the beep.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Sorry, sorry. Chris?”

“
Yes, Ms. Evers?” he responded, shooting me a sweet smile.

“
I thought you said we were going to the grocery store?”

“
We are.”

“
We just passed it . . .”

He shook his head slightly. “We can’t go to that one.”

“
Why not?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. “Is it closed?”

He laughed. “No, it’s open. But if we went there, there’s a chance that someone from school might see us. A lot of students work there. Not Lance anymore after his, um, accident, but other students. It’s too risky.”

“
Oh,” I said in realization, a frown slipping onto my face. “Then where are we going?”

“
Two towns over.”

My frown grew deeper. We had to go two towns over just to go grocery shopping? It would have just been easier for Mr. Heywood to do it by himself. I looked out the window, watching the streetlights as we drove under them. “Do you think it’s going to snow this month?”

“
Snow?” Mr. Heywood repeated.

“
You know, the cold stuff that falls from the sky—”

“
Atmospheric water vapor that’s frozen into ice crystals. I’m a biology teacher, Holly. I know what snow is,” Mr. Heywood interjected.

“
So, are you going to answer my question?”

“
It might flurry, but probably nothing that will stick,” he told me. “Maybe around Christmas if it’s cold enough.”

I blinked. Christmas? My hand shot to my phone in my pocket. The date read December 11. Christmas was in less than fourteen days. “What do you do for Christmas?”

“
I don’t know,” he responded simply.

“
Well, what did you do last year?”

“
Well, not much considering I was in jail . . .” He trailed off, sending me an amused look.

I grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, I forgot.”

“
Don’t be sorry,” Mr. Heywood responded, letting out a bark of laughter. “I’d rather you forget.”

“
Well what did you do the year before that?” I tried again.

“
I spent it with Holly,” he told me, his voice lowering considerably. I could almost pick up a tone of guilt.

It was hard not to smile. Mr. Heywood didn’t like talking about Holly with me. Not that I could blame him—heck, I didn’t want to talk about her with him either. She was a likable person, but it was awkward to talk about her.

“
Um, if you want . . . I bet my mom wouldn’t mind if you wanted to have Christmas dinner and stuff at my house,” I murmured, growing hot. “You know . . . only if you want to. You don’t have to.”

Suddenly Mr. Heywood took a sharp right, sending my head into the window. I winced, pulling my head away from the glass. Mr. Heywood threw me an entertained look. “Sorry. Almost missed the turn.”

“
I kind of figured.”

“
But about Christmas . . . I want to go.”

My eyes widened. “Really?”

“
Really. Holly, you’re really doubtful about my decisions, aren’t you?” he accused, pulling into the parking lot of a grocery store I’ve never heard of.

“
That’s not it!” I denied instantly. “It just seems . . . Too good to be true.”

The sound of the engine died out and Mr. Heywood turned to me. A smirk was playing at his lips as he leaned over his seat towards me. “And why is that?”

I did my best to keep my face composed. With Mr. Heywood so near, my heartbeat had increased tenfold. “I don’t know,” I responded truthfully. “Whenever I think of you and me, I think of those crazy romance novels where something like this could only happen.”

Mr. Heywood raised an eyebrow. “So we are like a couple in a crazy romance novel?”

I nodded. “You’re the cool guy that everyone wants, and I’m girl who somehow ends up with him, even though there’s nothing special about me.”

“
Well it’s a good thing we aren’t characters in a romance novel,” Mr. Heywood stated. “We’re nothing like that. I’m the one who’s lucky to have
you
. Now come on, the grocery store is calling.”

After an awful, minute-long walk through the freezing cold from the car to the store, we entered and Mr. Heywood grabbed a basket from the rack in the front. I glanced down the row of cashiers, searching for anyone I recognized. Luckily, no one looked familiar. Mr. Heywood started walking away from me, and I quickly hurried to catch up.

“
Mr. Heywood, what are you getting?”

“
Depends on what you want,” he responded, glancing over his shoulder at me. “What do you want to eat?”

I looked at him in surprise. “I get to choose?”

“
That’s why I’m asking.”

“
Can we have . . .” I hesitated, trying to think of something that wasn’t steak. “Er . . .  Tacos?”

Mr. Heywood abruptly stopped, causing me to run into him. He chuckled and took a step forwards as I rubbed my nose. “Tacos?” he repeated, sounding interested. “It’s been a while since I’ve made those. Let’s try it.” Without warning, Mr. Heywood grabbed my hand and began tugging me down aisle ten.

My face heated up as I hurried to keep up with him. Was holding hands in such a public place such a good idea? Mr. Heywood stopped in front of the Mexican section, staring down a box of taco shells and seasoning.

“
Should I buy pre-made?” he murmured to himself, squinting at the box. “Maybe it’s our best bet . . . Holly, do you think you can find the cheese and lettuce? I’ll grab the hamburger and the other stuff and meet you in the bakery. Far right of the store,” he explained, pointing towards the area. “The vegetables and cheese are there too.”

Reluctantly, I let go of his hand. “Sure.”

He grinned at me. “What? Don’t want to let go of my hand?”

“
No,” I denied, quickly turning away. “See you soon.”

It was a straight shot to the vegetable section. Luckily for me, the lettuce was right next to the cheese. Suddenly something flashed by the corner of my eye. I spun around quickly, my heart jumping in alarm, but found nothing. Warily I took a few steps backwards, still looking around.

“
Boo!”

A loud, piercing shriek left my mouth as I twisted around in horror, half-expecting Shawn to be standing there. When my eyes landed on a familiar blond, I was relieved, then angry. I aimed a kick at his shin. “Jeremy! You scared the crap out of me!”

Jeremy laughed, easily avoiding my assault. “Obviously. Otherwise you wouldn’t have screamed so loudly. I’m sure the whole store heard that.”

“
What are you doing here?” I asked with a frown.

Jeremy looked pointedly at his chest. I followed his gaze, realizing he was wearing a black apron. A little nametag was placed on the right side of his chest, reading
Jeremy R
.

“
You work here?” I asked.

Jeremy nodded. “I have to pay for college somehow.”

“
You go to college?”

“
You don’t know anything about me, do you?” Jeremy asked with a sigh. “After all that we’ve been through, you’d think I’d leave a lasting impression.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “We don’t ever talk about you, Mr. Secretive Grocer.”

“
I know,” Jeremy responded with a grin. He took the lettuce from my hand and weighed it with his palm. “So are you here alone?”

“
No, um, Mr. Heywood is here too.”

“
Chris is here? With you?”

“
Yep.”

Jeremy suddenly had a huge grin on his face. “Really? That’s great!” He suddenly threw himself at me, nearly knocking me off my feet as he gave me a giant bear hug. He squeezed me so hard that I found it difficult to breathe. “So I take it something good happened?”

“
Jeremy,” I wheezed, trying to get him to let go. “You’re killing me.”

“
What?”

I struggled to push him off me. “I can’t breathe!”

“
I can’t hear you,” he sang, holding me tighter.

I opened my mouth to protest again, but Jeremy was abruptly pulled away from me. He looked behind me and grinned sheepishly. I didn’t have to turn around to know it was Mr. Heywood.

“
Hey, Chris,” Jeremy greeted.

“
Mind telling me why you tried strangling Holly?”

“
I’m just happy!”

“
I’d hate to see what you’d do when you’re on cloud nine,” Mr. Heywood muttered, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Did you get the cheese and lettuce?

I pointed to Jeremy’s hand, turning around to look at him. “He’s got the lettuce. I’ve got the cheese. And I thought we were meeting at the bakery.”

Mr. Heywood gave me a flat look. “When I heard you scream, I came to see if you were okay. Good thing I did, otherwise Jeremy might have actually killed you.”

“
I would not have,” Jeremy protested, sniffing. “Well, if I did it would have been an accident.”

I smiled wryly at him. “You sound so concerned.”

He shrugged. “Que sera sera. Anyway, what are you two doing tonight?”

Mr. Heywood raised the basket in his hand. “Making tacos.”

“
Oh, can I come?”

“
Nope,” Mr. Heywood drawled, reaching over and yanking the lettuce out of Jeremy’s hand. “You’d better get back to work.”

Jeremy turned to me, pouting. “Holly?” he said in a begging voice.

I stared back at him, biting my lip. He jutted his lower lip, giving me the puppy-dog look, and took a step closer to me. Mr. Heywood sent me a meaningful look and I quickly ducked my head. “It’s his house. I can’t just invite you over.”

Mr. Heywood smirked as Jeremy’s expression fell. He crossed his arms and turned his back to me. “I see how it is, Holly.”

“
Aw, Jeremy—”