The Starter Boyfriend (16 page)

I was pretty sure the heat pulsing my cheeks was mostly from my ongoing panic. Not to mention embarrassment for the belly flop I’d taken earlier on his bod.

“Uh, hi?” Adam said, taking in the sight of my dad and me in one confused swoop.

“I’m really sorry, Adam,” I managed. “This will only take a minute.”

“We appreciate you seeing us,” my dad added, low and quiet.

I did an awkward throat clear. “I just need you to call that guy with the nose ring—the one you were playing cards with that day—and see what he’s done with the mannequin he stole from my car.”

“Cody?”

“No, Tux. Oh,” I said and slapped my forehead. “Cody is your friend. Sorry. Yes. The guy who was at the bonfire tonight with the zirconium stud.”

“Cody.” He frowned. “He seriously stole your mannequin? The one from the window in your shop?”

“He and some friends,” I said, nodding and hoping we could skip over the wheres and whys so we could get to the helps.

“He was in your car?”

“It’s a long story.” One even my father hadn’t heard. And no one
would
hear, if I had my way. “Could you just call him, and see,” I said, feeling my throat thickening, “what he’s done with it?”

Adam backed up to let us in. Flicking on a light switch, he took long strides toward a magazine-covered coffee table, and his cell phone.

I shifted my weight on the carpet while Adam’s phone booted and he punched in some numbers.

“Yo, dude,” Adam was soon saying. “What’s happenin’?” He ran a hand through his unruly hair. “Cool. Hey, I hear you made a rare score tonight, like some six feet of paint and plastic.”

Fiberglass, but whatever.

“Yeah,” he said after a long break. “Yeah. In fact, she’s right here. With her
dad
. You want to talk to her?”

I leaned in, my adrenaline spiking—boy did I want to give this guy a piece of my mind!—only to have Adam turn away. “No, dude, no police,” he said into the receiver. “They came to me instead.”

“Tell him,” my dad broke in, “that as long as we get the mannequin back
now
, we won’t press charges.”

Adam repeated this into the phone, the pucker of his jaw telling me he liked what he was hearing. “Good deal, dude. See you on the beach.”

He hung up and his gaze zapped to mine. “They left it on the principal’s lawn, as a senior prank. He told me the address, but asks we keep it all quiet so his friends won’t know the prank didn’t actually go down.”

Relief burst brilliantly inside me. I kind of wanted to throw my arms around him, but knew better. I settled with a sigh and a smile.

He shifted his gaze to my dad. “He said Principal Hioki lives in Sunset Estates, on a corner house. Shouldn’t be too hard to find, especially with a mannequin on the lawn.”

“Thanks for helping us,” my dad said, and went to follow up with a handshake.

Adam had already bent down. To slip his feet into sandals. “Come on,” he said, then straightening up. “I know a short cut.”

* * *

Moments later, we were back on the road, my dad behind the wheel, Adam and me buckled up together inside the passenger seat. Moving past the obvious body-to-body mortification and the fact we were the world’s oddest cavalry, I couldn’t help wondering how we’d fit Tux in this two-seater. But then I decided to worry about it later. Circus clowns jammed lots of people inside those tiny cars, and everybody had a grand old time, right?

Adam must have been on a similar wavelength because he leaned forward to throw a look at my dad. “You guys like small cars, huh?”

“Fuel efficient,” my dad responded.

“Cute.” I added.

My dad’s brow wrinkled. “Speak for yourself, daughter.” Then he sort of smiled, giving me the head-thunk that he probably thought his sports car was cool, maybe even proof that he wasn’t just a nerdy old guy. But in order to think that, he’d have to realize how he came off to people. He’d have to have some kind of self-image radar.

A conversation with my mom about him was getting more appealing all the time. Once I got over the idea of actually having to speak to her.

Sunset Estates sat up against a oceanside bluff, one of those communities where they had anal retentive rules about how long the grass could grow and what colors you could paint your house. Driving under the entrance archway, I stretched to scan all yards—especially corner lots.

“There,” my dad said with quiet certainty after we’d made a first turn. He pulled over to curb.

Adam and I unbuckled and scrambled out the door.

The night air excited goosebumps on my skin, or maybe they came from the cold shock of separating from Adam’s body. In any case, I went from bumpled to crumpled as we broke into crouched runs up and across the manicured lawn.

Adam reached Tux a beat or two before me, yanking him from a sitting position on an inflated inner tube. It wasn’t until he got the mannequin upright that I saw Tux’s pants were down around his ankles, and I “got” the toilet-like reference, the way those idiots had posed him as a statement to the principal.

Jerks!

Anger lanced through me as I yanked the thirty-eight long style 02116 tuxedo pants back into place and fastened the belt, but so did a stern voice, reminding me that all that really mattered was that we’d found him. That he seemed to be in good working shape. This could have been enormously worse.

That’s when a porch light flicked on.

My heart clenched. I threw a look at Adam to see his eyes go wide. Even though we were technically reversing an act of property vandalism, we looked totally guilty, and our gut reactions seemed to be the same: Run!

He grabbed Tux by the shoulders. I got hold of the feet. And we took off.

“Who’s there?” bellowed a male voice, one I knew all too well from the hallways and the intercom system.

More light cut through the darkness. A bumping beam, and getting closer. Like a high-end flashlight.

Ignoring the sudden stitch in my side, I kept up with Adam’s frantic pace, down the grassy slope, into the driveway, and then in front of the hood of the idling car. My heart pounding all over my body, I managed to still myself long enough for him to round the open door.

“Stop!” the voice behind us demanded in a veteran principal tone.

O.M.G., we had been
thisclose
.

I dove butt-first inside the car, still holding Tux’s feet, figuring I’d plop them in my dad’s lap for the ride. Adam and I could keep holding Tux’s shoulders, and if the head had to stick out the window, well, so be it.

“Halt, you two!”

Adam followed me in—tight—still guiding Tux’s top half. Then arcing Tux’s head at the ceiling the way I’d done in my VW, he slammed the door behind him.

Tux’s feet slid down to my dad’s lap. Not for long. For that’s when my father turned to see Principal Hioki at the driver’s door, his dark eyes squinting with rage. Whether it was a man thing, a dad thing or just a total dumb-ass thing, he drew an inhale and got out of the car.

And even though his absence created much-needed space and lightened the load of the mannequin, every muscle in my body heaved with disappointment. Especially my tear ducts, which suddenly had the urge to expel whatever waterworks it had been holding.

I turned to Adam, whose own eyes looked dark and urgent. “We’re dead.”

“Maybe not. All we really did was trespass.”

“On the principal’s property. That’s probably some kind of felony.”

He scrunched his face. “Your dad will explain.”

Yeah. I probably should chill. Because while my dad was definitely lacking in the communicate-with-his-kid department, the fact he maintained a successful practice meant he had some business and negotiation skills. Besides, he certainly hadn’t dumped on me tonight.

I released a long sigh. “I just want this over. And
this guy
back in the shop where he belongs,” I added, tapping the row of buttons on the suit jacket. “So I can keep working in the shop, where I belong.”

Almost immediately, my goof hit me: I’d personified Tux again. Instead of going there and/or teasing me, Adam did the last thing I expected. He stretched out an arm, draped it across my shoulders and squeezed me tight.

While I knew this was nothing but a friendly gesture, right now, I loved that he cared. Even just a little bit. Even in the not-so-right way. And I tried to shrink from the screaming irony that while I’d gone to Tux tonight for comfort over Adam, I was now being comforted by Adam about Tux.

I rested my head against his shoulder, closed my eyes and focused on my breathing. And capturing—even owning—this unexpectedly sweet moment.

That’s when the driver’s door snapped open and dome light assaulted my face. I opened my eyes to see my father in the doorway. Alone. His face a stony stillness. “You’re off the hook.”

Relief washed through me. “Oh, thank you.”

“Yes, thanks very much, Mr. Walsh.”

“Off the hook for now. He wants to see both of you in his office first thing on Monday.” His gaze pierced mine. “At least I kept you from getting arrested.”

I must have looked appropriately ashamed because my dad’s gaze moved to his bucket seat. Which was of course occupied by mannequin legs and shoes. I used both hands to lift them up and away.

Kinda hard. Kinda fast.

With Adam’s arm still around me and not fortifying his hold, Tux’s face flew up like the light end of a teeter-totter.

That’s when we heard the crash.

The smash. The shatter.

And then my gasp. As the mannequin landed back down—a jagged, glaring hole where the nose had been.

Chapter 20

I’d killed Tux.

At least, as my dad zoomed us off into the night, that’s how it felt.

What I’d really killed was my last chance of keeping Phillip under the impression that I was a trustworthy employee.

Adam must have tapped into my thoughts because he pointed at the mannequin in our laps and sighed. “Hey, maybe you could angle a hat down low and your boss would never know.”

I felt the corners of my mouth twitch. While I was sure that would be a Band-Aid at best, bless him for envisioning an ending to this catastrophe other than me getting my butt kicked to the curb. Or wearing an orange jumpsuit. It was moments like this when I understood how he’d made it to the surfing championships. He was the type of competitor who did not back down.

I glanced his way just as his gaze was sliding at me. And although we’d looked into each other’s eyes hundreds of times—maybe thousands—somehow, in some way, this time felt different. As if we were being drawn to each other instead of merely connecting. Almost as if the world had fallen away, leaving just the two of us...

Wow. I was tired. Really, really tired. And maybe a little bit crazy, too. Going from imagining a factory-made object was my boyfriend to thinking Adam “I Only Want to Be Friends” Hartnett was after my heart.

I ripped my gaze away, and deep down somewhere, it almost hurt. “That’s a nice try, Adam, but I think I’m better off telling Phillip the truth.”

My dad jumped in with a clear of his throat. “Speaking of, you never did tell me why you took the mannequin to the beach tonight.”

Because, Dad, you hadn’t asked.

That answer was easy-peasy. “I realized I’d dropped my phone by the bonfire, and that once the sun came up, somebody would likely see it and steal it.”

Adam let out a half-laugh. “You stole something to keep someone from stealing from you?”

I went to correct him—I’d borrowed, not stolen—but I was pretty sure he knew that. Besides, my dad was pulling up in front of Adam’s apartment building, making this conversation essentially over.

Or so I thought.

“What I still don’t get,” my father aimed at me, “is why you went to the shop tonight at all. After the bonfire. Not just to get the mannequin, right?”

Okay.
This
was awkward.

My breath jammed in my throat, along with a whole bunch of sentences that all started with the name “Adam.”

Worse? I could feel his body go rigid beside mine.

Making me wonder: did he know I’d gone because of him? Wait, how could he? (Or how could he
not
?) In any case, this had the makings of the single most embarrassing moment of my life.

Since staying mute until I died wasn’t a real option, I tucked some hair behind my ear and went for broke. “Well, Adam had driven me back to my car at school—”

“And we talked again about me renting a tux from your shop,” Adam leaped in. “For the dance tomorrow.”

My gaze shot back to him.
Liar, liar, pants on fire
!

All I could think was that he did not want my father knowing what had happened in the station wagon. Since it was a one-time mistake, of course, and we were all bound together by the dental practice. And while I
got
him wanting to keep private things private, I wasn’t sure how I felt about covering up truths right now to my dad.

Still, after all Adam had done for me tonight, I figured I owed him this much. “You went to make sure you still had one in my size, right, Courtney?”

“Uh-huh,” I said, my voice straining.

My dad’s immobile brow told me he’d bought our story. He didn’t know each Tux Everlasting tuxedo was special-ordered, nor did I figure he could read into the knowing look that passed between Adam and me. The one that said this conversation was to be continued...

Meaning I’d have to continue putting aside my resolution to never to speak to Adam again. Which was probably fair, after all he’d done for me tonight.

Besides, it’s not like I was going to be real busy. My dance date was likely off, and my friends’ first reactions to that news were hardly going to be a swarm of love and attention. My starter romance had skidded to a stop, and my beloved job was surely a thing of the past. Who was I to cold-shoulder one of the few people left who wanted to talk to me?

My father pulled up in front of Adam’s building.

Adam shuffled out from under the mannequin, then turned to lift a hand in a playful salute to my dad. “Goodnight, Sir.”