A Shade Of Blood(41)

Amelia and Abby were still in bed. They always slept in during weekends.
I just smiled as I dabbed butter and strawberry jam over my French toast. “Maybe we’re not your ordinary teenagers, Lyle.”
He gave me a lingering stare… enough to bother me. It was as if he knew something about me that even I didn’t know.
I lifted the fork I was holding mid-air. “What?”
He shook his head. “It’s nothing, Sofia.”
“Actually…” Ben drawled as he poured a generous dollop of maple syrup over his toast “…Sofia just couldn’t wait to wake up so she can spend some time with me.”
I wanted to stop my cheeks from reddening, but they did anyway. I couldn’t ignore the way Lyle shifted glances from Ben to me and back. Lyle was soft-spoken and mostly kept to himself. I rarely heard him raise his voice. Even when he was scolding his children, he did it in a calm, almost eerie, voice that made him sound actually far more threatening than Amelia’s shrill diatribes.
 “You two ought to be careful.” Lyle warned, his face stoic, his voice flat. “Whatever is going on between the two of you,” he set his eyes on Ben, “I think we know that your mother isn’t yet ready to consider the idea of you being together. Tread lightly.”
“Yeah, Dad… Sure thing…” Ben had that deer-caught-in-headlights look about him.
Ben and I exchanged glances. “How does he know?” I mouthed at him the moment Lyle shifted his focus back on his daily news reading.
He shrugged as he tossed his food around on his plate. Lyle finished the rest of his coffee and replaced his tablet in its case.
“I’m off to work. Enjoy your day, and please.... Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
Ben chuckled as he watched his father leave. “He doesn’t seem to have anything against us dating. Guess that’s a good thing.”
“Yeah. I guess.”
“That being said…” He gave me a look-over. “Get dressed, Sofia. Don’t you have a date today?”
“Psshh…” I threw a crumpled paper towel at him. “I was thinking of bailing. A wise man just told me that I should be careful and tread lightly.” I attempted to mimic the way Lyle said those last two words.
“Right…” Ben scoffed at me as he approached. He leaned on the dining table as I got up in order to put aside the dishes. “As if you can bail out on me.”
I raised a brow at him. “What makes you think I can’t?”
He shrugged, feigning self-confidence. “What makes you think you can?” He tilted my chin upward with his forefinger and was about to stoop for a kiss when Amelia walked in, her mass of blonde hair a total mess, looking like she was half-awake, half-asleep.
“Good morning, Mom.” Ben said. Never being a morning person, Amelia just grunted his way and went straight to the fridge.
“Sofia and I are going to spend the day out, okay? We’ll be home by dinner.”
“Uh-huh…” Amelia nodded, her head still stuck in the refrigerator. I was pretty sure none of what Ben said sank in. She poured herself a glass of orange juice and walked out of the room.
I motioned to pick up the dishes but Ben grabbed my arm. “Leave it. I got you.” He grinned, giving my PJs a look. “You really have to get dressed. I can’t be seen with you looking like that.”
“Is this what you do to all the girls you go out with?” I rolled my eyes.
“Nope.” He shook his head. “Only the ones who show up in their PJs.”
He escorted me to my room and gave me time to get ready as he himself got dressed. I didn’t know what he had in mind for our date, so I really had no idea what to wear. I took a good five minutes staring at my closet, wondering what to put on. Why don’t you just go ask him, Sofia? For crying out loud, this is just Ben… your best friend… Still, I wanted it to feel like a real date – complete with all the hassles of assembling the right outfit.
Since it was a Saturday morning and I was sure Ben wouldn’t be the type to drag me into a formal gathering of sorts, I ended up putting on a baby doll blouse with a white lace tube top and a sheer old rose chiffon bottom. I paired it with dark skinny jeans and pink doll shoes. I considered lifting my hair up into a ponytail, but decided to wear it down and accent it with a crystal headband.
I just finished putting on some light makeup when Ben began knocking on my door. I stuffed my phone, makeup and wallet in my hand bag and grabbed it before Ben could make his way inside my bedroom. When I opened the door, his eyes lit up upon seeing me.
It was a strange feeling having known him for half my life and still finding myself mesmerized by a side of him that I’d never actually been introduced to before.