“Practically my whole life, sir.”
“Call me, Ransome, son.”
“Sure, sir—I mean, Ransome, sir.”
“You planning to score with Justine, too?” Ransome asked with a convincing scowl.
With wide eyes, Noah said, “N–No, sir. Not at all. I’d just like to take her to the prom. I have respect for her and for her family.”
Ransome let out a dry chuckle and said, “Kid’s got my approval.”
Val asked, “You got a vehicle, son?”
Noah nodded and gestured to the late model Ford pickup parked down the sidewalk. Not too new. Not too old. “Me and my dad fixed it up.”
Val craned his neck to see it and then said, “Can you observe a curfew and have her home on time?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Val, son. You call him sir,” he added, pointing at Justin.
Sure, Val.”
“Ransome’s right. That was a good catch last fall. Have fun,” he said, then clamped his hand down on Noah’s shoulder. “But not too much fun.” He and Ransome nodded at him and moved off to stand with Justine, hopefully to tease her a little. The girl was too serious sometimes.
Noah let out a breath of relief and looked up at him. “No wild parties or anything planned, sir. Just dinner and the prom, then home afterward.”
Justin raised an eyebrow. “I was young once, Noah. I know what goes on after the prom sometimes. No drinking, no after-prom parties, no hotel rooms.”
“No, sir.”
“I’m curious why you’ve never asked her out before, seeing how long you’ve known each other.”
Noah blushed a little and he squeezed his hat tighter. “I grew up thinking of her as a little sister, sir. And well, I had a girlfriend for a few years, and when I turned around one day, Justine was just…”
“All grown up?” Justin growled with a steely edge to his voice that made Noah squeeze his hat even tighter and Charity rolled her eyes.
“Yes, sir. But I was dating someone.”
“That Maggie-girl, right? How come you aren’t going with her to the prom?” He remembered hearing something about a confrontation between that girl and Justine from Charity but couldn’t recall the details.
Noah nodded and Justin watched as his jaw firmed. “We’ve broken up, sir. Been broke up for a while.”
“Seems like I recall her giving Justine a hard time recently.”
“I heard about that, sir. Maggie had a hard time accepting that we were finished. But she understands now.”
Justin frowned and said, “I don’t have any problem with you dating my daughter, Noah, but I also don’t want Justine catching flak from this other ex-girlfriend while you’re out on your date. I know she can defend herself but you’ll stay with her and bring her home safely?”
Noah nodded vigorously. “I’ll stick to her like glue, sir. Well, not that close. I won’t let anything happen to her, I promise.”
Justin smiled at Noah. He was a good kid, came from a decent family, and he knew from Jack Warner that he was a hard worker, since he and Beau had been helping out on one of Jack’s framing crews on the weekends. He held out his hand to shake and said, “Treat her right and we won’t have any problem.”
“Yes, sir.”
Charity caught his eye and raised her eyebrows expectantly at him and he said, “Oh, one more thing. Come to the door and ring the bell when you pick her up. If you pull up and just honk, you’ll have to deal with her”—he pointed at Charity—“and her shotgun. She has a pet peeve about boys who do that.”
Noah looked back at Charity, waved, and then turned back to Justin. “No problem, sir. I’d never do that.”
“Well, then, just remember she’s my princess and have fun. Just out of curiosity, what did she tell you about Val and Ransome?”
Noah said, “She said they’re like dads to her and that was how I needed to treat them. Their approval was just as necessary as yours.”
Justin chuckled and said, “Then I guess it’s a good thing you scored that touchdown last fall, huh?”
“Yes, sir. Me and Beau were planning to go check out the food booths and I wanted to invite Justine to come, too. That okay?”
“Sure.”
After he’d moved off with Beau and Justine, Charity came over and gently poked him in the chest. “Enjoy yourself?”
Finally able to laugh, Justin said, “That was fun. You looked like you were enjoying it from over there.”
“Val and Ransome must’ve suddenly developed the daddy radar because they both perked up when Noah approached you. That boy has done some growing lately. Seems like only yesterday he was a short, nerdy middle-schooler.”