He fell silent for a moment, and then I felt bad. I mean, he’d been super nice and all. It wasn’t his fault he wasn’t Rafe. “You want to dance?”
He grinned, and his shoulders relaxed. “Definitely.”
I let him grab my hand and tug me to my feet. I loved to dance, and I was going to get over Rafe and have fun with Chris, end of story.
* * *
We were standing on my front steps after the dance.
Me.
Chris.
In the dark.
He shoved his hands in his pockets, his face sort of shadowed by the porch light. “So, I had a ton of fun tonight. Thanks for inviting me.”
I grinned. “Thanks for coming. You’re an awesome dancer.”
“So are you.” He slipped his hand out of his pocket and brushed his fingers over the skirt of my dress. “This looks great on you.”
My pulse started to thrum with nerves at the look on his face. “Um, thanks.”
He set his other hand on my waist and sort of leaned in. “Lily...”
Uh, oh. He was going to kiss me. I bent backwards as he leaned closer, my heart racing. He was cute. He was nice. He liked me. I should kiss him...shouldn’t I?
I should. Rafe was out of my life. He wasn’t going to be my first kiss and that was the way it was.
I lifted my face and waited as Chris leaned in... closer... almost there... then I turned my head and let his lips hit my cheek. He made a noise of surprise and snapped his eyes open.
“I gotta go!” I spun around and raced inside and slammed the door shut before he could speak.
I ran all the way up to my room and dove onto my bed, as the reality of what had just happened hit me. I sat up in horror. What had I just done? I’d run away and slammed the door in my date’s face! The one guy who was interested in me and I’d just made it impossible to ever speak to him again.
I grabbed my pillow, smashed it over my face and screamed.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The next morning, I woke up to a light knock on my door. “Lily? Are you up?” my mom called out.
I groaned and looked at my clock. “Mom! It’s only eight thirty. On Saturday.” I pulled my pillow over my head. “Let me sleep!”
“There’s a car out front,” she said, sounding suspiciously pleased. “I think it’s for you.”
“What?” I scrambled to my feet as my mom opened my door and walked in. I yanked my curtain aside and lifted the shade.
There was a black Jeep sitting in front of the house.
Rafe was in it, wearing sunglasses and his leather jacket. He was playing the drums on his steering wheel, and glancing at the house every few seconds.
I jumped back, my heart thudding wildly. “It’s Rafe!”
“I know.” My mom raised the shade properly, a small smile playing at her lips. “Band practice today? Or something...else?”
“No, I...” Oh! He was here to take me to the audition! But why? He’d mentioned it only that one time, and we hadn’t talked about it since. I hadn’t even decided I wanted to go... in fact I didn’t, did I? I didn’t. “Tell him to go away.”
She shook her head, still looking amused. “A deal’s a deal, Lily. You have to play in the band. Go.”
“But—”
She gave me her mom look and walked out.
How long would he wait?
I ran to the window again and looked out. He’d tipped back his seat and looked like he was taking a nap.
Crud! He wasn’t going to leave no matter how long he had to wait.
I stepped back, my hands shaking. What should I do?
Go out there. I had to. So I could tell him to go away.
Right.
I reached for my sweatpants, and then paused. What if…? I ran to my closet and grabbed my outfit from the middle school performance. Slashed white pants, lace gloves…the whole Lily-kicks-butt package. Not that I was going to the audition or anything. Just to keep my options open. But if I went, I wanted to remember exactly whose terms I was going in on. My terms. Lily Gardner, girl with the navel ring, not Lily Gardner of the velvet bow and corduroy dress.
Then I ran into the bathroom and jammed my tooth brush into my mouth while I quickly put on makeup. I took a couple extra minutes to get a little bit of attitude into my hair just to make sure no one would confuse me with a no-passion, boring classical pianist.
I took a deep breath and stared at myself in the mirror. My cheeks were flushed, my eyes were glowing and I looked…wow…I looked like I would own any piano that tried to come between me and my passion. Damn, I liked that look. I liked who was staring back at me. A lot. “Okay, Lily,” I whispered. “Let’s do this!”
I ran down the stairs, out the door and down the front walk.