“I was happy Friday. I was happy for a little while earlier, too.”
“Yeah?”
“When we were going over the dating list… that was fun. Speaking of which—whereare we going?”
“Took you long enough to ask. I’m kidnapping you.”
Rolling my head to stare at him, I raised my brows. “Explain?”
“Taking you away from the crazy for a little while. You remember when we were kids, and we wanted to go to the Gemini?”
“The drive-in, but no one ever wanted to take us, and it’s closed now. Most drive-in theaters are.”
“Most,” Jake agreed. “Not all. When we were doing homework, I did a little research. Movie dates were on that list, and so was weird, so I thought I’d combine the two with a little nostalgia. There’s a drive-in Lynchgate and they have a double-feature tonight.”
A double feature. “Lynchgate is like ninety minutes away.”
“Worth it,” he said, switching his grip so he was holding my hand. “Miles away from home, the crap at school, your mom, all of it. Just you and me and a couple of movies.”
“At a drive-in?”
He nodded.
“It’s not the robot movie, is it?”
Snorting, he said, “If it is, I promise to make out with you in all the boring parts.”
“I’m going to guess it’s the whole movie.”
His grin grew. “Maybe.” Sobering, he added, “But if you don’t want to go, I’ll turn us around. We’ll be late.”
I hoped Mom had still been home to feed the cats, and it wasn’t like I had a curfew.
“Okay,” I told him. “I’d love to go to the drive-in with you, but I want Twizzlers and popcorn—and a soda…”
“And a hot dog and nachos. Yes, your bottomless pit will be fed, I promise.”
I smacked his arm, but he just grinned.
“You are a bottomless pit. I’ve taken you to movies before and tried to share popcorn.”
“I am not that bad,” I complained.
“No, you’re adorably the worst, but it’s why I like taking you.”
Nose wrinkled, I stuck my tongue out at him, and he chuckled. The bubble of tension pressing in on us just—evaporated, and I could take a deep breath. “Adorably the worst… I think I need that on a t-shirt.”
“And on a coffee mug.”
We shared a grin, and it was my turn to squeeze his hand. “What were we going to do before? Since you looked it up while we were doing homework?”
He cast me a sheepish look. “Well, I was kind of hoping we’d do a movie night at your place, but that was kind of shot to hell.”
Translation, he’d hoped we’d have sex. Yeah, not commenting on that seemed to be prudent. “I like the idea of a drive-in,” I said. “Actually, I kind of love it. It’s a first, and we need more of those, things we’ve never done.”
“Yeah?” He glanced at me, the tilt of his lips curving toward a hopeful smile.
“Yeah.” On impulse, I ran my knuckles over his cheek. “I even kind of like you scruffy. But if you get sleepy on the way back, let me drive, okay?”