Miss Match (28 page)

I shrug. Grease, batter, and more grease? "Sure."

"Hey, bring me hack a hamburger," Brandon calls.

"Do you have money?" My palm is extended and open in the gesture of mercenary friendship.

"Lauren." There's danger riding on his tone.

"Acts 4:32. And I quote, `All the believers were one in heart and
mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they
shared everything they had."' I smile.

"I wouldn't push it." Hannah pulls me out the door into the
intensely cold air. "That's a Bible verse?" she asks.

"Yep." I admit I'm rather thrilled I could recall that verse so easily.
My devotions are paying off. And not just in my memorization skills.
The more time I spend in my devotions, the more the tight feeling in
my stomach fades.

"So the blind dates are ready to go, I think." I change subjects and
shove my arms through my coat sleeves as we hurry down the sidewalk.
The atmosphere is glacial and seeping into my bones.

"You do realize that we sent them to the same place," Hannah says slowly.

My teeth are shivering. "Oh, Honey." I yank my collar up to the
crown of my head. "You are such a novice."

"Why did we send them to the same place?"

"Because then they have the pleasure of staring at each other out
with a different guy or girl for the evening."

Hannah opens the door to Bud's, a welcome rush of warm, greasy air
overtaking us. "You're brutal."

I accept the comment for the compliment it is. "I need to call and get
their tables arranged."

Mikey comes from around the back and smiles at us. "Hiya, Laur.
Hannah."

"Hey, Mikey." I stare up at the menu suspended above the counter.

Mikey follows my gaze. "What are you looking at?"

"The menu."

"You're looking at the menu?" he asks, dubious. "Why?"

"To see what I want, Mikey. Isn't that what a menu's for?"

Mikey looks at Hannah with his brows raised. Hannah shrugs
at him.

"Yeah, but, Laurie, you come here every day," he says slowly.

"Good for your business, I suppose."

He spreads out his hands. "Haven't you memorized the menu
by now?"

"Fine, fine, fine. I'll have two hamburgers, two Dr. Peppers, and two
orders of onion rings."

"Tack another burger and a drink on there," Hannah says.

He does. "Eleven bucks."

"Even?" My mouth drops.

"Yep, we started adding tips into the order. Too many customers
were skimping on them."

I roll my eyes, and we pool our money to pay. "Such service."

"Such customers." He grins at me and hands me a greasy bag. "See
you tomorrow, Laurie. Bye, Hannah."

I step back into the frigid outdoors and thank my father's DNA for
making me an indoorsy person. The cold seeps between the stitches on
my coat and into my flesh. I shiver uncontrollably. I can feel my fingernails ice over, and I know I'm morphing into that acorn-loving creature
from Ice Age.

Hannah, meanwhile, is completely oblivious to the fact that she is
now outside and the temperature has dropped from a comfortable seventy degrees to a hypothermia-inducing twenty-eight.

"So you were saying?" She pulls one of my onion rings from the bag,
slowly sauntering down the sidewalk.

"A...b...o...u...t...w...h...a...t?" I shake through
my chattering teeth.

"About getting the tables arranged?"

"W...a...i...t...a...m...i...n...u...t...e."

I run the rest of the way to the studio, throw open the door, drag
Hannah inside, and shut it.

"BRR!" I yell, hopping around while trying to keep frostbite from
forming on my toes.

Hannah's mouth is halfway open, a wrinkle between her eyebrows.

Brandon pokes his head out of his office. "Laurie, shut up!"

His door bangs closed.

Hannah pushes me around her desk, sits me down in the chair, and
turns on the portable heater by my feet. "Sit still," she commands.

Five minutes later I'm assured my toes did not contract frostbite and
I will live to see another day.

I'm telling you, miracles happen.

"Okay." Hannah sits on top of her desk and pulls out lunch. "About arranging tables." She peeks back at Studio One. The door is closed.
"Think it's Ruby in there?"

I nod. "I'll call JACK from Vizzini's," I say in a whisper. "He owes
me anyway."

Hannah waves her hamburger at me. "Good idea, Laurie."

Ruby comes out of Brandon's office, yawning. "Hey, girls." She flops
into one of the chairs in front of Hannah's desk.

"Hey, who is in Studio One?" I ask.

She glances at the closed door. "Ty, I think."

"Oh." I take another bite. "I didn't know he was in today."

"Just got in, actually. He had a lot of snow at his place." She squints
out at the weather.

"Oh."

Ruby eyes the hamburgers enviously. "It is lunchtime, isn't it?"

"Yes, ma'am." Hannah digs into the bag. "Here."

Ruby takes Brandon's hamburger with a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

"Um ... but ... uh," I stutter, trying to swallow.

Hannah shoots me a look that says, Be quiet!

Apparently she is going to make Brandon walk outside, brave
the weather straight from March of the Penguins, and get his own
hamburger.

I bite back a smile with my burger.

"Can you at least give me a clue about who the date is with?" Ruby
wipes the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Nope," Hannah says. "Hey, have you ever seen Pride and
Prejudice?"

Ruby shakes her head slowly. "No, but I've heard Laurie quote it
enough."

I shrug. "`Well, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single
man of good fortune must be in want of a wife."'

"`What a fine thing for our girls!"' Hannah shouts excitedly.

"No more, please," Ruby says.

"You asked." I smile at her. She is eating a hamburger-not a Slim
Fast bar-for lunch! If anyone is in doubt that love changes people, they
need only look at Ruby.

The bell over the door chimes and the three of us reenact the Little
Women scene-we all look up in unison to see who could be calling.

Ryan grins at us. "Grease is on today's menu, I suppose." He holds
up his own bag from Bud's. "Can I join you?"

"Please." Ruby smiles for the first time that day, motioning
toward the chair beside her. "Haven't seen you today, Honey. How are
you doing?"

He settles into the chair, cradling the bag. "Oh fine." He winks
at me.

Unexpectedly, my cheeks begin to heat.

Darn that heater. I reach down and turn it off.

"Hey, Laur." He smiles cheerfully at me.

"Hi, Ry." I nod toward the bag. "I hope there's two burgers
in there."

"You are in luck. I bought enough for everyone."

"That was sweet," I tell him.

Little-kid-on-the-monkey-bars smile appears. "Why, thank you."

Brandon comes down the hall. "Got my burger, Nutsy?" He rakes
a hand through his hair. "Oh hey, Ryan. These finances are slowly
killing me."

I make a face at Ryan. His eyes twinkle. "Here you go, Brandon." He
hands him one of the greasy lumps from his bag.

I like this guy better every time I see him.

"So what's up?" I ask Ryan, picking an onion off my burger.

"Lunch break. Thought I'd eat somewhere where I knew the heat would be on." He strips off his leather jacket. "It's bitter cold out there."

"Straight from the South Pole," I tell him.

He smiles at me. "South Pole, huh?"

"I heard Mexico is buried in avalanches."

"Poor little ninos." Ryan grabs a burger for himself.

I dig around until I find an onion ring in my bag.

Brandon frowns. "Didn't you just take an onion off your burger?"

I take a bite. "Yeah. So?"

"So now you're eating an onion ring?"

"Observant," I praise him.

He exchanges a glance with Ryan, who shrugs. Brandon pats his
shoulder. "Hope you know what you're getting into, Ryan."

"I don't think he does. Better keep patting," I say.

Ryan closes his eyes.

Ruby is back to staring at the scenery outside. Ryan watches his sister,
frowning in confusion. He looks at me, eyebrows slightly raised.

I smile outright then. Ryan has not been told of Friday's encounter,
it seems.

I will have fun embellishing!

"So then he kissed her." I lean over the table.

Ryan's mouth drops open. "He kissed her?"

"Yep."

"Wait, wait." He waves his hands. "I thought you were eavesdropping through the door."

"We were."

He frowns. "So how do you know he kissed her?"

"There was this big, long silence, and then both of them gasped and
he apologized."

"What do you know," he mutters, mouth open again in shock. "Nick
Amery?"

"That's the one." I nod proudly.

We sit in Vizzini's waiting for our dinner, having already consumed
the entire basket of breadsticks.

JACK comes by with the water pitcher. Holds it with two hands as
he refills our glasses.

"Could we get more breadsticks?" Ryan asks him.

"Sure." He leaves as fast as he came.

"Just once?" Ryan asks suddenly.

I blink. "Just once what?"

"He kissed her just once?"

I shrug. "I don't know. Right there is when she found us. We ran
to Bud's."

"Like the brave girls you are."

"Yeah, well."

He fiddles with the cranberry-colored napkin. "So he could have
kissed her again."

"Yeah, sure he could have. That's the good news. Apparently the two
dates they've had since then have been duds. But don't worry. It'll work
out." Best if Ryan doesn't know about my meddling streak right now,
I think.

"Hmm." His mouth is in a straight line, his forehead creased.

"Ryan." I tap his arm. "It's okay, you know. Nick's a good guy."

"I don't know him, though."

"So get to know him."

"How?"

JACK brings the basket, gulps, and leaves.

"I don't know." My expertise does not extend to male bonding. "Go
play something with him."

His mouth curls. "Play something? Like Frisbee?"

I glare. "Like basketball."

"Laur, it's twenty degrees outside."

"They make indoor courts, you know."

He frowns as he thinks, pulling a breadstick from the green cloth
holding the heat in. "Guess we could do that."

A girl in a red shirt comes out with two plates. "Spaghetti?"

"Here," Ryan says.

She sets my ravioli in front me. "Anything else I can get you?"

"Don't think so," Ryan answers.

"Have a nice dinner."

Ryan holds out his hands. "Want me to say the blessing?"

"Sure." I take his hands.

He prays a short prayer, smiles, and squeezes my hands. "Thanks for
coming to dinner with me, Laurie."

"Thanks for asking."

I begin hacking into the ravioli, checking the filling inside each
pastry square. Ryan is apparently watching. "What are you doing?"
he asks.

"Making sure they gave me the cheese ravioli. One time they messed
up and gave me the spinach. It was yucky."

He twirls his fork on his plate. "You ate it?"

"One or two pieces."

"Why?"

"I didn't realize it was spinach."

Ryan starts choking on his spaghetti. "Oh, Laurie."

"What? I thought maybe the cheese had molded."

He stares at me, disgusted. "Remind me never to eat your
cooking. Ever."

"Hey, I'm learning." I fork off a bite. "For example, expiration dates
aren't guesses. They should be obeyed."

Ryan's not listening. "So Nick's a good guy?" he asks again.

I have to laugh.

Ryan drops me back by the studio an hour later. "Have a good
night, Laurie."

"See you." I unlock the Tahoe. He lets me drive ahead of him out of
the parking lot.

Dad is waiting when I get home. A fire roars in the fireplace. He sits in his
favorite chair, feet encased in moccasins, a book open on his lap.

I sink into the sofa across from him. "Hi, Dad."

He smiles at me. "Did you have a good time, Laurie-girl?"

"Yeah, I did." I shed my coat and drop my backpack on the floor,
stretching. "We went to Vizzini's."

Dad closes the book, marking his place with his finger. "What a
surprise," he says dryly.

I grin at him. "Three weeks until the fishing trip."

"Two and three-fourths weeks."

"Have we made a list of what to bring yet?"

Dad picks up a yellow legal pad lying on the table beside him.

"What a surprise," I parrot, smirking.

"You need to learn to respect your elders," Dad says and grins.

I take the pad from him. Blankets, tea, socks, small heater, several
mugs.

The list goes on for two pages. "Very thorough, Father."

"Thank you, Daughter." He leans back in his chair. "I suppose
we'll need to bring the cell phone since you will want to keep in touch
with Ryan."