Seeds of Discovery (4 page)

Carefully, she put her right foot over the edge, feeling the space.

There was nothing there, of course, only air. Laughing at herself, she pulled her foot back before she lost her balance. The odd feeling passed.

Feeling defeated, she climbed down and made her way back to her car. Underneath the disappointment, though, a new feeling was building. Determination. She was going to find out what was going on with William Rose.

As she was pulling into the garage, next to her mother’s car, Quinn’s phone buzzed. After pressing the button to close the garage door, she flipped open the phone to read the text message. What she saw there sent her thoughts spinning in a completely different direction.

Hey, Quinn,

Just wondering if you’d decided

about the party. Let me know, okay?

-- Zander

She stared at the screen for several seconds, trying to sort out her thoughts. Behind her, Annie unbuckled herself, opened the car door, and went inside, but Quinn wasn’t ready to move yet.

This was real. Zander really wanted her to go to the party. She didn’t know what it meant. Was this supposed to be a date, or was he just asking her to be nice? When they were younger, he’d always been a little protective of her. Were people starting to think she was strange because she never went to parties, and he was just trying to help her out? She didn’t know. Of course, she thought, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, there was only one way to find out.

She pulled the key out of the ignition, grabbed her backpack, and walked inside the house.

At 7:15, she was ready to go. Figuring she had fifteen minutes or so before Zander arrived, she crossed the hallway into her little brother’s room. “Hey, buddy. What’cha doing?”

Owen looked up from his book. He was often lost in his own little world, but he would usually come back to reality for a little while for Quinn.

“Where are you going?” he asked, his watchful eyes taking in her soft, white sweater and crisp, dark jeans. She’d even put on a little make-up, though it seemed sort of silly to do so, given that she’d also packed a swimsuit in her purse for going in the hot tub.

“Zander invited me to a party.”

Owen raised an eyebrow, which made her giggle. Her brother was mildly autistic, and he didn’t always have the right social reactions, but somehow he’d always been tuned in to Quinn.

At that moment, the doorbell rang. All of the color drained from her face. Zander was early. Was she ready for this?

“Have fun, Quinn,” Owen said.

She nodded, and leaned over to kiss him on the head.

After taking several more deep breaths, she headed down the stairs. When she was about halfway down, she spotted him, standing there at the bottom, watching her. When she caught his gaze, he smiled.
Oh.

“Eleven o’clock, please, Zander,” her mom was saying.

“I’ll have her home on time Megan, I promise.” His tone was light, pleasant. He was comfortable with her mom. “Hey, Quinn,” he said, as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Hey, Zander.” She suddenly felt very shy.

She reached for her winter jacket, which she’d hung on the bannister at the bottom of the stairs, but Zander was too quick for her. Pink flooded her cheeks as he held it open, slipping it first over one arm, and then the other. Megan opened the door for them.

The walk to the truck was awkward. Zander stayed right behind her, but just as they reached the door on the passenger side, he stepped in front of her to pull it open. As she climbed into the cab, she got the distinct impression that he’d vacuumed inside very recently.

This was beginning to feel a lot like a date. She didn’t know if that thought made her giddy or nervous. Probably both. Zander slid into the seat beside her, and turned on the engine, then adjusted the heater. “I hope it didn’t get too cold,” he said.
Yes, definitely both.

Jake Price lived only a few blocks from Quinn – in nicer weather, they could have walked – and so there were only a few minutes of the awkward silence in the car before Zander was walking around to open her door. There were a few other cars parked along the stretches of trees between the houses, but not as many as she would have expected.

“How big is this party?” she asked Zander, as she tried to ignore his hand on her arm, steadying her on the ice.

He shrugged. “Just senior football players – and whoever they bring.” They reached the porch, and his hand moved from under her elbow to the empty air in front of her – he was clearly expecting her to take it. “Ready?” he asked, tipping his head toward the door, his whole face lighting up with a grin.

Heart hammering furiously, she reached to take it. As soon as his fingers closed around hers, it got easier. This was
Zander
. He’d been her best friend before even Abigail.

Once they were inside, the evening felt much less like a date. There were quite a few people she didn’t know well, but Bristlecone High School wasn’t big enough to accommodate strangers. Jake’s mom managed a card shop in Pinespar where Quinn liked to shop sometimes, and she smiled kindly at Quinn before she and her husband disappeared upstairs.

 About fifteen minutes after she and Zander got there, Abigail showed up, on the arm of Adam Lamos. Quinn raised an eyebrow.

As soon as Zander and Adam were engrossed in a battle on the foosball table, she made a beeline for her friend. “You’ve been holding out on me.”

“Me?” Abigail’s eyes were wide. “I’ve been after Adam for weeks – he just finally gave up the fight. But
you?
So, Zander was just coming to check on you at lunch the other day because your moms are friends, then? Since when does Quinn Robbins come to a party at the quarterback’s house?”

Quinn opened her mouth, but then closed it again. She didn’t have a response, and she wasn’t ready to talk about this – it was too new, and she hadn’t had a chance to sort out her own feelings yet. And she wasn’t sure how Zander really felt, either. Sure, tonight
seemed
like a date, but he hadn’t said so. Fortunately, Abigail was easy to divert.

“So when did Adam ask you here?”

Abigail shrugged, although her eyes were bright and excited. “I think it was Wednesday before lunch. I was going to tell you about it, but I swear, you’ve been so distracted this week. Every time I see you, you’re out in space somewhere. Lately, you’ve been about as social as William Rose.”

A jolt of electricity shot through her chest. “Wh … what do you mean?”

“Jeez, Quinn, you look like I said you murdered someone or something. I was just trying to make a joke. I didn’t really mean you’re as weird as William – just that you’ve been so … distant or something. Are you sure that accident didn’t freak you out worse than you thought?”

She couldn’t do this, didn’t have answers for her friend. She thought she’d been doing well this week, focusing on Abbie, trying to be normal. Maybe it was just because she was so tired from not sleeping. “The boys are done playing,” she said. “Should we go and check out the hot tub?”

*
         
*
         
*

“Did you have a good time?” Zander asked, climbing into the truck beside her and turning the key in the ignition.

“Yeah, actually.” Quinn reached for the control panel, turning the heat to high. She was rewarded with a blast of cold air in her face, so she adjusted the vents, avoiding looking up at Zander. On the walk back to the truck, she’d suddenly become self-conscious again.

“Does that surprise you?”

“What?”

“That you had fun.”

She frowned, finally lifting her eyes to study his expression. He looked genuinely curious; his brown eyes were warm and gentle as he blinked back at her. “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Is it supposed to surprise me?”

He was silent for a minute, and then he, too, shrugged. “You play a mean game of air hockey.” He grinned, and rubbed his thumb. A little bruise was starting to form there, where she’d hit him, hard, with the puck.

“You have only yourself to blame for that one. I seem to remember you teaching me that move.”

“That was a long time ago, Quinn.”

“Yeah, it kind of was.”

“Where have you been?”

“Me? I’ve been right here the whole time. You’re the one who’s always off doing something when we come to your house. When’s the last time you were home to eat dinner and play air hockey when your parents invite us over?”

“Why aren’t you out doing stuff with us? This is the first time you’ve ever come to a party – even with Abigail.”

“I don’t know, I guess I’m usually busy. I’m usually helping my mom with the kids, or doing homework, or working. Does it matter?”

He looked down at his hands, and for a second, she wondered if they were trembling. “I just miss you, Quinn, that’s all.”

Oh.
Now her hands were shaking. “I miss you, too.”

“And …” he stared down at his hands again. They were definitely trembling. “And I was wondering if you wanted to go to the Valentine Dance with me?”

She blinked several times. “You’re asking me to the Valentine Dance?”

“I think I just did.” He leaned down, catching her gaze.

“Um … you know I can’t dance, right?” She was stalling, trying to regain her composure.

He chuckled. “Neither can I, but I think it could still be fun.”

“With me?”

“Yes, Quinn. With you. I want to go to the Valentine Dance with you. Actually dancing is optional.”

A strange fluttering feeling filled her stomach. Shoving her hands under her legs to stop them from shaking, she gathered up whatever courage she had. “Okay, sure.”

“You’ll go with me?”

“Yes, I’ll go with you.”

Zander’s face lit up with a smile that did strange things to her insides. She had to work to catch her breath as she watched him shift the truck into drive.

They were both silent for the short trip, but the grin on Zander’s face didn’t diminish. By the time he pulled into the driveway in front of her house, she was smiling too, suddenly a little giddy.

“So … I’ll see you at school on Monday?” She was unsure how this whole process worked. Did his asking her to the dance change other things between them?

“Um, no, actually. Next week is the senior football ski trip. We leave early Monday morning, and won’t be back until after school on Friday.”

“Oh, right.” She’d never thought about any of the senior football players at school before; she was surprised to discover that the thought of them being gone on Monday was a little …
disappointing.

“I can text you, though,” he said as he climbed out of the cab. A second later she was grateful that she was still too much in shock to remember how to open the door and get herself out, because she would have felt awkward when he showed up to do it for her.

He walked her up to the porch, and they stood there for a minute. She could feel her cheeks turning pink, and it wasn’t just from the cold.

“Do you want me to text you?” he asked, sounding a little nervous again.

She nodded, slowly coming to understand that she very much
did
.

“All right, then …” He hesitated, and then quickly brushed his lips against her forehead. Heat flashed all the way to her toes, and she had a hard time catching her breath as she watched him walk back to the truck, grinning the whole way.

By the time she let herself into the house, she couldn’t contain her own grin. She took her coat off slowly, arranging it carefully on a hanger as she tried to process what had just happened.

“So, how was it?” Her mother’s voice from behind her startled her, and the hanger clattered noisily to the floor.

“It was fun,” she said, once her heart had started beating again.

“Did anything
interesting
happen?”

Her heart nearly stopped again at the inflection in her mom’s voice. “You knew?”

“I knew that Zander wanted to ask you something.”

She let out a heavy sigh. “Oh my gosh, Mom. You and Maggie …”

“Are no different than you and Abigail.” Her mother smiled.

Quinn felt a stab of guilt at those words. Lately she hadn’t been telling Abigail much of anything.

“Now,” her mom started, sitting down on the end of the couch, “I want details.”

“Mom!” She rolled her eyes, but sat down next to her, the excited, fluttery feeling returning to her stomach. “Tell me what you know first.”

“I want to hear it from your side.”

“No deal. You first.”

This time it was her mother doing the eye-rolling. “Well, I know that Zander was going to ask you to the dance.”

“You and Maggie were
in
on that?” Quinn was mortified.

Her mother laughed. She didn’t even have the courtesy to be embarrassed at being caught. “Why wouldn’t we be?” she teased. “Maggie and I have been joking about the two of you getting together since you were toddlers and one of you would cry whenever it was finally time to separate you. Zander used to kiss you on the forehead and call you ‘my best fwiend Quinn.’ How could we resist being in on it when he finally got up the courage to ask you to a Valentine dance?”