Chapter 1

“What the heck?”

Carol Jenson started at the exclamation, whirling around from the mirror she was using to check herself over. Seeing her brother, Tyler, standing in the doorway, she felt her cheeks warm, suddenly embarrassed at being caught getting ready for her date.

“I didn’t know you had a date tonight, sis. Who’s the lucky guy?”

She dropped her eyes and felt her cheeks warm further still. If she wanted to, she was sure she could get by without telling him, but when she looked up into his eyes, she knew she wouldn’t. For the at least thousandth time, she cursed the luck that had made the one person she loved and trusted more than any other unobtainable.

Instead, she took a deep breath, then let it out before answering. “Um, it’s not a guy, and I’m not sure it really qualifies as a date. I hope so, but for the moment, we’re just going to the mall.”

He cocked his head to one side, then a smile spread across his face. Coming into her room, he stood on his toes and kissed her forehead. Then he wrapped his strong arms around her and held her tight. She hadn’t doubted it, but standing there in his arms, she knew he was happy for her.

Despite being a football player, her little brother was bright, but she still did a double take when he stepped back and said, “So, are you picking Naomi up at her place or meeting her at the mall?”

Seeing her look, he laughed. “Come on, sis, it wasn’t that hard to figure out. You’ve been spending enough time with her, both here and at her place, lately. You also haven’t been on a date with anyone else in months.”

She grinned and said, “You got me. I’ll meet her at the mall. Just a couple of high school girls going shopping. We’re still trying to figure out where we can go to eat without firing up the school rumor mill. It wouldn’t bother me, but she doesn’t have my thick skin.”

“Or your reputation,” he said. “I don’t think it’d be an issue, but I know she’s not from around here originally, so I can maybe understand why she’s worried.”

Then she saw his look change, taking on an abstracted air that meant he was thinking of something. Smiling at him, she said, “One of these days you need to lube those bearings, I see the smoke coming out your ears. What’re you thinking?”

He chuckled at their running joke, then said, “Do you think she’s going to be okay with me knowing? Really, I’m happy for the two of you, but I’m a little worried she’s going to get nervous when she knows that I know.”

Carol thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I think she’ll trust me when I say you won’t do anything to hurt her.”

“Then I think I can help you out.”

Tyler was surprised to see his sister getting ready for a date since she always checked with him first to see if guys she was thinking of had a poor reputation around the locker room. Not that she couldn’t take care of herself, but they both knew that there were ways of taking away her option to fight back.

He was thrilled when he realized she was going out with Naomi. She was a sweet, pretty, pixie of a girl who was his lab partner in Chemistry, where it seemed she was always at least a step ahead of him. Even though she was a year younger than the rest of their class, she was likely to be the Valedictorian.

She was also very private. Despite sharing multiple classes since she moved into the district, all he knew about her home life was what Carol had let slip. She wasn’t shy about school work, but never volunteered anything beyond that to anyone he knew. He did know, though, that she’d been spending time with his sister, which is what allowed him to guess who Carol was seeing.

Now he had an idea about how to help. “If she won’t freak out about me, bring her here for dinner. Mom and Dad won’t be home until late, so you can have some private time with her right here, completely away from prying eyes.

“While you’re gone, I’ll put together a simple salad and some of my Alfredo sauce. Since we don’t have any fettuccine, it’ll have to be served over linguine, but that works fine, too. There’s ice cream and the left over caramel sauce you made the other day, we could even raid the liquor cabinet for some Kahlúa. Et voilà, a simple, special meal for two. Once you’re served, I’ll take mine down to the rec room to eat.”

He saw her eyes moisten, and she bit her lower lip before replying. “You’re the best, Ty! I don’t know if she’ll go for it, but I love the idea. I’ll call you from the mall and let you know, one way or the other.” Then she hauled him down and kissed the end of his nose, just like she’d been doing for as long as he could remember, before shooing him so she could finish getting ready.

After she left, Tyler took stock and decided he needed a couple of things to make it as special as possible, so he headed off to the local mom-and-pop grocery store. He returned half an hour later with fettuccine, whipping cream and a bottle of sparkling cider. That was as much as he planned to do before getting the go ahead, just in case it didn’t happen, so he retreated to the basement to work on his English report. An hour later, his phone rang.

It was Carol. When he answered, she said, “She agreed. Will an hour be enough time?”

“It should be.”

“See you then, bro.”

“No, Mom, we’re not dating,” Naomi Clarke said. She knew she was blushing, but hoped that her mother would just chalk that up to the general strangeness of asking her if she was going out with another girl. She wasn’t lying to her mother, not really, but she wasn’t being completely forthcoming either.

She’d been hanging around with Carol for a couple of months by that point, ever since running into her and her brother at the mall over Christmas break. Tyler, who was in a couple of her classes, introduced them. They’d eventually left him to his own devices while they did some window shopping, in the process discovering they enjoyed each other’s company.

Since then, they’d visited each other’s homes several times, just hanging around talking and playing video games. Lately, though, Naomi realized she was starting to feel a different attraction to the taller girl. She knew Carol wasn’t seeing anyone, so she mustered all of her courage and asked her if she’d like to go to the mall on Friday, and maybe dinner afterward.

Carol had looked at her for a moment, her expression blank, then said, “Well, that’s different. Are you asking me out on a date?”

Naomi’s mouth was so dry she couldn’t say anything, so she’d simply dipped her head in acknowledgement.

Carol, bless her heart, hadn’t left her wondering for long, giving her a big smile then stepping forward to hug her. “I’d like that.” Releasing her, she’d stepped back and asked, “So, where would you like to go to eat?”

Naomi had to swallow a couple of times to get enough moisture in her mouth so she could talk. “I wish I knew. Is there somewhere we wouldn’t run into anyone else from school? This is all new to me, but whispers and rumors are why we moved here from Tennessee.”

Carol had grimaced before saying, “I’m not sure, then. I don’t know that anyone seeing us together would think we were on a date, but it’s common enough now that they might jump to that conclusion. I’ll think about it.”

Now, standing in front of Victoria’s Secret waiting for Carol, she wondered if she’d made a mistake by insisting on taking the bus to the mall rather than asking Carol to drive further in Friday afternoon traffic. The bus schedule being what it was, she’d been there for nearly fifteen minutes when she spotted Carol heading her way. Her breath caught in her throat — she’d always thought she was good-looking, but she’d never seen her all made up.

As calm as ever, Carol walked up and said, “Hey, Naomi. I’m glad you could make it. Shopping’s a lot more fun with someone else, and Mom’s not home. Tyler is, but as great a guy as he is, he’s still a guy. I wonder if that second X-chromosome is the one that carries the shopping bug?”

Naomi had to laugh at that. As far as she knew, Tyler was a great guy. Amongst the other classes they’d shared, he was her lab partner in Chemistry, and they worked well together — he was good at it, and he never seemed to mind if she was a couple of steps ahead of him. When she visited Carol, he was always polite and apparently happy to see her. Still, probably not the ideal shopping companion.

She was still chuckling when they entered Vicky’s to start their expedition. While plenty of things looked nice, neither of them spotted anything they had to have, so they scooted down to Nordstrom. Carol found some funky toe-socks that she thought would be fun and bought a pair for each of them, but nothing else caught their attention.

After that, they just wandered around, window shopping and sometimes popping into a store to see what they might have for spring, which was nominally just around the corner. As they were leaving The Gap, though, Carol guided her to a bench.

“Okay, now, don’t freak out on me here, but Tyler figured out what I was doing tonight when he saw me getting ready,” she said. “I don’t normally do makeup to go to the mall, but I wanted to look my best for you, and I always ask his advice before dating a boy so he knew something different was going on.”

Despite Carol’s assurances, Naomi cringed. She was a very private person, and had been for years. Yes, as far as she knew, Tyler was a great person, but her imagination started to play with what would happen if he slipped up.

Carol just smiled at her. “Don’t worry about it, he’s happy for us. I didn’t doubt it, not really, but he’s gone above and beyond to show that he’s okay with it. He figured out how we can enjoy a nice dinner together, away from prying eyes.”

Carol’s words gave her sudden hope. She so wanted to spend some quality time with her, but hadn’t figured out how to make it happen. She couldn’t find her voice, so just mouthed, “How?”

“He offered to make dinner for us — something a little special. After serving us, he’s promised to disappear so we can have a nice, private meal then spend some more time together. If you’re willing, all I need to do is call him a bit before we leave, and he’ll have everything ready at home. Please say yes — he really wants to do this for us.”

Naomi didn’t have any siblings, herself. She knew of others who wouldn’t be caught dead helping each other. Tyler and Carol were different, though — they smiled at each other and exchanged friendly hugs, both at school and when she’d visited their home. Still... “Really? He’ll leave us alone?”

She lowered her eyes in shame at Carol’s obvious disappointment.

“I’d trust Tyler with my life, let alone my reputation,” Carol said. “You’ve been around him some now. How does he treat you? How does he treat me? Naomi, he’s not like everyone else. He really is one of the good guys.”

Naomi looked into Carol’s eyes for a moment, then closed hers and took a deep breath. With her eyes still closed, she nodded and said, “I’m sorry. You’re right, he doesn’t deserve my skepticism. I promise to work on that, and if you’ll call him, I can start on that tonight. Please?”

Carol smiled, then, and made as though to give her a hug, only to pull back at the last second. After a quick discussion of other shops they wanted to look at, Carol called Tyler and asked him to give them an hour.

Carol was all smiles for the rest of their shopping expedition. Watching her, Naomi started to believe. With that belief came the first inklings of a plan. Listening to Carol speak of her previous dating experiences while driving to the Jensen’s, helped it to coalesce. Now it all depended on Tyler — if he was as good a guy as Carol thought, and he was happy to help them spend time together, then she and Carol might be in luck.