Page 9 of The Perfect Catch

I nodded my head and gave him a small smile. “I just think he could use something fun, you know? Maybe having someone listen to him will help change things a bit.”

Zane leaned his head against the headrest and chuckled. “Of course, Kate Adams has to be the one to fix everything. What if he doesn’t want to be fixed?”

A surge of irritation blossomed in my chest, and I bit the inside of my cheek for a few seconds while I breathed in, hoping it would help me calm down.

“I’m not trying to fix him. I just think some people could use a little more help in understanding what they want and need.”

“As much as you say you’re not like Mom, you sound like her right now.”

Why had I even asked him to come? I glanced down at the map on my phone, finding we were almost to the address in the student handbook. It had been quite a while since I’d come out this far, and with how dark it was, I was surprised there weren’t more streetlights.

I stopped on the side of the street when the directions said to turn into the trailer park. Part of me thought about turning the car around and asking someone closer to our house. The darkness of the area gave me the creeps. But then I thought about how Dax lived there every day.

I unbuckled my seat belt, turning to Zane. “Just stay here, okay? I’m going to run and drop this off, and we’ll head home. Maybe we can grab a smoothie or something on our way back.”

“Deal.” He lifted his phone and started scrolling as I climbed out of the car.

I grabbed the small package from the bag in my back seat. With my phone in hand, I followed the directions since it was difficult to see all the house numbers in the dim light.

I’d almost made it when headlights flashed behind me. I placed the package on the small set of stairs and turned around to see that the car had parked right next to the trailer I was by. And out of the car stepped Dax Stratton.

He froze when he saw me. “Kate? What are you doing here?” He took a few hesitant steps in the direction of the door.

“I, uh, I.” Why was my brain having such a hard time thinking of what to say?

For one thing, I’d never been caught delivering a dance invite, and I was making it more awkward than it needed to be. And then Dax took a couple more steps toward me, the headlights backlighting him for a few seconds before they clicked off. The difference in the light showed off the strong cut of his jaw, and his upper body was a lot stronger than I’d thought. He was attractive, maybe more so with a line of grease from working on cars across his cheek. Penny had mentioned that was his job once when I asked about who fixed her car.

Finally gaining the courage to speak, I said, “I wanted to ask you to the Harvest dance. I thought it would be fun to go together.” I sidestepped back to the porch and picked up the glow-stick bundle.

He waved at the trailer behind me and asked, “Are you sure you still want to?”

“What do you mean?” I placed a hand on my hip, trying to put together whatever puzzle he was referring to.

“After seeing where I live, where I come from, are you sure you want me to be your date?” His voice had an edge to it, but as I took a few steps in his direction, I noticed the vulnerability in his eyes.

“Why would this matter?” I motioned to the trailer and then looked back at him. “It’s just a dance, and I think it would be fun.” I closed the distance between us to hold the bundle out to him. His expression was wary, his eyes narrowed as he studied my face. Was he usually so skeptical?

As he took the package, our fingers brushed slightly, sending a zing of electricity up my arm. When his eyes scanned over the words, he smirked.

He looked up at me. “Your mom probably won’t like it, but I guess I could go to a dance.” He shrugged one shoulder and plastered on a smile that seemed foreign to him, making him look more arrogant than the Dax I’d seen several times before.

“You’re not going to think of some way to reply?” I asked, taking a step back. Why I thought he’d play along and answer in the normal creative way was a mistake on my part. This night had definitely not gone as planned.

One eyebrow crept up, and he said with a laugh, “I just did. Let me know what I have to wear or what we’re doing.” The arrogant smirk was gone, and he looked a little more nervous than I’d expected.

I nodded and turned to walk away, when a thought hit me. Turning back to him, I asked, “Have you ever been to a dance?”

“Nope.” He didn’t even pause to look at me as he walked into the trailer.

A senior who’d never been asked to a dance? That was strange in and of itself since there were a lot of rumors about the guy making out with girls all the time. But what did I know?

At least I had a date to the dance, one my mother wouldn’t approve of and someone intriguing enough that he might keep me on my toes.

Chapter 7

Dax

Isank onto the small couch in the living room, still holding the roll of glow sticks Kate had given me. It was weird to think about actually going to a dance, and even worse to think about how I was going to keep hiding the fact that it had been me who’d kissed her at that party forever ago once I started spending more time with her.

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