Page 33 of It Started with a Sunset
Huh. She hadn’t guessed that they would pair up so well to help students decide to come to Lake Baldwin State. It was like they’d belonged together all along.
After the meeting, Summer had to head to the staging room to make sure everything was accounted for. Brock came in less than a minute later, and she turned to see him.
“Congratulations on winning. That last comment had to have made you feel great.”
“It really did.”
She took a step closer to him. “You know what you did by winning, right? You guaranteed that you’ll get to be a bigger part of every single Aquamoose Tracks we have, even with Pavani back in the game.”
He took a step closer to her. “Maybe that was my plan all along—I was just plotting a way to spend more time with you.”
She closed the gap between them and breathed, “That makes you one clever man, Brock McMillan.”
And then he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her in for a kiss.
Chapter Fourteen
Brock
Brock leaned against the end of the counter in the bowling alley where he could wait for Summer with an unobstructed view of the front door. He had planned to pick her up at her apartment, but she had texted fifteen minutes before he was going to leave that she had to run something to a friend in need on the other side of town, so she would just meet him at the bowling alley on the way back.
He hadn’t been on a date in several months, so he had to think back quite a bit to try to remember if he was always this nervous before a date, but he didn’t think he was. Everything about Summer was different; he should just expect it to be that way by now. He ran his fingers through the top of his hair, smoothed down the front of his t-shirt, straightened his jeans, and fixed the way they fell over his shoes. He had planned everything for this date down to the last detail, with all the things he knew Summer would love, so he really didn’t have any reason to be nervous.
The doors opened and, like a big ray of sunshine, Summer walked in, wearing the big, billowy yellow ballgown he had so rashly told her not to buy because she wouldn’t have any place to wear it.
He was simultaneously feeling speechless at how beautiful she was and finding it hilarious that she had chosen to wear it bowling, of all places. And thinking that he one hundred percent should’ve anticipated it. All the emotions together appeared on his face as a big, goofy grin, and he didn’t even care.
He walked up to her, kissed her on the cheek, and said, “You look beautiful in that dress.”
She gave him a smile that seemed to have some mystery behind it, too, then dipped into a little curtsy. “Do you like my hair?”
It was pulled up in some kind of fancy twist with curls and pins with sparkly gems and showed off her beautiful neck and shoulders. “I love it. It goes really well with the dress. I still can’t believe you wore it here.”
“I told you I had the perfect outfit,” she said as she put her hand in his and started walking toward the check-in counter.
“You did indeed tell me that.”
The guy behind the counter finished up with the people in front of Brock and Summer, then he turned his attention on them. He looked Summer up and down, then in a monotone voice that somehow still managed to sound sarcastic, he said, “Nice bowling outfit.”
He didn’t like that the guy was mocking Summer and was opening his mouth to say something, but Summer beat him to it. “Right? That’s exactly what I was telling my date!”
The guy’s bored expression slowly turned to a smile of amusement as he helped them. She probably just made the guy’s night and gave him a story to tell his coworkers.
As they carried the bowling shoes the guy had plunked down on the counter for them over to the lane they’d been assigned, Brock joked, “I’m not sure those shoes go with that dress.”
“It’s okay because I’m going to find a bowling ball thatwillgo with it. I’m all about the accessories.”
He wasn’t sure how she was going to be able to bowl in a dress that floofed out so wide. But then she stood up, bowling shoes on, and gathered the many layers of the dress together at her left side, just above her knee, and tied it into a big knot. Then she stood tall—not like a model about to show off the newest fashion on the runway, but with her fists on her hip like a superhero about to go off and save the day.
He took in her whole appearance. The dress was just off her shoulders and fitted down to the waist, and now, with the knot on the side, everything from the waist almost to her knees was very big. Her bare legs looked pretty incredible, leading down to her brown and maroon bowling shoes. It might have been the cutest thing he’d ever seen.
Then they went to choose their bowling balls. Summer had been looking for a ten pound ball, but couldn’t find one that went with her dress, so they searched in the racks along the back of all the lanes. About three-fourths of the way down, she spotted one that made her really excited and ran to it. It was a bright yellow, a pale yellow, and a white marbled ball, and she picked it up, saying, “This is perfect.”
Brock found one that fit his hand size and was a good weight, then picked the one with the same size and weight that sat next to it, simply because it matched his blue shirt better. Summer grinned at him as she hefted her ball back to their lane.
“How many pounds is that one?” he asked as she plunked it down in their ball return.
“Fifteen.”
