Page 59 of Kissing the Debutant
“Mom.” Lillian’s eyes widened. “Next weekend…” She didn’t finish her sentence.
Jack didn’t know who it was standing next to him, but it sure wasn’t Lillian. “Mrs. Preston, Lil is competing next weekend.” She couldn’t have forgotten.
Mrs. Preston sighed. “Ah, yes, your little competition. Dear, hasn’t this gone on long enough? You don’t even have a proper choreographer. How do you expect to win?”
A proper choreographer. Jack wanted to say something more, to tell this woman what he really thought, but Lillian clamped a hand down on his arm.
“Okay, Mom. Jack and I are going to leave now since dinner is about to start.”
She nodded. “I’ll ring you this week so we can discuss wardrobe for the event.”
“Sure, Mom.”
Lillian turned, dragging Jack with her. She didn’t stop and didn’t release him until she walked down the long hall to where the debutants had left their belongings.
Without a word, she started collecting her things. “I’m dying to get out of this dress.” She shot him a smile as if none of that had just happened and stepped into the dressing rooms to change.
Jack wasn’t sure what to say. Had Lillian just given up on her competition? Did she let her mom dictate everything she did?
And this Landon guy… he’d offered to be her date? On a night Lillian was there with Jack?
None of it made any sense at first, but then it did. And the sense he’d started making of it hurt.
Lillian emerged from the fancy dressing room wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, the fluffy white dress draped over one arm and her heels dangling from her fingertips. “You ready?”
With a shake of his head, he turned and led her out to the parking lot where his beat-up old Jeep stood out like a beacon among the expensive cars. A beacon of embarrassment.
That’s what he was, wasn’t he? An embarrassment to Mrs. Preston, to Lillian.
All he wanted in that moment was to get home where no one looked at him like a dirt stain they wanted to scrub free.
Lillian slid into his car and shoved her things in the back.
As Jack pulled out of the lot, he didn’t know what to say.
All he knew was he hadn’t deserved tonight. He hadn’t deserved the looks and the lies.
“I will never be an academy water polo player.” His voice came out low, rough.
Lillian laughed until she looked at the pained expression on his face. “I know that.”
“Tell me the truth, Lil. Did you bring me here to make some kind of point with your mom?”
She leaned her head against the window and released a breath. “No. Yes, I mean. Yes, but that wasn’t—”
He cut off her words by swerving the car to the side of the two lane country road leading from the club. He couldn’t have this conversation while he sat so close to her. Getting out, he slammed his door with a curse.
Rolling fields surrounded them, and the only light was from the full moon overhead.
Gravel crunched under Lillian’s feet as she rounded the car. “You need to let me explain.”
He grunted but didn’t stop her.
“My mom has been trying to set me up with the boys of this town for months, looking for the perfect escort. I finally snapped and told her I had one but that he was from the academy.”
He leaned back against his car and kicked his foot against a rock. “Why didn’t you find an academy boy?” They were more her speed.
“Do you know me at all, Jack? I’m not good with people. Until Wylder and Devyn, I didn’t have a single friend at school. I didn’t see you coming. I never thought in a million years someone like you would be interested in someone like me.”
