Page 75 of Secret Puck
None of them mention the time. They’re all just as ready to get out of here as I am.
“Hey,can I catch a ride over to The Hideout?” Maverick asks after the game.
I’m pulling on a shirt and jeans, but I glance over to make sure Adam is out of earshot before I answer. “I can drop you off, but I’m not going.”
“Why not?”
“Taking Ginny out.”
“A date?” he asks, louder than I’d like.
Adam’s still not paying us any attention, so I nod. “Yeah, a date, hanging out, whatever.”
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Prickly Pear since all the guys will be at The Hideout.” The Prickly Pear is our second favorite local hangout, but on the weekends. It’s often taken over by townies, so we aren’t likely to run into anyone we know there.
“That’s a lame date.”
“Then I guess it isn’t a date.”
“Yo, Scott,” Mav calls and I fight the urge to pummel him. “What’s the best spot in Valley to take a girl on a date?”
“On a Friday night?” Adam asks, eyebrows drawn together in consideration. “The drive-in up on Mount Loken or pretty much anywhere downtown. Araceli’s has a nice outdoor patio and good food.”
“Didn’t take you for the romantic type, Mav,” Jordan says.
“People are surprising, aren’t they?” He chuckles. “Thanks, Scott, knew you’d come through for me.” Maverick closes his locker and turns to me with a smug look. “Ready?”
I pickup Ginny at her dorm. She slides into the passenger seat in a short dress smelling like apples and cinnamon and I can’t help but kiss her while sitting in the no-parking zone. Someone honks and I reluctantly pull back and then guide the car back on the road.
“Where are we going?” Ginny’s beaming at me and I’m suddenly glad I have some better suggestions than Prickly Pear.
“You’ll see.” I rest a hand on her thigh and head out of town.
I drive to the outskirts where the houses get bigger, set up on the base of the mountain, and are placed farther apart.
The roads are mostly quiet with as many people biking and walking as cars driving along it. It’s still nice and warm in Arizona. A few trees have leaves that are changing colors, but mostly it’s the usual dull greens and browns—nothing like what I’m used to from growing up in Michigan.
Even in the coldest part of the year, the days are too warm in Arizona to consider it real fall weather.
It takes almost an hour to get up to the top of the mountain. The road curves through the trees, and we follow a long line of cars all with the same idea.
I park and we get out to get food before the movie starts.
“It’s so much cooler up here,” she says, wrapping her arms around her body as the wind whips through the lot.
Ah, shit. Something I hadn’t thought of. I double back and grab a sweatshirt from my car. She pulls it on over her dress. It’s nearly as long and she looks freaking sexy as hell. I smooth her hair away from her face and drop a kiss to her lips. “Hungry?”
She presses her mouth to mine and nods. I tug her behind me to the concession stand. We order hot dogs and popcorn, soda, and more candy than any two people should eat (Ginny’s words obviously) before walking back to the vehicle. The movie is just starting, and I open the back and help her into the cargo area of my SUV.
“How do you of all people know about this place?”
“Me of all people?”
She grins. “I said what I said.”
Chuckling, I admit, “Actually, from your brother.”
