Her Teen Dream Page 5

  Karin watched her father and John Fisher head into the living room, where they started to talk about old times. It wasn’t long before Karin's mother gave her a knowing look. “Karin, why don’t you take Pia up to your room?”

  Since she knew it wasn’t a request, Karin ushered Pia toward the stairs. She would have taken her next door to Lesley’s, but she and Shelly had gone out to dinner with Edgar.

  Meaning I’m stuck with Pia all by myself. Karin bit back her irritation.

  Pia, who had thick pigtails and big brown eyes, flopped onto Karin’s bed as though her own.

  “Do you like boys?” Pia asked, curling a corner of her mouth upwards, as if she couldn’t imagine such a thing.

  “Yes, I like boys,” Karin admitted almost too quickly.

  “Why?”

  “Because that’s what girls are supposed to do.”

  “Well, I think boys are silly.”

  “They can be.” Karin sat beside her. “They can also be very cute. And funny. And, most of all, sexy!”

  “Do you have a boyfriend?” Pia asked, wide-eyed.

  Now this was where it got rather complicated. Reese filled Karin’s mind like on a movie screen. She looked at Pia and said dreamily, “I’m working on it.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  When Karin filed out of homeroom, she saw Reese leaning against the wall as though holding it up rather than the other way around. Her first thought was that he was waiting for one of his buddies. But the smile on his face told her that he was actually there for her.

  The notion made Karin want to jump for joy, but she controlled her voice. “What are you doing here?”

  “Uh, I go to this school.” He put a dumbfounded look on his face.

  She wasn’t letting him off the hook that easily. “Well, I have to go to my next class. See you.”

  She began walking and smiled when he caught up to her, matching her step for step.

  “I wanted to see you. There, I said it.”

  Karin looked up at him, continuing to walk, ignoring the other students. “Well, here I am.”

  “You’re gonna make this really hard for me, aren’t you?”

  “What?” Now it was her turn to act confused.

  “Look, I’m sorry about the other night. I would’ve liked to talk more—you know, in private.”

  “It’s okay,” Karin lied, knowing she’d wished the same. But neither of them could help it if Cheryl Green had chosen that moment to stick her nose where it wasn’t wanted. What was done was done.

  Reese gazed down at her. “I’d like to make it up to you.”

  “Oh. How?”

  “Dinner.”

  She raised a brow. “You mean like McDonald’s or Burger King?”

  He laughed. “No, I mean a real restaurant. Just the two of us. We can talk without friends interrupting us.”

  Karin stopped, even as her heart kept racing. “When?”

  “How about tomorrow night...after the game?”

  She considered playing hard to get, but doubted that worked very well. Besides, if she gave Cheryl even an inch, she would probably take five miles with Reese. And if not her, then some other girl.

  “Okay,” she gave in.

  Reese smiled broadly. “Great! Gotta run.” After separating from her, he yelled back, “I hope you were planning to come to the game?”

  “Of course,” Karin fibbed. In fact, she had planned to go shopping with her mother. But that would definitely have to be postponed for something even more important.

  Karin found Lesley in the hall by her locker. “Doing anything tomorrow night?”

  “Yeah, I’m going to the game.”

  “Well that makes two of us,” Karin said.

  Lesley cocked a brow. “Since when?”

  “Since Reese invited me out to dinner afterwards a few minutes ago.”

  “You go, girl!” Lesley’s lips lifted at the corners and they gave each other a high-five. “Marcus really wanted me to come and see him play. Like I could say no.”

  “Not in a million years,” joked Karin.

  “Look who’s talking? Seems like somebody’s really trying to get on someone’s good side. And it’s obviously working.”

  Karin chuckled. “It’s just dinner, not a marriage proposal!”

  “Yeah, but no guys have ever asked me out to dinner.” Lesley pouted.

  “Maybe Marcus will,” Karin tried to give her hope.

  “Maybe, but he doesn’t seem the type. Not unless it’s a fast food place or something.”

  “So ask him,” Karin suggested.

  “No way,” Lesley said adamantly, then did somewhat of an about face. “At least not till I know it’s me he really wants to be with.”

  That was something Karin had to ask herself about Reese. Did he really want her? Or was this just a way for him to get under Cheryl’s skin for unresolved issues, if not as a means to get back together.

  * * *

  “I think it’s great that you and Lesley are going to the game,” Karin’s father told her at the dinner table that night. “You should be there rooting for your team.”

  “I agree,” she said, now that she had a good reason to.

  “Just so long as you’re not neglecting your homework,” her mother warned.

  “I’m not.”

  “What time does the game end?”

  “I don’t know.” After a pause, Karin said hesitantly, “Anyway, Reese invited me out for a bite after the game.”

  Josephine lifted her brows. “You mean a date?”

  “Not really,” she sought to downplay it. “Just a meal.”

  “That’s at a restaurant, I assume?” Greer asked.

  “Yes, Daddy. I’m not going back to his hideaway with him, if he has one.”

  “Well, good,” he said happily.

  “Not good,” her mother begged to differ. “That boy’s eighteen and too old for you to get involved with, Karin.”

  “I’m not involved with him. We’re just friends, Momma.” Karin didn’t want to make any assumptions or make things more complicated than they had to be. “And I’m only two years younger than Reese,” she added, feeling it was no big deal.

  “He’s an adult and you’re a minor, young lady,” Josephine argued. “Tell her, Greer.”

  He dabbed a napkin at his mouth. “She’s right, Karin. I’m sure Reese is a nice boy and a fine basketball player. But he’s still a man legally.”

  “And a high school senior who plans to go to college and become a lawyer.” Karin glared at her mother, and then looked pleadingly at her father.

  This seemed strike a chord with him. “Lawyer, huh? Good choice. Always money to be made.”

  “But, for now, he’s just a student who happens to play basketball,” she said. “I should be allowed to hang out with my friends after the game like anyone else.”

  “You are, Karin,” her father said. “Just make sure you do so responsibly.”

  “I always do,” she reminded him.

  “True.”

  “And we want to keep it that way,” her mother added with concern.

  “You can grab a bite to eat with Reese after the game, Karin,” Greer told her. “All we ask is that you be home on time...and be careful.”

  “I will, Daddy.” She smiled and, looking at her mother, could tell that she wasn’t happy with his final word on the matter.

  * * *

  The gymnasium was packed as the Spartans played their cross-town rivals, the Mumfree High Canooks. Karin sat next to Lesley, each paying particular attention to how Reese and Marcus did on the court. Never mind the fact that it would take a team effort to beat the talented Canooks.

  “My mother nearly derailed things,” Karin said dramatically, counting her blessings. “For a while there, I thought I’d miss the game and our dinner date.”

  “Mine was okay with the game, especially when she found out you’d be here,” Lesley said. “I think she probably would’ve been okay with me goi
ng out with Marcus, too. It’s not like I haven’t had a boyfriend before.”

  Karin rolled her eyes. “Since when? Those crushes from afar don’t count, any more than the guys who’ve liked you that you couldn’t stand.”

  Lesley grinned. “All right, so Marcus will be my first real boyfriend, if it happens.”

  “Yeah, for you and me both. First time boyfriends who happen to play b-ball,” Karin quipped. She wondered how she might get around her parents’ rejection of Reese as boyfriend material before they even got the chance to know him.

  Suddenly the crowd cheered as Reese stole the ball and arched a perfect pass to Marcus, who was running in full stride. He finished off with a one-handed dunk. Karin and Lesley jumped up and screamed when his basket tied the score with less than two minutes to play.

  A win or loss for the Spartans came down to the final five seconds. Coach Cleaver called a timeout with the team trailing by one. The Spartan cheerleaders ran onto the court, led by Cheryl Green, and wooed the crowd with their choreographed moves.

  “Why does she have to be so good?” muttered Karin, feeling a touch of envy. Not to mention beautiful.

  “It’s called practice makes perfect,” Lesley replied. “We could be cheerleaders, too, if we really wanted to be.”

  “You think?”

  “Yeah, but don’t get any ideas. We don’t need to be where they are to attract guys. Or lose them. Besides, I’ll bet we’d whip their butts in tennis or running.”

  “You’re so right,” chuckled Karin, liking the idea.

  The players took the floor and jockeyed for position. Reese looked at Karin with a crooked, but confident, smile and she felt her heart flutter.

  “If they lose this game, I think I’m going to die!” exclaimed Lesley.

  “They won’t,” Karin declared. Somehow she just knew that the team would find a way to pull this one out, especially if willpower had anything to do with it.

  Reese threw the ball in from the sideline to the center, Johnnie Freeman. Double-teamed, he faked throwing the ball to Marcus at the top of the key and instead flung it like an arrow to Reese in the corner. He lofted the ball high over the outstretched arm of the defender. It seemed to stay up in the air forever as the crowd held its collective breath, before hitting nothing but the bottom of the net as time expired.

  The crowd erupted into cheers. Lesley and Karin hugged, appreciating the game like never before.

  Karin waited outside the boys’ locker room for Reese. Marcus had already come out and he and Lesley had taken off.

  When Reese emerged, he had changed into street clothes and smelled of a fresh shower and spicy cologne.

  “Hey,” he said, smiling.

  “Hey, Reese.” Karin tried to stifle her nerves. “That was a great finish to a good game.”

  He shrugged. “We dug ourselves a hole and nearly got buried in it. I was lucky that I got a good look at the basket and was able to put the ball in.”

  “Your ‘luck’ turned out to be their loss,” she uttered lightly.

  “Yeah, guess so.” After a moment or two of awkwardness, he asked, “So are you ready to go get some grub?”

  “I’ve been ready,” she answered, knowing that this was another dream come true.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Reese drove a black BMW. Karin was impressed. She wondered if it was his or if he had borrowed it from his parents. Not that it mattered. She was just happy to be with him. He played an Usher song on his iPhone.

  “Got these wheels for my seventeenth birthday,” he said, as if reading her mind. “I think it was my old man’s way of buying the affection he was never there to give. And you know what? I’ll take it. I understand he had to do what he had to do for my mother and me. I’m cool with that.”

  Was he really? Karin wondered, trying to play armchair psychologist. Or does he have some underlying resentment?

  “Are you and your father close?” Reese asked from behind the wheel.

  “Probably closer than me and my mother,” she answered truthfully. “But not close enough that I can expect him to buy me a BMW anytime soon.”

  Reese laughed. “Yeah, I heard that. Well, you can borrow mine sometime if you ever need to.”

  “Really?” Karin couldn’t believe her ears.

  “Yeah.” He looked over at her. “You do drive, don’t you?”

  “Not as much as I’d like to. But I got my driver’s license last summer,” she said proudly.

  “Great! And I’m serious about the car,” he reiterated.

  Karin smiled. “I’ll remember.” How could she forget? No guy had ever offered to let her drive his car. Most guys were more protective of their precious cars than they were of their girlfriends. Reese was obviously different. She suspected Cheryl Green had driven his BMW on more than one occasion, which made her want to drive it even more.

  “Where are we going?” she asked, noting that they seemed to be leaving the neighborhood.

  Reese gave her a mysterious look. “You’ll see.”

  * * *

  They ended up at a restaurant called The Great Steak Place. It was just blocks from downtown Crestview, where Karin rarely ventured. They were shown to a booth and sat across from each other.

  “You come here a lot?” Karin asked after they ordered. What she really wanted to ask was: Have you come here a lot with other girls?

  “Not really,” Reese said coolly. “My old man used to have an office across the street. He would meet my Mom and me here for a quick lunch or dinner sometimes, before going back to work.”

  “What does your Dad do for a living?”

  “He’s an advertising executive. Probably not as interesting as practicing law, but he started at the bottom and is now at or near the top.”

  Karin sensed some pride there and perhaps a measuring stick by which Reese could one day gauge his future success.

  “Does your mother work?” she asked.

  “Only on her hair, house, and plants, but not necessarily in that order,” he said.

  Karin laughed. “Sounds like my mother. Except she’s also a part-time Pilates instructor after a friend introduced her to it.”

  “That’s cool. Maybe I can get my Mom to give it a try. She belongs to a health club, but never goes. Don’t ask me why.”

  “I think that would be great if she tried Pilates,” Karin said. “Some people are intimidated by it, but it really works to tone and shape your body.”

  He regarded her with interest. “Spoken like a true expert on the subject.”

  “More like the daughter of an expert.”

  Their food arrived and Karin still couldn’t believe she was actually having dinner at a nice restaurant with Reese McKenzie. Maybe heaven really did begin on earth.

  “So, do you plan to go to college?” Reese asked, slicing into his steak. “I never did get my answer to that the other night.”

  “Yeah, but I’m not sure where though.” Maybe I’ll go wherever you go.

  “And study what? Or don’t you know at this point?”

  “Right now, I’m thinking about majoring in either English literature or creative writing,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “You want to be a writer, huh?”

  “Either that or a college professor teaching literature.”

  Reese’s eyes lit up. “I’m impressed with both possibilities. Most girls I’ve hung out with haven’t even thought about college.”

  You mean like Cheryl? “I guess everyone’s different in what they want to do in life.”

  “Yeah, I guess. But I like where you’re headed anyway.”

  “I like your plans, too,” she admitted.

  He grinned. “I like you, Karin Blanch.”

  “That’s nice to know,” she said, embarrassed. “I like you, too.”

  Reese peered at her over his glass of water. “So there’s no one else in the picture?”

  Karin raised the brow over her left eye. “You mean like a boyfriend?”

&n
bsp; “Yeah.”

  “No.”

  He smiled. “Good.”

  “Is there any other girl in the picture?” she countered, and held her breath waiting for his answer. Cheryl Green immediately came to mind.

  “Not anymore,” Reese said pointedly.

  It made Karin feel better to hear him actually say it. She knew there would always be girls coming on to Reese, but as long as he said no, she would be okay with it. Assuming she was his girlfriend now.

  * * *

  It was nearly ten-thirty when Reese pulled up in front of Karin’s house. She half expected to see her parents waiting on the porch, but they weren’t.

  “Do you want me to come in and meet your parents?” Reese asked. The car was still running.

  Karin thought about it for maybe two seconds. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

  “Why not?”

  She paused, hating to ruin what had been the perfect date. But she had to be honest with him. “My parents think you’re too old for me to date.”

  He frowned. “I’m only eighteen.”

  “Yeah, I know,” she said guiltily.

  “And you’re sixteen going on seventeen, right?”

  She nodded.

  “So what’s the big deal?”

  “No big deal to me,” Karin made clear. “It’s my mother mainly who’s making an issue of it.”

  Reese looked at her with concern. “Is that going to be a problem?”

  Not if I can help it. “No, it won’t be. I’m sure once it sinks in that I like you and you’re a really nice guy, they’ll come around.”

  He grinned. “Well that’s good to know. Because I do like you, Karin.”

  She felt a tingle inside and wondered if he would lean over and kiss her. Or would he miss the moment that seemed just perfect for doing so?

  He didn’t disappoint her. Reese leaned over like a pro and pressed his lips lightly onto hers, moving them in a circular motion. Karin felt as though she were right in the middle of a fairy tale. She closed her eyes and mused that he was everything she ever wanted in a boyfriend. And now it had come true. At least she hoped that was the case.

  When Reese pulled back, Karin still felt the twinge of his mouth on her lips.