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Eyes on the road, Kevin scolded himself. Try as he might, he couldn’t pry his attention away from Gwen. She had him wrapped tight around her finger and the strangest thing was that it was exactly where he wanted to be. He longed to lose himself in those beautiful eyes and that adorable smile. That striking dress definitely wasn’t making things any easier, either.
Having caught him glancing at her, she placed a hand on his thigh and squeezed. “Had fun?”
Her touch made his hair stand on end, heart racing in all the best ways. He glanced down at her hand, then slowly shifted his gaze upward until their eyes locked. “Best night I’ve had in a looong time.” When his attention returned to the road, he added, “Okay, maybe I’m a little peeved I didn’t get to show off what I learned about forks, but ya win some, ya lose some.”
Gwen turned down the music on the radio (to her pleasant surprise, Kevin had let her choose which station to play this time). “I’ve been meaning to ask, what was that about?” Kevin usually didn’t care about dining etiquette. In fact, he’d once stuck straws up his nose without a care in the world. What changed?
He shrugged, trying to play it off as if it wasn’t a big deal. “I’m not like the guys from your school. I woulda embarrassed you if I didn’t know how to dance or use forks properly, or—” He waved his hand dismissively. “Do whatever else those guys do.” His lack of knowledge on how to operate in fancy social situations set him apart, and not in a good way. He dreaded to think what would have happened if he’d come to the dance unprepared.
Though she was touched that he’d put in the effort to prepare for the dance, she wished he’d done it for himself and not her. “I know you’re not like them. That’s why I wanted to go with you!” Even if he’d stood out against the other boys like a sore thumb, there was no doubt in her mind that she would have enjoyed his company.
He took a fork in the road leading back into Bellwood. “Ben said the same thing.” Under normal circumstances, he would have found humor in that. Instead, he was still unconvinced. “I don’t get it. What makes me better than the boys at your school?” Gwen had more in common with her schoolmates than with him, at least on the surface. Wouldn’t it be easier to date someone who was more like her? They would certainly fit together better, as painful as it was to admit it.
“Most of the time, I have to be put-together and at the top of my game; at home, at school, on the field… It's tiring. When it’s just the two of us, I feel different, better, like I don’t have to hide things. I don’t feel like that with anyone else.” She gestured at him with an open palm. “I know you feel the same way.”
He’d tried not to dwell on it, but he couldn’t deny the many walls he kept up weren’t as high whenever they were alone. “Hard not to. You see me for who I can be, not who I used to be.”
Her hand on his thigh traveled up to his shoulder. “And I like what I see.”
Heaving a sigh, he eyed his reflection in the rear-view mirror with contempt. “Why, though? What good is there in a buncha broken, messy parts?”
“Those broken, messy parts make up the funny, charming, smart, kind, gorgeous boy I like.” In spite of himself, he blushed deeply. Compliments were a rarity, which made them all the more precious. “You don’t need to be perfect. As long as you’re trying to be better every day, that’s good enough for me. You’ve already got me, and I’m not leaving.”
“Sounds like you’re sayin’ you wanna be my girlfriend.”
“More like telling you I’m your girlfriend,” she corrected him with a grin.
Had he missed an important conversation at some point? “Since when?”
“Since now.” Gwen’s grin melted away as she watched Kevin stay quiet, the subtle changes in his face indicating he was processing what all this meant. “If I’m being too pushy, or if you’re not ready…”
He would be a fool to deny that things had been heading this way for a while. He was head-over-heels for her, and somehow, she felt the same about him. With how close they’d become and all the time they’d spent together, it was only a matter of time before they ended up together. Despite his many reservations, why would he deprive himself of a good thing, especially when she had expressed time and time again that she wanted it too?
As the car rolled to a stop in front of a red light, he reached for her hand. He kept his eyes locked to hers, hoping the traffic light wouldn’t change colors and ruin their moment. “No, I want this. Guess I’m just scared of messin’ up. I still dunno what you see in me, but maybe I’ve been lookin’ at it wrong. If you deserve better, I’m gonna be better. Wherever we go from here, I’m all in.”
Failing to contain her smile, she squeezed his hand. “Yesyesyes! Finally!”
Seeing her smile made him smile too. “Was this your plan all along? Get me to take you to the dance then drop a bomb on me?” It was a clever plan, all things considered.
When the light turned green and Kevin continued driving, she pulled her hand away. “Believe it or not, no. All I could think about when you were putting yourself down was how I wanna be there for you as more than whatever we are now, so I went for it. Besides, after that beautiful dance, you can’t tell me there’d be a better time to make it official.”
“Mmm,” he concurred. What they had experienced in the desert made tonight far more memorable than it would have been had they gone to the dance as planned. Between a gymnasium with dozens of people and the middle of nowhere under the starry sky where he could be truly alone with Gwen, he’d pick the latter every time. “I’m glad we missed the real dance.”
“Me too.”