Page 166 of Nobody's Girl

They do a fist bump as he smiles cunningly at Kyle. “You pulled up twenty minutes ago. Are you two having a lover’s quarrel or something a little more romantic than that?”

Kyle tussles his shaggy brown hair. “Mind your business, boy.” Throwing his arm around my neck, he pulls me close, kissing the side of my head. “Hey, guys, I play the winner,” he says to one of the guys playing pool.

I frown at him as he lifts me to sit on a stool at the bar. “Kyle, I can’t stay away from the house much longer.”

He grins at me and hands me his cell phone. “Give your parents a call. Tell them about your battery and that I’m taking care of it. But we’ll have to drive down to Alamogordo to pick up a new one and won’t be back until later on tonight.”

This will never work, but I take it and make the call. Mom answers, but speedily puts my father on.

“I’ll take care of it, Alyssa.” Dad’s fast to respond. “It’s not Kyle’s responsibility.”

Kyle overhears my father. “I want to do it, Mr. Devlin. I want to show you I’m capable of taking care of your daughter,” he says. Then he takes a big bite of the burger that the plump, red-headed waitress placed in front of him.

“Tell him it won’t be necessary,” Dad says.

“Just let him do it, Dad,” I say, getting a little sick of this back and forth crap.

“No, ma’am. I’ll jump start your jeep, and you’re coming home. I’ll be at the school parking lot in fifteen minutes. Be there!”

I hand the phone back to Kyle with a smirk on my face. “Told you.”

“It was worth a try. I’m done anyway. Come on, let’s go,” he says as he lifts me off the bar stool. I grab my shake, taking it with me. A guy at the pool table gives him a gesture, seemingly asking, what’s up. “I’ll be back later, dude. My girl needs my help.”

His girl! How cute that sounds.

With his muscled arm thrown around my shoulders, Kyle pulls me close to his side. The sun as we walk out practically blinds me. It was dark in there.

Up in his truck again, I sit next to him, my head on his shoulder, holding his hand in my lap as he takes me back to the school. Daddy’s already there with the hood up on the jeep and the cables connected to my battery and his.

As he looks up at the truck and sees us so close, he frowns and looks away. How I wish he would just let me grow up without all the theatrics. There should be no reason my loving Kyle should affect him. Yet it does.

Kyle pulls up on the other side of my jeep. He jumps out and helps me down. My body grazes his as he places me on the ground. He gives me a wink and I give him a smile. Before he lets me go, he reaches in, grabbing the romance novel.

“I’ll read some tonight, then give you a call and we can discuss it,” he says, making me blush.

Dad yells, “If you can drag yourself away from him for a minute, Ally, I need you to try to start the jeep.”

Ducking my head so he won’t see my pink cheeks, I sit in my jeep. It starts right up. Dad closes the hood, cables in his hand. “Get going, girl. I’ll be right behind you.”

Kyle moves promptly to my door. “Bye, baby. I’ll call you in a little while,” he says, just before he drops a kiss on my lips. I freeze with this.

My father’s glare could melt ice. Hastily, he retreats to his truck, not saying a word.

“Bye. I’ll talk to you later, Kyle. Thanks for the shake,” I say, before I pull away with my father right behind me.

I’m not even out of the car fully when Dad pulls up next to me. He’s out of his truck and clutching me by my arm, dragging me into the house. “Did you do that on purpose? Did you leave your lights on so you could go on a date with him?”

Mom looks up at us from her place on the sofa, yet another romance novel in her hands. This one has a man with long black hair riding a horse towards a red-headed damsel in distress.

So many damsels with problems in the old days.

My mother’s voice shrill, she asks, “What’s happened, David?”

Shaking me as he talks, he says, “This one here went out with Kyle. On a date!”

I wiggle against his grip, trying to get him to let me go, but he hangs on.

“Dad, that was no date. He was going to bring me home. We just stopped and got something to eat and drink, then we were coming straight back, unless you were going to let us go get a battery in Alamogordo.”