Every Saturday Night (Firsts and Forever 6)

Chapter4

That evening, Lark drove me to Lucky’s place, while Dylan stayed home with the sleeping baby. “Maybe I should wait here for a few minutes to make sure you don’t need anything,” my brother said, as he pulled into the red zone at the curb and put Dylan’s truck in park.

“Like that wouldn’t be embarrassing. Should I tell him you’re waiting to see if the entire date implodes in the first five minutes?”

“Fine, I won’t wait.” He looked past me and frowned at the rusty metal garage door, which took up most of the façade. “This place looks abandoned. Is he a squatter?”

I shot him a look. “Yes. I’m dating a squatter. We’re going to run off and be squatters together and raise Owen to be a little baby squatter.” He sighed, and I added, “It’s not abandoned. It’s just kind of plain on the outside.”

“I don’t know about this. My Spidey senses are tingling.”

“Okay, first of all, I don’t even think you’ve watched the Spider-Man movies, so what’s with that expression?”

Lark pressed a palm to his chest and pretended to be offended. “Are you questioning my nerd cred?”

“Yes. Also, there’s nothing wrong with this garage. It’s a lot nicer on the inside.”

Lark, who was really taking his role as my big brother to heart tonight, knit his dark brows. “I’m not convinced.” Then he glanced past me again and said, “Something’s happening.”

I turned to look at the building and saw that the door was being raised by a noisy automatic garage door opener. Lucky was standing just inside it, and he was slowly revealed as the door went up—first his black motorcycle boots, then his tight, faded Levis. His big arms were crossed over his chest, but I glimpsed some kind of drawing on the front of his white T-shirt.

Once I could see his face, a bark of laughter slipped from me, and I muttered, “What the hell?”

He was wearing thick glasses with clunky black frames, along with what looked like orthodontic headgear. To complete the look, he’d parted his hair in the middle, then slicked it back into an awkward low ponytail. I rolled down my window and called, “What are you doing?”

Lucky grinned at me around the headgear as he came over to the truck. “You told me last week you’d prefer me as a dork, and I mentioned glasses, a retainer, and a Dungeons and Dragons T-shirt. Turns out I lost my retainer, so I made this instead.” He took off the metal appliance and grinned at me. “It’s really hard to talk with it on, though. I also made this shirt for you. What do you think?”

He stepped back and held his arms out to the sides, so I could get a good look at the cartoon dragon on his T-shirt. It had been drawn with a thick, black marker, and it sat back on its haunches holding a sign in its clawed hand that said, “D+D.”

I chuckled and told him, “That’s all kinds of awesome.”

“Mission accomplished. I wanted to make you laugh, and there it is,” he said, as he pulled the elastic band from his hair, then finger combed it and flipped it over to the side.

“Those are the most ridiculous hipster glasses I’ve ever seen.”

He smiled at me as he took them off. “Sorry to break it to you, but I’m not a hipster and these are safety glasses. I wear them when I’m drilling through metal, or other manly shit like that.”

“You still seem to have certain hipster-like tendencies,” I said, as I rested my elbow on the frame of the open window and grinned at him.

I’d been so wrapped up in Lucky that I’d totally forgotten about Lark, until my brother asked, “So, are you going to introduce me, or what?”

“Oh! Sorry. Lark Genardi, this is Lucky Suarez-Rivas. Lucky, I’d like you to meet my older brother.”

“Older?” Lucky reached past me and shook hands with Lark as he added, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Since Lark was both tiny and once again wearing the knit hat with ear flaps and a unicorn horn, I could understand his confusion.

“Yeah, by three years,” I said. “Go figure.”

Lark hit him with a sharp stare. “Don’t let my size fool you. I’m like a chihuahua. If anyone messes with my family, I go into full attack dog mode.”

I climbed out of the truck and sighed. “Okay, Mini Cujo, message received. Thank you for the ride.” Then I smiled up at Lucky as I said, “Hi there.”

He kissed my forehead and said, “Hi yourself. I’m glad you’re here. I thought about you a lot this past week.”

“You did?”

“Well, yeah. Did you think about me?”

“Not even once,” I teased. “In fact, I’d forgotten all about this date and just happened to show up here at random.”