Dare lived in an apartment complex on the edge of town. He must have been watching out the window because as soon as we pulled up, he bounded out the front door and darted to the car. I smiled when I saw his mom follow him out. Dare ran around the front of the car and jumped in the back seat with me. I had a little too much of my mom in me not to want to see what his mom wanted, so I rolled down my window.
“Hello, Dr. Rossetti. I think Darius is ready to go on his date,” I said, suppressing the urge to chuckle.
“What can you tell me about his date? Is she someone who’s suitable for Darius?”
I looked at her with my one eyebrow raised.
“I guess I don’t know what you mean by ‘suitable,’” I responded.
“Darius said she’s a senior. She’s not just putting him on and going to hurt his feelings, is she?”
“Ah,” I said, suddenly understanding. “No. I assure you that Brook will be a proper young lady and wouldn’t do anything to hurt his feelings. She’s a good friend of mine, and she has gotten to know Darius. If Brook didn’t want to go with him, she would have said so up front.”
“I wanted to thank you for all you’ve done for my son. He can’t stop talking about you and your friends,” Dr. Rossetti shared.
“Can’t stop talking … hmmm,” I said and looked at Dare sideways.
“Where are you kids going for dinner?” she asked.
“I was thinking Chuck E. Cheese,” I said and saw Dare’s face go white.
Dr. Rossetti smiled.
“He likes the games there. Maybe I should give him some more money for tokens,” she said and turned to go back to the house.
“That’s okay. If Darius needs more money, I’ll take care of it. You can just pay me later.”
“You’re such a good boy.”
“We need to get going,” I said, and then thought of something else to tease Dare about. “I almost forgot. Does Darius have a curfew?”
“We’ve never really talked about it,” she said, concerned. “Darius has never been out late before.”
My bet was he had never gone out, period.
“I know that tonight’s a special night. I was thinking we would have him home by three.”
Dr. Rossetti blinked at that. I had her on the ropes, so I plowed forward.
“There’s the dance. Then we’ll go to the after-party. I think Brook wanted to have an after-after-party. If it’s anything like that last one, we might just want to say that I’ll have him home before daylight.”
Dare tugged at my arm and wanted to show me his phone.
“You have something to say, Mr. Talkative?” I asked.
“If you watch out for him, I guess that would be okay,” Dr. Rossetti said, surprising us both.
I saw the twinkle in her eye and knew she’d figured out I was teasing her son. I think she was just happy that he seemed to be making friends here.
“Driver, let’s go before she changes her mind,” I told Chuck.
“Yes, sir, Mr. Dawson.”
I might have to send him to LA with Paul.
◊◊◊
We picked up Brook first. I made Dare go to the door since she was his date. The look on Ava’s face was worth it when she opened the door, and he was there. My day got even better when Ian pulled him into the kitchen. I was sure he was laying down the law about dating his daughter. Dare would have to survive this if he ever planned to date in high school. Ian was a pushover, so I figured Dare was okay.
“Why are you letting him take your girlfriend to Homecoming?” Chuck asked.
“It’s her fault. She made a big deal that no one had asked her to go, and Dare suddenly was able to talk and asked her out.”
“Did I hear correctly that you’re taking three girls?”
“Yep. We’re going as friends. They didn’t have dates, and since my girlfriend decided to go rogue, I figured what the heck.”
“And you don’t see any potential problems with all this?” Chuck asked.
“Nope,” I said confidently.
Brook and Dare came out of the house, and I almost decided to call off this farce. She was in a little black dress that reminded me why I loved Brook Davis. She’d pulled her hair up, so her neck was exposed. The little head had some ideas when she and Dare got into the back row.
“Where are we going to dinner?” Brook asked.
“Chuck E. Cheese,” Dare whispered.
From the lasers I felt boring into the back of my skull, I decided I’d better quit teasing the boy.
“That’s what I told his mom. We have reservations at the Covered Bridge.”
“That’s where you took Zoe,” Brook said.
They’d converted an old covered bridge into a restaurant that was open three nights a week and had a set menu. It was one of the most romantic places in our area to take a date. Tracy had somehow wrangled reservations for us.
Our next stop was to pick up my dates at Tracy’s house. All three of them came out rocking little black dresses. When I saw they each had their hair up, I could tell the four girls had decided to match tonight. Gina and Pam got into the back with me, and Tracy sat up front with Chuck.
“David told Dare we were going to Chuck E. Cheese,” Brook announced from the back seat.
“We could drop you two off,” I suggested.
“Be nice,” Tracy said.
“Where are we going?” Gina asked.
