Shying at Trouble by Bonnie Bryant

Author:Bonnie Bryant
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781497653900
Publisher: Open Road Media Teen & Tween

ELEVEN

“Mom!” Lisa cried out involuntarily, her shock overcoming her manners. “What are you doing?”

Mrs. Atwood immediately pulled back her hands, which had been caressing the man’s curly dark hair, and leaped to her feet. “Lisa!” she exclaimed, sounding startled and flustered. Her hands flew to her own face and hair and clothing, checking that everything was in place and as it should be. “Darling,” she said breathlessly. “We—that is, I—didn’t expect you home for a couple of hours.”

Lisa wasn’t looking at her mother anymore. She had turned to stare in shock at the man who had also risen from the sofa at her entrance, looking embarrassed. Lisa couldn’t help noticing that he was tall and broad-shouldered, with angular, striking cheekbones and soulful dark eyes. She also couldn’t help noticing that he was clearly in his early twenties. “Who are you?” she demanded.

“Uh, hi,” the man said, running a hand awkwardly through his hair. “Um, I’m Rafe. I work with your mom. You must be Lisa. Your mother talks about you all the time.”

“Really,” Lisa replied.

“Sweetie.” Mrs. Atwood had regained some of her composure, though she still looked uncomfortable, glancing from her daughter to Rafe and back again. “I was planning to tell you soon. You see, Rafe just started at the store a couple of weeks ago—he’s working there part-time to help pay his way through college.”

“College?” Lisa couldn’t keep the disbelief out of her voice. Her mother—her own conservative, forty-something mother—had been locking lips with a college boy? Did he know how old her mother was? Did she know how old he was? How old was he, anyway—twenty? Nineteen? “You’re in college?”

“Lisa!” Mrs. Atwood exclaimed, sounding angry.

Rafe moved to her side and put a hand on her arm. “It’s okay, Eleanor,” he said. “It’s cool. I don’t blame her for being shocked.” He turned to Lisa. “I’m not as young as you’re probably thinking,” he told her. “I’ll be twenty-five in February. I took a couple of years off to knock around, do my own thing. You know—do some surfing, bum around Europe for a couple of months. The school of life, you know?” He laughed. “But hey, the guys who do the hiring at good companies aren’t too impressed with that kind of stuff. So I just went back—started my junior year at NVU this semester.”

Lisa’s head spun. NVU was one of the schools on her list, the school where Chad Lake went. None of this was making sense to her. “Oh,” she said, mostly because she felt she had to say something. Both of them were staring at her.

Things were starting to fall into place. Her mother’s unusually good mood, all those late nights at the store … She glanced at her mother.

“Lisa, do you want to help me in the kitchen for a minute?” her mother asked.

Once they were safely in the kitchen, Lisa turned to her mother.

“So, is Rafe your—your boyfriend?” she asked, unable to stop herself from putting extra emphasis on the boy part of the word.

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