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I get the paper out of my bag and hand it to him. “I wish I was joking, but here’s the proof.”

He lets his eyes trail over the questions, still wiping away tears of laughter, then starts reading them out loud. “What did you think of the variety of topics we discussed? A. Great. B. Average. C. Not enough variation.” He puts the questionnaire in his lap and snorts. “This is golden. I thought these kinds of wacky things only happened in movies.”

“Want to know what else was wacky? Get this. His mother picks him up after every date. The guy’s twenty-three!”

Another burst of laughter from him, and I can’t help but laugh along. This entire evening has been too weird for words. Why cry when you can also choose to laugh, right?

After calming himself, Colton says, “Now I know why none of the girls who went out with him in the past wanted to share more details of their dates. They probably all got this questionnaire. You are going to fill this out, aren’t you?”

I slap him on the calf. “Are you crazy? I’m throwing this away as soon as I get home.”

“Don’t do that. You’ll want to remember this,” he says with a grin.

“I doubt that.”

“Come on, Elle. Whenever you feel bad, you can pick up this questionnaire and realize things aren’t that bad.”

I nod. “Maybe you’re right. But enough about my date. How did yours go? Did she give you a form to fill out?”

He looks out over the ocean, almost as if he’s avoiding locking eyes with me, and shrugs. “She bailed on me. I went for drinks with my friend Tyler instead.”

“She bailed on you? What woman in her right mind would bail on someone like you?”

Now he does catch my eye, and my stomach flips. How does he do that? Pin me down with just one look, causing my heartbeat to speed up a notch, and my lips to get all dry.

“Someone like me?” he asks, his voice lower than usual.

How am I going to explain what I meant by that without him knowing I think he’s extremely attractive and fun to be around? I can’t. My face doesn’t lie, or so I’ve been told in the past. “You know what I mean.”

I meant for that to sound casual, but the look in his eyes tells me he knows what’s up, and I know it too. A silly crush is brewing inside of me. I’ve got to put a stop to this before it goes too far. Give it a few days of being close to him, and I’ll fall for him. Hard. I can’t let that happen.

I swallow. “So, uhm, something must’ve gone wrong with your ability to get a woman to show up to a date. If you want, you can copy this questionnaire for when you next go out with someone, and then you can find out what the problem is.”

“The problem is that I don’t even want to date that bad,” he says. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those guys who has sworn off love or anything. I’m just not in a place to date.” He catches my eye and nudges my shoulder with his. “Look at the two of us, complaining about failed dates. Why don’t we make our own luck instead of moping?”

“What do you have in mind?” I ask.

“We could either go to the bonfire, or take the long way home and talk.”

I smile at him and get up. “The long way home, without a doubt.”

Chapter Ten

Colton

It’s been a week since Elle and I spent time at the beach and walked home together after her disastrous date, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her since.

I’m avoiding her as best as I can, but that’s hard to do because we go into work together every day and she lives in my house. I’ve been working out a lot lately, just so I don’t have to torture myself by spending time with my sister and her best friend. And to be completely honest, to get thoughts of Elle and me out of my mind. There’s nothing like working up a good sweat and doing one hundred push-ups in a row to make you forget about the world for a moment or two.

It’s not like I’m in love with her or anything, gosh no. We’ve only known each other for about a week now. It’s more of an irresistibly attracted to my sister’s best friend kind of situation. I’m attracted not only by the way she looks, but also by the way she moves, how her eyes sparkle when she laughs, and how kind she is to customers in the park, even when they don’t deserve it. I like her. A lot. But calling it love? No way. A tiny crush, maybe.

Even though it’s tiny and doesn’t mean anything, I need to stay away from her. Maggie would be furious if she knew I thought about dating her best friend a couple of months before leaving town.

As I’m heading toward my bedroom for another workout session, my sister stops me in my tracks.

“Will you get the popcorn?”

“Popcorn? Why?”