Tracy stared at him in stunned silence for a moment. “Are you serious?” Her mind was spinning. Could she have a relationship with a man she’d thought of as a friend for so long? How could this even work? A small voice inside her was screaming at her to at least try.

Steve nodded. “As serious as I’ve ever been about anything. Why not? I feel like we were cheated out of prom now, and I want to see if it could work between us. And I want to punch Danny Stifter in the face!”

Tracy just studied him, trying to figure out what she should say. “What if I’m dating someone already?” she asked, stalling.

“Then I really doubt you’d be out with me tonight. Celebration or no celebration.”

“That’s true . . .” Tracy drew in a deep breath. “All right, let’s try it. But if I giggle when you try to kiss me for the first time, it’s just because we’ve gotten to be such close friends that I quit fantasizing about kissing you a very long time ago.”

Steve leaned back with a grin. “You used to fantasize about kissing me? Tell me more . . .”

“I even practiced kissing my pillow for you. You were my first real crush. Like with a real person and not with William Shatner or someone like that.” She had spent many evenings daydreaming about him while she was supposed to be doing her homework.

“You had a crush on William Shatner? That man overacts terribly. Let’s get back to you practicing kissing your pillow for me . . .”

“Let’s not. Forget I said that.” She grinned, truthfully happy they were already so comfortable with each other. It made it easy to talk to him.

“Hmm . . . I’m not sure what to say to that. I want to hear about it. Were you using tongue on your pillow? Didn’t you get fibers in your mouth?”

“No tongue. Just lips and pillow. And I did still get some stray threads in my mouth, so I moved onto kissing my hand. And my mirror once, but one of my sisters saw lipstick on the mirror and matched it to the lipstick I wore that day, and I never thought I’d hear the end of it.”

He threw back his head and laughed. He hadn’t laughed that much since . . . well, since high school when he’d spent a lot of time with Tracy. “I’ve really missed you.”

She smiled. “I’ve missed you, too.” Shaking her head, she shrugged. “You know, I’ve felt like there was a hole in my life where something was missing. Seems like it was a Steve-sized hole.”

He grinned at that. “A Steve-sized hole? Was it Steve-shaped, too?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll have to really think about the hole later and maybe examine it.” Taking a sip of her Coke, she watched him over the rim. “So, if we’re going to date, what are we going to do? Walks in the park? Movies? Dancing? Dinners out?”

“All of the above. And I need you to meet Ringo.”

“Who is Ringo?” She hadn’t heard of anyone around town with that name, and it wasn’t exactly common, so she’d have heard!

“My German Shepherd. You’re going to love him. Just make sure you use a firm voice with him when you tell him to get down, because he loves to jump on anyone who comes in the door.”

Tracy laughed. “I can’t wait to meet Ringo. I hope you’ve worked on teaching him some manners.”

“Oh, I’ve worked on it, but he’s the most hard-headed dog. . . . He likes to run around with the cows trying to herd them, but they don’t exactly listen to him. I’ve thought about getting a few sheep, just to keep Ringo happy.”

“Maybe you should . . .” She glanced up as their food arrived, looking down at her plate of enchiladas. “I had no idea I was so hungry.”

“And now you know! I should have gotten queso, but I will next time.” He winked at her. “Assuming you’ll come back to Comida with me.”

“Trust me . . . I’d come to Comida with my worst enemy. Of course I’ll come with you.” She cut off a bite of her sour cream beef enchiladas and ate it, closing her eyes to let the flavors explode on her tongue. “They are the only people I have ever seen who use sour cream sauce on beef enchiladas. More restaurants should do this. Or I should learn to do it myself, but that would take effort.”

He grinned at that. “Is that your way of warning me you don’t cook?”

“Oh, I do cook. I’ve got Irish nachos down to perfection. I just don’t take a lot of time learning to cook new things that I won’t be able to serve in my pub.”

He loved how her face lit up every time she mentioned the pub she was going to open. “What are you going to call it?”

“McClain’s Irish Pub. The name McClain sounds nice and Irish, doesn’t it? It’s Scottish, but I’ll take the Irish sound for the name of my pub.”

“It does sound Irish. Is that cheating your heritage, though?”

“Not at all. It’s me doing what I need to do to make my pub a very Irish success.” She forked up another bite of her enchiladas. “I do wish I could serve these enchiladas, though. Maybe I’ll figure them out and do a one-night per week special with Mexican fare.” She tilted her head to one side, thinking about it. “Nah. There are Mexican restaurants on every corner in Texas. I want something different. I’ll just come here for lunch every day.”

“That would work.” Steve loved watching how her mind worked. She amused him to no end. “When do you hope to have it open?”

“I’m shooting for September first. I think around the time kids go back to school. There’s always a lot of job turnover then, and I’d rather not have to train people over and over. Once is enough for me.”

“That makes sense. I’m really excited that your dream is coming true. And that’s pretty quick. It’s already May.”

“It is. My sisters are getting married in a couple of weeks. Jessica and Gaylynn are doing a double wedding.”

“Wow. I had no idea. I mean, I had heard they were both engaged, but a double wedding isn’t something you see every day in Bagley. Will Heather make it home?”

“Yeah, Heather’s the reason they’re doing a double wedding. She didn’t want to have to fly home every other week. She likes her new husband or something crazy like that.”

“She’s where now? Indiana? Or is it Iowa?”

“Idaho. Some tiny little town there. And she’s loving it. Said the winter was a little rougher than she had thought it would be, but Michael made it all easy. And his Mom lives in a house on their property, and it sounds like they’ve gotten really close. She opened a dance school there, like she had here, and she’s always telling us fun stories about the girls. There wasn’t anything like it for a forty-five-minute drive in any direction, so she’s making a lot of girls and mamas happy. She is thinking about adding in a cheerleading class, because there’s nothing like that there either. She wants to make an impact on their little community there.”

“She’d be really good at that. I followed the Cowboys a lot more closely when she was cheering for them. She was out of high school before we started, but I always felt a connection to her through you.”

“Not through Rebekah at all? She was in your grade, and I have thought you had a crush on her for the past ten years . . .” Tracy was truly having a hard time wrapping her mind around the fact that he’d never cared for Rebekah. It seemed like he should have.

He shook his head, wrinkling his nose a little. “Rebekah was never my type. I don’t know why. She just wasn’t quite as . . . vibrant as you.”

Tracy smiled at that. “Well, I’m glad, because that would have made things more than a little awkward.”

“If I’d had feelings for your sister and then you started dating me? Why? It’s done all the time in small towns like this.”

“I know it is, but it just feels strange if it’s me. And one of my sisters.”

“Well, you do have a lot of sisters . . .”

“I know I do. I love them all, too.” She ate her last bite of enchiladas and pushed the plate away. “That’s what I needed.”

“Sopapillas?” he asked.

She frowned for a moment. “It’s a celebration, so the calories don’t count, right?”

“Like you’ve ever counted calories. No, they don’t count, though.”

“Then yes, I would love a sopapilla.”

After they were finished with their meals and the sopapillas had been devoured, they walked back out to his new truck. “I’m not ready for the night to end,” he told her. “Why don’t we go see a movie?”

“I could go for that. What’s playing?”

“No idea. Let’s run by your place and call the number with all the movies on it. I’d say my place, but that’s a lot farther to drive.”

“Or we could just drive past the theater . . .”

“We could do that. All right. You talked me into it.” He drove them down Main Street, and she pointed out the location of the pub she would open.

“I can just see a green and white sign with a shamrock on it.” Tracy stared dreamily at the building.

“I can, too. I’m catching your dream!” He reached over and squeezed her hand as he pulled up in front of the theater. “Anything look good?”

She frowned, shaking her head. “No, let’s go see what they have at the video store.”

“Do you have a VCR?” he asked. He’d just gotten one the month before, and he loved his.

“I do. My dad got it for me for Christmas. He said all eighties ladies should have VCRs.”

“Sounds like your dad.” He didn’t know Bob McClain well, but he knew him by reputation. The man was positively addicted to gadgets.

“It really does.”

Steve turned the truck around and drove to the other end of town, where the video store was. “Any idea what you want to see?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Something funny maybe. Or a musical. I’m a sucker for musicals.”

“I was hoping for something scary so you would jump into my arms.”

She laughed. “Sounds like you.” She led him into the store and went straight to the musical section. “How about Sound of Music? King and I? Oooo . . . Grease!”

“Yeah, let’s watch Grease. That one’s fun.”

“I’m going to warn you now . . . I plan to sing along with all the songs.”

“Sounds good to me. I’ve always thought you had a nice voice.”

Tracy shook her head. “I have a nice speaking voice. It’s not so nice when I sing. I promise.”

“I guess I’m about to find out.”

They took the movie to the front of the store, and he paid for it on his account. “I wasn’t sure I would ever really rent movies here, but I’m glad I got an account when I purchased my VCR.”

“Me too.” She clutched the movie, and some snacks for movie-watching, in her hands as they left the store. She couldn’t wait to watch a movie with him. It would be nice. “My place or yours?”

He frowned, wondering how messy he’d left the place. He couldn’t even remember. “Let’s watch it at yours.”

“Did you leave underwear on the floor?”

“I’m not sure! That’s why we have to watch at your place. If I did, it would totally ruin the ambience of the evening, don’t you think?”

“I do think. We will watch at my place. I’ll make up some popcorn, and we’ll have Cokes. And Raisinets of course. What’s a movie without Raisinets?”

“I haven’t ever really seen your place. I mean, I saw it when it was the Samuels’ house, but I haven’t seen it since it’s been yours.” Steve couldn’t wait to see how this girl he’d dreamed of for years decorated her place. Maybe it was a bit odd, but he wanted to learn as much about her as he could, and that seemed like a good way to learn.

When they got to her house, Tracy unlocked the door. “I wouldn’t lock, but Dad told me he was going to stop by randomly and check and he’d skin me alive if he found out it wasn’t locked. He’s paranoid about his little girls.”

“I can see that. I’m glad you lock. I think you should every time you leave.”

“I do. I promise.” She opened the door and was happy to see that everything was neat and tidy. She was pretty anal about keeping things perfect, so she usually did. She’d put her breakfast dishes in the dishwasher before leaving for work that morning.

The door opened up into her living area, and he settled on the couch while she put the movie into the VCR. Then she went to get drinks from the fridge. She opened two bottles of Coke and took him one and took one for herself. For some reason, she preferred to drink straight out of the glass bottle. “Do you want popcorn now? Or should I wait with it?”

“I couldn’t eat another bite right now. Let’s wait ’til later for popcorn.”

She walked back into the living room and handed him one of the bottles. He wasn’t all the way to one side of the couch, but he wasn’t in the middle either. She wondered if she should sit hugging one side or sit toward the middle. But if she sat in the middle, would he think she was forward?

He answered it all for her by catching her wrist and pulling her down onto the couch. “The credits are almost over. You don’t want to miss the opening song!”

“No, I really don’t.” She grinned at him, feeling tingles throughout her body. Her friend was sitting beside her, and she was thinking about kissing him. What was wrong with her? She leaned back against the back of the couch, trying to be casual, but it was hard. She was so aware of him beside her, she forgot to sing along with the first song.

“Why aren’t you singing?”

She shrugged, a little too embarrassed to explain her thought process. “I’m sorry. I was lost in thought.”

“As long as you were thinking about me, I don’t mind that one bit.” When she blushed at that, he laughed softly. “I’m glad you’re thinking about me. I’m thinking about you, too.” He turned her face to him and looked down into her eyes. “I think it’s time for that kiss we talked about . . .”