Seven o'clock was quickly approaching and Haley was beginning to get nervous. During school she had meticulously avoided Nathan at every possible moment, but in the confines of their English classroom she couldn't escape him. He passed her desk as he sauntered into class just before the bell rang, and took a moment to smirk her way and say a quiet, "I'm counting down the minutes till seven."
So was she, but it sure wasn't with frenzied anticipation.
How she was supposed to survive the entire evening with that smug jerk was beyond comprehension. The pride she felt at his accomplishment that morning had dwindled throughout the day and now, mere minutes before his scheduled arrival, she just felt trapped.
She didn't know Nathan well enough to predict his actions, but from what she knew about him, she dreaded the night before her. It would be just like him to push aside her earlier warning and take her to some crazy party where everyone was either drunk, having sex, or both.
That was certainly not a scenario Haley felt comfortable with.
As she left the café, she briefly considered shoving a knife into her back pocket just in case things got out of hand. Then she laughed at herself because the truth was, if she went on like this she would be in a mental ward for the insane and paranoid in a matter of days.
"You're right on time. Why am I not surprised?"
Haley turned to see Nathan leaning casually against his truck and quirked an eyebrow at him as she walked towards the parked vehicle. "I'd have to say I'm the one who's surprised. I thought I'd be waiting for you for at least ten minutes."
He shrugged as both of them climbed in and he started the engine. This was the night he intended to win her over and he'd made sure to get there on time and save himself from her wrath. "Well I couldn't say I slept in because it's night and burning my house down just so I could have a gimpy, bleeding leg to blame didn't seem appealing," he returned.
Haley almost laughed and couldn't help but take a sideways glance at the boy beside her. He was being witty and even pleasant, a far cry from the brooding and arrogant basketball hero she usually encountered. "You're in a good mood. For some reason I think that's a bad sign for me." He was going to do something horrible to her. That's why he was so pleased with himself—he was already beginning to envision the torture she would endure.
"You know, if you don't stop trusting me so much I may begin to think that you like me."
She gave a short laugh. A girl not like Nathan Scott? It was unheard of. "What, you mean you don't already? Just this morning you were propositioning me."
"I was giving you an offer most people wouldn't refuse," he corrected her, his eyes on the road.
There
was the Nathan she knew—cocky as ever. "Yeah, sure. Well I'm not most people.""So I've noticed."
"What exactly is that supposed to mean?"
There she went again, making things harder on him. He'd never met a girl who resisted him so powerfully before. "It means that you're not some fawning bimbo, which I think in your book would be a compliment. Stop trying to find something offensive in every word I say and just be quiet for a while."
She opened her mouth to argue with him and then decided against it. If she had to spend the next few hours with him, why not try to make them as pleasant as possible for both of them? Tomorrow was another day—they could fight then.
For the next few minutes they were both silent. When Haley realized that he was on the road that lead them directly out of town, she frowned suspiciously. "Where are you taking me, anyway?"
He looked at her and smiled mysteriously. "It's a surprise."
The dim lighting as he drove cast shadows against his face, highlighting his dark and expressive eyes. Had evil ever looked quite so good? Quickly Haley directed her glance out the window. "You're going to take me somewhere quiet and kill me, aren't you?"
He just laughed and continued driving.
For some reason, she found that comforting. "You know, you'll never get away with it. People may not know that we have any connection to each other, but the blame will come back to you eventually," she went on.
"You watch too many soap operas."
"Excuse me? I've never watched a soap opera in my life," she informed him.
"Really?" he asked teasingly, sounding surprised. "You should. You don't know what you're missing."
This time Haley couldn't stop her laughter. He was teasing her. Nathan Scott was not only teasing her, but he was doing it in a friendly, not taunting, way. He'd even compromised his macho act for the sake of a joke. Haley wondered, not for the first time since Nathan had first approached her, if she was in another universe, or if she'd fallen into a weird daydream. She was almost tempted to pinch herself.
Instead, she just smiled and continued staring off into the dark, wondering what the night held in store for her.
It had been hard for Nathan to decide he and Haley would do together. He was trying to get on her good side, so he immediately ruled out anything that he would normally do with his friends. Parties and drinking weren't Haley's style. He needed to find something less daring and more laid back.
'Laid back' was not Nathan's usual MO and, if he was perfectly honest with himself, he was at a loss.
Then it had hit him—a place he'd seen on the way home from an away game. It wasn't the type of place Nathan would normally go to, which was exactly what made him believe that it just might work. Quiet but entertaining. Simple, innocent, fun. Kind of like Haley James herself.
At least, when she wasn't busy threatening him.
When Nathan pulled into a parking lot almost half an hour later, Haley looked around in surprise. "This is where we're going?"
He hid the fact that he was scared that she'd hate the idea well and nodded his head. She turned to look out the window as he pulled into a parking space, a smile lighting her face. Mulligan's. She hadn't been there in years. It now had a little more lights and a few upgrades, but the miniature golf and arcade center still looked very much the same.
"So we're playing miniature golf?"
He noted, with relief, that she sounded pleased, maybe even excited. "Right. Ever played before?"
Immediately the top of Karen's Café—and the small golf course she, Luke, and Karen had created up there—came to mind. Played before? She played at least once a week. "Once or twice," she answered simply as she got out of the truck.
He smiled at her confidently as he locked up the car and they started walking towards the entrance. "Don't worry. I'll show you how it's done. You're not a sore loser, are you, James?"
Such confidence. Well, if she had anything to do with it, that audacious act would be taken down a notch by the end of the evening. "You'll just have to wait and see, won't you?"
