"Is that Heather?" Amanda asked excitedly, but quietly, when the waitress
left to get their drinks.
Richie ginned. "That's her."
"She's so cute!"
"I told you, she's not pretty, just unbelievably cute."
"So that's why you wanted to come here," Duncan realized.
"Yeah, she had to work and I knew you guys wanted to meet her and most people go to the Stadium after games. So I figured we could get in no problem. But I told her to save us a table in her section just the same."
"You are a sneaky one," Joe laughed.
"That's my boy," Greg said putting his arm around Richie. "Always one step ahead of the game."
"He just likes to feel in charge," Duncan corrected.
"So the jig is up, huh?" Heather asked coming back with a tray of drinks.
"Yeah," Richie answered. "Um, this is Mac," he started gesturing to his left. "And my dad, Greg, that's Adam. And I have a feeling you'll be hearing a lot from Joe and Amanda.especially Amanda."
"Sweetie, I have so many questions for you," Amanda said. "Like why you fell for this idiot here."
"I have no idea," Heather answered with a grin that made Richie blush. "I think it was his smooth opening line of 'Huh'."
"A favorite of his," Joe consented.
"Are you ready to order, or should I come back?"
"I think we're ready," Duncan said glancing around the table. Everyone nodded.
One by one they went around the table telling Heather what they wanted starting with Duncan and ending with Richie.
"The usual, right?" she asked him.
"Yup," he nodded.
"It'll be just a few minutes. I'll be right back with some salads and bread."
An hour later everyone was done eating and Heather pulled up a chair to the end of the table to sit for a minute.
"So was it good?" she asked. Everyone told her it was. "Because I made it all myself," she joked.
"Do any of you have plans after this?" Greg asked. Nobody did. "What time do you get off of work, Heather?"
"When I'm done with you guys," she answered.
"Good, then nobody order desert," he said. "I'll stop by Pie Time and get that cake Richie likes so much and we can all meet at our house to talk."
"Hey, yeah. Good idea! You guys up for it?" Richie asked.
"Sure thing," Duncan answered. "But isn't it a little late for a bakery to be open?"
"Not this one," Richie answered with a grin. "Open from eight to midnight. You know, to cover all the sugar craving hours. Every campus should have one."
After a couple more minutes of planning they decided to go and leave Heather to her ending tasks.
"What about the bill?" Duncan asked pulling out his wallet.
"I've got it," Greg insisted. "It'd be my pleasure to take my son and his friends to dinner."
"No, I insist. Bring it to me, Heather."
"Actually, it's already paid for," she answered as she began to gather the plates.
Duncan and Greg looked at Richie. "What?" he asked innocently. "I knew you two would start and it was going to be my treat in the first place, so I took care of it ahead of time."
"You know," Greg warned. "I wasn't going to do this, but I have some photo al-"
"No!" Richie interrupted. "Please, don't!"
"Were you going to say photo albums?" Amanda asked.
"I have a couple."
"Daa-aad!"
"I was just going to settle for some stories," Amanda laughed.
"I did have some questions," Duncan admitted. "Like the whole leash idea."
"Maa-aac!"
"This could be fun," Joe admitted.
"Indeed," Adam nodded. He had mostly been observing the evening, but had to jump at the chance to see the kid squirm.
"Aw, man." Richie could see he was beaten.
A few minutes later they all congregated in the parking lot. "So how should we do this?" Duncan asked looking around at the seven people and three cars.
"Dad, go to the bakery. Joe, Amanda, go with Heather so you can interrogate her, I'll go with Mac and Adam," Richie instructed. "How does that sound?"
"You really had this all planned out, didn't you?" Duncan chuckled.
"Well, I wasn't planning on cake, but I'm not going to say no to that."
After giving Heather directions they all piled into their respective cars and pulled out of the parking lot. They all met up again at Greg's house. Richie let them in and immediately got sucked into giving the tour until his dad arrived.
"And this is my room," he opened the door to the freshly painted room upstairs.
"Looks nice," Amanda commented sitting on the bed.
"Dad did it this summer so I'd have a place other than the dorms on holidays."
"These all your cds?" Joe asked skimming the collection. "I don't remember these."
"Um, Dad's on a making up for the birthdays kick right now."
"He did miss a lot," Duncan consented.
"Just seven. And if I remember correctly that was your excuse every time I didn't want to accept some little thing you came home with," Richie pointed out. "It's a birthday present, Rich," he imitated.
"Point taken," Duncan dropped the subject.
"So where are these photos?" Heather asked starting to pull Richie down the stairs. "I bet you were a cute kid."
"You guys don't want to see those," Richie blushed. He had already looked through the books and knew there were all sorts of embarrassing things in them.
"Sure we do," Joe laughed sitting on the couch in the living room.
"No, you don't."
. . . . . .
"That was the first time we had to call the fire department," Greg explained. "Nobody had a latter tall enough to get to him."
"The first time?" Heather asked pulling Richie back down by his shirt as he tried to run away for yet another piece of cake.
"The first sport Richie ever got into was soccer," Greg started.
"I didn't know you played soccer," Joe commented.
"Not anymore," Richie mumbled.
"He had this little Nerf soccer ball he loved to play with in the front yard."
"Daa-aad!" Richie knew this story; it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't accompanied by a newspaper clipping. Richie doubted his dad would save him the embarrassment, but he still had to try. He snatched the navy blue photo album from the stack on the coffee table.
"He was playing with a couple of his friends and one of them kicked it across the street into the sewer."
"Oh, no," Duncan groaned. He knew Richie well enough to know what came next without being told.
"The next thing I know, Mark and Ben came running in the house yelling for help." He stood up and retrieved the photo album Richie had confiscated and was desperately clutching. "They dragged me outside and this is what I saw." He flipped a couple pages and handed the book to Heather so she could see the faded newspaper clipping of a pair of legs sticking up in the air out of the sewer.
"Oh!" she giggled. "Eight-year-old Richard Ryan from Evergreen Terrace got stuck in a rain water drain while trying to retrieve his soccer ball from the sewer," she read the short article that had been printed up. "After an hour and a half the Seacouver Fire Department was able to get him out with only a few minor scratches."
Amanda took the book from her to get a better view of the pictures. "After getting looked over by the paramedics Richard was sent straight to bed for rest, but refused to go."
Duncan took the book. "Until his foster father, Greg Masters, promised to get him a new soccer ball." He finished the story. "I remember reading this when it happened," he chuckled. "That was you?"
"I think it's a little late to claim it wasn't," Richie returned taking the book back.
"Smart move, kid," Adam said.
"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled. "Two weeks before I was small enough to fit."
"He had a little pot-belly and couldn't fit anymore," Greg added. "But I have to say, Richie had a thing for firemen. I swear the kid was destined to be fire chief some day."
"I thought you wanted to be a mail man?" Duncan asked.
"Bite me."
"He would have made a great fireman," Greg continued. "He was the one who got to put on all the gear when his fourth grade class went to the fire station. All the fire men knew him from his summer escapades."
"Judging by the color of Richie's cheeks, there's more to the story than he got to put on the uniform," Amanda observed.
"I don't quite know the whole story. Richie?"
"You have got to be kidding me," Richie groaned.
"I could always tell the babysitter story," Greg volunteered.
"So, me, Mark, and Ben," Richie quickly started. "We were at the fire station and decided to go off and explore on our own."
"So you've being doing stupid things since you were a kid," Adam interrupted.
"Yup, it was stupid. But I was just a kid, so you know." Richie tried to end the story.
"That's it, you wondered off?" Duncan asked knowingly.
"And Mark dared me to climb up on the truck," Richie started again. "Then Ben double dared me. and you gotta remember when you're a kid and you get double dared to do something, you gotta do it. So I did."
"And you got caught," Duncan finished.
"Yup, that's it!"
"Not quite, Rich," Greg corrected. "What happened after you got on the truck?"
"The fire alarm went off," he mumbled.
"And?"
"And I froze. Ben and Mark abandoned me so they wouldn't get in trouble."
"Oh!" Amanda stifled a giggle. Heather didn't even try; she just laughed out loud.
"And?" Greg continued to prod.
"And the next thing I know the truck started to pull out of the station, but luckily somebody's mom saw me and grabbed me off the back before they took off with me down the street," he finished in a rushed mumble.
"Rich," Duncan said fondly. "You're an idiot."
"So what else is new?"
"What's the babysitter story?" Joe asked.
"Nothing you're ever going to hear about," Richie insisted giving Greg a pointed look.
"Fine, I can always tell them about the time you tried to impress Stevie Zepata by jumping off the tool shed roof."
"I think it's too late to tell you not to."
"What did he do?" Heather asked.
"Let's just say I let him watch Superman a few to many times. He made a cape out of a bed sheet and everything."
"It was the table cloth," Richie corrected. "Cause it was red."
"Did you impress her?" Heather asked.
"Yeah, she was plenty impressed, until she saw all the blood."
"Sounds familiar," Duncan commented. "Except, it was Jordan Skipworth and it wasn't a tool shed, it was motocross."
"That was Mandy Lewis," Joe corrected. "Jordan was the jetski."
"Jordan was lacrosse, Jennifer was the jetski," Amanda put in.
"Jennifer was lacrosse, Mandy was the jetski, and Jordan was motocross," Richie ended the debate.
"What did you do to impress Heather?" Adam asked.
"Nothing that spectacular," Heather answered. "He wrote a story."
"That is so cute, you wrote her a story?" Amanda cooed.
"I wrote my English professor a story; she was nosey and read it."
"What did he write about?" Amanda joked. "Flowers and poetry?"
"Not quite," Heather laughed. "Swords and burglars."
Richie gave Duncan a sheepish smile. "I have a weird imagination."
"And no luck with girls," Duncan added. "You never could get what you wanted, could you?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Richie asked slightly worried what story this was leading up to.
"I seem to remember you trying to get Angie to."
"Mac!"
"In my room, I might add."
"No! No more adding! Stop!"
"Luckily Tessa and I got to him before he could convince her. Although I don't think it was going to happen in the first place."
"Mac, would ya stop?" Richie was getting less embarrassed and more annoyed as the stories progressed from childhood antics to adolescent happenings.
"He always was one for a pretty face," Adam commented.
"You should have seen him when he first met Amanda," Duncan laughed happy to be able to tell a story instead of listen to one. "I thought he was going to dehydrate he was drooling so much."
"Oh, geeze, you guys!" Richie groaned.
"He couldn't get a coherent sentence out."
"He couldn't remember anything," Amanda put in. "I went to the barge to see MacLeod and Richie was taking down the laundry. he has cute boxers by the way."
"Amanda!"
"And I asked if MacLeod was there and he couldn't remember who I was talking about! It took him a good two minutes for it all to get put together in that little head of his."
Heather laughed. "The barge, that's in Paris, right?"
"Paris?" Greg repeated as Duncan nodded. "You didn't tell me you went to Paris."
"Yeah, I did."
"A couple times," Duncan added nonchalantly rubbing it in that he took Richie to Paris. "He's a fluent French speaker now."
"I didn't know you spoke French!"
"Um. oui?"
"Geeze, we have a lot of catching up to do."
"I'd say so," Duncan mumbled. Richie heard him and shot him a look.
"What else don't I know about you?"
"A lot," Joe sighed.
Richie looked between Duncan and Joe and let his eyes flick toward Heather so they got the point they were embarrassing him. Heather could sense the tension in the room. Richie had told her it might be a little awkward and it seemed to have been going well. until now. She could tell people were holding down emotions for her benefit. She yawned.
"I'd better get going," she whispered to Richie. "I have to work tomorrow and I have that paper, yet. Do you need a ride?"
"No, I'm staying here. at least that's the plan as of now."
"Do you want me to stick around for a while?" she offered.
"Nah, go ahead, this is getting a little bitter."
"I could insist you give me a ride because I'm so tired." She could tell he wasn't happy about having to stay.
"Are you really?"
"No, but I'm an actor."
Richie glanced around at everyone who was intently staring at them wondering what they were whispering about. "Uh, Heather's gotta go," he said. "She's working tomorrow."
"Oh, well, it was nice to meet you, Heather," Duncan stood up and shook her hand.
"Nice to meet you, too."
"Now that you know where I live, I expect you and Richie to come for dinner every now and then," Greg instructed.
"Okay," she smiled.
"And you can come up to Washington sometime if you like. I've been trying to convince Richie to invite you since last year," Duncan added. "Anytime you want. Even if this idiot here can't, you can have his room."
"I really was hoping to have more time to talk to you woman to woman," Amanda interjected giving Heather a hug and saving her from the battle of the fathers. "Maybe I'll come down to see you some time."
Heather blushed. Richie's family sure was friendly. "Sure."
"Okay, you guys let her breathe and get out of here." Richie pushed his way through to his girlfriend. He put an arm around her and walked her out to her car. "I'm sorry; this wasn't supposed to be so weird. I'll call you later and apologize some more."
Heather grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Don't worry about it, because you get to feel awkward at my cousin's wedding next month."
"Wedding?"
"Everyone wants to meet the boyfriend." She reached up and kissed him. "We're popular like that."
"Guess so." He kissed her. She kissed him. They kissed each other. After ten minutes of good-bye the front door opened.
"Don't make me get the hose!" Joe yelled from the porch.
Richie grinned and flicked him off behind Heather's back as he leaned in for a final kiss. "I guess I gotta go," he mumbled letting go of her reluctantly. "Talk to you later?"
"I'll count the seconds," she grinned.
"You'd better, 'cause I will too. And if you have a different number than me, we're going to have problems."
"One," she grinned pulling away. "Two, nine, six, fifty four, thirty eight."
Richie chuckled and shook his head. Some of the weirdest things came out of his mouth when he was around Heather and she always seemed to call him on it. He watched her drive away and heaved a great sigh before going to face everyone else again.
Richie ginned. "That's her."
"She's so cute!"
"I told you, she's not pretty, just unbelievably cute."
"So that's why you wanted to come here," Duncan realized.
"Yeah, she had to work and I knew you guys wanted to meet her and most people go to the Stadium after games. So I figured we could get in no problem. But I told her to save us a table in her section just the same."
"You are a sneaky one," Joe laughed.
"That's my boy," Greg said putting his arm around Richie. "Always one step ahead of the game."
"He just likes to feel in charge," Duncan corrected.
"So the jig is up, huh?" Heather asked coming back with a tray of drinks.
"Yeah," Richie answered. "Um, this is Mac," he started gesturing to his left. "And my dad, Greg, that's Adam. And I have a feeling you'll be hearing a lot from Joe and Amanda.especially Amanda."
"Sweetie, I have so many questions for you," Amanda said. "Like why you fell for this idiot here."
"I have no idea," Heather answered with a grin that made Richie blush. "I think it was his smooth opening line of 'Huh'."
"A favorite of his," Joe consented.
"Are you ready to order, or should I come back?"
"I think we're ready," Duncan said glancing around the table. Everyone nodded.
One by one they went around the table telling Heather what they wanted starting with Duncan and ending with Richie.
"The usual, right?" she asked him.
"Yup," he nodded.
"It'll be just a few minutes. I'll be right back with some salads and bread."
An hour later everyone was done eating and Heather pulled up a chair to the end of the table to sit for a minute.
"So was it good?" she asked. Everyone told her it was. "Because I made it all myself," she joked.
"Do any of you have plans after this?" Greg asked. Nobody did. "What time do you get off of work, Heather?"
"When I'm done with you guys," she answered.
"Good, then nobody order desert," he said. "I'll stop by Pie Time and get that cake Richie likes so much and we can all meet at our house to talk."
"Hey, yeah. Good idea! You guys up for it?" Richie asked.
"Sure thing," Duncan answered. "But isn't it a little late for a bakery to be open?"
"Not this one," Richie answered with a grin. "Open from eight to midnight. You know, to cover all the sugar craving hours. Every campus should have one."
After a couple more minutes of planning they decided to go and leave Heather to her ending tasks.
"What about the bill?" Duncan asked pulling out his wallet.
"I've got it," Greg insisted. "It'd be my pleasure to take my son and his friends to dinner."
"No, I insist. Bring it to me, Heather."
"Actually, it's already paid for," she answered as she began to gather the plates.
Duncan and Greg looked at Richie. "What?" he asked innocently. "I knew you two would start and it was going to be my treat in the first place, so I took care of it ahead of time."
"You know," Greg warned. "I wasn't going to do this, but I have some photo al-"
"No!" Richie interrupted. "Please, don't!"
"Were you going to say photo albums?" Amanda asked.
"I have a couple."
"Daa-aad!"
"I was just going to settle for some stories," Amanda laughed.
"I did have some questions," Duncan admitted. "Like the whole leash idea."
"Maa-aac!"
"This could be fun," Joe admitted.
"Indeed," Adam nodded. He had mostly been observing the evening, but had to jump at the chance to see the kid squirm.
"Aw, man." Richie could see he was beaten.
A few minutes later they all congregated in the parking lot. "So how should we do this?" Duncan asked looking around at the seven people and three cars.
"Dad, go to the bakery. Joe, Amanda, go with Heather so you can interrogate her, I'll go with Mac and Adam," Richie instructed. "How does that sound?"
"You really had this all planned out, didn't you?" Duncan chuckled.
"Well, I wasn't planning on cake, but I'm not going to say no to that."
After giving Heather directions they all piled into their respective cars and pulled out of the parking lot. They all met up again at Greg's house. Richie let them in and immediately got sucked into giving the tour until his dad arrived.
"And this is my room," he opened the door to the freshly painted room upstairs.
"Looks nice," Amanda commented sitting on the bed.
"Dad did it this summer so I'd have a place other than the dorms on holidays."
"These all your cds?" Joe asked skimming the collection. "I don't remember these."
"Um, Dad's on a making up for the birthdays kick right now."
"He did miss a lot," Duncan consented.
"Just seven. And if I remember correctly that was your excuse every time I didn't want to accept some little thing you came home with," Richie pointed out. "It's a birthday present, Rich," he imitated.
"Point taken," Duncan dropped the subject.
"So where are these photos?" Heather asked starting to pull Richie down the stairs. "I bet you were a cute kid."
"You guys don't want to see those," Richie blushed. He had already looked through the books and knew there were all sorts of embarrassing things in them.
"Sure we do," Joe laughed sitting on the couch in the living room.
"No, you don't."
. . . . . .
"That was the first time we had to call the fire department," Greg explained. "Nobody had a latter tall enough to get to him."
"The first time?" Heather asked pulling Richie back down by his shirt as he tried to run away for yet another piece of cake.
"The first sport Richie ever got into was soccer," Greg started.
"I didn't know you played soccer," Joe commented.
"Not anymore," Richie mumbled.
"He had this little Nerf soccer ball he loved to play with in the front yard."
"Daa-aad!" Richie knew this story; it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't accompanied by a newspaper clipping. Richie doubted his dad would save him the embarrassment, but he still had to try. He snatched the navy blue photo album from the stack on the coffee table.
"He was playing with a couple of his friends and one of them kicked it across the street into the sewer."
"Oh, no," Duncan groaned. He knew Richie well enough to know what came next without being told.
"The next thing I know, Mark and Ben came running in the house yelling for help." He stood up and retrieved the photo album Richie had confiscated and was desperately clutching. "They dragged me outside and this is what I saw." He flipped a couple pages and handed the book to Heather so she could see the faded newspaper clipping of a pair of legs sticking up in the air out of the sewer.
"Oh!" she giggled. "Eight-year-old Richard Ryan from Evergreen Terrace got stuck in a rain water drain while trying to retrieve his soccer ball from the sewer," she read the short article that had been printed up. "After an hour and a half the Seacouver Fire Department was able to get him out with only a few minor scratches."
Amanda took the book from her to get a better view of the pictures. "After getting looked over by the paramedics Richard was sent straight to bed for rest, but refused to go."
Duncan took the book. "Until his foster father, Greg Masters, promised to get him a new soccer ball." He finished the story. "I remember reading this when it happened," he chuckled. "That was you?"
"I think it's a little late to claim it wasn't," Richie returned taking the book back.
"Smart move, kid," Adam said.
"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled. "Two weeks before I was small enough to fit."
"He had a little pot-belly and couldn't fit anymore," Greg added. "But I have to say, Richie had a thing for firemen. I swear the kid was destined to be fire chief some day."
"I thought you wanted to be a mail man?" Duncan asked.
"Bite me."
"He would have made a great fireman," Greg continued. "He was the one who got to put on all the gear when his fourth grade class went to the fire station. All the fire men knew him from his summer escapades."
"Judging by the color of Richie's cheeks, there's more to the story than he got to put on the uniform," Amanda observed.
"I don't quite know the whole story. Richie?"
"You have got to be kidding me," Richie groaned.
"I could always tell the babysitter story," Greg volunteered.
"So, me, Mark, and Ben," Richie quickly started. "We were at the fire station and decided to go off and explore on our own."
"So you've being doing stupid things since you were a kid," Adam interrupted.
"Yup, it was stupid. But I was just a kid, so you know." Richie tried to end the story.
"That's it, you wondered off?" Duncan asked knowingly.
"And Mark dared me to climb up on the truck," Richie started again. "Then Ben double dared me. and you gotta remember when you're a kid and you get double dared to do something, you gotta do it. So I did."
"And you got caught," Duncan finished.
"Yup, that's it!"
"Not quite, Rich," Greg corrected. "What happened after you got on the truck?"
"The fire alarm went off," he mumbled.
"And?"
"And I froze. Ben and Mark abandoned me so they wouldn't get in trouble."
"Oh!" Amanda stifled a giggle. Heather didn't even try; she just laughed out loud.
"And?" Greg continued to prod.
"And the next thing I know the truck started to pull out of the station, but luckily somebody's mom saw me and grabbed me off the back before they took off with me down the street," he finished in a rushed mumble.
"Rich," Duncan said fondly. "You're an idiot."
"So what else is new?"
"What's the babysitter story?" Joe asked.
"Nothing you're ever going to hear about," Richie insisted giving Greg a pointed look.
"Fine, I can always tell them about the time you tried to impress Stevie Zepata by jumping off the tool shed roof."
"I think it's too late to tell you not to."
"What did he do?" Heather asked.
"Let's just say I let him watch Superman a few to many times. He made a cape out of a bed sheet and everything."
"It was the table cloth," Richie corrected. "Cause it was red."
"Did you impress her?" Heather asked.
"Yeah, she was plenty impressed, until she saw all the blood."
"Sounds familiar," Duncan commented. "Except, it was Jordan Skipworth and it wasn't a tool shed, it was motocross."
"That was Mandy Lewis," Joe corrected. "Jordan was the jetski."
"Jordan was lacrosse, Jennifer was the jetski," Amanda put in.
"Jennifer was lacrosse, Mandy was the jetski, and Jordan was motocross," Richie ended the debate.
"What did you do to impress Heather?" Adam asked.
"Nothing that spectacular," Heather answered. "He wrote a story."
"That is so cute, you wrote her a story?" Amanda cooed.
"I wrote my English professor a story; she was nosey and read it."
"What did he write about?" Amanda joked. "Flowers and poetry?"
"Not quite," Heather laughed. "Swords and burglars."
Richie gave Duncan a sheepish smile. "I have a weird imagination."
"And no luck with girls," Duncan added. "You never could get what you wanted, could you?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Richie asked slightly worried what story this was leading up to.
"I seem to remember you trying to get Angie to."
"Mac!"
"In my room, I might add."
"No! No more adding! Stop!"
"Luckily Tessa and I got to him before he could convince her. Although I don't think it was going to happen in the first place."
"Mac, would ya stop?" Richie was getting less embarrassed and more annoyed as the stories progressed from childhood antics to adolescent happenings.
"He always was one for a pretty face," Adam commented.
"You should have seen him when he first met Amanda," Duncan laughed happy to be able to tell a story instead of listen to one. "I thought he was going to dehydrate he was drooling so much."
"Oh, geeze, you guys!" Richie groaned.
"He couldn't get a coherent sentence out."
"He couldn't remember anything," Amanda put in. "I went to the barge to see MacLeod and Richie was taking down the laundry. he has cute boxers by the way."
"Amanda!"
"And I asked if MacLeod was there and he couldn't remember who I was talking about! It took him a good two minutes for it all to get put together in that little head of his."
Heather laughed. "The barge, that's in Paris, right?"
"Paris?" Greg repeated as Duncan nodded. "You didn't tell me you went to Paris."
"Yeah, I did."
"A couple times," Duncan added nonchalantly rubbing it in that he took Richie to Paris. "He's a fluent French speaker now."
"I didn't know you spoke French!"
"Um. oui?"
"Geeze, we have a lot of catching up to do."
"I'd say so," Duncan mumbled. Richie heard him and shot him a look.
"What else don't I know about you?"
"A lot," Joe sighed.
Richie looked between Duncan and Joe and let his eyes flick toward Heather so they got the point they were embarrassing him. Heather could sense the tension in the room. Richie had told her it might be a little awkward and it seemed to have been going well. until now. She could tell people were holding down emotions for her benefit. She yawned.
"I'd better get going," she whispered to Richie. "I have to work tomorrow and I have that paper, yet. Do you need a ride?"
"No, I'm staying here. at least that's the plan as of now."
"Do you want me to stick around for a while?" she offered.
"Nah, go ahead, this is getting a little bitter."
"I could insist you give me a ride because I'm so tired." She could tell he wasn't happy about having to stay.
"Are you really?"
"No, but I'm an actor."
Richie glanced around at everyone who was intently staring at them wondering what they were whispering about. "Uh, Heather's gotta go," he said. "She's working tomorrow."
"Oh, well, it was nice to meet you, Heather," Duncan stood up and shook her hand.
"Nice to meet you, too."
"Now that you know where I live, I expect you and Richie to come for dinner every now and then," Greg instructed.
"Okay," she smiled.
"And you can come up to Washington sometime if you like. I've been trying to convince Richie to invite you since last year," Duncan added. "Anytime you want. Even if this idiot here can't, you can have his room."
"I really was hoping to have more time to talk to you woman to woman," Amanda interjected giving Heather a hug and saving her from the battle of the fathers. "Maybe I'll come down to see you some time."
Heather blushed. Richie's family sure was friendly. "Sure."
"Okay, you guys let her breathe and get out of here." Richie pushed his way through to his girlfriend. He put an arm around her and walked her out to her car. "I'm sorry; this wasn't supposed to be so weird. I'll call you later and apologize some more."
Heather grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Don't worry about it, because you get to feel awkward at my cousin's wedding next month."
"Wedding?"
"Everyone wants to meet the boyfriend." She reached up and kissed him. "We're popular like that."
"Guess so." He kissed her. She kissed him. They kissed each other. After ten minutes of good-bye the front door opened.
"Don't make me get the hose!" Joe yelled from the porch.
Richie grinned and flicked him off behind Heather's back as he leaned in for a final kiss. "I guess I gotta go," he mumbled letting go of her reluctantly. "Talk to you later?"
"I'll count the seconds," she grinned.
"You'd better, 'cause I will too. And if you have a different number than me, we're going to have problems."
"One," she grinned pulling away. "Two, nine, six, fifty four, thirty eight."
Richie chuckled and shook his head. Some of the weirdest things came out of his mouth when he was around Heather and she always seemed to call him on it. He watched her drive away and heaved a great sigh before going to face everyone else again.