He pressed his lips together.
“Please don’t tell me that you’re already part of the mile high club.”
“Stop trying to change the subject.” James put his arm around my shoulder. “I’m not going to force you to tell them. If you really don’t want to, that’s your decision. It would make me feel a lot better about everything though.”
“Unless my dad punches you in the face.”
James laughed and looked down at me. His expression grew cloudy. “Wait, do you seriously think that’s going to happen?”
“I have no idea. I usually don’t upset my parents. Disappointing them isn’t exactly something I do all the time. I’m a little out of my element. And I’ve never even brought a boy home.”
“Luckily I have tons of practice with disappointing parents. I’m not even sure if my parents love me.”
His words made me wince. “That can’t possibly be true.”
“I don’t think it’s far from the truth.” He looked down at me. “I’d really prefer if your parents didn’t hate me. That’s probably asking too much given the situation. The sooner we tell them, the sooner they might be willing to forgive me though.”
“They won’t even be home for several hours,” I said. His parents hadn’t taken him to Disneyworld or given him juice boxes. And they had forced him to marry someone that he didn’t love. They were clearly horrible. I wanted my parents to love him. I almost felt like he needed my parents love. But I was worried once my parents found out that he was my professor, they’d hate me and him.
“Okay. How about you give me a tour of your hometown? Unlike you, I’ve really never been here before.” He smiled at me. “And if you still don’t feel like telling them in person by the time they’re supposed to come home from work, we’ll leave. They won’t even know we were here.”
“Oh, Penny! Is that you?”
Crap. I turned around and saw Sally Bennett, the neighborhood gossip, coming toward us. “Hi, Mrs. Bennett.”
She gave me a hug and then looked over at James. “And you must be the new boyfriend I’ve heard so much about?”
James’ looked taken aback. “Hi, I’m James.” He put out his hand for her to shake.
“Pulling Penny away from her classes are you? Her parents won’t be pleased to hear about that. But your secret is safe with me.” She finally let go of James’ hand.
Ditching classes with him was going to be the least of my parents’ worries. I wasn’t sure why Mrs. Bennett had said our secret was safe with her. No secret was ever safe with her.
“So what are you two kids doing here?” Mrs. Bennett asked.
“I was just showing James where I grew up. A little tour of town.”
“Well that’s fun. You’re parents are going to be so thrilled that you’re visiting. I think having an empty nest doesn’t suit them very well. I was thinking about giving them one of my cats. I know you already have a cat, but trust me, two is better than one.”
I laughed. “I’m sure they’d really appreciate that.” Maybe Mrs. Bennett coming over and handing them a cat would take away some of their anger toward me.
“Did you know that I used to babysit Penny when she was a wee little thing?” Mrs. Bennett said, ignoring my statement. “The thing that stands out the most was that it was almost impossible to ever get her in the tub. She was always so feisty. I always thought it was the red hair.”
What the hell, Mrs. Bennett? My face had to be completely red.
James laughed. “She’s still pretty feisty.”
It was Mrs. Bennett’s turn to blush. “Oh my.” She lightly touched James’ arm. “Well I don’t want to interfere with the tour. I’ll let you two kids get to it.”
There wasn’t much of a choice now. Mrs. Bennett told everyone everything. My parents would know I was in town as soon as Mrs. Bennett got home to her phone.
James looked down at me. “Not a fan of baths, huh? I never would have guessed that. We always have so much fun in the shower.”
I grabbed his car keys out of his hand and walked past him.
“Hey.” He grabbed my wrist. “What are you doing?”
“You wanted a tour.”
“I’ll drive.” He held out his hand for the keys.
“You won’t be able to see anything I show you then. Can’t you give up control for just a few minutes? I want to show you something.” I walked around the car and opened up the driver’s door. James was a lot bigger than me. I went to grab the lever to adjust the seat but there were only buttons. So fancy. I pressed one and my seat got even lower. I couldn’t even see over the steering wheel.
James laughed as he sat down in the passenger’s seat. “Here.” He leaned over me and pressed a few buttons. As the seat rose, he placed a kiss against my lips.
I grabbed his chin. “You should probably put your seatbelt on, James.”
He lowered his eyebrows slightly and sat back in his seat. As soon as his buckle clicked into place, I put my foot on the gas.
The car jolted forward. I did a very jerky u-turn as I adjusted to the sensitivity of his gas and brake pedals.
“Maybe I should drive,” James said. He was gripping the armrest and looked incredibly nervous.
“I got this.” I smoothly drove us out of the neighborhood and back onto Concord Pike.
“So is Wilmington one of those small towns where everyone knows each other?” James asked.
“If you haven’t noticed, all of Delaware is like that.”
“I have kind of noticed that. It’s very different from New York.”
I laughed and pulled the car into a parking lot next to a park. We easily could have walked here from my house, but I didn’t want to leave his car parked outside, just in case my parents came home for lunch. “Well you should be comfortable today then. No one ever really notices me. So today we can pretend like we’re in New York.” I handed him his keys before stepping out of the car.
When James reached me, he wrapped his arms around me. I immediately hugged him back. We stood like that for a long time. I felt so calm when he held me like this. And I realized that he was hugging me because of what I said. This was him telling me that he noticed me. His sweet cologne mixed with the smell of the autumn leaves made me feel more at home than I had ever felt.
I took a deep breath. “Let me call my mom. I’ll tell her we’re here and that she should come home for lunch. You’re right, the sooner the better.”
He pulled back slightly and looked down at me. “Are you sure?”
I looked into his dark brown eyes. “I’m sure.”