“So,” he echoed.
“This is nice,” I said. “I haven’t been here in forever. We brought my dad here for his birthday dinner a couple of years ago.”
“We came here probably five years ago and I think it looked exactly like this.”
“Can I ask you something?” I said around a mouthful of pasta.
“Always.”
“That summer. The one with the Hendersons’ party.” I watched his face to see if he remembered which one I meant.
He threw his head back and laughed, which told me did remember. “The luau.”
“It wasn’t a luau.”
“They had a pig on a spit.”
“It was a backyard party. Remember that kid that said he was a DJ?”
He groaned. “He was playing that weird EDM shit. No one knew how to dance to it.”
“It was popular back then,” I said. “A few of my friends had been to Vegas for some big EDM thing. They thought they were so cool and cultured and the rest of us were just small-town country kids.”
“Trust me, I know small-town country kids and you guys aren’t it,” he said.
I smiled thinking about that night. I’d been wearing a yellow sundress and pretending I didn’t know him in front of everyone. I remembered him pretending the same. We had been so careful. It had been exhausting and thrilling in equal measure. The secret had its own electricity. Every time our eyes met across a crowded backyard we had to look away. Every accidental brush of fingers reaching for the same beer felt like a lightning strike.
“You were flirting with that girl,” I said.
“Which girl?”
“The redhead. She wasn’t a local.”
He thought about it for a moment like he was genuinely trying to remember and then understanding crossed his face. “I wasn’t flirting with her. She was flirting with me.”
“You were smiling at her.”
“I’m a friendly person.”
“I know all your smiles. That one was the dangerous one.”
He leaned forward on his elbows. “You were watching me that closely.”
“I was keeping an eye on the situation.”
“The situation,” he repeated. “Jealous.”
I shrugged.
“You were jealous,” he said.
“You did it on purpose,” I accused.
He laughed again. “Just keeping you on your toes. And you did the same thing to me. All those surfer boys panting after you.”
I flashed a smile. “Didn’t want anyone guessing there might be another man in my life.”
“For what it’s worth,” he said, his voice dropping just slightly, “I went home with you that night.”