“So where do you go to school now?” Greg Stanton asks. “City College or UCSB?”

“Are you and Neil staying for dinner?” Robert asks.

I struggle to keep up with everyone. “I don’t know…”

“I doubt it,” Carol says loudly right over top of my sentence.

I look at Greg Stanton. “I go to Cal.”

“Smart and beautiful,” Richard announces. “Why are you dating a janitor? Hey Robert, isn’t that what Neil is doing these days? Not music. Janitorial profession. You should date this one here.”

Uncle Greg squeezes the shoulders of a tall, replica cousin of Neil. “My son Tony. He’s a starting fullback at USC.”

“Go Bruins!” someone shouts.

“Go Bears,” Taylor counters, and gives me a wink.

They all laugh.

I blush.

“What are you studying?” Michelle asks sweetly.

“English and Music. I want to teach.”

“Neil, keep this one around. Smart, beautiful, head on straight, and knows where she’s going,” Robert advises, his voice loud, his face turned toward the patio doors.

I look over my shoulder to see Neil crossing the yard. There is no smile in his eyes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Neil without a smile in his eyes. Oh crap, he’s pissed at me.

Neil doesn’t say hi to me. He drops down in front of a cooler and begins to stock it with cans from the bag he carried out from the house. “I warned you,” he mutters, shaking his head. He scrunches up the empty bag and looks at me. “I told you to wait in the driveway and honk.”

I flush scarlet and shrug. “OK. And you said you’d be here, and you weren’t when I arrived, so we’re even.”

I stand up and fish the keys from my pocket.

“Aren’t you staying for dinner?” Michelle asks, sounding disappointed.

“We’re not staying,” Neil says, dropping a kiss on his mom’s head.

“That’s a lousy way to say hello to your girlfriend,” Richard jokes, tossing a burger on the grill. “You should at least kiss her on the head like you did your mom.”

Neil rolls his eyes. “Can we go please, Chrissie?”

Robert rushes across the yard. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Chrissie. Now that you’ve braved meeting us, don’t be a stranger, dear.”

I smile and do a quick wave to everyone. I have to walk double time to keep up with Neil. I catch him on the front porch.

“Well, that was rude,” I exclaim.

Neil stops on the steps, turns, and exhales a ragged breath. “Sorry. I just don’t like people in my shit. I don’t bring girls home because I don’t want them in my shit.”

I frown. “I don’t get it. You have a great family. They’re nice. They’re fun. They’re—”

“They’re obnoxious. First they grill you about who you are. Then there’s the background check. Then the drug test. And then they’ll throw condoms at you. One of them has probably got the plate number of your car written down. You don’t know what it’s like growing up in a family of cops.”

He has to be joking. I laugh. “Not really?”

Neil’s eyes round, but there’s a little of the usual sparkle in them. “Really. Ask Tony. He’ll tell you.”

I make a pouty face. “I’m sorry.”

“Can we go?”

I follow Neil to the car. He opens my door and the gesture makes me smile. I lean my arms across the top and stare up at him. “You’re twenty three years old and you have really never brought a girlfriend home?”

“Yep.”

I sink into my seat, stare through the windshield, and laugh. Taylor and Tony are watching us from the living room window.

Neil drops down in the passenger seat and frowns. “Why are you laughing?”

I bite my lip and shake my head. “Nothing. I just think funny thoughts sometimes.”

I put the key in the ignition and put the car into gear.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“Anywhere. I don’t care.”

I stare at the intersection, trying to remember how to get back to the freeway. “Can you give me some idea of where you want to go?”

He runs a hand through his hair. “Anywhere. Someplace quiet. It’s always so loud there.”

Red light ahead. I downshift. “OK, how about the pier? Hendry’s? The mall? I might even consider a movie.”

Neil grimaces. “The pier, Hendry’s Beach, and the mall? I thought you were up for just chilling and doing some SB things.”

“Those are Santa Barbara things.”

He turns the air conditioner off and rolls down his window. “Why do you have the air conditioner on? We have ocean air.”

“Boy. I guess I just do everything the wrong way. There’s the freeway. Right or left?”

“Let’s just do something outdoorsy. Let’s go up to Devil’s Playground and just sit.”

Devil’s Playground? I haven’t a clue what he’s talking about. “OK, so do I go right or left on the freeway?”

Neil frowns. “Don’t you know where Devil’s Playground is?” He points to the onramp. “There. We go north. Chrissie, there’s no right or left on the freeway. We go north.”

I roll my eyes. “Be nice. Beggars wanting transportation should not be overly rude.”

Neil gives me a smile. “I’m sorry. Give me five minutes to decompress. I’ll be chill again, I promise.”

“Whoever said you were chill before?”

He laughs, reluctantly at first, and then with a more natural flow. I smile. I’ve amused him. Good. He was entirely too grim and keyed-up before, and I make a mental note to myself to figure out what’s up with that. The dots don’t connect: the Neil I know; his family; his reaction to his family. Nope, the dots don’t connect.

“If you want quiet, we should go to my house,” I say, shifting gears.

“And if you want to bring your dad’s transmission home not stripped, you need to learn how to shift gears,” he teases.

Neil points at a sign. “Get off here.”

This exit I know. It’s one I sometimes take to get home. I slow down for the stopped traffic ahead, concentrating on correcting my downshift.

“Right or left? Since this is State Street, I assume I can say right or left.”

“Straight. We’re going up 154.”

I push down on the brakes too hard and we make an abrupt stop. “Up the mountain?”

Neil frowns. “Of course. Unless you know another way to get to Devil’s Playground from here.”

I go through the intersection and pull into the parking lot of a strip mall. My fingers tighten around the steering wheel and I turn to stare at Neil. “I’m all for fun and I’m all for outdoorsy, but I’m not driving up the mountain. That road is dangerous.”

He gives me an are-you-joking look. I put the car in neutral, set the parking brake in place, and climb from the car.

“What are you doing?” Neil asks through his open window.

I open his door. “You drive.”

He holds up his hands in front of him. “Whoa, I’m not driving your dad’s car. I can’t even afford a windshield wiper if something happens to it.”

“Well, we’re not going to get there if I drive since I don’t do hills well with a stick shift. So unless you want to go to Hendry’s, or the pier, or the mall…”

Neil climbs out. “Fine. Maybe you can watch while I shift and learn how to do it so you don’t fuck up your dad’s car.”

I smile. “Maybe.”

We sink back into our seats, Neil adjusts his for driving and I lock my seatbelt in place. “Just don’t hit anything,” I admonish, fighting to keep the smile from my face.

Neil gives me a look and I sink my teeth into my lower lip not to laugh. He shifts into gear and we exit the parking lot fast enough to make the tires squeal. A quick right turn and we are on our way up the mountain. I watch without letting him see me as he maneuvers Jack’s car through traffic. It’s effortless for him, but I’ve never been a stick shift girl, no matter how much time Jack has spent trying to teach me.

I lean my head back against the rest, close my eyes, and enjoy the feel of the air swirling through my hair. “Can I ask you something, Neil?”

“Sure. Anything.”

I open my eyes to look at him. “So why did you call me today? What’s up with that? You’re a hometown boy. You must have lots of people to hang with. A girlfriend. Why me?”