Half of My Heart ✔️

43 | all is calm

After looking through the scrapbook, we open up the presents mailed to us from relatives and friends. Then Archer heads outside to play with his new car. Mom and Dad head into the kitchen to make Christmas breakfast, and Dad makes Archer promise to not go further than five miles from our house in the Audi.

Five seconds after the front door closes, I'm pretty sure I hear the tires squeal on the asphalt, and I can also hear Dad's blood pressure rising.

"Whatcha doin'?" I ask in a typical annoying sibling voice, resting my head on Dani's lap as she sits on the couch, typing something on her phone. "Textin' someone?"

The corner of Dani's mouth twitches upward the slightest bit before she answers, "No."

"Liar," I say. "Who is it?"

Her mouth twitches again. "No one," she whines in a voice that tells me that it totally is someone.

"Is it . . . Elijah?" I ask, hoping that it is her crush that she's currently texting.

This time, her mouth forms into a full smile for a split second before she suppresses it. "It is," I exclaim. "Tell me everything."

Finally, she cracks. "There's nothing to tell. We had to get each others' numbers for a group project," she says. "It's not a big deal."

"No big deal," I scoff, my excitement growing. "What're you talking about right now?"

She texts something really quickly, smiling at her phone, before looking at me. "We're just playing chess and texting about it," she says, trying to play this off as nothing. "I'm beating him right now, but he's really good."

"Dani, everyone knows that playing games over text counts as flirting," I say. "That's so freaking cute. You two nerding out together. Are you guys going on a date? I can totally drive you."

"We're not going on a date," she insists, but I see a blush rising to her cheeks. "We're just meeting up to work on the project this weekend."

I bat my eyelashes at her, prodding her for more. "And?"

Her smile is uncontainable. "And then he's taking me to get ice cream afterward," she divulges. "But only because I admitted that I've never tried Superman ice cream and he insisted that he needed to change that."

"He insisted?" I'm almost as excited as she is, and I cup my cheeks to hold in my growing smile. Not only is Dani feeling better, but she's finally experiencing young love. "Your first date," I exclaim, kicking my legs in excitement.

"Shut the hell up," she whisper-shouts. "Why don't you go ahead and let the whole house know?"

"Why so secretive?" I ask. Then it dawns on me, and I nod my head in understanding. "You haven't told Dad yet."

She shakes her head, her eyes widened. "I'm thinking about just having Mom drive me there. I don't want Dad hounding Elijah, asking him if he has a criminal record or any venereal diseases."

"You'll cross that bridge when you come to it," I say, waving it off. I decide not to tell her about the first time Dad met Bryce, my ex-boyfriend. Knowing how harsh he was would only scare her. "Right now, let's worry about what you're gonna wear on this date."

"You're so annoying," she says, but I see that smile still on her face. Her phone lights up with a text, and her hand shoots to grab it. "We'll talk about that later. You're distracting me from beating him at chess right now. He just took my knight."

"Fine, fine," I digress. "Let me know when he asks for your hand in marriage."

She rolls her eyes as I slink up from the couch to go annoy someone else in this house. I hear laughter and loud music coming from the kitchen and decide to let my parents enjoy themselves without my badgering. I look out the front window and see an empty spot where the Audi was parked, so Archer is off the list of possible people to hang out with.