“Charming.” I laughed and made my way to the passenger seat over a chorus of conspicuously loud, whooping cries from behind us. I buckled my seat belt, enjoying Grant’s nearness for a moment, until the engine roared and the truck fishtailed.
Grant leaned forward, grinning, his foot stamping the floor. The rear tires shot great arcs of mud into the air behind us for a moment, and then we were off. I screamed and clutched his arm as the edge of the clearing rushed toward us. Grant laughed and spun the wheel at the last second, sending the truck into a long, hissing drift that splashed mud across the trunks of a dozen trees. He righted the drift and took off across the clearing again and now I was laughing too. The truck spun again, this time through a surprisingly deep depression that splattered gouts of mud on the windows and windshield. I remembered insisting that Grant explain muddin’ to me and realized that he never could have, really—not in a way that would have made me understand. How much of life was like that, just waiting for me to come and give it a chance? The truck finally came to a stop at the opposite end of the clearing from our classmates. I just sat and panted for a moment, running my adrenaline-shaken hands through my hair.
“That was…” I began breathily, searching for the most accurate word and failing. “That was awesome!”
“I hoped you’d like it,” Grant said softly. I turned to him, grinning like a kid, and felt a flutter in my chest when I saw a much more reserved smile on his face and his dark eyes locked firmly on mine. He seemed like he was waiting for something. The flutter turned into a tightening as I realized what was about to happen.
“So,” I said, looking away and stroking my hair nervously. I couldn’t stop thinking about how he had darted away after school the other day. I didn’t want to ruin the moment, but I needed to know. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot,” Grant said, leaning against the steering wheel and cocking his head.
“Are we dating?”
“Well, we’re on a date.”
“I know.” I felt like every cell in my body was vibrating, a steady thrum from my hair to my toes. “But are we going to go on more?”
Grant frowned and looked out the windshield, and for a moment I was certain his answer was no. I was too boring. I was too stuck-up. I’d been a horrible dancer at the party and I’d assumed muddin’ was stupid.
“Guess that’s up to you,” he said, favoring me with his full smile. I realized his front teeth were actually a little bit crooked, and I realized that a person’s flaws could make them even more beautiful sometimes. “I know I want to.”
“But the other day, after school, you seemed like you wanted to be as far away from me as possible.”
“Shit,” Grant said, sighing. His hands beat a steady rhythm on the wheel. “I’m sorry, Amanda. I guess I was just embarrassed about not being able to give you a ride. Made me feel less manly or something. It’s just things with you are so fresh and new, and … you ever feel like you only want somebody to see you at your best?”
I couldn’t help smiling.
“I don’t just want you at your best though,” I said. “I want to get to know you.”
I thought about what Virginia had said, about us both keeping secrets, and I thought about my parents and how quiet it was in our home in the year before they got divorced. How they basically stopped telling each other anything important. If I was going to do this, I wanted to do it right. I chewed my knuckle for a moment as I remembered the day at the plantation with Bee. “What if we played the honesty game?”
“What’s that?” he said. I explained the rules the way Bee had explained them to me. Grant paused a moment, thinking. “So it’s like Truth or Dare?” he said.
“Kind of.” I nodded, thinking of how Bee had described it. “Just, you know, without the pervy stuff.” He put on a show of pouting and I gave him a light shove. “Whatever! Play your cards right and pervy stuff might be negotiable. So you’ll play it with me?”
He nodded. “Do we start now?”
I shrugged. “No time like the present, right?” I took a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll go first.” I took another deep breath and thought of the sermon at church with Anna. The idea of shedding all your layers of secrets and lies. Maybe someday, if we played this long enough, I would be able to tell him the truth about everything. “That night by the lake was my first kiss.”
“No way,” Grant said, shaking his head. “No way.” I nodded emphatically. “How’d you hold out so long? Pretty as you are, guys must’ve been chasing you since middle school.”
“Thanks,” I said, blushing. “I changed a lot last summer, so this is all pretty new,” I told him truthfully. “Your turn.”