I put on my best poker face and tried to answer his glares with a confident posture. Go ahead and tell them why you hate me, I tried to say with the tilt of my head. It will only make you look bad in front of your brother, your parents, and the woman you want to finance your band.

But just in case he flunked posture reading, I also put Rachel's advice into full swing. I wouldn't give Rick time to talk. I asked about Tanner's sports accomplishments. I asked about the Hilltop and whether it was hard to run a restaurant. I asked The Grandmother how she'd learned about business, and that topic took us all the way through dessert.

Tanner's grandmother had graduated with honors from college back when most women didn't even go. She'd taken one restaurant and turned it into a successful chain that spanned three states. She'd invested in real estate. She had a wide range of friends in the business world. I found it all fascinating, mostly because it had nothing to do with me.

By the time I was done with my raspberry-drizzled chocolate cake, I not only wanted to tell Rachel she was brilliant but to declare her a dating goddess. She had saved me. Tanner didn't know the truth about me, and his parents and Grandmother adored me.

I might actually be able to tell Tanner about myself in the car on the way home instead of around the dining room table with everyone gasping at me.

After we'd finished with dessert, I asked, "Would you like help with the dishes, Mrs. Debrock?" I figured this was better than sitting around the table chatting.

She looked over at me, genuinely surprised. "That's sweet of you to offer, but you're our guest. Besides, I don't want to take you away from Tanner."

"He can help too," I said. It had never been my plan to leave him alone with Rick.

I glanced over at Tanner to see if he minded being volunteered, but he was already on his feet, picking up plates from the table. "It's fine, Mom. You should relax. You and Dad made dinner."

Tanner headed to the kitchen with his hands full of dishes, and I followed after him, holding several plates. Right before Tanner left the dining room, he looked over his shoulder and said, "Come on, Richard. You grab the glasses."

I held my breath, waiting for Rick to come up with an excuse not to help. After all, the boy was a professional slacker. How hard could it be for him to come up with some place he needed to immediately be?

"Sure," he called back to us. "I'd love to help." And perhaps only I noticed the sarcasm.

In a preemptive conversational strike, I told Tanner how nice his family was while I rinsed dishes off. Tanner took the plates from my hands and stacked them in the dishwasher, agreeing. Rick went back and forth from the dining room to the kitchen bringing us dishes and silverware.

At one point Tanner took the linen napkins to the laundry room and Rick and I were left alone. He dropped the rest of his silverware into the tray and then surveyed me with a "Nice way to kiss up to everyone. You are truly a master to watch."

I smiled at him and leaned against the counter top. "Are those future lyrics?"

"I write it as I see it."

"Maybe you need to take a better look around then."

He shook his head, still surveying me. "I can't believe you're dating my brother." He gazed off in the distance, raised one hand then dropped it. "Maybe I should have seen it coming. Maybe your type just naturally finds each other, like sharks in mating season." His gaze returned to me and he waved a finger in my direction. "But don't think you're going to start hanging out here now, because you're not."

As if I wanted to spend more time around Rick. "You didn't seem to mind intruding at my house whenever you felt like it."

He took a step toward me. "Well, you pretty much took care of that, didn't you?"

"No, you did. You're the one who wouldn't apologize."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh. Okay then. I'm sorry."

"Are you still going to sing 'Dangerously Blonde' for High School Idol?"

"Yeah," he said. Only he used several adjectives too. Well, at least I think they're adjectives. I've never actually diagrammed a sentence with swear words in it so I'm not sure.

I smiled back at Rick. "Maybe if your grandmother won't finance your band, she'll want to finance mine. After all, she thinks I'm going places."

He took another step closer to me. "I can think of a few places where you could go."

"And the only place you're going is Juilliard. Have fun learning classical guitar."

Rick took one more step, but I never found out what he was going to say because Tanner walked back in. He looked at the two of us and I saw him note how close Rick stood to me. A flash of annoyance crossed Tanner's features and he came and stood on the other side of me. Possessively near.

Did he actually think that Rick was putting the moves on me? It was almost funny. Tanner spoke to his brother, and his voice had an edge to it. "Did you bring in all the silverware?"

Rick didn't move away from me. "Yeah."

"Why don't you go check and make sure you got it all."

"Because I know I got it all."

"Then take the tablecloth to the laundry room."

"Who made you kitchen dictator?" Rick asked, but he turned and stalked out of the room.

Once he was gone, Tanner looked at me questioningly, perhaps still trying to figure out what had happened between Rick and me. I knew I couldn't wait any longer. It had to be right now. "Um Tanner, I have something to tell you. A confession really. I should have told you before but I liked you, and I really wanted you to like me too."

His expression clouded and I knew he was expecting me to say something horrible.

"I'm only seventeen. I don't turn eighteen until April."

His expression remained clouded, like he was still waiting for the horrible part. When I didn't say anything else he said, "Right. You're seventeen. I saw that on your driver's license."

"You knew? All along you knew I wasn't in college?"

His eyes widened. "You're not in college?"

"No, I'm only a senior in high school."

"Oh—I thought you'd skipped a grade or something. You're still in high school?" I couldn't judge how bad he considered this to be, because immediately recognition filled his features. "You know Richard from school, don't you?"

"Yeah, although we're not . . . friends." I said this because I was stalling, because I still didn't want to come right out and tell him we were enemies. It was more than I wanted to discuss right now, but since I knew Rick would say things about me after I left. I added, "I guess I should warn you that he doesn't like me."

"Really?" I didn't imagine it, relief drained into Tanner's expression. "Sorry about that. But don't take it personally. He doesn't like most people. He doesn't like me."

He said this so cheerfully that I laughed. And it was nice not to have worry about the truth exploding on me anymore. Still, it didn't mean that Tanner would overlook this turn of events. I took a deep breath. "Does it bother you that I'm so much younger than you?"

Tanner stepped closer to me and took a hold of one of my hands. "You're not that much younger. I'm only a freshman. I'm eighteen."

How could that be? "But Rick is a senior—"

"Richard skipped a grade and we're two years apart." Tanner took my other hand and smiled as though an idea had just occurred to him. "You know, if I'd moved here with the rest of my family, I would have gone to PHS, and we probably would have dated."