That Boy: A Small Town, Friends-to-Lovers Romance (That Boy Series Book 1)

The limo driver pulls up to the Piedmont. The Piedmont is the coolest hotel in town. It’s in an old historic building that has been completely renovated. The doorman opens my door. I slide out and look around for Phillip.

I don’t see him, so I walk inside. I’ve never gotten to stay at this hotel, but if the lobby is any indication, the rooms must be beautiful. The lobby has a huge, high, old-fashioned tin ceiling. There are marble columns and crown molding that must be at least two feet thick.

A bellman walks over to me and hands me a notecard.

What is this? And how the heck does he know who I am?

Just go with the flow, Jay, I tell myself, trying to stay calm.

I read the note. It says, Take the elevator to the 16th floor.

No signature. No heart.

I get on the elevator and see from the sign that the restaurant is on the sixteenth floor.

I am telling you, if Phillip isn’t there, I’m done with this date because I’m sick and tired of being on it alone!

The elevator doors open to a dimly lit hall that leads into the restaurant.

Still, no Phillip.

Damn that boy!

Where is he?

I mean, I’m not complaining, but I have been on this whole scavenger-hunt/date-extravaganza thing for over two hours now, and I still haven’t seen my date.

Okay, so maybe I’m complaining a bit, but I can’t help it.

I want to be with him.

The maître d’ is obviously expecting me because he says, “Miss Reynolds, please follow me,” and leads me to a big, cozy leather-wrapped booth.

And guess what.

Phillip is actually here!

He sees me, gives me a big grin, and stands up. He sweetly kisses my cheek and then lets me slide into the booth before him.

Finally! Some manners! Much better than the horn-honking, bossy Nazi limo driver I have been spending my time with.

“You’re late,” he says.

I give him an angry look before he kisses me again.

He is teasing me, I think.

Phillip looks very handsome. He’s got on a dark brown suit that matches his eyes. Under the suit, he’s wearing a light-blue shirt and a really cool brown-blue-and-orange tie. And, I will admit, when I got here, I had my panties in a bit of a wad and was kinda irritated with Phillip. But, the minute I look at him, it all melts away. I’m pretty sure that means I do love him.

“You look incredible,” he tells me.

And I’m pretty sure he means it because his eyes are just riveted on me.

It makes me feel both nervous and powerful at the same time.

I think I could get away with just about anything in this dress.

Hmm. Maybe I’ll give it a try.

“Well,” I tell him, shaking my head, “I have been having quite the date without you. How did you ever find a limo driver who was a former male dancer? He was so cute. It was like having my own mini bachelorette party before our date. It was really nice of you to let me get that out of my system before we got too serious. Thank you so much!” I say very sincerely and very much lying.

“The limo driver danced for you?” Phillip asks in disbelief.

For a second, I see a little jealousy cross that cute face of his.

“Isn’t that why you hired him?” I ask innocently, trying to control my smile.

“No,” he says angrily, but then he sees my smirk, grabs me, kisses me again, and says, “You are so full of it. I can’t believe I just fell for that.”

I laugh.

It’s good to know I can still get to him.

“Seriously though, I suppose I should thank you for the limo ride even though I didn’t like that you weren’t there. And let’s see … the incredible roses and the spa and the bracelet and the dress …”

“I think the dress was for me,” he interrupts. “You look … beautiful, incredible, sexy … everything.”

Phillip keeps beaming at me. This dress feels practically magical. It might very well be, based on the way he’s looking at me.

It’s like he’s mesmerized, he’s hypnotized …

Hey, that reminds me of a movie line.

Oh! I know!

“Why, this car is automatic, it’s systematic, it’s hydroomatic.”

My mom and I loved to watch Grease. My friends always thought Danny Zuko was so cute, but I preferred Kenickie, which isn’t a big surprise now that I think about it. I mean, if Phillip had to play one of the T-Birds from Grease, he’d definitely play Kenickie. But only because of how he looks—as in hot—’cause, let’s face it; Kenickie was kind of a jerk, and Phillip is so not.

The waiter comes over and pours us champagne, so I shove the movie and Kenickie to the back of my mind.

“You know, Phillip, I really should eat something before I drink any more.” I barely get the words out of my mouth when another waiter starts setting an array of appetizers on our table. Phillip has obviously planned out this portion of the date in detail as well.

I immediately dig in.

I mean, I do it gracefully.

“You know,” I say between bites of crab cake, “your sister has us, like, practically married already. I thought we were going to try to keep this a secret.”

“Did you really think Mom could keep this to herself? After the plotting the two of them have been doing? They’re already congratulating themselves.”

“I know. I just don’t want them to get the wrong idea about us. I mean, it’s been a week. We don’t even know for sure what’s going on yet.”

“We don’t?”

“Well, I mean, we’re having great fun and all, but …”

“Here,” he says, interrupting me again and handing me another little box.

Another charm. Fabulous. Can’t wait to open it.

I’m sorry, but I’ve had about enough of these little things.

But, still, I try to look surprised and pleased as I open the box.

Oh crap. Now, I feel bad for thinking that.

I really do love this charm. In fact, it’s my favorite. It’s a little princess crown with pink jewels on the tips of the crown’s points.

Phillip raises his champagne glass in a toast. “This charm is my way of promising to always treat you like a princess.”

Okay, so the princess crown and what he said make me melt a little, but come on!

I have about had it with all the romance.

This is so not Phillip! He’s a take-me-to-Hooters, watch-football, play-darts, go-jogging-with kind of guy. Not this mushy sap.

What has happened to him?

So, being the blunt girl that I am, I say, “Okay, Phillip, what gives? What’s with all this romance stuff? I’ve had almost as much as I can take. This is so not you.”

He smiles sweetly. “Well, I just wanted tonight to be a night that you would never forget. I wanted it to be very special.”

Very special? There are those pesky words again.

“Have your previous boyfriends ever done anything like this?”

“I think you already know the answer to that, Phillip”—I roll my eyes at him—“and, no, they have not.”

So, I add the charm to my bracelet and eat another crab cake.

The waiter comes over.

Yay! He’s here to take my order, and I’m starved. Okay, I’m thinking a big steak, some garlic mashed potatoes … but then I notice he doesn’t have his little pad out.

Instead, he sets another box on the table in front of me.

I think I’m on present overload. Can’t I just play with what I already have?

But I want to please Phillip, so I smile at him and start to untie the bow on the box. At first, I think this is another charm, but I realize this box is bigger than the others.

Charm earrings perhaps?

“Wait,” Phillip says.

He grabs both of my hands in his and looks into my eyes. “First, I want to tell you that I love you, that I’m in love with you. I know you wanted me to be serious when I said it, and I am. Princess, I have loved you for as long as I can remember.”

I smile at him, and I know he’s serious. I feel the same way.

Then, he slides out of the booth, walks over to my side, kneels down on one knee in front of me, takes my hand in his, and says, “Will you marry me?”

“Wait! What? What was that last part? I thought you said—”

Phillip doesn’t respond to my question or my shocked look. Instead, he slides back into the booth next to me, unties the ribbon on the box, and opens the lid.

And what’s inside is definitely not charm earrings.

What’s inside is a ring.

An engagement ring!

Absolutely. The. Most. Beautiful. Engagement. Ring. I. Have. Ever. Seen.

Yet it looks strangely familiar to me.

But why?

I’ve never seen a ring like this. It’s so beautiful!

I look at Phillip, and then it hits me. “Oh my God, this is the ring I sketched.”

I am stunned.

I look at him, flabbergasted. That’s a very weird word, but no other word can accurately describe the way I must look.

Phillip smiles and pulls a little folded-up piece of paper from the top of the box and hands it to me.

“No way,” I mutter and shake my head.

I unfold it, and there is my drawing.

He kept it.

Has he always known?

I mean, did he keep it because he knew months ago that he wanted to marry me?

I look at the ring again. A gorgeous two-carat emerald cut diamond in a platinum setting with baguette diamonds on the crisscrossed sides.

I am staring at perfection.

This ring belongs on my finger.

I am dazed.

“So, will you marry me?” Phillip says, jolting me back to reality.

“Phillip … no. I can’t marry you. We’re on our first date. What am I going to tell everyone? I know you didn’t even know we were dating, but on our first date, we got engaged. It’s like the time in my sorority when one of the girls passed her candle and when she blew it out, we were all like, Which one is she marrying? Because she was dating, like, two different guys. I don’t want to be that girl, Phillip. Everyone will think we’re nuts.”

I pause for a minute. “You can’t get engaged on your first date.” I put my hand on his cheek, kiss him, look into his eyes, and say sincerely, “I’m not saying I don’t want to marry you. I mean, that possibility seems very intriguing to me, but don’t you think we should see if we can make it past, I don’t know, maybe the third date or something?”

Phillip sits there very calmly. He’s known me long enough to know that this is not necessarily my final answer, that I’m working things out in my mind by saying them. I tend to speak what my mind is thinking.

It does get me in trouble sometimes. But I’m done talking. This is ridiculous. I said no. What more is there?

Phillip leans over and whispers in my ear. He reminds me of something that happened so long ago that I completely forgot it.

And then, well, all of a sudden, everything makes perfect sense.

Hmm.

“So, let me ask again,” Phillip says patiently. “Will you marry me, Princess?”

I smile and say, “Yes!” as he slips the ring on my finger.

Apparently, you can get engaged on your first date.

And, you know, it’s not like we have to tell anyone right away.

Right?

“So, can we kind of keep this our little secret?” I ask Phillip. “Like, we’ll start letting people know we’re dating, and then, maybe in a few months, we can announce the whole engagement thing?”

“Uh … sure,” Phillip responds.

That should work out just fine, I think.

“So, can we order now?”

“Um, well, we need to run downstairs real quick first.”

I give him my dejected look.

He sighs big at me and gives me an is your stomach all you ever think about look. “Just quick and then we’ll eat, I promise.”

He drags me out of the booth and down to the mezzanine level.

Now, normally, I would ask a million questions about where we are going that’s so freaking important and why we can’t at least eat first—stuff like that.

But what can I say?

I’m still a bit dazed by the ring, but I’m also seriously dazed by, well, everything!

All of it! The roses, the dress, the spa, the limo, the charms, the ring. He really put a lot of thought into this. And I’m starting to grasp the fact that he’s loved me for a long time.

Why didn’t I ever see that?

Maybe I’m the one who’s not so perceptive.

Phillip leads me into a ballroom.

There are people mingling and talking and a band that looks like it’s getting ready to start playing.

“This is the fundraiser my parents are at,” Phillip tells me while scanning the room.

So much for not telling anyone. I’ll have to stress that this is just between us and that we will tell people in our own sweet time.

As I look for his parents in the crowd, I’m surprised to see a few people I know. Like, a couple of the girls from Phillip’s office.

Hmm, maybe this is a fundraiser that Mr. Mac’s company is hosting or something.

But then, over in the corner, I spot our friends Brandon and Neil.

Wait a minute.

“Hey, Phillip, Brandon and Neil are over there. Why are they at this party?”

He ignores my question and points. “Hey, there’s Mom and Dad.”

But, when I see Katie and Eric, I know something is going on.

Why are all these people I know at this fundraiser?

Katie is not the fundraiser type.

And what is it raising funds for anyway?

Why isn’t there a sign?

Finally, I say, “Phillip, what is going on here?”

He looks at me with a huge grin, holds up his hands, and happily says, “Surprise! This is our engagement party.”

I blink hard.

What? You’ve got to be kidding me.

This is keeping things quiet?

I stand there and stare at him, dumbfounded. I’m sure my mouth is hanging wide open. The boy is nuts.

“Excuse me? You were so confident that I would agree to marry you on our first date that you planned a surprise engagement party?”

“Well, not just me.” He grins proudly as he takes my hand. “My family helped a ton, and Danny and Lori, too.” He is so excited about this.

Who is this man?

He has taken on some alter ego, and I don’t like it one bit!

Phillip quickly kisses me and says, “Let’s go up on stage, thank everyone for coming, and tell them it’s official! Now, we can party!”

I look at the stranger standing in front of me and pull my hand out of his with as much force as I can muster.

“You arrogant son of a bitch,” I say. Well, maybe I growl it. It’s hard to say for certain.

But I can tell you this. I am fuming, smoke-flying-out-of-my-ears mad as I take the engagement ring off my finger, shove it into Phillip’s hand, and march toward the stage. The march to the stage feels like it takes forever because there are a million thoughts running through my mind.

Did all these people come here because they really thought I’d say yes?

Or did they come for the fireworks of me saying no?

Do they wish us well?

Or hope to see us fail?

I reach the stage and tentatively walk out on it. One of the band members hands me a microphone, and I know I really need to say something to all these people.

“Phillip and JJ sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G …”

Great! Now, I’m having flashbacks to when I was ten.

As I survey the crowd, I see many of the friends who tortured me with those songs, except they’re all grown up now. Well, sort of grown up. I half-expect them to break out in song.

Unfortunately, they are just standing there, staring at me.

I might die of embarrassment.

Actually, I wish it were possible to die of embarrassment. Then, I could drop dead, and I wouldn’t have to do what I am about to do.

Part of me wonders how in the world I got here to begin with. Phillip and I have been friends for a really long time and only decided to have a real relationship, as opposed to the totally platonic one we’d always had, all of a week ago.

And, well, it has been really incredible.

I mean, Phillip is incredible in ways I didn’t even imagine!

Okay, so I might have imagined a little.

Anyway, as of about six minutes ago, we were out on a romantic first date.

Then, he had to go and blow the whole thing all to hell by asking me to marry him.

Can you believe that?

Me neither.

And, as if it wasn’t unbelievable enough that he asked me to marry him on our first date, he was so damn sure I’d say yes that he planned this huge surprise engagement party.

Tonight. On our first date. Like, right now!

On stage, I shudder and mentally prepare myself. I have to tell everyone who came here tonight that there is no way I’m going to marry that boy!

I put the microphone up to my mouth and say, “Well, it took me a little while, but I finally figured out this isn’t a fundraiser.”

Laughter, all around me.

“Now, I know you all came here tonight, expecting to surprise me with an engagement party.” I pause for a minute. “Well, at least you got the surprise part right.” I chuckle.

Oh, I’m failing miserably up here. Just do it, JJ. Get it over with.

“Actually, Phillip did ask me to marry him tonight. And I have to tell you all that, well, I said NO.”

The crowd sighs. I glance over at Phillip’s mom. She looks like she’s going to faint, but I continue. I’m in too deep to stop now.

“I told him that it’s crazy. That this is our first real date, and, God, what would people think?”

I try not to look at Phillip, but I do. He’s standing very still, staring at my perfect ring, probably wondering how his magical plan went so astray.

But I go on, “So, he told me that he loves me, that he has always loved me, and who cares what people think anyway? But I’m thinking, I do. So, I say NO again.”

The crowd goes, “Aah,” and then is silent.

What am I doing? If I say no tonight, will Phillip still date me, or will he give up on me forever? And what in the world would I do without him?

Just as my life about blows up in my face, I spot Danny and Lori in the crowd, and something very important clicks in the back of my mind. I flashback to the conversation Phillip and I had after their engagement.

He asked me if I’d ever want to be surprised in front of a whole bunch of people.

Didn’t he?

And I told him yes.

Didn’t I?

Because I thought it would be so cool to know a guy had planned all of it for me.

My God, I asked for this!

He did it all for me.

All of it.

The spa, the dress, the limo, the charms, the ring, the party. He did it because it’s what he thought I wanted.

I look at Phillip again and melt. He’s still my Phillip, my handsome prince. He still loves football and cars and darts and, well, me.

So, I decide.

For good this time.

What’s my mantra?

Say it with me now!

What the hell?

I continue speaking to the crowd, “But then Phillip reminded me of something that happened so long ago that I had completely forgotten it.”

I start to get tears in my eyes.

“He reminded me of when we were ten, and he gave me my first kiss. We were on the swings out behind school, and right after he kissed me, he got up and ran away. Then, all of a sudden, he stopped, turned around, and yelled back, ‘Will you marry me someday?’” I smile big at everyone as I remember this, and tears start streaming down my face.

“And I yelled back to him, ‘YES!’ And so he said that, if people asked, I could tell them that we’d been secretly engaged for the past twelve years. And so”—I close my eyes for a second and think, Here goes nothing. I open them and look straight at Phillip—“you will probably all think I am very crazy, but I had to say YES again tonight!”

Everyone screams and laughs and claps.

Phillip looks up at me, smiles a huge smile, runs, and leaps up onto the stage with me. I wrap my arms around his neck and give him a really big kiss because I know in my heart that I’ve just made the very best decision of my entire life.

Phillip grabs my left hand and holds it out, so everyone can watch him put the ring back on my finger where it definitely belongs!

He smiles at me and says, “Princess, don’t ever take that off again.”

I kiss that boy and then say very seriously, “You know, if you want to be my husband, you’ve really gotta stop being so bossy.”