Free Sweeter Than W(h)ine by Nancy Goldberg Levine

impression I’m making.”
    “The grease spot’s all part of your appeal,” Rafe said.
    “Very funny, Jay,” Dina teased.
    Nancy disappeared, but returned with a small bottle of club soda. “Try this on your blouse.”
    Dina went to the rest room and opened the club soda, which exploded all over her blouse and the sink. The cap just missed hitting her in the eye. That was just what she needed on top of everything else she’d been through.
    “The club soda exploded,” she told Nan when she returned. “There’s a mess in the rest room and look at me. Now what?”
    “I’m really sorry about the club soda,” Nan said, hovering over her like a mother hen.
    “Me, too,” Rafe said, reaching across the table to touch her hand. Dina liked the heat of his touch against hers, but had to remind herself again that this was just a casual date.
    “I’ve got some extra clothes in the back,” Nan said. “I don’t think they’d fit you, though.”
    Dina glanced at her, but didn’t say anything. Nan was about a size 1X, and Dina was a medium so that wouldn’t work.
    “Wait,” Nan said. She returned with a Nutsie Nan’s Café T-shirt, size medium. “I forgot I had some of these left. I thought we sold out of them all.”
    “ Rafe,” Dina said, as she got up to go to the rest room and change, “I wanted to wear jeans and a T-shirt for our date. I ended up doing that anyway.”
    “I’m sure it’ll look just as nice as the outfit you have on. And I like the red shoes.”
    “I’m getting ready for spring training. They’re Cincinnati Red Wolves red.” She felt her cheeks turn as red as her shoes.
    They got through the rest of the meal and dessert without any more mishaps. Rafe ordered a couple of the Baumgartner Boys mini chocolate cheesecakes, and Dina ordered two peanut butter and jelly chocolate cupcakes and two of Jonathan Levine’s brownies. “I got one of each for Jay,” she admitted, with a laugh.
    “He gets chocolate and a tip?”
    “Of course,” Dina said. She smiled back at Rafe when he grinned at her. “We never got to finish our conversation about me being a geek. I really wasn’t. I played for the Walnut Hills Girls’ Basketball Team and took piano lessons.”
    “So you’re a Renaissance woman.”
    “I guess you could say that.” She was tempted to call Rafe “preppie” since he’d gone to the Ida Malloy Academy, but she decided to stick with “Doc.” The morning passed quickly, and she didn’t even mind when Nan had classical music piped in, as opposed to Dina playing the piano. It was mature and classy, very un-like her next-door neighbor’s taste in music.
    Chapter Six
    The weather looked bad when Dina looked out the window. She didn’t know if Rafe or her parents would show up for dinner tonight or not. They hadn’t made any dire predictions on the TV or radio–yet, so she hoped they would.
    She called Krysta because she’d heard they’d gotten a lot of snow in Hillsboro. Her friend lived in the small town, which was about an hour and a half from Cincinnati.
    “Hello?” Krysta said.
    “Hi. They said on the radio that you all have about eight inches of snow up there. Are they right?”
    “For a change, they are. I think it’s about ten out by my house.”
    She lived away from the city in a comfortable ranch house. Dina had visited there a lot and loved the country setting. When it snowed, though, it was probably treacherous to get around.
    “Rani and Tyler got off school early. I’m just going to heat up some chili I bought and then we’re going to watch some DVDs and stuff on the sci fi channel.”
    “Sounds nice,” Dina said. “ Rafe and my parents are coming over for dinner, so I hope the storm passes over here.”
    “I hope it does, too. How are things going with him?”
    “He’s a great kisser,” Dina said, with an enthusiastic sigh.
    “He seems like the right person for you.” Krysta was usually right about things like that. But then there was her