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balancing it, giving him the whole thirty seconds’ worth, but he wasn’t the kind of guy who would appreciate it.
    “I guess not, sir.”
    “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”
    “No, sir.”
    He sort of stared at me for a long time, as if thinking about it.
    “Why did you ask my daughter to the dance?” he finally said.
    I was surprised, and I know that my expression showed it.
    “I don’t know what you mean, sir.”
    “You’re not planning to do anything to . . . embarrass her, are you?”
    “No, sir,” I said quickly, shocked by the accusation. “Not at all. I needed someone to go with, and I asked her. It’s as simple as that.”
    “You don’t have any pranks planned?”
    “No, sir. I wouldn’t do that to her. . . .”
    This went on for a few more minutes—his grilling me about my true intentions, I mean—but luckily Jamie stepped out of the back room, and her father and I both turned our heads at the same moment. Hegbert finally stopped talking, and I breathed a sigh of relief. She’d put on a nice blue skirt and a white blouse I’d never seen before. Fortunately she’d left her sweater in the closet. It wasn’t too bad, I had to admit, though I knew she’d still be underdressed compared with others at the dance. As always, her hair was pulled up in a bun. Personally I think it would have looked better if she’d kept it down, but that was the last thing I wanted to say. Jamie looked like . . . well, Jamie looked exactly like she usually did, but at least she wasn’t planning on bringing her Bible. That would have just been too much to live down.
    “You’re not giving Landon a hard time, are you?” she said cheerfully to her father.
    “We were just visiting,” I said quickly before he had a chance to respond. For some reason I didn’t think he’d told Jamie about the kind of person he thought I was, and I didn’t think that now would be a good time.
    “Well, we should probably go,” she said after a moment. I think she sensed the tension in the room. She walked over to her father and kissed him on the cheek. “Don’t stay up too late working on the sermon, okay?”
    “I won’t,” he said softly. Even with me in the room, I could tell he really loved her and wasn’t afraid to show it. It was how he felt about me that was the problem.
    We said good-bye, and on our way to the car I handed Jamie her corsage and told her I’d show her how to put it on once we got in the car. I opened her door for her and walked around the other side, then got in as well. In that short period of time, Jamie had already pinned on the flower.
    “I’m not exactly a dimwit, you know. I do know how to pin on a corsage.”
    I started the car and headed toward the high school, with the conversation I’d just had with Hegbert running through my mind.
    “My father doesn’t like you very much,” she said, as if knowing what I was thinking.
    I nodded without saying anything.
    “He thinks you’re irresponsible.”
    I nodded again.
    “He doesn’t like your father much, either.”
    I nodded once more.
    “Or your family.”
    I get the picture.
    “But do you know what I think?” she asked suddenly.
    “Not really.” By then I was pretty depressed.
    “I think that all this was in the Lord’s plan somehow. What do you think the message is?” Here we go, I thought to myself.
    I doubt if the evening could have been much worse, if you want to know the truth. Most of my friends kept their distance, and Jamie didn’t have many friends to begin with, so we spent most of our time alone. Even worse, it turned out that my presence wasn’t even required anymore. They’d changed the rule owing to the fact that Carey couldn’t get a date, and that left me feeling pretty miserable about the whole thing as soon as I found out about it. But because of what her father had said to me, I couldn’t exactly take her home early, now, could I? And more than that, she was really having a good time; even I could see