A Boat Made of Bone (The Chthonic Saga) (4 page)

Audra sputtered and feigned choking on her iced tea. “Like hell.”

“But every time you’re at the gym, I’m at the gym, Auds. Unless—” Kate’s eyes narrowed at the guilt-stricken look on Audra’s face. “You go without me?”

“Hardly ever,” Audra said, her brown eyes glowing with an apology. “It’s just that you work some nights and I need the exercise.”

Kate shrugged her hurt feelings off. It was no big deal. It truly wasn’t. She laughed. “Come on, I don’t care. No big deal.” The needling hurt feelings weren’t because Audra went climbing without her, it was that this was the first Kate had heard of it. From Ty, no less.

Ty grabbed Kate’s hand where it rested on the table, startling her. She jerked slightly, her heart thundering immediately and her hand tingling. “Kate, don’t worry. I can resist even Audra’s advances with you in the picture.”

Kate locked gazes with Ty for just a second. Her back was to the setting sun and the light was in Ty’s forest-green eyes. Should she pull her hand away or leave it there like it didn’t matter to her? Audra’s jaw dropped open for just a fraction of a second seeing Ty’s large hand cover Kate’s smaller hand. Kate began to pull away right as Ty laughed and removed his grip.

“I wasn’t worried,” Kate said, finding her voice. The bones of her arm all the way to her elbow still burned from the ignition of Ty’s touch.

“Anyway, there are about a thousand dudes at the gym interested in Audra. You too, Kate,” he said, settling back in his chair with his arms crossed and the Katy Perry album on the table.  Even with his shirtsleeves covering his upper arms, his biceps flexed impressively. Just right, Kate thought. Toned, but not ripped in a grotesque way.

“Oh yeah?” Kate asked, pulling her eyes from his arms and feeling the sarcasm seep into her tone. “Name one.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” he said, giving her a crooked smile. “We have a code. You might call it an honor code.” 

“A bro-code?” Audra joked.

Ty nodded slowly. “I’d never use a term like that, but yes, something of that nature.”

Kate was curious to hear about these supposed guys who were so interested in her. Mostly she wondered if one of them was Ty. It was so hard to tell what was happening, sometimes. Conversations and vibes and the secret thoughts people had were murky and confusing. For all she knew, Ty was just messing with her for fun and he was into Audra. Kate would buy it. The problem was that looking at him, having his hand on hers, and being close to him made her heart hum and the steel in her frame turn to water.

Kate was quiet, waiting for one of them to break the silence. She knew if she opened her mouth, she’d just demand that Ty tell her something he didn’t want to. The piece of information she longed for wasn’t the kind she dared to ask for, either, without giving away her curiosity and intentions. Behind Ty, some of the baristas from Salt and Sugar came out of the cafe carrying a folding, wooden stage and began setting it up against the exterior wall of the shop.

“So is one of these dudes you?” Audra blurted out. Kate turned to Audra as her eyebrows shot toward her hairline.

Ty chuckled, gathering up his Katy Perry album. “Nice try, Audra.” He glanced at Kate and winked. “I’ll never tell.”

“Mmmhmmm, well, you just let these supposed admirers know we’re both available, but not for long. We’re hot items on the market.” Audra swirled the ice around in her drink, and used it to point at Kate as she bragged.

Ty stood up and pushed his chair in, watching Kate the whole time. She shifted beneath his gaze. Why was he staring? 

“Leaving so soon?” Audra asked.

“Sorry. Ten minutes with me kind of flies, doesn’t it? So I guess I’ll see you both next Tuesday?” He finally pulled his gaze from her and focused on Audra.

“Why Tuesday?” Kate asked. Was there a tremor in her voice? That wink—what had it meant? Or had he intended it for Audra? In a way, that would make more sense.

“That’s the next night I work. You guys will be there, won’t you?”

Was he looking solely at Kate when he said you?

“Oh, we’ll be there. Right, Kate?” Audra prompted.

Kate nodded. She didn’t trust that her voice could handle speaking at the moment.

Ty smiled. “Fantastic. Well, I have to run, ladies. I’ve got a thing tonight. But it was nice bumping into you. Sparkling conversation and all.” He tipped a fake hat at them, his eyes lingering on Kate as they said goodbye, and then he walked into the coffee shop.

Sparkling conversation. Hmmm. And a thing? Really? What kind of thing?

At that moment, Kate noticed her neighbor, Ellis, walking toward them and the coffee shop, carrying a guitar case on his back and his arms were laden with other bulky, worn cases. Kate raised an eyebrow, putting the recently erected stage and Ellis together. He was one of those hipsters who unearthed strange and forgotten musical instruments at second-hand stores and used them on stage for effect.

“So, what’d you think of that?” Audra asked, leaning across the table to whisper as though Ty might hear them from inside the coffee shop. She twirled a strand of black hair around one finger.  

“You could do worse,” Kate said with a shrug. There was no way she was going to admit to anything about how Ty made her feel, especially if there was a possibility that Audra was into him.

“No, I mean for you.”

“Me?” Kate choked. “Audra, come on. Him? He’s way too hot for me. I mean, in my dreams, right?” As soon as she said it, she remembered her dream from the night before and desire gushed into her gut. It faded almost as quickly as it had come. Curse Tom and all the dreams she’d been having. Deep down, she worried that they had nothing to do with Tom—the guy in them was usually dark haired, while Tom had blond hair. But if it wasn’t because of Tom, then why were they plaguing her?

Audra shook her head slowly, leaning back in astonishment. “Kate, he was into you.”

“Don’t tease me.” Kate’s laugh sounded hollow and self-conscious even to her.

“I could tell immediately. And you deserve it, by the way. You guys should hook up. He’s prime material.” There was something in Audra’s voice, something too calculated about her certainty.

“Audra, come on, I’m like a five and he’s a ten.” 

“You severely underestimate yourself, dear friend,” Audra said, shaking her head.

A big truck with a diesel engine stopped at the light nearby and they both turned to glare at it. 

“Get a bike,” someone from another table yelled. 

“You were saying?” Kate asked Audra when the truck had disappeared up the street. Audra grinned, knowing that Kate was angling for some kind of validation that she didn’t totally suck. Kate had had boyfriends—Tom, to name just one. It wasn’t like she thought she was the Elephant Man or something. But she hadn’t been in a relationship for a few months and it was beginning to affect her self-perception. “I mean, tell me, Audra, am I just too hard to get along with? It’s my age, isn’t it? Or do I smell like dog crap or something? I need to know.”

Audra took the lid off her drink and fished out a piece of ice. She chewed on it and replaced the lid. “You’re a total babe! That’s crazy talk! Stop being so down on yourself. That’s actually not attractive, you know? Ty was staring at you as often as he could and I swear he winked at you like a thousand times. And, also,” Audra said, considering her iced tea. “I’m not into him.”

Kate eyed her friend, searching her face for deception. Audra was the kind of friend who would intentionally lose a game of Words with Friends just to preserve the relationship.

Kate turned to watch Ellis as he began setting up on the little stage next to Salt and Sugar. He pulled a chair onto it and unpacked his zither.

“OK then, well, if he asks me out, I’ll go. But that’s all I can promise. I need some action, and I’ll take it where I can get it. The only place I’ve been getting it these days is my dreams.” Kate gave Audra a look that meant
don’t ask me what I’m talking about.

“Did you have another sex dream last night?” Audra grinned knowingly. She took her feet off the table and inched forward onto the edge of her chair.

Kate laughed, blushed, and looked at the stage to avoid Audra’s intense stare. “Guess we’re going to get a show tonight.”

Ellis balanced a harmonica around his neck and positioned the zither on his lap.  

“Kate? Don’t you dare ignore me, girl. Talk to me,” Audra prodded.

“Check, check, check,” Ellis said into the mike. “Sounds good. Here we go.” He struck a string on the zither, “Oooohaaahwaaaa,” he intoned into the microphone. Kate had only ever heard him practicing through the windows in his house, which was right next to her driveway.

Audra pulled her chair around until it was beside Kate. “Spill it,” she muttered at Kate’s shoulder. “You can’t ignore me forever. I know where you live.”

“Not gonna happen,” Kate whispered, still blushing furiously. Ellis set the zither aside, picked up his guitar, and began fingerpicking an elaborate tune.

“Come on, Kate,” Audra pled. There was desperation in Audra’s eyes that someone who didn’t know Audra would have found disconcerting.

Kate tried to listen to Ellis’ melody. “Oh man, he’s got a Martin. What I wouldn’t give for a Martin.” It was one of the best acoustic guitars around. Kate felt a stab of envy. “Audra, I’m not going to tell you just so can get off on my dreams.”  

“I simply want to analyze it, that’s all it is. I swear,” Audra said, doing a cross-her-heart thing over her chest and then offering her pinky to do a pinky swear. Kate took it with an exasperated sigh. “Remember? Remember how I don’t have dreams? Let alone the holy grail of all dreams: the sex dream?”

“Fine, you dreamless robot, just—fine,” Kate groaned with a sigh, trying to suppress a pesky grin. 

Ellis was singing quietly like the wind through the trees. The song was haunting and poignant and something about it made Kate keep seeing the blue eyes from her dream.

She finally launched into an explanation of her dream—how it started a typical sex dream, how she remembered him from previous dreams, how she forget who he was immediately upon waking. She spoke in a flurry of whispers during the quiet moments of Ellis’s songs.

A sliver of moon glowed over the treetops and together with Ellis’s music, the evening felt enchanted. Twilight settled the sky into a delectable orange-lemon color. A warm, evening breeze touched Kate’s skin and she felt the inexplicable sensation of being eternal.

***

When Kate got home, Audra disappeared into the bathroom while Kate trudged into her bedroom. Why was she trudging? She should be floating. She should be on cloud nine, shouldn’t she?

There was promise in her future, with Ty. Maybe. If Audra was right. And the planets had aligned and Venus was dipping into the proper constellation. Whatever that was.

With a sigh, Kate undressed and put on her pajama shorts and tank top, moving slowly, feeling a gnawing in her gut and a twinge in her shoulder where she’d slammed into the wall earlier. The problem was that Tom was a rarity for her. He’d been in her circle of friends months before he wore through her resistance and kissed her. It wasn’t like she did it on purpose—surrounding herself with walls of protection. Kate just didn’t trust herself in a relationship.

She sighed, peeling her socks off and falling back onto her bed. Before she could close her eyes and massage her temples in a defeated, life-is-hard sort of way, her phone began playing a   familiar song from within her messenger bag. With a groan, she sat up and fished it out.

Another groan. Anita, her mother.

“Hi, mom,” Kate said, answering, biting back her guilt for having rejected all of Anita’s earlier calls.

“Well, you’re a hard one to catch,” Anita said sarcastically. “I guess you’ve been busy?”

“Uh, yeah. Sorry, Mom. Worked all night, you know?”

“It’d be nice if you had a job with regular, normal hours,” Anita mused.

“I’m working on it,” Kate answered, thinking about doctors and nurses, and all the other respectable jobs in the world that didn’t have normal hours. Not that she had one of those. But still. Kate had the job she had. And she was thankful, most of the time, just to have one with the economy so shoddy these days and plenty of her degree-heavy friends either staying in school for more school and loftier degrees simply to stay out of the workforce, and others taking minimum wage jobs at call centers or fast food places just to be able to pay back loans.

“I know, I know,” Anita said in an apologetic huff. “Can I expect you home for dinner Sunday? I’m making a roast. Your brothers will be here too.” Kate thought of her younger brothers—twins, Jake and Owen, who had both headed down to a southern university as soon as they graduated—and smiled slightly. She should go. How long had it been? A month? Kate opened her mouth to say she’d be there, when Anita interrupted. “Lane, I asked you to get my crackpot back from that friend of yours. How am I supposed to make dinner on Sunday if I don’t have my slow-cooker?” There was an unintelligible response in the background. Kate cringed and squeezed her eyes shut. She could just see her father passively deflecting Anita’s attack—he would shrug and smile awkwardly while avoiding her gaze.

“Uh, Mom,” Kate began, a bitter taste filling her mouth.