Burned Gasoline (13 page)

              “Nothing. You. I don’t know.” He said. His eyes were still closed, but his smile was wide enough for his teeth to shine in the gloomy light surrounding them. With his arm tightening around her back, holding her into the side of his chest, she found the opportunity to slide on top of him. In silence.

              “And what do you think you’re doing?” He mumbled, rubbing his hands over the skin of her bare back.

              “Nothing.” She whispered. “Just watching you. You’re a sight for sore eyes, as the wise man says.”

              “Oh, spare me the poetry.”

              “Fine. Then you can just lie here and I’ll just watch you until I fall asleep here on your chest.”

              He didn’t say anything, but took one of his hands from her back and dragged his fingers through her hair before he pulled her head down to his chest.

              “Stop watching me. It’s weird.”

              “Get used to it, tough man. I’ve been watching you since the day I first saw you at the parking lot, and that interest is not going to decline.”

              “Fine. Go ahead. Look. Ogle me. I’m gonna try to sleep, even though that’s quite a challenge with you on top of me like this. Just… stay still. Don’t move, don’t…. rub any places.”

              With a smile she let his hand guide her head into a comfortable position against the scarcely scattered hairs going across his chest, but before she closed her eyes completely she couldn’t help herself and ran a single fingertip over his nipple.

              “Stop!” He hissed, and grabbed her hand in his. “If we were alone in here it would be your nipples that would teased, and you’d scream for me to stop. But we’re not, so don’t start anything you can’t finish.” She buried her face into his chest, gave the skin a peck, and truly focused on going back to sleep. She was almost at the door of her dreams when he whispered.

              “Why did you say things were missing around your house that time we were in bed?”

              “Sometimes things just don’t seem to be in the same places as where I leave them. Nothing big. It’s either that I’m forgetful or that someone is playing a trick on me, like those high school kids always riding around on their mopeds at the town square.”

              “What things do you mean?”

              “Well, I found my mailbox in the bushes outside of the store after I invited you to dinner one night, and I put it back in place. But now it’s gone again, but since I’m not getting any mail it doesn’t really matter. If it’s important the mailman will drop it off just outside the front door. Sometimes, though, I imagine I can hear footsteps outside the house, or the door to the barn can be slightly open in the morning. And onetime someone placed a dead bird on the hood of my car. But, it hasn’t really bothered me that much.”

              “What? That’s crazy shit!” He hissed, but clammed shut when Nova started to stir in her bed.

              A few minutes went by before he continued. “You need to see the police about that. I can even talk to Brody about it. He’s the Sheriff, we went to school together. He’d probably come out tomorrow if you wanted him to.” His face was raised slightly to meet hers.

              “It’s nothing, Jeff. If some teens want to play a little joke I don’t care. No one has ever threatened me, or scared Nova. I haven’t even seen anyone around the house. You know how these kids can be, riding their mopeds out of town a bit, messes around with people’s things, then find a secret hiding spot to smoke some weed.”

              “I’m not sure I agree with you on this. If it continues I’m having you and Nova stay here for a while until there is a solution to what the fuck is going on over there. Or, perhaps I should just come over more often.”

              “Either way sounds great to me. Thank you.” She leaned forward and touched his lips gently with a kiss.

              “One more.” He mumbled and with the help of his hand held her head steady, kissing her long and deep, until her lungs released a low moan against his mouth.

              “Now, sleep Raylyn.” He whispered and placed her head back into position on his chest.

              “Not fair.” She whispered back and she knew he was smiling.

              “So fair, with the way you’re moving against my crotch. No more talking or moving. Good night.”

“Good night.”

Chapter Sixteen

              Things were working almost too well between them. Welcoming Raylyn into his house had been like breaking a barrier, and when he knew she wouldn’t run he seemed more relaxed and comfortable about the whole situation.

              They’d seen each other for almost four months already. Four months of sex, four months of dinners, four months of waking up in bed together, four months for Jefferson to getting to know Nova, four months of ups and downs but maybe the road was leveled out now. No more ex-husband’s wanting to fight, no more speed dialing ex-lovers, and no more shutting each other out of their lives.

              From their early dating days she knew Friday nights were Jefferson’s days to relax at home after a long work week, but also taking another night shift with his mom, whom was getting less and less of good energetic days.

              Jefferson had brought Nova into his mother’s bedside one evening and let her hold her in her lap. Unfortunately the event didn’t go as well as planned, as she had had a very hard time placing to whom the child belonged, why it was in her bed, and if
she
was the parent or not. He had placed Nova back into Raylyn’s arms, and then gently asked her to leave the room, in the event his mother would get a meltdown.

              That evening had turned horrible enough for Raylyn to drive Nova and herself home, all the way back outside of town, to avoid all the continuous screaming and crying that escaped from the house. Jefferson had looked devastated and been horrified she’d leave him, just like Marina, and not return. This was after all his reality.

              He had looked so torn between running into his mother’s bedroom, calming her down, and running after Raylyn to the car, that it almost broke her heart and she felt she had to go back inside the house, to his mother’s bedroom, hug him tightly and promise him everything was going to be fine. That she wasn’t leaving, but that she just needed some sleep. Before she’d left the room he’d asked her, not once, not twice, but three times if she’d still be at her house in the morning for him to call. His horror of being left again exploded from inside him.

              She’d felt with him then. She’d cried with him then. Cried until the screaming from the bedroom had gone ballistic and Jefferson had ushered her out, but not until he kissed her one last time before closing the front door after her, almost shoving the door in her rear to make her leave.

              She’d carried a fussing Nova up to the crib, praying she’d go back to sleep, but she had ended up walking and rocking, walking and rocking, until the late hours of the evening until Nova had finally fallen asleep in her arms from pure exhaustion of being overtired. With weary arms she’d tried to put Nova into bed as smoothly as possible, and then turned off the light in the window. That’s when she noticed it. It was just a quick glimpse of a silhouette rushing around the corner of the barn and out of her eyesight. As fast as it appeared it was gone. Only one thought went through her mind.

              “Jeff?” She heard the fear in her own voice moving through the wires to his ears.

              “Yeah. How are you? So sorry about tonight. You okay? It’s pretty late. Is everything alright?” He answered and she knew the mumbling of his voice was obvious proof he’d been dead asleep when she’d called.

              “Um... I don’t know.” She answered, holding the phone tight to her ear, almost afraid someone else could hear their conversation.

              “What do you mean?” The shuffling of bed sheets sounded over the phone, and his tone was suddenly more alert. “Is it something with Nova?”

              “No. I… I think someone is outside my house. I just turned off the light in Nova’s room and quickly shot a glance out the window, you know, not looking for anything special, but I think someone just ran behind the barn.” Her voice had turned into an unsure contemplation of what her imagination had created in the darkness surrounding the property.

              “I’ll be right there.” He shot her a quick answer. “Don’t move anywhere. I’ll call in someone else to be here with mom while I’m gone. Stay with Nova and keep the room dark so whoever is outside can’t see in.” The line went silent, except for a lone solid tune ringing back into her ear.

              “Alright.” She whispered, clutched the phone close to her chest, and quietly walked over to the door leading into Nova’s room. She closed it slowly before turning the knob from the inside and locking it securely. To make sure was shut correctly she turned the knob a few times back and forth, letting the door wiggle but not open.

              The room was only lit up by the moon outside, and she quietly traced her steps back to the window, and slid behind the panel curtain hanging down one side of the windowsill. Still no more movement, she thought, but also kept in mind the distance into town, and to Jeff’s place.

              She wasn’t quite sure how many minutes had gone by until the black figure reappeared in the light of the moon. It was neither too tall, nor too short. Perfect size for a teenager, she thought. It looked like the figure pulled up its knees higher than a normal person to walk across the grounds of shallow snow. Steps resembling a fox about to pounce on its prey. Then it disappeared through the slight opening of the old barn door.

              She watched that door like a hawk, and she couldn’t remember if she even blinked afraid she’d miss something. The figure didn’t appear again, but she kept her eyes locked on the barn door the entire time whilst waiting to hear the familiar sound of rumbling noise from Jefferson’s Ford roll across the gravel up to the house.

              The high beams from his truck finally lit up the side of the barn as his truck turned down the driveway and parked next to her Chevy. Turning off the car and killing the lights, the outside went into pure darkness once more. She noticed him looking up at the window where she was standing and with a light wave in the moon light she let him know she was still there.

              He turned in his footsteps and grabbed a flashlight from the flatbed of his truck before he walked across the same opened area the figure had recently crossed to reach the door of the barn. The door still stood slightly opened and she noticed him squeeze by the narrow opening not to scare the possible intruder, and she hoped to God he wouldn’t find anyone inside, or get ambushed.

              Through some of the unpatched holes across the northern side of the barn, where winds always hit the wall the hardest and tore most of the wood away, her eyes could watch the gleam from his flashlight moving high and low inside the building. Eventually he exited and turned to Nova’s window with the flashlight in hand and flashed her one long, one short, and three long flashes before he locked the barn door behind him and walked across the open grounds.

              The cold night breeze came in with him as he entered the door but was immediately warmed up by a welcoming all-around wrapping hug he sure felt he needed.

              “Are you okay?’ His whisper tickled the thin skin of her ear when he spoke, but she simply nodded into the warm skin of his neck and clamped her arms tighter around him.

              “I’ve checked every part I could get to in the there, but I couldn’t see anyone. I locked the door too, Raylyn. From now on – always lock it, please.” Her face was still glued to his neck and she nodded her face into it again when he spoke.

              “I was scared.”

              His hand went up to her head to slowly caress the light strands under his fingers, soothing her.

              “I know, but that’s okay. You did the right thing in calling me.”

              “I figured you did some Morse code out there but what did it mean?” She pulled her face away from him to watch his face.

              “That it was ‘OK’ in there. My brother and I used to play around with it as kids, hiding from mom or dad, using Morse code to flash each other messages from where we were hiding.”

              “Please promise you tell me more about him one day. I only know what Truly told me.”

              “Alright, I will, but not now. It’s late and after this quite eventful evening we all need some sleep.” His hands brought her face up to his mouth and with the softest of lips he kissed her and ended their conversation. They made their way up to Raylyn’s bedroom and crawled tightly together in each other’s arms underneath the welcoming warm cover of the bed.

              Her leg rose up to rest heavily on Jefferson’s hip, letting it drape over his body and over to his back. Her arm was over his shoulder, her hand in his hair, smoothing rough strands messed up by the wind outside.