Clover (7 page)

Eight Years Ago

“Come on, Clover. You can do it.” R.J. sat on the branch next to Jake and encouraged his sister. Jake didn’t care if Clover never climbed the tree, but R.J. was determined to get her up there with them.

“Of course I can do it. I just don’t want to.” Clover shaded her eyes with her hand as she looked up at them. For once, she didn’t have a book with her. Jake had expected her to sit with her back against the trunk and read while he and R.J. messed around.

He had to give R.J. credit. He was only seven, but he wasn’t afraid of anything. He’d scrambled up the tree ahead of Jake. Clover didn’t look similarly impressed. She was worried about her baby brother. Or maybe she was worried about what their dad would think when he found out she’d let him climb the giant cottonwood at the back of his Aunt Tammy’s property. Either way, Clover really wanted him to come down.

“Please? It’s awesome up here. You can see everything.” R.J. pointed at their house. “I can even see Brandon getting ready to barbecue on the back deck.”

Jake looked at Clover’s house and shook his head. He could barely make out the top of the roof, let alone anyone standing on the deck. R.J. was stretching the truth just a bit.

“If I want to watch Brandon barbecue, I’ll just go home.” Clover glanced briefly in the direction R.J. had pointed, then returned her gaze to them. “Now, come on down.”

“No. I’m not coming down until you come up here.” R.J. actually pouted.

“Come on, man, we can have a water balloon fight. I still have half a package.” Jake had been saving the balloons for the Fourth of July, but Clover was starting to get pissed. He didn’t like her like that.

“No. I want Clover to climb the tree.” R.J. crossed his arms over his chest, which meant he wasn’t holding on anymore. Clover looked close to panicking.

“Okay, okay. I’ll come up.” She took off her shoes and Jake smiled. He knew she could climb trees, and the fact that she wanted to feel the bark with her feet proved it.

Clover made it to the first branch easily, then started toward the higher one where R.J. and Jake sat. She was almost there when everything went sickly wrong. Jake could see the change in her face first. Her expression went from easy confidence to confused to terrified in seconds. Then she fell backwards, her hands reaching for the tree. She hit the ground with a dull thump and her eyes closed.

Jake’s heart pounded so hard he couldn’t hear himself yelling Clover’s name. He climbed down as quickly as he could, and his grip slipped twice from trying to move too fast. R.J. beat him to the bottom by several seconds and he shook Clover. Her body was limp.

Jake yelled her name a couple more times, close enough to her ear that she would have smacked the crap out of him had she been awake. She didn’t respond. What should he do? He inhaled and tried to calm his mind. R.J. was too young to be useful and Clover definitely needed one of them to figure this out.

“She won’t wake up.” R.J. shook Clover again.

“Stop shaking her.” Jake knew that much from watching TV. If you shake a person too much, her brain could end up completely scrambled.

“What do we do?” R.J. released his sister and grabbed Jake’s arm. His fingernails dug in.

They needed to get help and the longer Jake waited, the worse it could be for Clover. Should he send R.J.? He could probably find the house, but what if he couldn’t find his way back? That meant Jake had to go. Clover would kill him for leaving R.J. alone, but what choice did he have? One of them had to get help and one of them had to stay with Clover so she wouldn’t wake up alone.

“I’m going to run to my house,” Jake said with as much confidence as he could manage. He wanted R.J. to trust his plan even though he himself had huge doubts about it.

“I’ll go with you.” R.J. stood up and brushed off his pants.

“No. You have to stay here and take care of Clover.”

“I don’t want to. I don’t like the way she looks. It’s scaring me.” R.J. wiped his nose on the back of his hand.

“It’s scaring me, too. That’s why I need to get help, but we can’t leave her here by herself. Do you want her to wake up all alone?”

R.J. sniffled and shook his head.

“I need you to be brave. For Clover.”

“Okay.” He shook his head again, but at least he agreed.

Jake placed his shaking hands on R.J.’s shoulders. “I’m proud of you.”

And then he ran before R.J. could change his mind, Jake ran as fast as he could. When his lungs and his legs started to burn, he kept running. Clover needed him.

Present Day

Jake ran his comb through his hair again, trying to get it to do anything besides just lay there the way it always did. He’d been so embarrassed when R.J. pointed out the hay in his hair yesterday, and absolutely mortified when Clover pulled out that first piece. She’d looked amused, and slightly turned on as she’d finger-combed the rest out, but he’d felt like a baboon waiting for its mom to finish grooming him, clumsy and unkempt and totally outclassed.

Clover had finally looked at him like he was something other than a little kid and he’d smelled like a barnyard and had evidence to confirm it sticking out of his hair. Still, she’d climbed in over the top of him, then left again the same way.

Then last night had happened. He couldn’t believe he’d kissed her. More than kissed her, really. If he’d been a little more confident, and a little less of a sexual idiot, he could have done a lot more. She’d been willing and he’d blown it. What kind of guy stops a hot girl like Clover just so they can talk about it?

She hadn’t seemed to mind, though. She’d sat with him, talked about his concerns, kissed him some more, and even eaten the silly sandwiches.

Jake gave up on his hair. Nothing he could do was going to persuade it to do anything beyond the normal. He spritzed himself with body spray and did a breath check. Clover had agreed to let him give her a ride again today. He wasn’t going to show up smelling like work again.

Maybe he’d get lucky and her dad would delay getting her car fixed until summer was over. He’d take whatever excuse he could get to spend time with her. He tossed a towel and his bathing suit in a bag and headed out.

His aunt Tammy exited the barn at the same time he left the house. She met him at the truck. “Headed to the pool?”

“Yep. I’m giving Clover a ride.” He tossed his bag inside the open window and jingled his keys.

“You planning to spend the afternoon swimming?” She sniffed at the end, like swimming wasn’t a good use of his time.

“I got up early and finished all my chores.” He shrugged. He’d been up since four that morning. His aunt wouldn’t find fault in the work he’d done. Jake was careful and conscientious, and he wouldn’t let his work ethic slip just to spend more time with Clover, no matter how much he may have wanted to.

“You know you can’t disturb her at work.” His aunt didn’t look convinced.

“I won’t. I’m going to swim.” He pointed to his bag. So what if he ended up spending more time watching Clover than swimming? That was true of every male patron over the age of ten, and it wasn’t something his aunt needed to know about.

“I hope you know what you are doing.” His aunt stared at him a half a beat longer, then turned and headed into the house. That was for the best since Jake had no idea how to respond.

Instead of dwelling on it, he got into his truck and drove to Clover’s house. When he pulled in, she was sitting on her front porch steps reading a book. The sight of her in her dark blue uniform swimsuit with a wrap skirt tied around her waist made him forget about everything else. All the worries and concerns that plagued him constantly--school, family, money--disappeared completely, replaced by thoughts of Clover.

He turned off the engine and got out of the truck because it seemed like the proper thing to do. He knew for sure this wasn’t a date and that she could have just as easily borrowed one of her dad’s cars. God knew that man had enough of them. Instead, she’d chosen to ride with him in his beat up old Ford with its faded green paint and missing tailgate. In return, he wanted to show her the proper amount of respect. For her, it would never be enough to pull up and simply honk the horn to announce his arrival.

She looked up from her book and smiled, something she never used to do. When Clover read, she was gone to the world. It had afforded him more than his fair share of time to simply sit and watch her without being noticed. She placed her bookmark, then closed the book completely and put it in her bag. Clover Watson just gave up a book for him. This was a moment he would long remember.

He stood at the bottom of the steps, fidgeting enough for his feet to crunch against the gravel. He knew he shouldn’t feel this awkward around her after the time they’d spent together yesterday, especially after the things they’d said and done. Knowing that, however, didn’t do anything to dissolve the tension in his throat. “Hey.”

Clover came down the stairs and stopped on the bottom step so that they stood eye to eye. She kissed him gently on the lips, with a great deal more intimacy than he expected. He let his eyes slide shut as he brought his hands up to cup her face. The brush of her hair against his fingertips was soft and light and made him itch to run his fingers through it. As he was about to deepen the kiss, he heard the front door open, and then Clover pulled away. She left her hand pressed against his chest and offered him a small smile. “Hey to you.”

Jake stared at her. Being this near her overwhelmed him at a very base level. He couldn’t help but take a moment to enjoy it. The sound of someone clearing his throat on the steps ultimately drew Jake’s attention. He looked up to see Clover’s dad standing there with his arms crossed and a disapproving look on his face. Brandon stood in the open door with a bemused smile. He tipped his head toward Jake, then stepped back into the house.

“Clover?” Her dad said her name as a question.

Clover patted Jake’s chest once, then turned toward her dad. “Dad, you remember Jake Feldman, Tammy’s nephew. He’s giving me a ride to work today.”

“Is that so?” He directed the question at Jake.

Jake climbed the stairs and held out his hand. “Yes sir, if that’s all right with you.”

Mr. Watson had a firm grip and it caught Jake slightly off guard. He’d expected the soft hand of an accountant, and it was, but his hold on Jake’s as they shook hands conveyed a message of strength and conviction. He expressed, without a word, that Jake should think twice before messing around with his daughter.

“That’s very neighborly of you. Thank you, Jake.” Mr. Watson gave one last final squeeze before he let go. Jake wanted to shake his hand out to relieve the residual pressure, but knew that would be seen as a sign of weakness, so he didn’t. He did cringe and whimper a little on the inside though.

“Anytime, sir.” For all the time Jake had spent at Clover and R.J.’s place when they were kids, he could count the number of encounters he’d had with Mr. Watson on both hands. That made this one doubly important and intimidating.

“We should get going.” Clover kissed her dad on the cheek. Then she took Jake’s hand in hers and led him away from her dad. She looked over her shoulder on the way to the truck to say, “Bye, Dad.”

When they were safely in the truck and headed down the road, Jake forced himself to relax. “Holy crap. I had no idea how intimidating your dad could be.”

Clover laughed and kissed his cheek. She’d claimed the middle of the seat like it was hers and that made the scary dad moment totally worth it.

“And to make it worse, Brandon was laughing at me.” Jake still didn’t know what that was about.

“No, Brandon was laughing at Dad. He thinks it’s hysterical when he gets all huffy like that.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t think it was funny.”

“You weren’t supposed to.” Clover released his hand and palmed his thigh. When she spoke again, her hand was considerably higher and her voice considerably lower. “You were supposed to be warned off of thinking lustful thoughts about his only daughter. Did it work?”

She fingered his inseam so close to the crotch that his voice raised a full octave when he responded. “Not at all.” It was embarrassing how easily she affected him, but he loved it just the same.

His Aunt Tammy was right to worry. He had no idea how he was going to let Clover work for the hours she was on shift and he was left with nothing to do but stare and think about all the wonderful things they could be doing together.

#

Clover wasn’t expecting Jake to park and get out of the truck when they arrived at the pool. She thought he would drop her off like he had the day before. When he grabbed his bag from behind the seat with a blush and a smile, she spontaneously kissed him, because she just couldn’t
not
do it. “What’s that?”

“I thought I’d swim for a while,” he said with a shrug and blushed even redder.

“How long?” She thought of the summer when she was sixteen and first got a job at the pool. She’d picked Jake up every day on her way to work and he swam and stared at her for the entire shift. He’d been thirteen and all awkward limbs and cracking voice. She’d been indifferent to having his gaze on her at the time, but the thought of him watching her today filled her belly with heat.

Jake shrugged again. “I’m in no hurry.”

“Are you going to stay for my whole shift?” God, she wanted to kiss him again.

“I dunno. Maybe. Probably.” Jake tugged at his hair and looked to the side before bringing his gaze back to look her in the eyes. “Yes. Definitely, yes.”

Clover nodded. “Okay.” She couldn’t hold back her smile, but did manage to walk, not skip, through the parking lot and into the building. She held Jake’s hand all the way. Her smile faded when she saw Vince, but her grip on Jake’s hand did not.

Vince stood just inside the door, where the shade of the building protected him, but he could still see out easily. He looked pointedly at their joined hands, but said nothing. Clover gave Jake a small kiss on the cheek when they parted ways at the locker rooms and tried to pretend that she couldn’t feel Vince watching her as she walked away.

When she made it to her post, she scanned the pool reflexively. As much as she resented having to return to her high school job when she’d already completed her undergrad studies, she appreciated how easily it all came back to her. She didn’t even think about what she was looking for anymore. Her brain automatically took inventory. At a glance, she knew which swimmers to keep an eye on and which ones would only need her help if something went terribly wrong.

After a quick glance, she looked over the pool a second, much slower time. She looked from face to face, searching for Jake. Jake stood out. He had the faint lines of a farmer’s tan, but the lines were faint enough to tell her that he spent his fair share of time doing chores without a shirt. His chest and arms were clearly defined, and as she stared, he flexed and released. She drooled a little and he laughed at himself. Then he dove cleanly into the deep end of the pool.

Clover took the whistle from the person she was relieving and dropped it around her neck, then applied zinc to her nose and slipped on her aviators. As much as she wanted to splash in the water with Jake, she forced her attention to the rest of the swimmers.

She’d have plenty of time to play with him after her shift.