COOL BEANS (22 page)

“Saying what?” I ask.

He takes another deep breath and reaches for my other shoulder.

“Maya … I like you.”

I look at him, waiting for more, but he doesn’t elaborate. Just stands there with both hands on my shoulders, looking at me.

“I, uh, like you, too,” I say confusedly. He’s my best friend; you’d think he’d realize this would imply I liked him a little bit.

He shakes his head. “No, Nutkin. Not just … not just as a friend.” He swallows.

I blink. “What?”

“I like you.” He squeezes my shoulders lightly and then pulls his hands away. “I think you’re beautiful. I like how you always try to do the right thing, and when you don’t, you feel bad about it constantly. I like how you laugh at yourself and then make fun of me. You’re my best friend, and I can tell you anything.” He
smiles and lightly touches my cheek. “I’ve, um … I’ve felt this way a long time.”

I stand there frozen. The adrenaline is back, but this time it’s making me stand perfectly still instead of fidgeting.

I blink a few times, clearing my vision. This is Jack, right? Jack, the kid who traded lunches with me in the second grade? The one who ruined my favorite pair of work shoes with a bowl full of frosting? The guy I tell everything?
Lord, what do I do?

One thought starts to make it through the muddle.

This is not a good idea.

I start shaking my head. “Jack, what — ”

“I know, I know. I didn’t mean to spring it on you.”

“I mean, you’re my best friend; I mean, what if we — ”

“Maya, do me a favor,” he says quickly, cutting me off. “Think about it; pray about it. I know it’s weird.” He smiles a short smile at me. “I’ve been praying about it for a long time. I can wait a few more days. I’m going to San Diego this afternoon to see my family for the weekend, so I won’t be at church. I’ll see you at work on Monday.”

And then he leaves, walking quickly across the grass like I’m going to start pelting him with something.

Calvin’s sniffing some bush about ten feet away, so I sit down where I am and just gape after Jack’s disappearing figure.

What just happened?

God give me wisdom,
I pray as I clip Calvin back to the leash and head for home a little later.
Wis-dom, wis-dom, wis-dom,
the word reverberates with each step I take.

Okay, pros and cons.

On the one hand, I care about Jack more than most other people.

On the other hand, I’ve never thought about him like this before.

Where is a sticky note when I need one?

I hurry home, dragging a now-lethargic beagle behind me. I’m praying the whole way. This isn’t like accepting a date with some guy I’ve never met before. If Jack and I start dating and we break up, our friendship is over. I know everyone claims you can still be friends, but let’s face it. That only worked with Ross and Rachel, and that was because the name of the show was
Friends.

We get home, and I run up the stairs to the apartment, let Calvin inside so he can collapse in front of the sofa, and scramble for a sticky note. Might as well start with the bad side.

I pull that note off and start on the next one.

Reasons I Should Date Jack:

1.

I sit there for a long time.

God, what do I do?
I pray again.

Jack obviously cares about me. Even before this whole park fiasco, he has always been concerned about how my day has
been, how my devotions are going. And he was very sweet during the Jen and Travis drama.

Apparently, he’s felt this way a long time. Why did he decide to tell me now?

And the biggest problem …

The biggest problem is that things will never be the same between us again.

“You’re quiet,” Mom says to me the following night. We’ve just watched Zach open his presents, and he loved the stethoscope and the frame. He’s trying out the stethoscope on Kate right now.

Which was awkward, so I moved into the kitchen.

“Sorry,” I say. I’m leaning against Mom’s kitchen counter, stuffed with salad but apparently about to eat cake, because she’s putting the candles in it.

That’s okay. There’s always room for cake.

“Anything you want to talk about?” she asks.

I watch her stick a candle through a frosting balloon. “Mom, when you and Dad started dating, did you already know him?”

She squinches her lips together as she thinks. “Yes.” She nods. “I’d known him for about six months.”

“Were you friends?”

She nods again. “He was my brother’s roommate’s best friend.”

I follow that connection in my brain before I nod. “Okay. So you hung out with them a lot?”

“Not a lot. He was always over at my brother’s apartment, and Gene and I went to the same school.” She gets a soft smile. “He was so cute, Maya. He had thick, shaggy brown hair and
was always carrying a guitar.”

I giggle, trying to picture my balding, nonmusical-that-I-knew-of father as a child of the seventies.

“Dad did?”

“Yep. He even played me a song the first time he asked me out.” She starts giggling, too.

I can’t help the grinning. “What did he sing?”

“He wrote a song. I don’t remember exactly what it said, but the gist of it was that he thought I was beautiful and asked if I could be his girl.” Mom blushes in a really cute flashback-to-her-twenties kind of way.

“Aw!”

Dad comes in the kitchen right then. “Uh-oh. What’s going on in here?”

“Dad! You’re so romantic!”

He gives me a look. “What?”

“You played a song for Mom when you asked her out?”

He grins suddenly at Mom. “I did, didn’t I?”

She nods, still rosy-cheeked. “It was very sweet.”

“Yeah?” He goes around the counter and lightly kisses her cheek. I smile. “So, you’ll still be my girl?”

She giggles. “Only if you take out the trash.”

He sighs. “Workhorse. I swear, Maya, this is the only reason she married me.” He winks at Mom, pulls out the garbage can, and leaves.

“Why the questions, sweetie?” Mom asks after he’s gone. I try to shrug my way out of it, but Mom knows me better than that.

“Yes?” she persists.

“Well, I, uh, got asked out,” I stutter.

Mom grins. “Oh yeah? Who asked you?”

I clear my throat. “Um. Jack.”

She blinks, and her eyes widen. “Wow.”

“I know.”

“Did you know he liked you?”

“No,” I say, still in disbelief.

“Wow,” she says again.

“I know.”

She sticks in a few more candles before talking. “Well, do you like him?”

I put in a candle, too. “I don’t dislike him,” I hedge.

“Maya.”

“He’s my best friend, Mom.”

“Ah,” she says knowingly. “Thus the questions about your dad and I.”

I start fiddling with one of the extra candles. “I don’t know what to do. He’s probably the nicest guy I’ve ever known, but if I wreck this relationship like I did with Travis — ”

“Honey,” Mom interrupts, “you didn’t wreck the relationship with Travis. It takes two. And look at it this way. If God had wanted you and Travis to end up together, you’d still be together. Right?”

I nod. “I know.”

“So, don’t miss out on Jack just because of Travis.” She finishes with the candles and smiles at me. “Okay?”

“All right.”

She starts searching for a lighter, and I look down at the candle. I’ve carved a little squiggly design with my thumbnail.

Jack would be making so much fun of me right now.

“You who can’t sit still,” he’d tease.

Which is probably when I’d hit him with the candle and break my pretty design.

Mom’s mumbling questions to herself as she digs through the cabinets, looking for the lighter.

I turn the candle over and over in my hands.

Knowing Jack, after I broke the candle on him, he’d probably send me another batch of daisies and another strange poem.

“Maya?”

Or he’d leave candles hidden all over the place for me, and I’d keep finding them for the next two weeks.

“Maya?”

I’d pretend to get mad at him, and he’d get that grin on his face that I see only when he is annoying me.

“Maya!”

I jump and crack the candle in half. “What? What? Why are you yelling at me?” I gasp, looking at Mom.

She apparently found the lighter because the cake is halfway lit.

“I said your name three times.” She gives me a look. “I was going to ask you to call everyone in here, but …” She puts the lighter down and grabs my cell phone off the kitchen table. “Just call him, okay?”

She finishes lighting the cake and walks out into the living room. I stare at my cell phone for a long minute and then hold the speed dial down.

“Hi, Nutkin.”

I smile.

ERYNN MANGUM plans her life around caffeine, but when she’s not tipping the coffee mug, she’s spending time with her husband, Jon O’Brien, or hanging out with family and friends. She’s the author of
Miss Match, Rematch,
and
Match Point.
Learn more at www.erynnmangum.com.

Coming in July 2010:
Latte Daze,
the second book in the Maya Davis series

Latte Daze Erynn Mangum 978-1-60006-712-9 When Maya Davis’s ex-boyfriend proposes to her roommate and best friend, Jen, their apartment becomes Wedding Central. As if that weren’t enough, Jen’s obnoxious mom moves in to help plan the wedding, Maya’s genius brother and sister-in-law announce their pregnancy, and then to top it off there’s the whole matter of Jack — is it love? Who wouldn’t need a coffee break!

To order copies, call NavPress at 1-800-366-7788 or log on to
www.navpress.com.

Check out the Lauren Holbrook series from Erynn Mangum!

	Miss Match Erynn Manguum 978-1-60006-095-3 Lauren Holbrook has found her life’s calling: matchmaking for the romantically challenged. Lauren sets out to introduce Nick, her carefree singles’ pastor, to Ruby, her neurotic coworker who plans every second of every day. What could possibly go wrong? Just about everything.
	Rematch Erynn Mangum 978-1-60006-096-0 Lauren’s dad might be getting remarried — and Lauren is still looking for the love of her life! Join Lauren on her adventure of caffeine, chocolate, girl talk, and spiritual insights as she continues to search for the right match.
	Match Point Erynn Mangum 978-1-60006-309-1 Matchmaker Lauren Holbrook is happy after putting together four successful couples — that is, until the tables are turned and she’s on the receiving end of the matchmaking! Lauren and her boyfriend, Ryan, devise a plan to make it look as if they’ve broken up so people will get off their backs about marriage. No problem, right? That’s of course until Lauren realizes she’s in love.

To order copies, call NavPress at 1-800-366-7788 or log on to
www.navpress.com.