Divine (10 page)

“
Ashton,”
he repeated as he looked back into the flames. “Ash; I like
that. I think I'll call you Ash if you don't mind.” He broke
his stare away from the fire and looked over at me with a warm smile.

“
Ash works.”
I was thrilled that he cared enough to give me my own special
nickname. “What about you? What's your full name?” It was
my turn to give him his.

“
Jonah Daniel
Brown.”

“
Hmm,”
I pondered out loud while jokingly tapping my finger on my chin.
“Well, Dan is a
nice
name, but I don't think that fits you. I think Jonah suits you just
fine.”

“
Jonah works,”
he said with a satisfied smile.

My eyes dropped to the
silver beer can in his hand. “So, I'm guessing you’re
twenty one?”

He turned the front of
it toward his face and looked down the red lettering. “No,
actually, I'm nineteen. But every once in awhile I like to enjoy a
beer.”

“
Wow,” I
said, surprised that he was younger than what I thought he was. “You
don't look nineteen. I thought you were at least twenty, if not
twenty-one.”

“
I thought the
same thing when I first saw you,” he said while shooting me a
sideways glance. For a split second it looked as though I had seen a
flicker of green light flash in his eyes.

I must be seeing
things.

“
Yeah,” I
agreed. “I look older than my age.”

He nodded his head and
became lost again in the fire. The topic of our age seemed to bother
him, making him crawl back to his uncomfortable body language.

Why couldn't I just
be eighteen already?

I was desperate for a
subject change. “So, where's your dad?” I asked.

“
He died when I
was sixteen,” he spoke quietly, his eyes fixed on the burning
embers.

“
Oh, I'm sorry. I
wouldn't have asked if I would have known.”

He broke his gaze from
the fire and looked at me with an understanding smile. “It's
okay; I've accepted it.”

I took that moment to
take a sip from my soda. It felt like I had created an awkward
moment, and I was at a loss for words; I didn't know what to say
next.

Surprisingly, he took
it upon himself to continue the conversation. “He owned the
auto shop, Dan's Auto Shop; Dan was my dad. When he died my Uncle Lou
took it over, but he kept the name in remembrance of him.” He
dropped his legs from their bent position into a crossed one and
leaned forward to touch the smoothness of the warm sand in front of
him. “When I turned eighteen I became part owner of it, so I
own half and Lou owns half.”

I watched as he picked
up the sand and let it pour out between his fingers, forming small
piles on the ground. I stayed quiet, partly to let him finish his
story, and partly because I didn't know what to say.

“
The day he died,
he was working underneath a car and it fell on him.”

“
Oh my god,
that's terrible,” I said consolingly as I reached up and put my
hand on his back.

“
I tried to help
him but there was nothing I could do; it crushed him to death.”

I left my hand on his
back and circled it lightly around for a few moments before bringing
it back and crossing it in front of me. “I'm so sorry, that's
awful. And for you to have seen it, too . . .”

He smoothed away the
piles of sand in front of him and turned his head to look in the
opposite direction of where I was sitting.

He must be tearing
up.

After he took a minute
he turned back toward me and smiled. “I'm doing okay, though,”
he added. “I'm getting through it. I just really miss him.”

“
I can't imagine
how much you miss him,” I said, not really knowing what to say
to make him feel better. I felt the urge to protect him, to help him,
but I was useless.

“
I don't really
talk to anyone about it. You’re the first person that I've
talked to about it in a long time, actually.”

What he said made me
feel special; I liked that he could confide in me.

“
Well,” I
said with a sympathetic smile, “I'm always here if you want to
talk about it. No pressure, though.”

He brought his knees
back up and rested his arms on them again, smiling at me as he buried
the lower half of his face into his shoulder. “Thanks,”
he replied with a small sigh.

Our conversation was
cut short as the brightness of fireworks trailed off into the night
sky. We scooted our bodies around to face the shore and watched
overhead as one after another they went off, exploding over the ocean
with a boom, sending sparkling reflections across the water.

The fire warmed up our
sweatshirt-covered backs as we spent the whole show pointing out our
favorites as they went off. When they finally escalated into the
grand finale we stood up and cheered with the rest of the crowded
beach, adding our own sarcastic oohs and aahs while we laughed.

After the last burst of
color the night sky went black once again. The mass of people slowly
began to pack up their things and disperse toward their cars, all
eager to get to the warmth of their heaters.

I turned to Jonah and
reached my hand out to shake his. “Well, thanks for inviting
me.”

His rough hand wrapped
around mine in a blanket of warmth as he shook back. “Maybe
I'll see you at your work sometime,” he said. “I like
their burgers; I think I'll start eating there a lot more . . .”

“
I hope so,”
I flirted.

He dropped his head for
a second before looking back up with a shy but satisfied smile.
Neither of us seemed to want to let go of our grasp, but we both
settled on a light squeeze before letting each others hand go.

He put his hands into
the pockets of his sweatshirt and looked over at the rowdy crowds
along the beach. “Actually, I should probably walk you to your
car. There's a lot of crazy drunk people out right now.”

“
Okay, yeah.
Thank you.”

We made our way around
the bonfire and spotted his mom and Lou, both with beers in their
hands. I walked over to say a quick goodbye.

“
It was nice
meeting you,” I told his mom.

“
Oh, you too,
sweetie,” she said as she grabbed me up in another hug. “You
be careful going home.”

“
I will, Jonah's
walking me to my car.”

She looked over at her
son with a prideful glance. “That's my boy, I raised you
right.” She stepped next to him and wrapped her arms around the
side of his body. “You get home safe, too,” she said
before reaching up and planting a kiss on his cheek.

He pulled an arm out
from her tight grasp and put it around her shoulders. “I will.
I love you, Mom.”

“
I love you too,
Son.”

They let go of each
other and Jonah stepped toward me, ready to walk with me down the
beach.

“
Bye Lou,”
I added before taking off.

“
Goodbye young
lady.”

Jonah and I walked
across the sand toward my mom's car, passing the group of pot heads
on the way. I pointed through the crowd toward the one who had tried
to hit on me earlier. “That guy tried to mack on me,” I
laughed. “I told him my dad was a cop and I was looking for
him.”

Jonah laughed back.
“And he believed you?”

“
Well, he got
nervous and told me that he had seen him in the ocean.”

“
Ha, he must have
been pretty out of it.”

“
Yeah, he was,”
I agreed.

I was bummed when we
got back to my mom's car because it meant that our night together was
ending. I got in and turned on the engine, turning up the heater so I
could blast the much needed warmth across my freezing face.

“
The air's not
going to be warm yet,” Jonah pointed out with a smile.

I looked up at him and
returned the expression. “Yeah, that pretty much sounds like
something a mechanic would say.”

“
I'm not saying
it because I'm a mechanic,” he said through a warm chuckle.
“I'm saying it because it's obvious.”

“
Well, I'm
impatient, I guess.”

“
I'm starting to
realize that.”

I looked away with a
grin, shaking my head at his comment.

“
I had fun
tonight,” he said deeply. “Thanks for coming.”

I looked back up at his
stare and saw what seemed to be a speck of yellow light glimmering
brightly in the deepness of his irises.

Man, I must be
tired; I keep seeing things
. I
reached up and rubbed my eyes with my icy fingers.
Maybe it
was from the bright flames of the bonfire? Or maybe the flashes from
the fireworks?

“
You alright?”
he asked with curiosity.

“
Yeah, I'm fine.
I think the fireworks are causing my eyes to play tricks on me.”

“
They can do that
sometimes,” he agreed. “Now, crank that heater up and get
home to your warm bed.”

“
Sounds like a
great plan,” I smiled. He closed my car door and stood back a
couple of feet as I rolled down my window. “Thanks again.”

“
Anytime. I'll
see you soon, Ash.”

Ash.
A happy
smile filled my face at hearing his nickname for me escape from his
lips.

I rolled up the window
and slowly backed out of the parking space, being careful not to hit
the groups of people who were walking by. He watched as I drove out
of the lot and he gave me a wave goodbye as I turned onto the main
road.

On the drive home I
recapped our night together. He obviously had talked to his mom about
me, which was a big plus. And he felt like he could talk openly to me
about his dad passing away, which was another big plus. He gave me a
nickname, something that only
he
would be calling me . . .
yeah, I would pretty much say the night went well.

Once I got back home I
followed Jonah's advice and climbed into my cozy, warm bed; it was a
turn on listening to his instructions. Falling asleep was a bit
difficult because our conversations played over and over again in my
head. I was glad to be kept up by my thoughts of Jonah, though; I
would gladly stay up all night to think about him.

I was happy to go back
to work in hopes that

Jonah would show up.
Every morning I made sure to look my best before heading out, just in
case that day would be the day that I saw him.

After a couple of days
of him not coming in I started to think that it wasn’t going to
happen. I put on my makeup carefully like the days before, but I
didn't feel like putting the effort into my hair. I threw it up in a
messy bun and left for work.

The restaurant was slow
and I had a hard time finding things to keep me busy. Brittany was
back from vacation with her family, so we took advantage of the slow
work day to catch up on our gossip. We both grabbed a broom and
slowly swept up around the dining area, making sure we looked busy in
case Fox came out of his office.

“
So did you have
fun at the snow?” I asked.

“
Yeah, it was
fun. I missed you though.” She stopped her sweeping and looked
up at me with a pouty smile.

Her silliness made me
laugh. “I missed you, too. I had to work with Sarah, so that
was pretty unfortunate.”

A snort pushed past her
nose. “Yeah I bet that was irritating. Sorry I had to let that
happen.”

Jonah's handsome face
drifted into my mind. I had mentioned him to Brittany shortly after I
met him months back, but I wasn't sure if she would remember who he
was if I brought him up again.

I looked up from the
floor. “Do you remember a few months back when I told you about
that guy Jonah I met at the auto shop?”

She stopped her lazy
sweeping and leaned against the broom. “Oh, you mean the total
hottie that you wouldn't stop talking about? The one with the blue
eyes and the perfect body? The one with the nice hair and awesome
smelling cologne? No, I don't think I remember him . . .”