Fit for the Job (10 page)

“What’s going on?” Jay asked again.

“Eben and Sassy are having a heart to heart,” Tate offered.

“Should we do something?” Jay asked.

“Yes,” Bodie said. “Stay invisible until it’s over.”

Still with her ear to the door, Evelyn yelped and jumped back when it opened.

Eben Wright stepped into the room, his eyes searching, finally falling on Bodie. “Bodie. Can you do me a favor?”

Jay examined the actor, once again struck by his otherworldly handsomeness, despite his chest and arms being covered with something sticky that looked like whipped cream. His hair had been cut shorter, and it appeared to have been dyed, a darker black than it was during Jay’s interview, the few grays in the front no longer visible.

Bodie stood and crossed the room. “What do you need?”

Eben pointed an index finger at Bodie. “When Libby gets back over here, tell her do
not
clean up that mess in the kitchen. Under no circumstances is she to clean it up. It’s Sassy’s responsibility. Got it?”

Bodie nodded. “Got it.”

“I have to leave, I’m already late. Call me if anything goes wrong,” he said.

“Got it, Eben. I’ll see you later,” Bodie said.

With that Eben left the room. He paused in the corridor outside the door, then bent over and picked up what looked like the lid of a small, white cardboard box. Eben chuckled. “She took the bracelet. Of course she took the fucking bracelet.” He moved off, out of sight, but could be heard shouting. “Not too good for the jewelry, are you, Sassy?”

Bodie eased the door closed, but didn’t shut it all the way. He looked around at the rest of them, holding a finger up. “Let’s just give it a minute. Wait till he leaves.”

Tate chuckled softly. “Call him if anything goes
wrong
,” he said. “Compared to what?”

“Shhh,” Bodie said.

They waited several minutes until hearing the front door slam. Bodie moved to the window and peered out. “Okay,” he said. “Car just took him away.”

Evelyn pulled the door open and stepped out, with Tate following. Jay hung back and waited for Bodie, who met his eyes as he crossed the room. “It’s raining,” Bodie said as he brushed past Jay and headed out of the room. “Guess rollerblading is out.”

Bewildered, Jay followed Bodie until they ended up in the large kitchen, where Tate and Evelyn stood, looking down at a huge pile of...
something
on the floor. Jay couldn’t quite make it out from where he stood behind Bodie. It looked like a lump of laundry capped with mashed potatoes.

Jay examined the rest of the kitchen. Like a bizarre funhouse dream, helium balloons crowded the space, bobbing lazily around the ceiling.

“Dayum,” Evelyn said. “That was one epic tantrum.”

“What...the hell is that?” Jay asked, frowning at the strange mountain of crap on the kitchen floor.

Bodie approached the mess, kneeling alongside it. A frown pinched his brows as he assessed it, reminding Jay of a homicide detective examining a body. “It appears what we’ve got here on the bottom layer, are various items of designer clothing.”

Tate glanced at Jay, who gave him a questioning look. Seeming to take sympathy on his confusion, Tate explained, “This Saturday is Sassy’s sixteenth birthday. But Eben found out he’d have to be working all weekend, and would miss it.”

“So early this morning he set this all up,” Evelyn cut in. “With tons of beautifully wrapped presents, mostly clothes.”

“Which, as I said, make up the bottom layer of the structure,” Bodie said, still kneeling alongside the mess. “As you can see here,” he pointed, “the artist used what appears to be ketchup, maple syrup, and soda pop, serving to destroy the designer clothes and acting as a bonding agent to the next layer, the wrapping paper. On top of which it appears she emptied five...” His lips moved as he counted, leaning closer. “No, an entire six pack of beer, saturating the paper and leaving the cans as decoration.”

“And to top it off,” Evelyn said, “no pun intended, she picked up the rather large and elaborate birthday cake her father left on the counter, turned it upside down, and smashed it on the whole lot.”

Thunder rumbled, and rain pattered on the windows. “Where is Sassy now?” Jay asked.

“She’s in her room,” said a voice from behind them.

They all turned as Libby stepped into the kitchen, twirling a strand of red hair nervously with her finger. “I thought she was going to be out today so I’d finally get a chance to clean her bathroom, but she’s up there, watching movies.” She frowned, staring down at the sticky mountain on the floor. Libby sighed, shoulders sagging. “Oh, Sassafras,” she said, shaking her head. “That was a beautiful cake.”

“Was,” Tate said.

Libby approached the mess, then leaned over and stuck a finger in, bringing it to her mouth and sucking. “Strawberry cream. Damn, that’s good.”

Bodie stood, raising his brow. “Libby, you’re eating off the floor.”

She shrugged. “Well,
I
mopped it. I know it’s clean enough to eat off of.”

“Eben wants Sassy to clean it up,” Bodie said to Libby.

Libby pulled a sour face. “And do you want to take on that battle? No, no more tears or drama today. I’ll clean it. Just tell Eben she did it herself if he asks.”

Bodie nodded. “All right.”

“So,” Evelyn said, rubbing her hands together. “Does this mean my double shift is canceled? Can’t go rollerblading in this weather. Can I go back to my room and take a bubble bath?”

Bodie shrugged and looked out the window. “I suppose.”

Jay frowned as he thought. His first instinct was to turn right around, go grab his shit in the guest house, and leave. But when it came right down to it, Sassy’s tantrum had nothing to do with him. Or his job. He was supposed to serve as the girl’s fitness instructor. He had to at least try to do what he was hired for.

“No,” Jay said to Evelyn. “Don’t leave. Not yet.”

Evelyn, Bodie, and Tate all looked at him. “Why not?” Evelyn asked.

Jay thought for a moment longer. “Just give me a minute to talk to Sassy.”

There was silence as they all looked at him like he was nuts. Finally, Tate laughed. “Okay, man. Godspeed.”

Jay climbed the stairs to the second floor. When he got to Sassy’s door, he could hear the television, the sound raised to an obscene volume. He knocked. “Sassy? It’s Jay. You in there?”

There was a long pause, then, “Go away!”

Jay sighed, then knocked again. “Sassy...do you want to go rock climbing?”

“It’s raining, jackass!” her voice shouted through the door.

“I mean indoor rock climbing,” he shouted back. “Do you want to go?”

Another long pause. “No!”

“Yes, you do,” Jay said.

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Noooo, I doooon’t.”

Jay growled in frustration. He paced the hallway outside her door, running his fingers over his scalp. Turning back to the door, he knocked again. “Sassy?”

“What!”

“Why don’t you want to go rock climbing with me?”

“Because I don’t! Now go away, Jay!”

Jay shook his head, sighing. “Is it because you have nothing to wear?” he shouted. “Because I found some really nice clothes down in the kitchen. They’re a little sticky, but I can bring them up for you if you want.”

He waited. A minute passed with no response, then the volume on the television lowered. Seconds later, the door opened. Sassy smirked at him. “You think you’re funny, but you’re not,” she said.

He smiled. “Come on. Let’s go rock climbing. It’ll be fun.”

“I don’t know how,” she said.

“They have instructors. And they hook you up with ropes so you can’t fall.”

“Sounds like about as much fun as a root canal,” she said.

“I’ll do it with you,” he said. She hesitated, looking at the floor. “I’ll even make Bodie and Evelyn try it first so you can laugh at them.”

“Yeah, right!” Sassy huffed. “That’s supposed to convince me? Of course they’ll be able to do it, Muscle Woman and G.I. Joe. And
you
, Mr. Aerobics Queen. I’m not that strong, I’ll be embarrassed.”

“Hey!” Jay did his best to look offended. “Why do I get
queen
in my name? Evelyn and Bodie might be buffer than I am, but there’s a little something called the cardiovascular system, a category that I’m certain I excel in.”

“Evelyn does triathlons,” Sassy said.

Jay frowned. “Oh. Well. Anyway, the rock walls aren’t that difficult, I promise,” he said. “If you at least try it, I’ll take you out for pizza afterward.”

“I’m not five. You can’t buy me with pizza and ice cream. I have sophisticated tastes.”

“Come on,” Jay said. “You’re killing me here. I don’t want to hang out with your security team downstairs all day. I’m bored. I want to go rock climbing.”

Sassy sighed and rolled her eyes. “Quit whining like a baby. Okay, I’ll go. But I want
lobster
after. Someplace nice. With lots of people. I never get to people-watch being locked up here all the time.”

Jay beamed. “Deal. Get changed and meet me downstairs.”

With a final eye roll, Sassy closed the door.

When he got back down to the first floor, he found Libby alone in the kitchen wearing rubber gloves, hauling hunks of smashed cake off the floor and dumping it in a trash bin.

“Hey Libby, where did they go?”

She looked up, a smear of frosting on her cheek and across her chin. He tried to tell himself she’d gotten it from cleaning, but suspected she’d been eating it again. “Oh...ah, I think they’re down the hall, in the sitting room.”

“Thanks.”

Jay made his way back to the sitting room, and found Bodie and Evelyn in there, chatting softly as they stood at the window, watching the rain.

“Okay,” Jay said, and they turned around. “We’re going rock climbing!”

Evelyn blinked. “We’re doing what now?”

“Indoor rock climbing. There’s a place not far from here. So get ready.”

Bodie stepped away from the window. “And Sassy too?”

“And Sassy too,” Jay said. “She’ll be down shortly.”

Evelyn shrugged, and headed for the door. “Guess I’ll go change my shoes.”

After Evelyn had gone, Bodie moved slowly toward Jay, his dark brows pinched in a scowl. “You talked Sassy into going rock climbing,” he said skeptically. “You actually got her to agree. After cake-pocalypse.”

“It wasn’t easy. But yes.”

Bodie stopped directly in front of him. His frown slowly turned upward into a sexy smile, and Jay’s heart rate accelerated a bit. “Guess I’ll go change my shoes, too,” he said, and brushed past Jay toward the door.

“I’ll be here,” Jay said.

Bodie reached the door and turned back, looking at Jay.

Jay grinned as he sat down. “What?”

“I think I’m starting to like you,” Bodie said, then walked out of the room, and was gone.

Jay sat alone in the room, staring at the open doorway where Bodie had gone. His heart thudded, heat climbing up his neck.

He didn’t mean anything by it
, he admonished himself.
He didn’t mean it the way you think he did. The way you
hope
he did
.

Something occurred to him as he sat waiting for the others to get ready. Jay had come into the house, gone up to speak with Sassy, all without Bodie asking to pat him down. Perhaps he’d forgotten.

Perhaps later, Jay would have to remind him.

****

The instructor at the rock climbing gym, a wiry young guy with an over-enthusiastic demeanor, frowned up at the wall as Evelyn scaled it like a spider, reaching the top in record time. “Well, geez,” he shouted up. “Have you done this before?”

Evelyn smiled down at him. “Nope. But I’ll do it again. This is fun!”

Jay expected Bodie to take his turn next, but he hung back, his eyes darting around the room at the other climbers. He seemed to be in sentry mode, probably nervous about having Sassy out in public, where she could crack at any moment and try to steal some stranger’s cell phone.

“What do you think?” Jay asked Sassy, who grinned upward as Evelyn pushed back off the wall, swinging on the rope as she descended back to the floor.

“That looks fun, what she’s doing right now,” Sassy said. “Can I just do that and skip the climbing part?”

Jay grinned and shook his head. “Exercise. Remember? Come on, I’ll do it with you. We can take it step by step, I’ll stay alongside you.”

Sassy finally agreed and the two of them got hooked up. Jay coached her along the way, making suggestions as to where to put her feet, while he tried to drown out the cheerleader-shouts of encouragement from the instructors below.

Their ascent was slow, and Sassy’s arms trembled as they moved higher, but she didn’t quit. It took some time, but when they’d made it nearly to the top of the wall, she turned to Jay, a sheen of sweat glowing on her forehead. “
Now
can I do the swingy thing?”

Jay looked down at the instructors. “She’s ready to come down!” he shouted.

“Okay,” the peppy young man shouted. “We’ve got you, girl!”

Sassy squealed as she pushed off and was lowered down. Jay followed after. As his feet hit the floor, he caught sight of Bodie, watching him with a smile.

After their rock climbing excursion, Jay instructed Bodie—who’d insisted on driving even though he didn’t know the area—to take them to Hemenway’s for seafood. The host led them to a table near the window with a view of the water, which pleased Jay.

It made him nervous, however, when Evelyn slid into the seat beside Sassy, which meant Jay was forced to sit next to Bodie, whose close proximity was doing inappropriate things to his body. Their arms kept brushing as one of them reached for something on the table, and Bodie’s scent filled Jay’s nostrils, making him dizzy.

They made small talk, then quieted when their meals came, all of them hungry.

“So how did you like rock climbing?” Evelyn asked Sassy, who consumed her baked stuffed lobster with enthusiasm.

“Good,” she said with her mouth full, eyes darting around the room. She seemed to be enjoying her food and her ‘people watching’, eyes repeatedly drawn to a group of young, college-aged men who clustered around the bar.