Omniscient Leaps (21 page)

“I’m sure there is something you are passionate about.” Luke had finally relaxed and I felt my distress over upsetting him fade.

“I love books and learning. That really narrows it down, right?”

“You could be a teacher,” he suggested.

I tried not to be completely repulsed by the idea. After hearing my mom’s stories and seeing how worn out and unappreciated she was, there was no way I would even consider it. “Not a fan of public speaking. Any other ideas?”

“You work well with others,” Luke replied with a raised eyebrow. “Just look at how you helped the Parton family. There was divine intervention, of course, but it wouldn’t have played out the same without you. Maybe you could go into social work.”

He was right about one thing; I really did enjoy helping people. It gave me a satisfaction like I had never known. “I will give that serious consideration. Thanks.”

We both stood awkwardly in the silence staring at each other. I couldn’t allow myself to delve into those feelings again. I owed it to Luke to keep myself under control. He was a pro at it, so why couldn’t I learn to be? The idea of it seemed harder than making a speech in front of the entire student body.

“So what are your plans tonight?” I finally asked. It had to be time for me to flash out soon. I had been in Luke’s company for hours.

“I never make plans to do anything. People come to me or they don’t. I guess I just keep myself occupied while I wait.” He finally moved around his desk and took a seat. He held up a book and shook it.

“Right,” I grinned. “Well I hope you and your book have fun tonight.” I paused while I took five seconds to enjoy the beauty of his face. “And Luke, I’m really sorry for pushing you earlier. It wasn’t appropriate. I hope we can just forget the whole thing and stick with a simple relationship.”
Yeah right
.

Luke reached forward and grabbed my hand. “Our relationship is already all kinds of complicated, so referring to it as simple now doesn’t seem likely.”

I thought about the first time I saw him and how it had made me feel. “You’re probably right.”

“Have fun at your dance, Kara.” His smile faded into the grayness of night and I eventually found myself staring back at the car’s steering wheel in front of me.

“The dance,” I told myself as I climbed out of the car. This would be a night I’d always remember, but the meaning behind the sentiment had absolutely nothing to do with the dance.

I spent an hour just curling my hair. It was something I never did, but it gave me time to daydream. I swept half of my hair up and pinned it while I tried to copy the blond beauty from the picture I had printed out. Maybe it was my red hair or the fact that I was an amateur, but my hair looked nothing like the picture once I had finished. It wasn’t a complete disaster either so I decided to just leave it as it was and move on to my makeup.

By the time I finished primping myself, I could barely recognize the girl in the mirror. I felt ridiculous actually. “No wonder Luke wasn’t into the women of his time. They must have spent half a day in front of the mirror just getting ready.”

“Who are you talking to?” Mom laughed. She startled me so abruptly, I whacked my arm into the door. “Sorry.”

“I was talking to myself. What do you think?” I bit my lip as she ran her eyes over me.

“You look sophisticated. I bet once you put your dress on you will look like a princess,” she said, twirling a strand of my hair in her hands. She always had something nice to say.

“I don’t suppose you have a picture of your date, Luke, in the locket already, do you?” She reached forward and touched the keepsake.

“I wish,” I blurted out. “I mean, Luke’s not my date. I am going with a friend and his name is Jer.”

“So why aren’t you taking this Luke fellow if he’s the one you are interested in?”

“It’s complicated, Mom. He’s not really available, you know?” She nodded her head. “So when are you going to grill me about the other night. You’ve been relatively calm about the entire situation. I can’t believe you let me sleep for three days.”

“I’ve had a lot of time to think, Kara, that’s all. I figured you’d tell me when you were ready,” she replied softly.

I instinctively leaned forward to hug her. “Mom, you know Dad just wanted you to be happy, right?”

“Oh, everyone says that kind of thing when they want their mother to move on,” she teased as she tightened my dress.

“That day you found him,” I hesitated when I saw the fresh surge of pain in her eyes. “Do you remember thinking you saw someone in the kitchen? And I’m sure you noticed a stash of your money gone… along with your video camera.” Her mouth dropped open. “Dad didn’t die alone, Mom. I was with him.”

“Kara, when we walked in there he was already gone. You know that.” She had completely ignored what I had previously said.

“You knew Dad had a gift, but then you turned your back on God because He fated Dad with an early death. You told Dad that someone who served God wouldn’t end up like that. Your reasoning makes complete sense to me, but I’m asking you to forgive Him and move on.”

“How do you know that?” Her hands were shaking and she dropped them by her side in an attempt to conceal her surprise.

“I told you. I was there with him when he died,” I repeated. “It was years ago for you, but only a few nights ago for me.”

Her eyes widened and I noticed a twinkling I hadn’t seen in years. “You talked to him about your gift?” I nodded. “And you were there with him, really?” Her eyes were glistening with tears and I felt myself giving in to the emotions.

“I wish I could have known him. He was amazing but,” I paused to grab her face in mine, “he didn’t want you to be alone. He told me he wanted you to make your peace with God and move on with someone else. I agree with him. You might not find someone who fills your heart the same way, but you deserve to be happy. You keep yourself so busy and I know that you are lonely.”

She stared at me with her sad eyes yet refused to agree with me. “Are you safe, Kara, because I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you too? The way you looked the other night…well let’s just say I was terrified.”

“I know, Mom. It looked worse than it was,” I assured her.

“So when you are off doing what you are doing, you don’t feel any pain?” Her eyes drooped as she waited for my answer. I hated to lie to her, but I needed to put her mind at ease.

“No pain at all. Besides, God is there looking out for me. I’m doing His work so it’s not like He’s going to let any harm come to me.” She immediately gave me a doubtful expression. “Dad wasn’t in the field when he got sick or when he died, Mom.”

“But if he was chosen to do such an important job then why did he have to suffer? If he was so special why did he have to die? I’d love for you to ask God that.” Her words were angry and bitter and I really didn’t have a clue how much pain she had endured while she pondered this for so many years.

“I don’t speak to God directly. It doesn’t work like that. I don’t know why bad stuff happens to good people, but He obviously has a plan. It’s not fair, I know, but that’s life, right? Why are people born into poverty while others are blessed with fortune?”

“I didn’t realize you wanted to get into a philosophical discussion tonight, dear,” she teased as she glanced up at the clock.

“Right,” I said, running for the door. My ride was going to show up momentarily. “Just think about what I said, Mom. I want you to be happy and I know wherever Dad is he wants the same thing.”

The limo pulled up before I could force her to respond. She kissed my forehead and handed me my small pocketbook. “Have fun.”

Jer had the door to the limo open when I neared the edge of the lawn. He was checking me over and couldn’t stop grinning. I really hoped he didn’t have any preconceived notions about what might happen. There was no way I could get past how utterly ridiculous he looked in his costume to even give him a second glance. Maybe it wasn’t that the costume looked bad on him, but the fact that Luke was really the only guy I could see pulling it off.

“Your chariot awaits, my lady,” he said as I moved inside. The girls were already seated inside, including Reyna and Hailey. We all let out a little giggle as the stretched vehicle pulled away from the curb.

When we arrived at the school, we were greeted by chaperones all dressed in period attire. I found it endearing they wanted to be so involved in making our night memorable for us. We handed them our tickets and slowly shuffled inside.

The music was loud and I noticed a DJ dancing around behind his stand. The students were swaying to some classic hits of the eighties and I had to laugh. The whole set up didn’t fit together considering how we were dressed. It was like watching a swim team try to play football in their swim attire. Well… maybe not quite
that
bad.

My group reluctantly dragged me onto the dance floor. Moving around in my constricting dress didn’t make it easy to dance naturally to the music. I was sure someone at one of the tables was laughing at me now, and it served me right. Feeling self-conscious, I did a quick scan of the room. The girls attending the dance outnumbered the boys by far and most of them were on the dance floor. The only people I saw passing time at the tables were the chaperones and a few scattered male attendees.

When the lights dimmed and the music slowed, I moved off to the side. Jer had momentarily deserted me for a table full of jocks and I found myself feeling thankful. Dancing a slow song with him would have been uncomfortable. Jenna and Gage were one of the only couples enjoying the slow music together. Although part of me was delighted to see them both so happy, the other part of me was desperately lonely.

The girls standing near me suddenly stopped talking. I surmised that their gawking and whispering at something behind me was better than having them gossiping about me. It wasn’t until Hailey and Reyna had silenced their chatter that I took notice. As much as I wanted to avoid joining in on their antics, my curiosity got the better of me.

I turned around and felt my heart literally stop. Luke was standing at the entrance to the double doors, scanning the room before him. It was too good to be true. When his eyes found mine, I all but collapsed. Never in my life had I felt so completely breathless.

I quickly pulled myself together and moved swiftly across the floor not worrying about how my dress looked or if my hair was falling out of place; I just wanted to get to him. Once I finally had him in front of me I didn’t know what to say or do. Without even giving me the chance to remind him, Luke grabbed my face in his hands and leaned in to kiss me.

My heart beat on a track of continuous palpitations as a warm sensation spread throughout my entire body. Everything about his lips, his mouth and his hands on my face was mesmerizing. When he finally pulled away I was breathing heavily and could barely keep myself upright. I had never experienced such a captivating kiss in all my life.

“A promise is a promise,” he whispered as he kissed the top of my head. “I don’t know about you, but I can barely stand at the moment. Do you think we could get a drink?”

I grabbed his palm firmly in mine. As we turned towards the refreshment table, I discovered that everyone in the room was staring at us, including those on the dance floor. My face immediately flushed. Luke’s presence had attracted the kind of attention I’d always predicted.

Without thinking, I picked up two sodas and headed towards an empty table. Although the crowd had stopped gawking, they continued to whisper and steal glances in our direction.

“I hardly think you are invisible,” Luke teased as he reached for his glass. After taking a sip, his face immediately pained.

“Oh Luke, I should have warned you that it was soda. I forget that you haven’t had anything but water. That was so inconsiderate of me.”

He reached for my hand. “Just unexpected, Kara. I might actually like it by the time I finish the glass.”

“And just so you know, the girls are only staring in our direction because of you. They’re going to bombard us with questions any minute—I hope you’re prepared,” I informed him as Hailey and Reyna approached.

“Who is your male companion, did Jer know he was coming?” Hailey asked, never taking her eyes off of Luke. Thankfully I knew how Luke felt about me so I didn’t feel the need to glare at her.

“This is Luke Thorpe my…my…” All of a sudden I was completely unsure how to answer her question.

“I’m her boyfriend,” Luke announced as he offered her his hand. Her face was instantly and pricelessly disappointed. “And she didn’t know I was coming. I have a hectic schedule and I never know when I’m going to be in town.”

“Oh really, what do you do?” Reyna asked. She was practically drooling as she spoke in a sweet melodramatic voice. It was so unlike her. I wondered if it was the kind of behavior that turned Luke off to woman in the first place long ago.

Luke momentarily paled. “He’s a co-pilot for a private company and his schedule is unpredictable,” I stuttered as Luke’s eyes widened. He appeared old enough for the job and it was the best I could come up with on short notice. Besides the fact that Luke never would have lied, he did kind of fly in and out of town.

 “Kara’s worked hard to keep me a secret, but I couldn’t resist surprising her tonight,” Luke added. I smiled as the girls’ let out a sigh. Luke was definitely a charmer and I couldn’t believe he had slipped through the arms of the ladies of his time.

When we were finally alone again at the table, I took the opportunity to clarify my hasty response to my friends. “Sorry for lying back there. I just panicked and wasn’t sure how else to explain your job.” Luke leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms and stared at me. I wasn’t sure what he was pondering, but I decided to change the subject. “So we are officially a couple now?”

“I didn’t think you’d mind if I referred to you as my girlfriend. And yes, I think I am willing to give this a try.” He lifted my hand and kissed it. “Shall we?”

“You really want to dance to
this
?” I asked as I pointed to the girls, shaking what they were able to move, on the dance floor.