The Keys to Jericho (20 page)

“His sister is in his life.”

She shakes her head, resting her hands on my shoulders, again her smile and eyes solemn. “He needs to be cherished. Jared Beckett needs a savior.”

“Wow, Mom. I can’t be that. I don’t know how. That’s a lot to put upon someone.” I’m absolutely dumbstruck by her declaration. “Why would you want me to get involved with him if he’s so messed up?”

“Because Jared needs a purpose, and he isn’t the only one who needs saving.”

Stunned. Again.

Dash’s black car pulls up in front of the house, and I see his silly grin before he even opens his door. My mom and I both inhale, as if to clear the conversation we just had from showing on our faces.

Dash trots over to us, his styled, platinum blond hair glowing in the sun. “Good morning, Merrick. Brenda,” he greets us with a cardboard tray of coffee. “Hangover aid is here.”

My mom laughs. “I take it
you’re
feeling fine?”

“No drinks for me, so yep.” Dash sets down the tray and asks, “No Jared?”

I say, “I guess he’ll be over later.” Silence follows and my mom excuses herself to talk to Tony.

When we’re alone, Dash asks, “Are you okay? You left in a hurry. What did Jericho say to you?”

“It’s nothing he said. It’s something
I
said.” I uneasily laugh as I glance to the street. “I told him that in school, I wanted him to be more than my friend.”

“Jesus. You did it? What did he say?”

I shrug, watching a squirrel climb a tree. “Nothing. I left. I felt stupid for telling him that.”

“It’s true, though.” I nod, but don’t look at him. Dash sighs. “Well, the ball’s in his court. Let him come to you about it. Maybe he’ll…”

Facing him again, I ask, “What? Laugh at me? Avoid me like he has been? Forget about me for another 12 years or so? I’m prepared for all of those things.”

He frowns. “He won’t do any of those.”

“Where is he then? Is it just a hangover he’s coping with, his sister leaving, or is it my revelation?”

“He doesn’t have his car. After you left, he became pissy, wanting to go home. Your leaving almost seemed to sober him. So, I dropped him off at his house. I didn’t want to stay there if he was still mad at me for the karaoke.” Dash snickers. “That was epic, by the way. His dad was still awake and said he’d bring Jared by to pick up his car this morning at my apartment, using the spare key.”

I fold my arms and shake my head at the ground. “I freaked him out. I know it. He’s not coming back.”

“If his dad has anything to do with it, he’ll be here. Hadley and Finn are leaving today, so they may be staying home or coming over later. It has nothing to do with you.”

Staring at the ground, I whisper, “I’m afraid to see him after what I told him.”

“Don’t be.
I
should be the one afraid to see him. With the karaoke and then pilfering his car, he’s not too happy with me, I’m sure.”

Returning my gaze to him, I nod. “And with me surprising him, and then his being forced to dance with me don’t help.”

He shrugs with an impish grin. “He’ll get over it.” Dash reaches for a coffee and says, “See you in a bit. Let me know if you need reinforcements.” He laughs.

I glare into his blue eyes as I drag Tony’s notes and a notepad closer to me. “Not funny.”

Tony had given me things to write down for his trip to the hardware store later, and pulling a tall, empty bucket over, I take a seat and become engrossed in writing down measurements and quantities. As I look back and forth between his scribblings and my organized list, jingling catches my attention from behind. Curious, I raise my head as a set of car keys dangles in front of my face, a hand now holding them over my head.

A man’s voice says, “Got a minute?”

Oh, God.

I spin around on the upside down bucket to see Jared. “For what?”

Taking off his Colts hat, he sets it on my head and sexily smiles. “You know.” He digs a hand into his hair, ruffling it, and shoves the other into his khaki shorts pocket. “For some flashbacks in the front seat of a car.”

I hold onto his hat as I shake my head. “What?”

Removing his hand from his hair, and casually dipping it into the air, he rolls his eyes. “I’m going to refresh you on the workings of a motor vehicle so you can get your license.” Is he teasing me…again? Is this a damn joke?

“Jared… I don’t… I can’t drive.”

He nods like I’m extremely slow. “Thus, the reason I’m going to give you a refresher.”

His hat is big and keeps sliding down my forehead, so I push it up again. “You’re actually serious?”

Jared puts his arms over his chest, his gaze unwavering. “Very.”

“Why?”

“You don’t have a license. Let’s fix that.”

I try to find reasons to not do this. “I can’t drive a stick.” I don’t even know what he drives.

He puckers his lips as he tries not to laugh—too much—and his eyes twinkle as they flicker over me. “Don’t worry. That’ll be for extra credit.”

I laugh and correct myself. “I can’t drive a manual transmission.”

“Got it covered.” He nods to the street, where a silver car sits.

Craning my neck, I ask, “Is that your car?”

He shudders. “Do you really think that’d be my car?”

“No?” He shakes his head, cocking his head with a disbelieving laugh. I ask, “Are you sure you want to help me?”

Jared’s head shake turns into an instant nod, his smile wickedly growing. “Oh, yeah. This’ll be so much fun.” If it’s the same kind of fun I want to have with him, I’ll definitely be driving his stick.

“Um, okay. I should tell my mom where I’m going.”

“Text her on the way.”

I frown. “I can’t text and drive.”

He nods, as his gaze drifts around me. “Yeah… Because I’m going to throw you back on the road this second.”

I swallow as he stares at me, waiting for me to say or do something. I finally nod. “Okay. Let’s do this, Sonic.”

His responding grin charms me. “I swear. You won’t be sorry, Kit Kat.”

I smile and shakily stand, nerves suddenly taking hold, but I’m not sure if it’s because I’ll be behind a wheel again, or if it’s because I’ll be alone with Jared again.

He takes back his hat, putting it on his head backwards, which makes me laugh. Baffled, he asks, “What?”

I shake my head as we walk, glancing to the line of cars along the curb. “Did your dad come with you?”

“Nope. My sister’s leaving today, so he’s with her.”

Jared opens the passenger door of the Nissan Altima for me and I get in, and when he shuts the door, I start breathing short and quick breaths. Still, I watch him walk to the driver’s side and just as I used to do, I try to imagine what he looks like without his clothes. The only glimpse I’ve had of him is when he took his shirt off Thursday, and he caught me staring at him. Unnerving, but I was so aroused that I didn’t realize I was perving on him until Dash notified me. Double humiliation.

“Why don’t you go lick him?”

“What?”

“You’re ogling Jericho so hard that
he
might need a smoke when you’re done.”

“I wasn’t. I…”

“Uh-huh.”

Shit.

I need to calm down.

Jared gets in and as he starts the car, I put my seatbelt on and hurriedly text my mother. “Is this your dad’s car?”

He laughs, which catches me off-guard, not thinking I asked another crazy question. “No. This car doesn’t scream
old lady
to you?” He looks in his mirror as he pulls away from the curb. “It’s my grandma’s.”

He’s making fun of me. My heart comes to a grinding halt and my stomach drops. Tears sting my eyes fast. “Jared…”

When it dawns on him what I don’t say, he gasps and looks over at me. “Aw, fuck. I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about… Kat, I’m such an idiot.”

Relieved that he wasn’t intent on mocking me, I dab at the corner of my eye. “It’s okay.”

To the road he says, “I thought her car would be perfect for you to use. That’s all. I didn’t think.” He glances over at me again, his eyes utterly sincere.

I slowly smile. “Maybe I remind you of an old lady?”

He only looks away for seconds before he’s eyeing me again, his greenish gaze drifting down my body, and I feel every second of it. “Definitely not.” He inhales a terse breath and looks ahead, muttering, “Damn it.”

“What?”

“I need to watch the road.”

“Maybe
you
need a refresher course?” I tease.

Jared nods. “You could call it that.” Once more, he looks at me, giving me that beautiful smile of his, and with his hat on backwards, I laugh. I’d almost forgotten how adorable he is when it’s just us. Most of all, I’m loving how we have easily fallen back into that frisky banter we used to have before it disappeared.

He pulls into a closed office building’s empty lot. Parking and shutting off the engine, he then turns to me, propping his arm on top of the steering wheel, and with raised eyebrows, he asks, “You ready?”

I avert my eyes to my lap. “No.”

“Yes, you are. You’ve
been
ready. You just need the drive.” Hearing his pun, I swiftly look up at him, and he smirks. Relaxing some, I roll my eyes, again smiling. I didn’t think it’d be this easy to smile with him like it used to be, especially minutes before getting behind the wheel of a car the first time in years.

He opens his door and a cool panic begins to permeate me. When he makes it to the other side of the car and opens my door, he waits for me to get out, but I don’t.

“Kat?”

I nod, unbuckling my seatbelt, but don’t make any further move than that.

Jared heaves a small sigh before pulling the door open more and squatting next to me. “Hey. You can do this, Kit Kat.”

Without thinking, I shake my head, staring at the dashboard, instead of the nodding I did a minute before. “I can’t. I did it once and look what happened.”

“It was an accident, and it wasn’t even your fault. You did
nothing
wrong. It was beyond your control.”

“I don’t want to…” I catch my breath before losing it, and whisper, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

He chuckles. “How are you going to hurt me? We’re in an empty parking lot. The most you could do is run into a curb, and you’ve done that before.” He doesn’t notice lampposts running through the middle?

A laugh bubbles and I glance at him. “You never forgot about that damn curb?”

He rubs his neck and fake pouts. “You gave me whiplash.”

“Shut up!” I push on his arm and he drops the pout for a laugh, in which I join him, calming me some.

Jared whispers, “There’s that pretty smile.” His comment has the opposite effect on my smile. It fades as I vacantly look at him, while his eyes dart from me. He clears his throat, and the sounds of the road from beyond the shrubbery fill the silence.

When Jared speaks again, he tentatively looks at me and gently says, “Kit Kat, come on. Don’t let this fear define who you are. It’s crippling your daily life. You can’t go many places, unless you ask someone else for a ride or take a bus. Let me help you. Do this not only for you, but for your grandma. She’d be so proud of you.”

He’s absolutely right.

I still regard him doubtfully. “You have
that
much faith in me?”

Jared touches my arm. “I have
all
my faith in you.”

My heart just stopped.

Mindlessly, I hoarsely whisper, “Okay. Let’s do this.”

Grinning, he stands and offers his hand. I take it and when he pulls me up, I unwillingly look up at his face, closer to him than we had been dancing.

I stumble over my words. “If-if I forget to-to thank you later, thank you.”

He narrows his eyes. “For what?”

“This. The pep talk. Coming back to Annapolis.”

Jared laughs, and the way he does makes my stomach swirl. “I didn’t know I was doing you a favor by staying with my dad.”

Even though it’s bright out, I look at him with wide-open eyes. “I told you. I’ve missed you.” He never did say he missed me back. Maybe he didn’t.

Jared’s head drops and as I look at the top of his blue hat, he falters, “Kat… I… We didn’t…” He trails off and sighs, seemingly struggling for words. Taking Dash’s advice about treading carefully, I don’t want to push him before he’s ready, so I drop it.

Instead, I hold out my hand. “Where are the keys?”

Lifting his head, he nods, his eyes focusing on the interior of the car. “Ignition.”

I step away from him and unhurriedly walk around the car, taking more deep breaths as I go, again, not knowing which is causing me more nerves: driving or Jared.

Sliding into the driver’s seat, I shut the door and put on my seatbelt, needing that security around me. Not bothering with his belt, he leans closer and points at my feet. “Which one is the gas?”