The Keys to Jericho (23 page)

Leaving the parking lot, I glance at her and ask, “What do we do now? Go back to your mom’s?” She morosely shrugs and watching the road, I say, “Come on, Kit Kat. Why are you so sad now? I’m still going to help you.”

“Why bother? I have to complete 60 hours of driving before I’m eligible to get my damn probationary license. My real license is over a year and a half away.”

I shake my head. “So?”

When I look at her, she’s tracing her fingers on the door. “You won’t even be here.” She actually sounds sad about that, which I didn’t anticipate. I don’t even know how I feel about leaving yet. It’s still a while away.

“You can always take a picture of you holding each one, and email them to me.”

“You might forget about me again.”

I instantly refute, “No, I won’t. I’ve
never
forgotten about you. I said that before and I meant it.” She has no fucking clue.

Kat stares out the window, not attempting to reply. When the silence reaches two blocks, I reach over, brushing my fingers down her arm, feeling her soft skin. She suddenly whips her head to me. Did she just get as turned on as I did? With the air from the open window blowing her brown and purple hair into her face and onto her mouth, I have to fight the urge not to move it away, just so I can touch her lips.

I look back to the road then at her, and that’s when I see her brown eyes glistening, but she only keeps them on me for a second before she looks to the seat. Touching her arm again, I say, “Hey.”

She sulkily mutters, “This sucks.”

“What’re you worried about? I have nowhere else to be for over a month, and neither do you. I’ll have you drive every day for a couple hours. It’ll be okay. We have time.”

“Yesterday you said we don’t have much time.”

“I was just kidding around with you.”

“Well, this just proves you were right again. Now, I have to take the fucking class all over! I’ll need a ride there, which is again, putting you out of your way.”

“It’s not.” I smile, hoping it makes her smile, but she doesn’t. “It
won’t
be so bad.”

She looks to be contemplating that when she abruptly giggles. “Maybe I’ll meet a really hot fellow classmate, or maybe the instructor will rev my engine.”

“Huh?” Stopping at a red light, I tear my eyes from the road in a flash.

She eagerly nods, tilting her head. “This situation could work to my advantage, don’t you think? This is sounding better and better, so thank you for being right again.”

Gawking at her for all the wrong reasons, the actuality of that possible development sets in.
Oh, hell no
.

Angry, I snap, “Let’s get one thing straight: I
won’t
be your mobile dating service or your chauffeur for your…dates.” I practically growl the last word. “If that’s your hope, then forget about me helping you. You can ask one of those fuckers to drive you around.”

Kat stares at me, her mouth gaping in surprise? Horror?

All of a sudden, she erupts in laughter, clapping her hands together and then hiding her mouth behind them.

The light turns green, and utterly confused about her reaction, I ask, “What?”

She says a muffled, “I thought your head was going to pop off.”

I scowl. “Well, I’m serious.”

“I know you are,” she says, her smile overflowing from behind her joined hands.

“Okay…”

Seemingly content for some reason, she sits back, still smiling. “I’m hungry. Let’s stop and have lunch. My treat.” When I don’t answer, she mockingly asks, “What’s wrong? Do you have somewhere else to be? Like on a date?”

I spontaneously laugh. “You’re mouthy.”

“And
you’re
not?”

“What?” I suspiciously ask, laughing again. “I’m sweeter than sugar-coated bee crack.”

“Sugar what? Honey?”

“Did you just call me
honey
?”

“Uh, no. I did
not
use a comma.”

I grin, not knowing why, but it seems to liven my mood. “You just called me
honey
.”

“You’re dreaming, Jericho. There. I used a comma that time.” She tries not to laugh, but isn’t very good at not doing that.

I ask, “Where do you want to eat?”

“You pick.”

I still can’t stop from sporadically laughing as I pull into the deli Dash and I frequent after our morning fishing excursions during a normal summer.

However, this summer is anything but normal.

When we’re seated and we order our drinks, I ask, “What’s up with the purple hair?”

“I wanted something different and I just said fuck it.”

“Really? That’s quite a bold
fuck it
.”

She twists a strand near her ear, mesmerizing me with the insignificant action. “It’s just a summer thing. I’ll get rid of the purple before school starts. I don’t want to get fired or start some kind of revolution with my third graders. They’ll look like Rainbow Brite dolls.”

“Oh, yeah. Hadley had those. Ugly damn things. I threw the fluffy red one she had into a toilet. Unfortunately, I had to be the one to fish it out.”

Kat laughs, which makes me laugh at the memory.

“That wasn’t very nice of you.”

“It’s probably not one I’d submit for an award.”

Laughing again, Kat says, “No. Probably not.” She then asks, “So, are you excited about your new job?”

I shake my head with a put-on frown. “You didn’t call me
honey
.”

She smiles back. “Are you excited about your new job,
honey
?”

A huge grin returns to my face as I crumple up my napkin and start batting it between my hands. “Not really. It’s a job. I’m more excited about getting you back on the road.”

She looks down at her menu. “That’s dumb.”

“Why? It’s true.” It really is. I can’t wait to see her finally do this, and me knowing I was responsible for it happening. If I take anything away from my prodigal return, it’d be that something good came out of all this, even if it’s nothing that I expected to happen. Seeing Kat again is definitely not anything I expected, but it’s turning out to be more than I ever thought it could be. Whatever that’s worth.

She says, “You shouldn’t be excited about teaching me to drive. You have better things you could be doing.”

“Like?”

“Sleeping in. Spending time with your dad. Fishing with Dash. Visiting Rio. Dating.”

“I can still do all those things, except sleeping in, but I’ve been going to bed earlier, so I don’t need to sleep in.”

She peers up from her menu. “You haven’t been fishing with Dash.”

“No, but I did with Finn. Dash has been busy, too, so it’s not a big deal.”

“You don’t see Rio all that much.”

“Rio is always with Liberty. Hell, they even work together and they’re still together on the weekends.”

“So?”

“Doesn’t he need air? He has to get tired of seeing her all the time.”

“Maybe he’s happy.”

“With
her
?”

“Liberty’s nice and really funny. She thinks you hate her.”

“She’s not exactly one of my favorite people.”

“Who would be on that list?” Kat bites her lip to hide her twitching smile.

I don’t fight mine. “It’s top secret.”

She puts her bottom lip out, which makes me want to take it into my mouth. “I’m good with secrets.” Her brown-eyed gaze pierces me and I almost want to tell her all my darkest secrets.

I lean over my menu, which causes her to drift over hers, and I smilingly whisper, “So am I.”

Rolling her eyes, she sits back in a huff. “What about you then? Aren’t
you
dating anyone?”

Shaking my head, I squeeze the balled napkin in my hand. “No. Why?”

“Why
aren’t
you?”

I scowl. “You sound like Rio and my sister.” I sit back, still toying with the napkin, while skeptically regarding her. “Why’s that subject on the top of everyone’s minds?”

She folds her arms together on the table. “I’m just asking, as a friend would.”

“I don’t really date, so no. I’m not dating anyone and no, it doesn’t bother me.” Satisfied with my answer, she nods and I ask, “What about you? Are
you
dating anyone and just aren’t talking about him?”
Fuck. Please, say no.

Why?

She pauses when the waitress stops to deliver our drinks and to take our orders. When she leaves, Kat finally answers, “I haven’t dated anyone since Jed. We were married for two years, and it ended two years ago.”

You haven’t dated anyone since?” Reaching for my drink, I lick my dry lips and ask the question I’m afraid, yet eager, to ask. “Why?” I take a long drink of my tea so I don’t look like a fucking lizard in a desert.

She shrugs and her eyes smile before her lips do. “I guess I’m waiting for Mr. Right.”

Trying not to look too absorbed in her answer, I evenly say, “Maybe you should’ve mentioned that yesterday when I was right all damn day.”

“You’re probably right. Again. A day late and a dollar short, as usual.”

I shift again, needing the throbbing to subside, but it doesn’t. Fuck me. Every conversation and touch I have with her gets me torqued. How am I going to get through teaching her to drive without her seeing how much she affects me? It’s going to be impossible. How’d I make it through the first time with her when we were in school? I was a teenaged boy back then, yet I still feel like one when I’m with her.

And I want her even more now.

Inclining, I say, “Well, I hear driving a Nissan Altima brings good luck after you finish your driver’s ed. course, so hang in there.”

“I’ll do that.” She smiles and then frowns.

What just happened?

I can’t shake the multitude of feelings I have all at once, or the feelings she’s apparently having that I can’t decipher, as well.

I decide to swing our conversation back to rules of the road. It seems to be safer. For a lot of reasons.

After lunch, I take her to the vacant lot, where she practices getting more at ease with the accelerator and shifting gears on her own. We get carried away and practice for hours. This time, I succeed in staying focused. Almost. I at least didn’t stare so much at her body, since our conversation at lunch was heavy on my mind.

She’s still not ready to drive on the road, so as I pull out of the lot, I ask, “Where to?”

Kat looks at her watch. “If you could drop me at my apartment, that’d be good. I’m having dinner with Dash tonight. Why don’t you join us?”

“Oh. No, thanks.” That jackass had better watch it.

“Are you sure? He’d want you there.” To watch him put his hands all over her? Yeah. He’d really want me there to put him in a body cast.

“I think I’ve had my fill of him for the time being, but thanks. I’ll see what my dad is up to tonight.” Another mind-numbing dinner on deck for me. Fuck Calder.

She cautiously says, “Maybe after driving, you and I could grab some dinner tomorrow night, if you don’t have plans?”

“My schedule’s wide open.” She smiles and I’m drawn to her lips. I hope she doesn’t notice how much I fucking stare at them.

“Cool. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Thanks for lunch.”

She smiles, shaking her head. “Thank
you
for…everything.”

We sit in silence, looking at each other, waiting for the other to fill the space between us, but I don’t know what to say.

Kat says, “You never did say anything about my eyes.”

I blink and uneasily laugh, glancing at the floor. “I… They’re… They’re just as I remember them.” They’re the fucking most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen.

She whispers, “Is that a good thing?”

Unthinkingly, I look into them and confess, “Very.”

She giggles, raptly looking into mine. “That’s…good. Thank you… Again.”

My eyes still not leaving hers, I mutter, “Stop thanking me.”

“Okay. ‘Night, Sonic, but I do like
Jericho
better.”

I roll my eyes, making her laugh. “Night, Kit Kat. You didn’t even call me
honey
.”

Laughing as she opens the door, Kat looks at me, and before leaving, she quietly says, “Goodnight, honey.”

Damn, that was hot.

Shutting the door, she walks around the car to her porch steps, smiling at me, and waving before disappearing next to her one-car garage.

How far do friends go for each other? If we’re friends, does that exclude the deep attraction I have for her? I can’t even help it. I’m caught in her maze, lost as to what to do with the old fascination I had with her, along with resonant bitterness I still harbor about why she didn’t want me.