He walks straight to me and extends a hand. “Jake Basson, I believe. I hear you’re looking for a job.”
I put the beer aside and sit up straighter. “Yes, sir.”
“Your mother told me about that fancy school you attended in Dubai. Restaurant management, right?”
“I didn’t finish the degree.”
“I’m not fazed about degrees. What I need is experience. We’re not talking about running a gourmet restaurant with a top-rated chef. This is a steakhouse. I need good food in quantity, the kind of portions folks from around here are used to. I need the place to run smoothly, and to adhere to safety and health standards. That’s it. Think you can handle it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.” He pats me on the shoulder. “You’re hired.”
We talk a bit more about the salary and when I can start. Sonja is leaving at the end of the month, so he doesn’t need me before then. He promises to have a contract for me by tomorrow, as he’s in a hurry to get back to his other businesses in Joburg.
Back at the hotel, I email the estate agent to inform him about my job and that he’ll have a copy of the contract soon. Then I file an online application for a home loan at the bank, supplying the required documents. When that task is done, I lie on the bed and think about my plan. I think about it the next morning and all day, until I park outside the factory, waiting for Gina to clear the gates.
“Jake,” she says, leaning into the open passenger window. “What are you doing here?”
“I have a favor to ask.”
“I better get in then.” She gets inside and buckles up.
I pull away, gaining a good distance from the factory before I tell her what I want. “Can you take care of Noah for a few days?”
She turns sideways in her seat. “Why?”
“I want to take Kristi away.”
“Jake.” There’s pity in her voice. “She’s with Luan.”
I rub a hand over my brow. “I don’t think she is.”
“What do you mean?”
“You saw how she kissed me.”
“Jake,” she says again.
“Gina, please. Kristi needs time away from her job, and responsibilities, and Luan, even from Noah, to make up her mind. Give us a chance. I know she doesn’t love Luan. Think about her happiness.”
“Looking after Noah isn’t the issue. You know I’ll do it with pleasure.”
“But?”
“I don’t see how you’re going to convince Kristi to go away with you.”
Giving her a level stare, I say, “I’m not.”
“You’re not going to what?”
“I’m not going to convince her.”
“Oh, my God,” she exclaims, watching me with big eyes. Then she laughs as if whatever she’s thinking is hilarious. “You want to kidnap her?”
My voice is steady. My mind is made up. “It’s not kidnapping if she’s your wife.”
Chapter 14
Jake
“You’re serious,” Gina exclaims.
“I care about Kristi.”
“You have a strange way of showing it.”
“I fucked up. All I’m asking is for a chance to make it right.”
“By kidnapping her?”
“Kind of.” Meeting Gina’s no-nonsense gaze, I admit, “Yes.”
“She won’t survive it if you hurt her again.”
“I’m not going to hurt her again. I swear.”
“Do you love her?”
“Yes.”
She crosses her arms. “What about Luan?”
“If he loves her as much as he claims, he’ll grant her an opportunity to choose.” Between us. I swallow at the thought.
“What would you have done if the roles were reversed? What would your reaction be if Luan kidnaps Kristi?”
Not an easy notion to stomach. I clench the wheel hard at the thought. “I’d probably hunt the bastard down and steal her back.”
She grins.
I shoot her a contemplative look. “Is that a yes?”
“Kristi will kill me.”
“You want what’s best for her, don’t you? Look, if my plan fails and she stills wants Luan, I’ll respect her decision.”
She narrows her eyes. She doesn’t believe me. I’m not sure I believe myself.
“How long?” she asks.
“Three weeks,” I reply, hopeful.
“Three weeks is a long time for Noah to be separated from his mom.”
“We’ll come back if he misses her too much.”
“Where are you taking her?”
“Can’t say.”
“Damn.” She shakes her head and says with dry humor, “I’ve always thought to be kidnapped to an unknown location was romantic.”
“It could be.”
“How exactly are you going to manage this so-called kidnapping?”
“Let me worry about the logistics. Just say yes. Please, Gina.”
She bites her lip and looks straight ahead through the windscreen.
“I’m asking you because I know Noah will be in good hands. If it’s too much to ask, I don’t mind bringing him with us.”
“No, you’re right. Kristi has never had a proper holiday, and she’s never had time to herself since Noah has been born.”
“You are saying yes?”
“Ah, hell. I suppose there is something sexy about a surprise kidnapping.”
It takes a day to find a hideaway and rent a car for Gina. I don’t want her to be stuck without wheels while we’re gone. Gina has to come with me to collect the rental, thus having no choice but to take a day off so we can do it while Kristi is at work. We park the rental at the back of Shiny’s trailer to prevent Kristi from getting suspicious. Then Gina packs a bag for Kristi while I do some shopping for our trip. I make sure to be back at the trailer with enough time to put Kristi’s bag in the trunk before she gets home.
“All set?” Gina asks, her smile a little nervous as she leans against the car.
“Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”
“You better hope so, or I’ll have to castrate you. You still won’t tell me where you’re going?”
“No, but you can get hold of us on our phones. We’re not immigrating to another country.”
“I don’t even know why I’m doing this.”
“Because a repressed side of you thinks kidnapping is romantic, remember?”
“Kristi deserves to be happy.” She says it like a warning.
“Agreed.”
“Call me when you get there.”
Placing a palm on my heart, I say, “Promise.”
She slaps my arm. “Don’t patronize me. I could’ve been your mother-in-law.”
“You are.”
“Well, you know what I mean.”
“Yeah,” I say with a pinch of regret for what could’ve been. Taking the piece of paper with the address of the house in Heidelberg from my pocket, I hand it to her.
She takes the scrap of paper hesitantly. “What’s this?”
“A house for Kristi, you, and Noah.”
She stares at the address for a while before lifting her eyes back to mine. “You’re mighty sure of yourself.”
“I’m not.”
The corners of her eyes crinkle in understanding. The house is theirs, regardless. It has nothing to do with Kristi’s decision to be or not to be with me. The only difference her decision will make is that I’d be the lucky bastard to live there with them.
“If Kristi still decides to marry Luan,” God forbid, “the house is yours.”
“I can never accept—”
“Just go check it out.”
“Fine,” she says just as Luan’s Volvo takes the turn at the top of the road.
We watch the car in silence, both of us tense for our own reasons. Kristi gets Noah from the back, but Luan doesn’t budge. Other than a tight nod in our direction, he doesn’t acknowledge me. Just as well. I’m not dying to say hello either.
Kristi waves him off and stands in the road until his car disappears around the bend before she approaches us.
A grin splits Noah’s face when he looks at me. Something inside me gives. The tight control I keep on my feelings shifts, and everything loosens. Vulnerability hits me in the chest. For the first time, I understand the price that comes with parental love. It’s a deep-seated fear that anything should ever happen to him.
Reaching for him, I ask in a voice that’s suddenly hoarse, “May I?”
Kristi’s eyebrows pinch together in an unspoken question as she hands him over.
I plant a kiss on the top of his head and hug his solid little body. “Did you have fun at school today?”
“They saw a silk moth break out of his cocoon,” Kristi says.
This, right here, is the irreplaceable value of life I’ve been missing. “We’ll have to get you some silkworms. They spin shapes if you put them on cardboard circles and squares. If you want pink silk, you have to feed them mulberry leaves. I had a box full of worms under my bed when I was a kid.”
A visible shudder runs over Kristi’s body. “Not in the trailer.”
Winking, I mouth, “In the new house.”
“What was that?” Kristi asks.
“Nothing,” I reply, which makes Noah laugh as if he understands. Does he? My heart beats painfully, my newly discovered vulnerability already having a field day.
“What’s going on?” Kristi looks between Gina and me. “Why are you standing out here in the driveway as if you’re going somewhere?”
“We are,” I say.
Kristi’s fingers tighten on the strap of her bag. “What?”
“I’m taking you out to dinner.”
“I don’t want to—”
Before she can finish her sentence, I put Noah back in her arms. “Give him a goodbye kiss.”
“I said—”
“Nothing you say is going to change our plans.”
“Our plans?” She huffs. “You mean your plans.”
I kiss Gina’s cheek. “Thanks for taking care of him.”
“No worries.” Gina’s look is meaningful. “I hope you’ll enjoy yourselves.”
“Mom! Did you two scheme behind my back?”
“Honey, trust me, you don’t want to know.”
Taking Noah from Kristi, I hand him to Gina. It’s like a game of musical chairs, and I already know the empty seat where Noah should be will hit me hard during the next few days.
“Get in, Pretorius,” I say, opening the passenger door. Did she have a premonition I was going to bail on her when she decided to keep her maiden name and not take mine?
“I’m not going anywhere if I don’t know where we’re going.”
“Steakhouse.”
“What’s the occasion?”
“Dinner.”
“I can have dinner here.”
“Stop bickering.” I all but shove her into the car.
With a last wave at Gina and Noah, we’re finally off. Kristi does have to eat, which is why I drive to the steakhouse where we had dinner the first night. She’s quiet on the way there and mostly throughout dinner. I drag out of her that the town folks decided to have at least three people taking care of the kids during the weekend gatherings at the lake. The idea is to give all the parents a chance to relax. It has a neighborly ring to it, a kind of communal belonging, and I never would’ve guessed how badly I’d long to be a part of it. Small towns have their drawbacks, but they also have plenty of good.
After dessert and coffee, I ask for the bill and insist she visits the bathroom. We have a long road ahead. She mumbles something about me being bossy but obliges. Lucky for me, she leaves her bag on the table. While she’s in the ladies’ room, I fish her phone from her bag and pocket it.
Just after ten, we’re finally on our way. When I don’t take the exit to the trailer park but continues south toward Bloemfontein, she stiffens with her arms plastered at her sides.
“Where are we going, Jake?”
Not easy to answer.
She sits up straighter when we pass the signpost for the highway. A tinge of panic invades her tone. “Jake?”
I cup her hand. “We’re not going home. Not just yet.”
“I can see that,” she snaps. “Where are you taking me?”
“I can’t say.”
She jerks her hand away and scoots up higher in her seat. “What?”
“Look at it as a surprise.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I reach for her again, trying to calm her as much as driving with one hand allows, but she jerks away. “Answer me.”
“We’re going away for a few days.”
She blinks, then shakes her head as if to rid it from an unpleasant thought. “Did you just say…?”
“Yes, I’m taking you away.”
Her eyes flare with full-blown panic in the yellow glow of the overhead streetlights as we take the highway. “Away? Away where? Wait, what?”
“Somewhere quiet.” Somewhere away from everything that stands between us. Our past. Our child, as much as I already miss him. Luan.
“Turn around,” she says through gritted teeth.
“Sorry, ginger. I can’t do that.”
She grips the door handle. “Stop the car. Let me out.”
I speed up as I cross over to the fast lane. For security reasons, I always activate the lock before I start driving. She fiddles around frantically, searching for the button on the dashboard, no doubt to unlock her door, not that it will do her any good. She won’t jump from the car at a hundred and twenty kilometers per hour.
“Kristi,” I say in the stern tone that always gets her attention, “calm down. I’m not going to stop, and you’re not getting out.”
She jerks on the handle. “You can’t do this. I’m a mother.”
I reach over and close my fingers around her hand to still her movements. “I know that.”
“Noah needs me. I need to be there for him when he wakes up.”
“Gina is taking care of him.”
“My mother is in on this?” she shrieks.
She tries to pull away again, but I tighten my grip and place her hand on my leg. “I didn’t really give her a choice, so don’t blame her.”
She twists her arm in my hold. “Let me go.”
“Try to relax, ginger. It’s a long ride.”
“Don’t call me that. How long exactly?”
“Ten hours.”
“Ten—” Her breath catches. “I can’t be that far away from Noah. If something happens—”
“He’s in good hands. I don’t want this to be unpleasant for you, so just try to look at it as a holiday that’s long overdue.”
Her jaw drops. “Do you hear yourself?”
“I’m being nice.”
“Nice? You’re crazy.”
“I could’ve given you a sleeping pill or tied you up.”
If looks could burn, I’d be fried. In contrast, her voice is icy when she asks, “Can I have my hand back?”
“Are you going to try and break off the door handle again?”
“I didn’t try to break it off.”
“Will you relax?”
“What choice do I have?”
Her reaction isn’t pleasant for me either. I much prefer to keep a point of contact that will soothe her, but I release her hand. The minute she’s free, she grabs her bag and buries her head inside, rummaging through the contents.
When she can’t find her phone, she gives me a seething look. “Where’s my phone?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“Give it back.”
“You can have it when we get there.”
“Now or then, it doesn’t make a difference. You know I’ll call the cops the minute you give me my phone, so you may as well turn around now.”
“Tsk. After that confession, maybe I should keep it for the whole three weeks.”
“Three weeks?” she cries. “You’re out of your mind
. I have a job. I have responsibilities.”
“Not for the next three weeks, you don’t.”
She crosses her arms and turns away from me. “I can’t believe you’re doing this.”
“We need time together.”
“Stop saying that!”
“Cold?”
“No,” she snaps.
I turn up the heater. There’s a bite in the air tonight. It’s nothing compared to the frostiness in the car, not that I expected Kristi to embrace my plan with enthusiasm. It will take some warming up to my idea, but there’s still a hell of a lot more than a spark between us. If she won’t admit it, I’ll just have to prove it.
“I hate you,” she whispers into the darkness.
“Put back your seat and try to catch a few hours of sleep.”
“Is that an order?”
“No.”
When a strained silence prevails, I switch on the radio. Reaching behind me, I grab the blanket from the backseat and drape it over her lap. “There’s a pillow too.”
She stubbornly refuses the comforts I offer, but when we reach Kroonstad, she flings around, takes the pillow, and shoves it between her head and the window before pulling the blanket up to her shoulders. She keeps her body turned away from me, her shoulders pulled into herself, but it doesn’t take long for her soft snores to fill the space.
Turning up the volume on the radio, I push down on the gas. The road is straight and mid-week quiet, and the expanse flat and deserted. A freedom I haven’t felt since leaving the stuffy, angry confines of my parents’ house makes my shoulders drop. A band of tension snaps, and my muscles relax. The ever-present strain evaporates, and there’s only Kristi, me, a stretching night, and endless possibilities. Hope. Maybe, just this once, I’ll do something right.
Chapter 15
Kristi
The sun is out when I wake up. The light penetrates my closed eyelids, but I don’t open them. I’m groggy and angry all over again when I remember why my neck is aching from the awkward position in which I’ve fallen asleep. A restless, unconsolidated sleep. It’s because I’m in a car with Jake, heading to God only knows where.
Jake’s deep voice reverberates through the car. “Morning.”
Catch Me Twice Page 21
