by Libby Sparks
He winked at her, and Brianna couldn’t help but smile at the way his bushy brown eyebrows danced when he did.
“Would you like to start with a drink while we prepare your salad?”
She thought about it. “Do you have cherry coke?”
“We can make it. Straight coke with a shot of grenadine?”
“Ooh, yes please.” She felt her taste buds start to salivate.
The waiter moved away after promising to be right back so Brianna unrolled her napkin to place her silverware and straightened out her plate. Suddenly she realized that she had nothing to keep her occupied until her food came. She hated these awkward moments. Her mind always played tricks on her that everyone was staring at her because she was alone and had nothing to do.
“Cherry coke?” someone asked from a table behind her. “Now there’s a girl after my own heart.”
Surprised, she turned around to politely brush off whoever it was that was trying to hit on her. Brianna wasn’t bored enough yet to have some local interrupt her dinner.
It was him--Jake Valcour; the guy from the convenience store who had tried to hitch a ride with her. The dim lighting cast shadows across his face and darkened the little copper lines through his eyes to a tarnished black.
“You...” she said, and then immediately felt stupid for saying it. So much for second impressions.
But he smiled at her anyway. “Yup. Me. I didn’t realize just how wild you were when I was talking to you earlier.”
“Me? Wild?” She turned sideways in her chair so she could face him without craning her neck.
“Absolutely. Anyone who likes cherry coke must have a wild streak in them.”
Her grin was lopsided, yet perfect at the same time. She couldn’t believe she was flirting with Jake again. Not that she hated the idea of flirting with him and being flirted with. But hadn’t she already turned him down once?
“Weren’t you trying to leave this place?” she asked him.
He shrugged in response. “Couldn’t find someone willing to give me a ride. Figured I needed to eat dinner before I tried again. So here I am.”
“Right where I ended up eating dinner.”
“Definitely kismet.” He picked up his fork and twirled it in his fingers like a magician flipping a coin between his knuckles.
“Kismet? You believe in all of that fate and meant-to-be stuff?”
The fork paused between two fingers, sticking straight up in the air. “Well, of course I do. Don’t you?”
She rolled her eyes. “Well. Maybe I do. Now. Because after all, here you are.”
His smile brightened. “Hey, you want to join me for dinner?”
“Um.” Oh, just say yes for the love of God, she told herself. After all, he couldn’t be too dangerous in a public place. Right?
“Come on. Better than eating alone. If it will make you feel better, I’ll solemnly promise not to try to kill you until after we eat. How’s that sound?”
She laughed. “Best offer I’ve had all day.” She stood and moved over to his table, sitting across from him. There were only a few other people in the place, and a few of them watched her as she switched tables, but they lost interest after that. It was as if she and Jake were alone together in a room full of people. Now that she wasn’t awkwardly alone, it didn’t feel like anyone was staring anymore.
And, somehow, it felt right to her.
Which was confusing. But in a good way.
The waiter brought Brianna’s drink out with Jake’s food, a plate with an open-faced steak sandwich and thick cut fries. When the man saw that Brianna had moved, he simply smiled and put her drink in front of her. “Enjoy your meal,” he said, to both of them.
Jake sipped at his glass of water but didn’t touch his food. “So, Brianna Maitland. Tell me why a girl from New York would be out in this part of the country.”
“Well first of all, Jake Valcour, I’m not a girl. I’m a woman.” It was a pet peeve when people thought she was a teenager. Although that probably was not even what he was insinuating at all.
He never moved his eyes away from hers, but she got the feeling he had just examined every inch of her body in fine detail. “Yes,” he said, “you are. But you know what I mean.”
Goosebumps dimpled her arms. She swallowed and suddenly needed a drink from her soda. It was an odd sensation, what she was feeling around Jake. It wasn’t like they were strangers at all. Brianna felt like she knew him, like he could see inside of her, and she rather liked feeling so close to someone, even if she didn’t actually know him. It was fun to pretend, at least for a short time. Somehow the fact that this flirting was temporary and would soon be over made her feel less stupid for enjoying the moment so much. A pleasant warmth began coloring her cheeks.
“How’s your soda?” he asked her.
“Good.” It was, too. They must do this here a lot, because they had the mix of soda and cherry flavoring just right. She took another sip from it and then mentally laughed at herself for overthinking things, again. She was meeting an interesting, cute guy for the first time. That was all. No need to be nervous.
“You know,” she said to him, making an effort to be herself instead of the jittery teenager he kept turning her into, “you can eat your food before mine comes. I don’t mind.”
He picked up the plastic ketchup bottle from the table and squirted a small pile of it next to his fries. “Don’t have to tell me twice.” He swirled a fry into the ketchup and then popped it into his mouth. “Mmm. Those are good. So, you didn’t answer my question. What brings you out here?”
“College,” she answered him. “I was going to college in Seattle.”
“Oh yeah?” He put another and then another fry in his mouth, then picked up his knife and fork to cut pieces off the steak sandwich. “Which college?”
“The Art Institute.”
His fork paused with a speared piece of cut steak halfway to his mouth. “Really? An artist? No way. What kind of art?”
“I was studying to be a graphic designer.” She realized how very, very boring that sounded. “But really what I like to do is paint portraits. Just, there’s not a lot of money in that, you know?”
“Yup. Money: the root of all evil.” He nodded as if he really did understand and then took the bite of steak. Judging by the way his eyelids lowered, he was really enjoying it. Then he put his silverware aside and rested his arms on the table. “An artist. That’s a rare gift.”
She laughed. “I don’t know if ‘gift’ is the right word. I paint. It’s just something I do.”
“I doubt that. Are you any good?”
Good? She was top of her class and one of her professors had even asked if she might student teach next semester. That was almost unheard of for a sophomore. She knew she was good. In fact, she knew she was great. “I’m okay,” she answered him. She never felt right praising her abilities. It made her feel conceited.
He looked at her in his keen way and she knew he was measuring her answer. Knew he could see the truth behind her words. “Okay, yes, I’m good. But seriously, it’s not a big deal.”
“Some things,” he said, “are bigger deals than we realize.”
The waiter brought her Caesar salad just then and she was glad for the excuse to do something that kept her mouth closed.
The salad was pretty good. The chicken was a little dry but the dressing was tangy and creamy and she had eaten half of the huge bowl of it before she knew it. She pushed at the rest of it with her fork and tried pacing herself.
“See?” he said to her as if she’d made some point without realizing it. “You have an artist’s soul. You savor everything life offers you, whether it’s a good salad or soda flavored with cherry syrup or painting the world you see around you. And that is a gift.”
“A gift? You mean, like from God or something?”
He shrugged, but didn’t answer.
She regarded him for a long moment. “Are you trying to butter me up so I’ll agree
to give you that ride?”
“If I was, would you say yes?”
“Maybe,” she said, slowly.
“Then yes, that’s what I’m doing.”
They both laughed at the same time. Though she was slightly disappointed that he said that, even if he was just joking. She’d rather that Jake had told her that he had no ulterior motives, and that he truly thought she was talented. Brianna gave her head a small shake to clear her thoughts. This was supposed to be harmless flirting, nothing more.
Jake went back to cutting his steak, Brianna watching him. A few bites later he pointed at her with his fork without taking his attention off his food. “But I’m also serious. You have a gift. Gifts are meant to be used, not hidden.”
She rolled her eyes at him and reached across the table, stealing a fry from his plate and biting it in half before he could object. “You know, you’re a bit of a dork.”
He stopped, knife and fork in his steak, eyes blinking. “A dork? You think so?”
Oh, damn. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say it like that…”
“No. No, really, it’s fine. I’ve just, well, never been called a dork before.”
She bit her lip and waited for him to say something more, like how he wanted her to go back to her own table or jump in a lake or go play in traffic or something. Something to show just how much he didn’t want her to be around anymore. Suddenly she felt really embarrassed for stealing a fry, that was too forward, and she hardly knew this guy. The fact that she felt so comfortable around him made it hard to keep herself in check.
“Don’t misunderstand me,” he said instead. “I like it.”
“You what now?”
“I like it. See, where I’m from, people don’t talk honestly to me. They talk around me, or over me, or say what they think I want to hear, but they never just talk to me. Ever. So to hear you call me a dork because you mean it? That’s like music to my ears.”
That was just about the weirdest thing she’d ever heard a guy say. And yet he said it with such honesty that she could tell he meant it. “I can honestly say you’re not like most guys I’ve ever known.”
“And a bit of a dork?”
“Yes,” she said, making her expression as serious as she could, “you’re a dork.”
He burst out laughing, head tipping back. The other people in the room looked over, some smiling, before they turned back to their own dinners.
She couldn’t help but smile when she was around him. “So,” she asked, “where exactly do you come from that people can’t even talk to you? Or call you a dork when you really are being one?”
He still smiled at her, but now it was kind of sad. “Somewhere a long way off from here. I’m kind of running away from there, actually.”
“Wait. You’re running away? From home? You’re a grown man, aren’t you? You’re, what? Five, six years older than I am?”
He leaned his head to one side briefly, considering how to answer. “Older than you. How about we leave it at that.”
“Well, I’m twenty. So if you’re older, then…”
“I’m older,” he repeated.
She blinked, then let her fork drop into the salad bowl. “Oh no. You can’t just leave it at that. Like, are you thirty? Fifty-five and just aged well? What?
He cleared his throat. “My life is…complicated.” Then he shook his head and his smile was back. “Tell you what. Anything you want to ask, I’ll tell you all about it on the car ride, if you let me go with you. How’s that? Deal?”
Complicated never looked so good before, in her experience. She stole another fry from him before giving him an answer, grinning inwardly to herself.
“Deal.”
They raised their drink glasses and clinked them together. She guessed she wouldn’t be alone going back to New York after all.
Chapter 4
“So can I walk you back to your hotel?”
Dinner had been better than she had hoped, and not just because the food was delicious. After his steak and her salad she had let Jake talk her into desert; a piece of rich chocolate cake. It was to die for.
Now they stood outside the restaurant, talking. It was finally starting to get dark, the sun having touched and dipped behind the horizon of trees and rooftops while they ate, and now he was offering to walk her back to her hotel.
“Um, thank you, but I’m pretty sure I can find my way back there by myself. Kind of just down the street. As cities go, this isn’t a very big place.”
“Yeah, that’s true. But you can’t blame them for trying. Seen the Green Giant statue yet?”
“The what now?”
Jake laughed at the expression on her face. “I’m serious. Over there a ways off Route 169. Sixty-foot-tall statue of the Jolly Green Giant. Looks just like him.”
“And you would know because you and the Green Giant are such good friends?”
“Well I don’t like to brag.”
Brianna laughed with him and put her hand lightly on his arm. She didn’t feel awkward doing it at all, which was very strange. She had to keep reminding herself that she had just met Jake. Touching should be out of the question, but it felt so right. People walked around them and past them as they stood there. She could care less about any of them. Her whole world consisted of her, and Jake.
The sudden attraction she had to him was interesting and even kind of fun. But she had no illusions about it going anywhere. She had to get home to help her dad. After this one brief moment in time, after their drive across the country, she was sure she’d never see him again.
So, why not indulge it a little?
“Come on then,” she said, rolling her eyes and starting off toward her hotel. “Maybe I’ll walk you to my hotel. But I’m giving you a ride, not sharing a room, got it?”
Jake caught up to her quickly, matching her step, hands thrust into the pockets of his sweater again. She noticed how much taller he was, and stood up a little straighter. He pretended not to notice and she pretended not to see his little smirk.
“So you aren’t from here?” she asked him after they had gone a whole block. “I mean, because you do seem to know the Jolly Green Giant and all?”
He shook his head, keeping his eyes on the people around them. “I’m not from here.”
“Then where?”
He stared at a man in a dark business suit. “Sorry. No spoilers. I’ll tell you all about it on our drive, all right?” He kept his attention on the guy in the suit, watching him pass by, watching him over his shoulder to make sure he kept going.
He turned to find Brianna staring at him. “What?”
“Are you looking for someone?” she asked.
“No one in particular.”
She wondered what that meant.
He did the same thing to a very shapely blonde wearing a tight skirt that left her legs bare up past her knees. “Okay,” Brianna stopped and turned to him with a fist on her hip, causing him to stop short with her. “Now I’m just jealous.”
“Don’t be,” he joked. “Your legs are much prettier.”
“Yeah, right. Like you can tell when I’m wearing jeans.” She laughed, “Seriously, what gives? You’re either paranoid or you like checking everybody out.”
He managed to look embarrassed. “Look, I’m sorry. It’s…”
“Complicated?” she guessed.
“Yeah, that.” Even as he said it, his eyes followed someone walking past behind Brianna. He stopped when he saw her staring intently at him. “Sorry. I’m sorry, Brianna. I’m not trying to ignore you.”
“You’re doing a good job of it if you’re not trying.”
He winced. “Yeah. You still want me to come with you?”
Oh, she should so tell him No. The word was on the tip of her tongue. Suddenly she was keenly aware that she was about to take a perfect stranger across the country with her. But instead she just shrugged. “I’m leaving at nine tomorrow. If you’re here when I leave, then I guess I’ll still take you. How
’s that?”
“Better than I could have hoped for, really. So your hotel is this one?”
Brianna had almost forgotten what they were doing. She was still enjoying his company that much. She looked up where his thumb was pointing now and saw that they had come all the way back to her hotel.
“Yeah, I guess so,” she said, trying not to feel awkward. “Um. So, this is me. Where are you staying?”
He didn’t answer. He was staring in through the front windows of the hotel, his eyes focused on something on the other side of the glass. Brianna followed his gaze and saw the inside of the lobby, saw Mary the desk clerk at the front counter, talking to two men. The men were both the same freakishly tall height, considerably above six feet it looked like, and both wore dark black suits, white collars and cuffs showing from under trim suit coats. As she watched, they both turned as one, to look out through the windows.
They were staring at Jake.
Brianna shivered. The men both had the same short, midnight-black hair slicked back from high foreheads. And both of them had the same washed-out gray eyes, narrow gazes directed sharply at Jake. The intensity of it was almost like a physical weight that pushed at Brianna and made her feel queasy.
She shivered. “Jake, do you know those two…?”
Her words faded away as she turned to him and saw how his expression had changed. His face had darkened, eyebrows lowered, teeth bared in a snarl. She hardly recognized him.
“Jake?”
“We need to go.”
He grabbed her wrist and started quickly back down the sidewalk, not giving her a chance to argue or ask what was wrong.
Over her shoulder, she saw the two men coming through the door to the hotel. They were walking slowly, steadily, after them. A small knot of fear was starting to form in her stomach. Who were these people? Who was Jake?
“Don’t ask,” he said, as she opened her mouth to do just that, keeping pace with his steps. “Just please, trust me. We need to stay away from those two.”
“Who are they? What do they want?”
“They want me.” That was all he said. Then there was only the running.
