Sublime Karma

by Peyton Garver

  “I was glad you were Benadick, and I was Beatrice. Emphasis on Ben.”

  “Me, too, but then one day you didn’t get on the bus, and the day after that.” He stroked her thigh, lightly, with his thumb. “Ya know? You’ve been on my mind since that first day on the bus.”

  “Really?” She glanced at his hand. “I thought—”

  “Yes. Really,” he interrupted, nodding. “From that very first day.”

  She moved so she was straddling his lap.

  He rested his hands on her hips. “I couldn’t shake you, and I didn’t want to. When I’d see you in the hall, in class, on the practice field, or with Ian . . . or Ryan. I wanted to be the one with you. It was killing me. Then, here you were sitting in my deer blind.”

  He looked at her as if it was divine intervention. “Then, when you didn’t say yes to homecoming . . . I dunno. But, when you showed up there, I thought everything was perfect. Until I kissed you, and you ran off. I didn’t get that.” He shook his head. “I went after you, but I couldn’t find you. When you didn’t answer my text, I decided to give you some time and then talk to you. You know, in person. But, you never showed.”

  She looked at his lips and then at his eyes. “You apologized.”

  “What?”

  “After you kissed me, you apologized like you didn’t really want to,” she repeated in a whisper, edging closer, looking at his mouth.

  “What? Are you kidding m—” Her lips landed on his. He pulled her closer, taking over.

  When they separated, she waited, watching him.

  “What?” he asked. “If you’re wondering if I’m sorry you did that, I’m not.”

  He slid his hand along her cheek, cupping it. He inched closer, but his text alert interrupted him. “That’s got to be Troy, probably wondering where his car is. I borrowed it.” He glanced at his phone. You find her? A sheepish grin crossed his face, and he thumbed back a reply.

  Yeah so don’t text back trying to fix things here I’ll get your car back before practice is over

  “Yep, it’s him,” he said, deleting the messages before he set his phone down on the bench. “I’ve got to get his car back to the lot. I’ll just leave it there while he’s at practice. Can you follow me there to drop his car off and then bring me back?”

  “Yeah. Wait, you ditched because of me—again?”

  Jake shrugged. “Yeah. I left sixth period. And, we both know Cowley will turn me in since I didn’t show in seventh. That makes twice. One more time, and I’m off the team.”

  “Jake, I’m sorry. I don’t want you to pay for my issues.”

  “Hey, if I pushed rewind and had it to do over, I’d make the exact same choices. You know that, right?”

  She paused. “Jake, I can’t do this anymore.”

  “What? No, Brie,” he panicked. Give me a chance, give us a chance before you—

  She shook her head. “I’m so tired of this, trying to hold it all together.”

  He relaxed. “You’re not alone anymore. I told you that. I swear it. I’m here for you.”

  “I know.” She touched his face. “I know,” she nodded, looking through him.

  “Brie? Brie!”

  She drew in a quick breath. “Huh? What?”

  “Brie, what just happened? You were like—spacing.”

  “Nothing. I . . . Do you think . . .”

  “Do I think, what?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing, forget it.”

  “Brie? Trust me, okay?”

  “It’s Rick, no one knows where he is. The police haven’t even found him to serve him the restraining order. It’s been two weeks.”

  He hesitated. “Brie, what are you doing tonight?”

  “I haven’t thought that far ahead. I can pretty much do whatever. My mom won’t be home.”

  “Is she working late tonight?”

  “She’s probably in New York by now. She has a photo shoot this weekend and a show after it, all next week.”

  Jake scowled. “New York? She’s in New York? She should be here with you. You just got out of the hospital.”

  “She brought me home. She didn’t leave until I left for school this morning. She couldn’t cancel,” Brie defended her mother. “She was booked for this show three months ago. Besides, Maria and Carlos are in the tenant house if I need something.”

  “So, basically you’ll be home alone?” He swished his hair off his forehead with a jerk of his head. “Rick must know that your mom’s in New York. What if he comes here when she’s gone? Brie . . . who was . . . who would have—”

  “Rick? He wouldn’t.” But, she didn’t sound so sure. “Maria and Carlos are nearby, and Leif’s coming home. He’s going to try to catch the red eye from Los Angeles tonight.”

  “I don’t have a good feeling about this. I don’t want you home alone. Hang out with me tonight. You can meet my sister Teagan and my dad.”

  “Teagan? Your sister.”

  “Mm-hmm.” He grinned. “I may have told her you were my ‘sort of, maybe’ girlfriend. She’s dying to meet you.”

  “Sort of, maybe—girlfriend?”

  “Yeah. Does that bother you?”

  “No!” she blurted, shaking her head. “Well, except the ‘sort of, maybe’ part.”

  He leaned toward her. “We can drop that part.” Jake’s lips brushed hers just as the phone vibrated again. “Mmm. This phone has bad timing.” He gave her his lopsided grin. “We better get that car back to Troy.” He checked his phone. “Huh? That wasn’t mine.”

  “It’s mine. It’s Leif.” She swiped the phone to pull up his message. “He’ll be home after midnight.”

  “So are you up for my plan?” he asked. “I usually have to get dinner started on weekdays. You can help.”

  “Jake, I can’t cook. Maria does that.”

  “That’s okay. I can cook.”

  “You cook?”

  Amused, he nodded. “Yeah. My dad owns the Corner Pub on Market Street. I work there in the summer, cooking and sometimes waiting tables.”

  “Oh, I love that place!”

  “You’ve been there?”

  She nodded. “Well, only once really, with Leif. I like it because it’s so quaint. It’s cozy, warm, and quiet, not like some of the other places, but then we went kind of early on a Thursday evening.”

  He grinned; she would like cozy and quiet. “Yeah, it can get busy and loud when it gets late, especially on Friday and Saturday.” He stood, pulling her up with him. “Come on. Let’s get Troy’s car back to him.”

  Chapter 22

  “I know you were nervous meeting them, but it wasn’t so bad, was it?” Jake stood with Brie in her garage at the service entry. He dropped his backpack and football bag on the floor, waiting for her to unlock the door.

  “No, actually not. Your dad’s really nice, and your sister is adorable,” Brie said, punching in the code on the keypad to the service entrance of her house.

  “She likes you. I can tell. Pretty sure my dad does, too.” Jake paused on the step, tapping the keypad. “You know how to change this thing?”

  “My mother already did. The police told her to change all the codes, and the key entry to the pool house, too. You’re kind of making me nervous. Do you really think Rick will come back?”

  “You know him better than I do, but he knows your mom’s away this week. You know, you could stay at my house.”

  “No, I’d feel weird. I mean I just met your family, and Leif is already on his way home. Besides, you’re staying tonight, right?”

  “No way am I leaving you here by yourself. Just make sure Leif knows I’m here, so he doesn’t shoot me.” Jake followed Brie into the kitchen. “You know I’ve met him, right?”

 
“You did?”

  “Oh, yeah. He paid me a visit. Came to my house Saturday, before the dance.”

  “What! He went to your house? Oh my God, what did he say?”

  “He said if I played you, he’d hunt me down. I can see why Rick would be afraid of him.” Jake dropped his gear on the kitchen floor and shifted onto a stool at the island.

  “Are you? Afraid of him?”

  “I’ve no reason to be.” He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “I’m not playing you.”

  Blushing, she looked down. “I already texted him that you’d be staying over.”

  “Do you tell him everything?”

  She rubbed her thumb over the scars on her hand. “No, not everything. Anyway, he’s glad I won’t be alone. But, I’m supposed to tell you something, and he said he’d find out if I didn’t, so I better do it.” She sighed. “This is so embarrassing.”

  Jake raised his eyebrows in question. When she started to back up, he locked his ankles around her, trapping her. “I’m waiting,” he teased.

  “Okay, he said to tell you that he trusts you.”

  Jake slid off the stool and leaning down he whispered against her neck. “I can still kiss you though, right?”

  When she drew in an unsteady breath and nodded, he smiled against her throat, and with the tip of his tongue he stroked the soft flesh behind her ear.

  “Relax, breathe,” he whispered, sliding his fingers along the side of her face, he cupped her cheek. And, just as his warm soft lips covered hers, she threaded her fingers through his hair at the nape of his neck, pulling him closer.

  “I could get used to this,” he whispered, breaking from their kiss. Still holding her face, he rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. “It’s like, I can’t get enough of you.” He drew back to gaze at her. “Are you okay? If I let go of you, you’re not gonna run away are you?”

  A short, breathy laugh escaped her before she nodded and let her fingers slip out of his hair. “Yes, I’m okay, and I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Good to know.” He ran his thumb over her healed lower lip and looked at her with hooded eyes. “Because, if we do that again? Right now? I won’t be able to control myself.” When he saw the hopeful gleam in her eyes, another chuckle escaped him. He scooted back onto the stool. “So, you ready to go back tomorrow?”

  She moved closer. “To school? I guess. I’m kind of nervous about it, you know? Seeing everybody after I’ve been away so long.”

  “Don’t worry about that. I’ll be right there with you. What about your classes? Are you ready for them?”

  “I think so. I’m mostly caught up with my assignments, at least the ones that were posted online. I’m only behind in my Art class, and the art show is Friday. I have to have a minimum of five projects completed.”

  “Even though you started here a month after everyone else?”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  “You could probably ask for an incomplete and finish them next semester.”

  “No, I don’t want special treatment. I worked some at the hospital. There wasn’t a whole lot else to do. I’ll work on them at lunch and after school if I have to. Besides, if I request an incomplete, I’d have to give a reason.”

  Jake nodded. “Yeah, there’s that. What about cross-country? You still have practice after school, right? Don’t you qualify for States?”

  She laughed. “The girl’s team didn’t qualify, and I missed two weeks of practice and the district invitational. So, no, I actually don’t qualify for State Meet. Coach emailed me. He tried to get an exemption. It wasn’t approved. It bothers him more than me. He’s annoyed with me. I don’t run to win medals or for stats. I run as a release, a distracter from cutting. That, and to avoid Rick.”

  Jake nodded.

  “Coach wanted Ryan to train with me, or at least that was the plan before I missed Districts. So, Ryan’s pissed about it too. He seemed pretty mad at me.”

  “Ryan? When did you talk to him?” He heard the jealous edge in his own voice, but didn’t care.

  “Well, no. I haven’t talked with him. He emailed me on my school account.”

  “Wait. He emailed you? That’s lame.”

  She laughed. “I never gave him my number. So, he really couldn’t have texted me. Coach must have given him my email address. They have this weird relationship, kind of like Ryan is his assistant coach for the girl’s team instead of just a team captain for the guys. My mother told Coach Miller I was away, visiting relatives. They said I let the team down.”

  “Screw them! Ryan’s a douche bag anyway,” Jake scowled, but relaxed when she giggled.

  “It doesn’t matter, and with cross country out of the way, I’ll have more time to work on my art projects. I won’t have much time for anything else this week.”

  He lifted her hand, threading their fingers together. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got football practice every day, because our championship game in Baltimore is the weekend after next.”

  “You’ll still come to my art show this Friday, won’t you?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be there after football practice. I can probably stay for about an hour because my band is practicing at my place around eight. We’re in the lineup for the Fall Fest next weekend.”

  “Wait, your band is playing at the Fall Fest? No way! I’ve been wanting to see your band.”

  He laughed. “Well this is your chance. You can ride in with us. We’ve got VIP passes because of our equipment. We can hang out in the VIP tent while the other bands are playing.” He paused. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to get carried away.” He furrowed his brow and turned her hand over, studying her palm. He traced her scars with his fingertips.

  “Jake—” she whispered, trying to pull away.

  He wouldn’t release her hand. “Shhh.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her scars. “You believe me right? That I’ll be here for you?”

  “Yes, I believe you,” she whispered.

  He gave her a hesitant smile, then slipped off the stool. He threaded his fingers back through hers and led her out of the kitchen toward the front of the house. “Okay, so if I’m guard dog for the night, would it be all right if I slept on the couch in there?” He gave a nod to the large entertainment room off the front entrance, closest to the staircase.

  “Yeah, let me run upstairs and grab you a pillow and comforter from a guest suite. If you want something to drink from the fridge, help yourself.”

  “Thanks.” She has a guest suite? He sighed, but remembered Leif had indicated that material things weren’t important to her, and his fleeting feelings of not measuring up faded. Looking in the refrigerator, Jake spotted the bottled Boylan Root Beer and reached for one. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a root beer. It had to have been years ago, when his mother used to make root beer floats for him. He loved them. Before he could put it back, he heard Brie.

  “So, what did you pick?”

  Pasting on a smile, Jake looked over his shoulder at Brie, holding up the bottle he still held in his hand.

  “Hmm, root beer. Can you grab me a club soda? You wanna play a game of pool?”

  “Pool? Oh, yeah!” He grinned at her coy smile. “I have a feeling you’re a ringer.”

  “I can hold my own.”

  With a smirk he reached in the fridge, grabbed a club soda, and pushed the door shut with his elbow.

  Knowing Jake was in the same house made it difficult for Brie to sleep. They’d played two games of pool. He had laughed at her method of breaking, but at the end of the first game she was the one laughing. She took the first game. Then, he came back and crushed her in the second. She didn’t mind, because it earned her a consolation kiss. Laughing, she’d told him if she’d known that was the prize, she would have thrown the
first game, too.

  Catnapping for most of the night, she was up and showered before six o’clock. She hurried down the steps and was greeted by the smell of bacon and coffee wafting from the kitchen. At the bottom of the stairs, she closed her eyes and drew in the savory aroma of breakfast. Maria was already in the kitchen.

  “Buenos días, Maria,” Brie greeted. “Tengo un invitado y Leif está en casa. Puedes preparar el desayuno para tres, por favor? Y también empacar dos almuerzos?”

  “Por Supuesto!” She answered, then looking beyond Brie with a smile she continued. “Of course, I will make breakfast for three and two lunches.”

  “Hidden talent? I didn’t know you were bilingual.”

  Brie whirled around, smiling with her eyes. It was evident he had just showered. His wavy, brown hair was still wet. “Spanish Three, fourth period,” she said.

  “Ahhh. El chico que entregó sus libros. Sabe Leif qué él está aquí?” Maria asked.

  “Leif sabe. Le dije,” Brie answered, and then turned to Jake. “She remembers you from when you brought my books here. She asked if Leif knew you were here. I said I told him.”

  “Yeah, I got some of that,” Jake said. He shrugged with a grin. “Good morning,” he said to Maria with a nod.

  Maria relaxed and wiped her hands on her apron. “Good morning,” she answered and turned back to the stove.

  Jake pulled Brie closer and just as he leaned down, they heard Leif.

  “Ah-hem.”

  With a grin Jake removed his hands from her waist and held them up in surrender. Taking a step back from her, he planted himself on a stool at the end of the kitchen island, leaving Brie right where she was.

  “Mornin’,” Leif quipped with his own cocky grin. He pulled Brie into a bear hug.