by Kate Morris
He chuckled, “No, I get it. Women their age are pretty serious about cards.”
Her eyes met his directly before darting away shyly. He called for Connor, and they ate at the counter where he and his little brother usually ate. The formal dining room was just too cold and sterile and white and starched for dinner.
“This is great, Roman,” Jane praised as they ate. “Wow, I wish I could cook like this.”
“Yeah,” Connor agreed and hooked a cocky, stubby thumb in his direction, “he’s a pretty good cook.”
He rubbed the top of his brother’s head. Then Connor proceeded to drill her with about a million questions, which she answered more readily for him. His little brother was actually turning out to be a pretty good wingman, after all.
He found out that she liked dogs, not so much cats. She was an only child. Her parents were actually divorced. She didn’t answer any of his questions about her mother and instead diverted to speaking of her grandmother. She didn’t play sports but liked to hike and go for long walks on a nearby walking trail. He took Connor for bike rides on that trail often. It was a wonder he never ran into her. She also said she liked working with her grandmother on their little mini-farm.
“Do you like playing video games, Jane?” Connor asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve never played one.”
“What? Really?” Connor exclaimed with disbelief, spitting on himself. “You gotta try it. Let’s play after dinner, okay? I’ll show you. I can teach you everything.”
She didn’t answer but grinned at him patiently.
“Not everyone likes video games, bud,” Roman corrected.
Then Connor resumed questioning her with the tenacity of an FBI investigator. She seemed fond of her dad. She had a few aunts and uncles on her dad’s side, but she rarely saw them because they lived out of state. It was mostly just her and Peaches. Roman saw another side of her. He realized as lonely as he got living in his parents’ mansion that she must’ve been just as lonely as he was living with just her grandmother. She didn’t even have friends at school other than Destiny. At least he had a lot of friends. Although what he’d told her about disliking most of them had been the truth. Maybe having one, true and good friend was better than a big group anyway.
When they were finished, Jane helped with the cleanup, and Connor actually volunteered to go up and get his shower without an argument. It was funny how fascinated she was with the dishwasher. She didn’t know how to load or operate it. As they were leaving the kitchen, the front door opened.
His mother called out, “I’m home!”
Connor bounded back down the stairs and into their mother’s arms.
“Hey, Mom,” Roman said after his brother released her. Jane stepped out from behind him, lighting his mother’s dark eyes with interest. “This is Jane.”
“Hello, Jane,” his mother said with a smile.
“We go to school together,” he explained. “Actually, her grandmother sells the apples we buy.”
“Oh, yes, Miss Barnes. Sweet lady.”
“I was just getting ready to walk Jane home,” he said. “There’s leftovers in the fridge. We had roast.”
“Great, Roman,” she said and followed it up with something he hated hearing, “I already ate on the plane. I just need to get my bags upstairs and unpacked. I have a ton of work to do!”
Then she rushed off, her high heels click-clacking on the marble.
She always had a ton of work to do. He wanted so badly to say that she needed to work on her family but didn’t. She would not have found that humorous or acceptable. He suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at his own mother when her phone rang a second later. It was always like this. It was as if that thing were a fifth appendage, but at least he was spared more awkward moments with his mother in front of Jane, who he actually wanted to impress.
Roman led her back out of the house through the garage so they could collect their jackets.
“Sorry about my mom,” he apologized as they walked down the sidewalk.
“She was nice.”
He shook his head. “That’s her. Most of the time she isn’t even listening to anyone when they’re talking unless she’s taking a work call.”
“Oh,” she said and looked at her feet. “Hey, I can walk myself home.”
“No, I want to,” he said. Roman wanted to take her hand, but he also didn’t want to frighten her off.
They walked past the guard shack and turned right. Her house was literally right next to his neighborhood, so they made it there in a few minutes.
“Thanks,” she said and walked to the side door. Her truck wasn’t in the driveway, so her grandmother must’ve taken it somewhere. He knew they only had the one vehicle, which must’ve made it difficult when Jane wanted to go somewhere and couldn’t.
“If you ever need a ride somewhere, let me know,” he offered.
“That isn’t necessary,” she said and stuck her key in the knob. “Nana Peaches and I coordinate our schedules so we aren’t inconveniencing each other.”
“Oh, well, just in case,” he said. “You’ve got my cell now. Just call.”
“Alright,” Jane said and looked up at him but just fleetingly before turning away.
“See ya’ tomorrow,” he said, wishing he could hug her goodbye. Or more.
She just nodded and went inside. On the walk home, he realized that they hadn’t discussed the flu cases again as he’d wanted to. He had more printouts from different sources that he’d needed to share.
His phone buzzed. It was from one of his friends. Now Vanessa, Randall’s girlfriend, was sick.
Chapter Nine
October
The next two weeks went by in the usual manner. She worked at the barn after school, hung out with Dez on Wednesday night studying for their Chem test, and tried to avoid Roman Lockwood. He just made her uncomfortable. Anonymity was so much more preferable than being caught talking to one of the most popular guys in school. It had placed a target on her back. Whenever he wasn’t around, Stephanie behaved even more viciously than usual.
Before the last class, which was Government, she went to her locker and switched out books. A paper fell out of her locker and landed on the floor, and she scooped it up. It was folded in half. Jane opened it.
We need to talk
Roman
Jane quickly folded it and placed the paper inside her Government book. She didn’t want anyone to see it. Then she made her way to class and immediately noticed that Roman was not there. She’d seen him earlier in AP English but had tried to pretend to be engrossed in the lecture. Mr. Hawkins still hadn’t returned, and they were stuck with a sub the last two weeks. Basically, the class was a screw off period now with him gone. The sub was probably twenty-two, straight out of college, and played on her laptop the whole period with her earbuds in. Being in the room was even a challenge for the woman apparently because most of the time she made excuses that she had to use the restroom or needed to speak with the principal about something. It didn’t matter. When Mr. Hawkins returned, he’d get them caught up in no time. If he came back.
“Hey, did you hear?” Destiny asked when she took her seat. The sub was filing her nails.
“No, what?”
“The librarian, Mrs. Rinker, and Josephine Durant are both out sick with the flu, too,” she told her.
“Going around,” Jane said, trying to be blasé about it, although she felt anything but. For a second there, she’d been holding her breath hoping her friend wasn’t about to reveal that Roman was sick.
“I guess Josephine wigged out during gym class and had to be subdued by Officer Brimley.”
Jane could feel her heartbeat accelerate. This was not a ‘bad batch.’ Something was going on. The flu didn’t make people violent.
“Yeah, and…oh,” Dez said and indicated Jane should look behind her.
When she spun in her chair, Roman was standing there. The boy behind her moved and gave up his seat to Roman and went to the back of
the class to hang out along the window ledge where others were doing the same. This was basically like a study hall without teacher supervision.
“Did you get my note?” he whispered.
She looked at Destiny, but her friend had turned to talk to someone else on the other side of her.
She said, “Yes,” but didn’t turn in her seat to look at him.
“My dad said there were six people who left for the hospital from his company today with this. He said they were running fevers and coughing. One got violent,” he related.
“It’s a seasonal flu, Roman,” she explained. Her brain didn’t want to deal with one more problem in her life right now. “That’s what happens.”
“It’s not just our area this is affecting. He’s not even in Ohio right now, Jane,” he said, scaring her further. “He’s taking a flight home tonight. I’m glad he’s getting out of there.”
“Do they think it’s the same virus?” she asked with trepidation.
“I don’t know. I assume it is. I taped another show on the kook channel again,” he said. “You need to see it.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said and turned back around.
“What? Why not?” he asked. When she didn’t respond, he pressed again and even touched her shoulder.
“No, Roman,” she hissed. “I’m not coming over anymore. This…this friendship is not a good idea. Things have gotten even worse for me this week. We should stop talking to each other, especially at school.”
“Who made it worse? What are you talking about? Was it Steph?”
“Just drop it,” she said, lowering her glance to stare at her book, and shook her head.
“Was it her…”
“Just let it go, Roman,” she asserted forcefully and managed to ignore him the rest of the period.
She split the second the bell rang and went straight for her locker. Like an idiot, she forgot his was two down from hers, so it didn’t matter if she beat him to the exit. She tried to drop books quickly she wouldn’t need and exchange them for ones she would. It didn’t work. He walked over to her less than a minute later.
“Can you come over tonight?” he requested again.
Jane didn’t answer but glanced around to see if anyone was looking. Then she spotted Stephanie and her bandits coming toward them. She groaned inwardly and grabbed her backpack from the floor of her locker. She had to get out of the war zone. It didn’t help when Roman took her pack.
“Here, let me help,” he said unknowingly.
“No, I got it,” she replied, trying to take it back.
“Aw, look how sweet!” Stephanie loudly exclaimed as she came up behind Jane. “The new couple!”
“Get lost, Steph,” Roman warned quietly.
“So, like what is this? Are you two a thing now?” she speculated.
“No, not…” Jane started mumbling but was cut off.
“Yeah, so what if we are? Mind your own business,” he asserted and took Jane’s hand in his and slung her pack over his shoulder with his own.
His hand was big, much bigger than hers and warm and sure. She found herself staring at their interlocked hands and not listening to Stephanie’s rant, which was kicking into high gear. Roman even stroked his thumb over the back of her knuckles in a soothing manner. He seemed so calm. As a matter of fact, he always seemed calm.
“…yes, we are coming to homecoming Saturday,” he was telling Stephanie.
Jane opened her mouth to protest, and he squeezed her hand, not painfully, but enough to make her stop.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, Roman,” Stephanie was saying. “Just screw her and get it outta your system. This is getting old already. Our families are not exactly going to accept her, either. Gimme a break.”
“Jane’s already met my family, and they love her,” he retorted with confidence.
She looked up at him as Destiny came up behind them. She may have won over Connor, who was eight, but his mother hadn’t said more than a few words to her before she left for another room. Jane wasn’t sure if that meant disapproval or disinterest. She was never good at reading people. It probably came from the fact that she’d spent the last four years of her life between the hours of eight a.m. and three p.m. with her head down.
Stephanie said, “Get fucking real, Roman. Keep this up and see where it gets you. See ya’, Fake Tits.”
She stormed off with her crew, leaving Jane feeling a sense of relief. Roman did not relinquish her hand, though.
“Why’d you tell her that? I’m not going to homecoming,” she said with a bit of temper.
Destiny stepped forward and said, “You have to now, Jane. You can’t not go!”
Roman agreed, “She’s right. We’re going now.”
“Why?”
Dez said, “Because if you don’t, she’ll think it’s because she bullied you into dumping Roman and not attending the dance. That’s just plain b.s. It’ll make him look bad. You gotta’ go.”
She bit her lower lip with indecision and slipped her hand free.
“We can go dress shopping tomorrow,” Destiny added. “I don’t know what’ll be left, but I know a good vintage resale shop. That could be cool.”
Jane found herself nodding, although she couldn’t figure out why she was being coerced into this.
“Dez,” Roman said, “you guys need to come over tonight. There was a new show I taped last night. It’s even more interesting than the first.”
“I can’t,” she answered, “My dad’s coming home tonight and has to leave again tomorrow night. My mom wants to make a nice dinner and all that.”
“What about after?”
“I’ll check,” she said. “That might work.”
“Ready?” Jane turned to her friend and said after she shut her locker door.
“You’re still coming over tonight, right?” he asked as they walked toward the parking lot.
She glanced up at him and shook her head subtly.
“You have to,” he informed her. “You have to see this.”
She offered a one-shouldered shrug and said, “I gotta work at the stables.”
“I’ll come over there then,” he said. “I can use my tablet. It’s linked to our DVR shows.”
“Um, sure,” she answered. “Bye.”
Jane drove home Dez, who talked the whole way there about Brian and the upcoming dance. She was so excited about it, but it was difficult for Jane to join in on that joy. Her situation was a lot more reluctant. They agreed to go directly after school the next day to look for dresses since Jane still had to take care of evening feedings at the barn, which was her usual Friday night job there.
She went home and changed into denim overalls, a burgundy thermal shirt to ward off the chill, and her dirty barn boots that came up about four inches above her ankles to keep out dirt and debris.
Nana Peaches was in the living room watching the news.
“Hey, I’m heading out,” she told her grandmother.
“Jane,” she said and paused a second, “have you see this?”
The reporter on the news network was talking about the spread of a mysterious flu bug. There were thirty-nine deaths reported in America so far.
“Yeah, a little. A few of the kids at school have that or something like it.”
“Make sure you’re washing your hands a lot,” her grandmother told her. “I don’t want you getting this. San Diego so far has the most cases. They’re talking about shutting down schools until this goes away.”
“Do you think it will?”
“According to this doctor they just interviewed from the CDC, he said they’ve got it under control. That’s good.”
“Yeah,” she said in agreement. “Hey, Nana, um…is it okay if I go to homecoming with Roman Lockwood? He asked, and I sort of said I would. I don’t know. I don’t really want to go, but Dez does and…”
“You should go. That sort of thing is a rite of passage in high school, Jane. Be young fo
r one night. Go. Have fun. Just don’t do anything unsafe.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“I know,” her grandmother said with complete faith in her.
“I better go,” she said and kissed her grandmother’s cheek.
She drove to the stables and parked near the long row of horse trailers. Many of the kids who showed horses also had expensive trailers with changing rooms, sleeping quarters, flat screen televisions and some with bathrooms. It was silly to Jane. Money like that would pay for two or three years’ worth of school for her at the local community college.
She cleaned out a few stalls, the ones that the day shift help didn’t get to. Then she collected a wheelbarrow and prepared to do the evening feedings.
“Hey,” Roman said behind her, causing Jane to jump. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”
“You’re here,” she said stupidly.
“Yeah,” he said and looked around. “Are you all alone?”
“Yep, just me and twenty-one horses.”
“Probably better company than most people our age,” he joked.
She smiled. “Undoubtedly.”
“Need some help?”
Jane paused, “Uh…you’ll get dirty.”
He whipped off his black wool pea coat and said, “Now it doesn’t matter.”
Jane was only wearing the thermal, long sleeve tee, having taken off her hoodie already. Barn work was hot, sweaty work, so she didn’t layer too heavily until the temperature dropped to the twenties or below. Plus, some sections of the barn were heated, so it got too hot anyway. Beneath his coat, Roman wore a black sweater. It looked expensive.
“Don’t worry,” he said, reading her mind. “I don’t mind. I own a washer and dryer.”
“Since you seem to be Mr. Mom, I’m sure you know how to operate them, too.”
“Yes, I’ve done a few loads,” he quipped with a crooked grin.
“Okay, see the board here?” she said, pointing to the whiteboard with the horses’ names on it. “This is Tiger. He gets two scoops of sport horse formula, one scoop of Mane to Hoof supplement, and a dose of weight builder. All of the containers in here,” she explained, showing him the plastic tubs in the wheelbarrow, “have their names on them. We just go through each one for the horses in the front half of the barn. Then I’ll get the next stash of containers for the back half of the barn horses and do the same. Then we’ll take care of the horses in the next barn and the few that are kept out in the riding arena stalls.”
