Captured Again (17 page)

The end, Emma. Get over it.

She shook her head.
But that kiss... That’s why I can’t get him out of my head. I just need to not see him anymore. Keep my simple, busy life the way it is,
she thought.
I’ve got the rest of my life to find someone. There’ll be another Dusty,
she argued with her thoughts wistfully.

Someone tapped her on the shoulder, startling her out of her thoughts. “Hey.”

She recognized his voice before she turned around. “Oh! Dusty. Hi. What’re you doing here? And why weren’t you in class today?” As soon as it left her mouth, she regretted it. He’d probably think she was too nosy.

“Just happened to come out and saw you sitting in here. I meant to mention last night that I had a mandatory training at work I had to attend today. I just got out. Are you waiting for someone?” Dusty asked while looking around the cozy little cafe.

Emma raised her eyebrows. “You just
happened
to come here?”

Dusty shrugged his shoulders and looked away. “Okay,” he answered, looking properly embarrassed. “You caught me. I saw your car outside and took a chance. So are you...? With someone, that is?” Dusty ran his hand through his hair while his eyes flicked around the café again, as if he were looking for someone. He let out a long breath while his eyes darted around.

Her heart thumped to hear him admit he was looking for her; the thought of him seeking her out gave her a warm feeling inside and shot her mood straight from melancholy to hopeful.

“No. It’s just me tonight. I had a few hours to myself after work and didn’t want to sit at home. Have a seat,” she offered, waving her hand to the chair across from her.

She watched as he folded his big frame into the little bistro chair. She giggled.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Emma answered while looking away.

“No, really. What’s funny?”

“You. Sitting in that chair. You’re just a really big guy for that little bitty chair,” Emma answered, trying not to laugh.

“I know, right? Why is it these places always have tiny chairs?” Dusty looked around at the other people sitting and talking or tapping away on their laptops and tablets. “I’m like... the biggest guy here. I guess it’s true that coffee stunts your growth.” Dusty wiggled in the chair and hunched over the table. He appeared to be trying to make himself smaller... less noticeable.

Emma laughed at his joke. “You want one... a coffee or something?” she asked, grasping at his joke to open a conversation, hoping to make him more at ease.

“Naw, I’m good. What about you? You looked deep in thought in here when I first saw you,” he said, his eyes searching her face. Emma looked down, unable to meet his gaze. “Penny for your thoughts?” he asked, reaching into this pocket and pulling out a penny and then sliding it across the table toward her.

Emma put her finger on the penny, twirling it in tight little circles on the table, keeping her eyes on it instead of Dusty and his uneasy perch.

“Nothing worth buying here,” she finally answered. She looked up and gave him a small smile, hoping he wouldn’t persist in knowing her thoughts. She was dying to ask him why he hadn’t called; however, she was pretty sure he’d interpreted her actions at the boat landing to mean she didn’t want to see him again—so it was on her. But that was before the kiss. Now she didn’t know what she wanted. She was stoked that he’d cared enough to stop when he saw her car, and he was sitting here...
Dammit. This is so complicated! Yes, I want him
, she thought to herself,
but if—or when—he knows everything about me, he’ll just walk.

She slowly slid the penny back to his side and crossed her arms tightly against her chest.

Dusty looked disappointed as he placed his own finger on the penny. He caught her attention as he began to slide it in long, lazy figure-eights, his big hands, his long fingers, the one low-hanging light over their table seeming to be spotlighting this in slow motion. Emma imagined that hand on her, tracing that same pattern on her bare stomach, slowly heating her up, like he did last night.

The silence stretched between them while Emma clawed at her brain to think of something—anything—to say as her eyes followed his finger on the penny. Her brain was firing blanks, unable to formulate any thought that didn’t involve his hands on her body.

“See this penny?” Dusty asked, finally breaking the silence but still circling his side of the table with it.

“Yeah,” Emma answered, not looking up, still mesmerized by the circles and the sound of the metal scraping the table.

“If you aren’t willing to take a penny for your thoughts, it’s worthless. It may as well be a blank piece of metal,” he said. “Want to see me wipe Lincoln’s face off it?”

Emma smiled, finally looking up and meeting his mischievous eyes. “Sure, let’s see it,” she agreed.

“Can’t do it in here. It’s illegal to deface money. Did you know that? Seriously, even if it’s your own, you’re not supposed to destroy money. We’ll have to do this in private. I could lose my badge over something like this,” he said seriously. Then he winked at Emma.

She smiled at his attempt to get her alone. “Okay. I’m game. But I’ve got to be home in two hours. Where do you want to show me this trick?”

D
usty watched a whole new Emma emerge. The cocoon that she’d seemed wrapped in when he’d found her sitting alone, looking all twisted up in ball of angst and knots—and unapproachable—unraveled in the truck as Emma kicked off her shoes and socks and put her bare feet up onto his dashboard—a contradiction to her usual cautious nature.

He’d taken a big chance at the café, and he wondered if his relief at finding her alone had been visible to Emma. It was only a block away from her studio. He’d felt sure she’d met up with a group of those cartoon people, or worse, just Rick. He hadn’t seen her all day, and they were forced to turn their phones off so he couldn’t text her either. It had made for poor concentration on his training. His mind had tortured him all day, jabbing and poking with thoughts of Rick making a move on Emma now that he’d seen her with someone new.

Dusty tried to keep his eyes on the road as he swiped glances at Emma’s pink toes wiggling to the music. This was the first time she’d rode in his truck and she seemed surprisingly comfortable, with her head leaned back and her eyes closed, singing along softly to the radio. His eyes wandered again back to her toes on the dash, and he silently chuckled. This was the first time he’d ever been happy just to see one piece at a time of a woman. If toes and tattoos were all he ever saw of Emma, he’d take it. This was the first girl he’d ever met that he wanted to take his time with getting to bed.

He looked back at the road and saw his turn, camouflaged by an old dead end sign. He slowed the truck and eased onto the bumpy dirt road.

Emma bounced in the seat, her feet flying off the dashboard. She put them in the floor and sat up straight, looking out into the darkness. This narrow road was squeezed into the woods and his headlights showed nothing but dirt and trees.

“Hang on tight, Emma!”

“
Where
are we going?” Emma asked, laughing as each bump sent her bouncing.

Dusty looked over at her and smiled, following it up with a wink. Although he knew where they were going, he still wondered where this ride would take them.

H
e’d taken a turn off the dirt road, taking them off-road through an open stretch of the woods that was kept clear because of power lines. He pulled the truck up as far as he could go, then jumped out with a flashlight and waited for Emma to get her shoes back on. He began making his way through a short stand of woods with Emma close behind him.

“Oh my God, Dusty... I can’t see a thing!” Emma squealed behind him as she clung to his belt, taking quick but high steps, trying to avoid tripping over anything in the dark. “What are we doing here?”

Dusty stopped and turned around, causing Emma to let go of him.

“I’ll show you when we get there. But we gotta hurry. This is where it gets a little steep. We’re going to have to climb. Let me go first and then I’ll shine the light down so you can climb up. I don’t want you to follow too close to me. I might accidently kick you,” he instructed.

“No! Wait! Don’t leave me standing here alone in the dark. I’ll climb right behind you,” Emma said. She was embarrassed to hear the quaking in her voice. She hated the dark.

Dusty stood still a moment, thinking. Emma’s eyes began to adjust and she could see it wasn’t as dark as she had thought it was. The moon cast a light glow and she could see, although not far. She still didn’t want to be left alone, though.

“Okay. You go up first and I’ll be right behind you shining the light up,” Dusty said. “It might be better like that anyway. I can catch you if you slip.”

Emma turned around and began climbing... toward what, she had no idea. But the thought of Dusty catching her and feeling his arms around her made her seriously consider slipping, just a little. She realized then she was smiling. Even in the dark, with no idea where she was going, she was happy... just to be near Dusty.
Not good, sister,
she thought.
You’ve got it bad.

When she reached the top of the steep embankment, she turned around and held out her hand to Dusty, not that she could be much help pulling him up, but it just seemed like the right thing to do. That and it would give her a chance to hold his hand.

“Now where?” Emma asked.

“Right here. These are railroad tracks. Come see.”

Emma watched him take a few steps and bend over. She followed the few steps and found they were at the top of a train trestle, right beside train tracks. She watched Dusty dig in his pocket and pull out some change. He shined the flashlight into his hand, showing Emma three pennies and two nickels.

“This is my only trick. I hope you enjoy it,” Dusty said and laughed. He used the flashlight with one hand to give him some light, placing the loose change directly in the middle of one of the rails, centered and evenly spaced out. And then he stood up. “Voila!”

Emma smiled, unsure what to say.
What is he doing? Is that it... the trick?

Dusty’s face glimmered from the moonlight, which seemed much brighter at the top of the trestle. She could just make out the twinkle in his eyes. He looked like an eager little boy, excited and rebellious. Emma stood still as he closed the space between them and wrapped his arms around her.

“Just wait for it...” he whispered while rubbing her back in a circular motion.

She leaned into him. She could wait for it. Hopefully it wasn’t seriously a train. When was the last time she’d actually seen a train? She couldn’t remember. Did trains really still run? She left these questions unasked, not wanting to waste a minute in Dusty’s arms. She felt her mind clear for the first time since the night before, the calm and steadfastness of Dusty seeping into her, putting her at ease.

Unfortunately, it was only a few minutes before Dusty said, “Come on, Emma. I feel it coming!”

He surprised her by grabbing her hand and pulling her down, both of them landing on their backsides, and they began scooting down the embankment in the dark, the same direction they’d just come up, hand in hand. Emma could feel twigs and small rocks through the thin yoga pants she still wore from work. It was a bumpy ride, but she laughed out loud at the unexpectedness of it. It made her feel like a kid again.

They’d made it halfway down, it seemed, when Emma felt what Dusty had—a
rumbling
. It first felt like it was coming from inside of her, but then it burst out with sound, first just a faint whistle, then loud and scary. The sound of steel and old boxcars flying by just above them. Like the world was falling apart right over their heads, whooshing and whistling past them so fast she gasped.

She felt her entire body vibrate and couldn’t be sure if it was really her or the train. Dusty squeezed her quivering hand and then pulled her nearly under him, with her back lying flat against the grass and his body positioned over hers. She watched as his face, framed by a thousand stars, met hers and he finished the kiss he’d started last night as he held her tight, protecting her from the night train. It was scary but exhilarating. She wished it’d never stop... and that she could stay wrapped in his arms forever.