Fit for the Job (28 page)

Jay grinned and leaned closer. “Hi. Do you want something?”

“I do. But you said I was kissing you too much.”

“I did not!” Jay laughed. “That’s not what I said and you know it.” He grabbed Bodie’s chin. “I said I liked it.”

Bodie met him halfway and kissed him, long and deep, a lick of tongue, hot breath in his mouth. His thumb stroked Jay’s cheek as he broke the kiss. “I like
you
,” Bodie said softly.

Jay’s entire body heated. “That’s a bit of an upgrade from ‘starting to like you’, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Bodie said, easing back. He glanced at Jay as he started the car, then drove them out of the parking lot. “A huge upgrade.”

Jay stared out the window at the sunny day as they drove back to the cabin, so Bodie wouldn’t see him grinning like a fool.

Chapter Thirteen

Jay covered the haddock in chopped red pepper and garlic, then rested a couple lemon slices on each filet, wrapping them in foil before setting them on the grill. Evelyn called out from the kitchen that the potatoes were almost done. Jay turned the asparagus over while Sassy stood beside him, watching. “Asparagus makes your pee smell funny,” she said.

“I know,” Jay said. “But it’s worth it, they’re delicious.”

She munched on a bread stick, remaining fused to his side. The cooking process seemed to fascinate her.

“I’m sorry this is taking some time,” he said. “I know you’re hungry.”

“No, I don’t mind waiting,” she said. “I can’t wait to try the fish. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone cook fish before.”

Jay frowned at her. “How is that possible when you love seafood?”

She shrugged. “My parents have weird diets and nutritionists and stuff. They’re not exactly the pull your sleeves up, throw down a couple burgers on the grill type. Did you see my father at breakfast?”

“Yeah,” Jay said, poking at the asparagus. “What about him?”

“He piled food on his plate, but only drank juice.”

“Maybe because he was hung over.”

“No, I’ve seen him do that when he’s sober. He’s like an anorexic, movie of the week girl, hiding behind a wall of croissants so no one will notice he’s counting calories. I promise, he didn’t eat another thing that day because he was calculating the calories he wasted with the whiskey.”

Jay frowned at her. “Really?”

“Jay,” she said. “I watched my father go a whole week on a can of chickpeas when he was getting ready for a movie sex scene. He would literally count out the chickpeas every day, and eat them with a spoon. Then drink lemon water for the rest of the day.”

Jay shrugged. “Sounds unhealthy, but that’s his job, I guess. You’re not affected by that, are you?”

Sassy smirked at him. “You’ve seen me eat. I like food too much. I’ll never get through a day on six chickpeas.”

“Well,” Jay said, opening the foil on one of the filets to peek at it. “I hope the food cooked by mere mortals meets your satisfaction.”

“I know it will; the food you guys made last night was good.” She frowned. “I wish we lived here. Don’t you wish we lived here?”

Jay was a bit taken aback by her use of ‘we’ as though he was a permanent part of the family. He smiled at her. “Yeah. I do,” he said, thinking of Bodie.

Speak of the devil, Bodie stepped out onto the patio, freshly showered. He looked down at the grill. “Damn, that was fast,” he said. “I was gonna help you.”

“You don’t cook!” Sassy said.

“I cook,” he said. “I can make spaghetti.” He turned to Sassy. “It’s hard work, opening that jar of store-bought sauce. I almost strained my wrist once.”

“Potatoes are done!” Evelyn shouted from the kitchen.

They ate outside at the picnic table, and Jay was thrilled that the fish came out perfect. Sassy devoured it like a wolfhound, and Bodie and Evelyn complimented him repeatedly as they ate theirs with a bit more restraint.

“I saw popcorn in the cupboard, right?” Sassy asked after eating the last potato on her plate.

“Popcorn?” Bodie asked. “Yeah, but I’m not sure how old it is. It was here when we arrived.”

“I don’t think popcorn kernels go bad,” Jay said. “But how can you think about more food after that meal?”

“Not for right now,” Sassy said. “For later. Evelyn and I found a TV and a DVD player in that wicker cabinet while you guys were gone. I want to watch one of the movies Evelyn got me for my birthday.”

“Which one do you want to watch?” Evelyn asked.

“
Beyond Re-Animator
,” Sassy said.

Bodie laughed, dropping his head in his hands. “Oh, God. This ought to be interesting.”

“Bodie hates horror movies,” Sassy said to Jay. “He gets scared. It’s okay, Bodie. Maybe we can find some nice gentle romcom for you. Maybe something with Mandy Moore.”

“I think I liked it better when you weren’t speaking to me,” Bodie said.

Jay laughed. “So we’ve got a triathlete afraid of bugs, and a soldier afraid of horror movies.”

“I’m not a soldier, anymore,” Bodie said. “And none of the things I encountered in the army had tentacles or dead eyes like the stuff Sassy’s into. No reanimated corpses.”

“Hey, Sassy,” Jay said. “Next week after our run—”

“Noooo!” she said. “My legs are sore from this morning.”

“They’ll be fine in a couple days,” Jay said. “But next week,
after our run
, we can walk over to the cemetery and I’ll show you Lovecraft’s grave.”

“You know where it is?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s walking distance from the house in Providence.”

She shrugged. “What’s the point? I don’t have my phone.”

“I’m not sure what that has to do with anything,” Bodie said.

Sassy gave Bodie a sour face. “What’s the point in going to Lovecraft’s grave if I can’t take a picture of myself standing beside it then post it on Facebook?”

Bodie smirked at Jay, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s called experiencing something cool in real life, Sassy,” Jay said.

“Real life sucks,” she said, then shrugged. “But if you want to go, that’s fine, I’ll check it out.”

“Well, not if you don’t want to,” Jay said. “It’s not about
me;
I’ve been there tons of times. We used to sneak in when I was in high school and drink beer there and make out and stuff.”

Evelyn smirked at Jay. “You made out...in a cemetery.”

Jay chuckled. “Well, yeah! I was a teenager. I was going through that pretentious, dark, rebellious phase. You know what I mean. Where I wanted to be a vampire and thought dead things were cool.”

“Dead things
are
cool,” Sassy said.

Jay pointed at her. “I rest my case.”

Sassy snickered. “You’re an asshole.”

“Stop swearing,” Bodie said.

“You’re an asshole too, Bodie,” she said.

Once they’d all digested, they played badminton until the sun went down. Then Bodie started a fire in the outdoor pit, and they sat around it, eating s’mores. The fireflies returned, twinkling in the woods beyond the backyard. Jay sighed as he leaned back in his lawn chair, staring out at the night, remembering Sassy’s words.
“I wish we lived here.”
He couldn’t blame her for that. The real world with all its problems seemed a million miles away. It was all so serene.

“Time for reanimated corpses!” Sassy declared, licking chocolate from her fingers.

Bodie groaned, standing. “Do we have to?”

“You can go hide under your blankets upstairs,” Sassy said. “But Jay and Evelyn have to.”

Jay smiled at Bodie as he stood up. “You can handle it, Bodie.”

“I suppose,” Bodie said. “But you might have to hold my hand.”

Jay’s eyes widened, but Sassy laughed. “You guys are in love,” she said, and trotted off into the house.

“Let’s go,” Evelyn said, breaking the moment of Sassy-induced awkwardness. “Let’s go watch dead things.”

A half hour later, they all sat in the dark, the film giving the room a blue glow. Sassy stretched out on the floor, eating popcorn with Evelyn at her side. Bodie and Jay sat beside each other on the worn sofa, and Bodie’s fingers twirled absentmindedly in Jay’s hair, giving him pleasant chills down his spine.

Jay had just begun to ponder what a perfect moment it was, when someone knocked hard on the cabin door, making them all jump.

“Holy crap,” Evelyn said, jumping to her feet. “Who the hell could that be?”

“I’ll get it,” Bodie said, rising from the sofa.

Evelyn held a hand up. “Don’t get all macho, I’ll get it, Bodie.”

Bodie looked like he’d argue, but finally nodded. He remained standing as Evelyn moved to the door.

Jay paused the movie and turned on one of the table lamps.

“Maybe it’s a zombie,” Sassy said, crunching popcorn.

She seemed far less concerned than Jay felt. He was watching a horror movie in a woodsy cabin; the strange, late night knock on the door had him instantly on edge.

They all looked over as Evelyn opened the door.

Eben Wright stood before her, smiling, looking ridiculously handsome in jeans and a light brown canvas jacket.

“Oh, man,” Sassy said, falling onto her back. “Way worse than a zombie.”

Eben stepped inside and Evelyn closed the door.

“Hey, Eben,” Bodie said. “This is a surprise.”

Eben glanced around the cabin, a wide, yet strained looking smile plastered on his face. “This is nice,” he said, stuffing his hands in his jeans pockets as he stepped into the room. “You guys having fun?”

“We were,” Sassy said.

“Hey, Baby,” he said to Sassy. He nodded at Jay. “How’s it going, Jay?”

“Good,” Jay said. “Just watching a movie.”

Eben glanced disinterestedly at the screen, then turned his awkward smile on his daughter. “We got done a little early today, so I thought I’d stop by.” He walked over to the back sliding door, looking outside.

“Why?” Sassy asked. “Why are you here?”

Eben turned around. “I thought it was time we had another talk,” he said to Sassy.

Sassy climbed to her feet. “
Now?
”

Eben shrugged. “I thought maybe I’d catch you in a good mood. Come on, Sassy. Step outside with me for a minute, will you?”

Sassy’s shoulders tightened. She sighed heavily, then glanced at Jay. “I’ll be back,” she said, and headed toward her father.

Eben opened the sliding door, and Sassy stalked through it. He smiled at the three standing in the living room. “I’ll be back too,” he said, forcing another grin, then he went outside after his daughter, closing the door behind him.

“Great,” Bodie said softly. “And I thought that movie was gonna be the scariest thing I’d see tonight.”

“It’ll be fine,” Evelyn said.

Bodie did a double take at her. “Are you new here?”

She raised her hands. “Let’s just...sit down and act normal.”

Evelyn took a seat in one of the chairs, and Bodie and Jay slowly moved back to the sofa, sitting considerably farther away from each other this time.

“So,” Jay said, drumming his fingers on his thighs. “Got any jokes?”

“A movie star walks into a cabin in the woods,” Evelyn said.

Bodie snickered. “What’s the punchline?”

“I guess we’ll find out eventually,” she said. “I just hope it doesn’t involve any actual punching.”

“Nah,” Bodie said. “Sassy’s only ever punched
me
. She tends to throw only verbal blows at her parents.”

They all heard voices rise out back as Eben and Sassy shouted over each other. Jay sighed. “I was hoping there wouldn’t be any shouting.”

Bodie reached over and squeezed Jay’s shoulder. “You can go upstairs if you want. This isn’t part of your job.”

Jay shrugged. “Neither is watching
Beyond Re-Animator
. I’ll take the bad with the good.”

Bodie laughed. “Which one is the good again?”

“I was liking the movie,” Jay said. “It’s fun.”

Evelyn laughed. “Then let’s hope we get to finish—”

The back door slid open with a bang, and Sassy stormed in, Eben hot on her heels. “Don’t walk away from me, Sassy. We’re not done!” he said.

“I’m done!” she shouted. Her face was stained with tears. She sat down on the sofa between Jay and Bodie. “I don’t want to talk to you anymore, Dad! I was having fun with my friends.”

Eben came and stood in front of the sofa. He pointed at his daughter. “These people are not your
friends
. They’re my employees. That means they’re under a confidentiality contract, so if you want to do this right here in front of them, be my guest. But we are not done!” Eben’s face flushed red, the cords in his neck tight.

Jay tried to shrink down into himself.

“We should go upstairs while you two talk,” Bodie said, rising to his feet.

“No!” Sassy grabbed Bodie’s arm and tugged him back down. “You don’t have to leave.
He
should be the one to leave.”

Eben knelt in front of Sassy. “Baby, you know I love you.”

“Who are you trying to convince?” Sassy said. “Do you think I’m just gonna forget what I heard you say?”

“I didn’t mean it, Sassy!” Eben said, his tone pleading. “It was said in anger when I was fighting with your mother, you know this. Words are one thing, actions are another. Why do you think I grounded you?”

“Because you don’t want that tape to get out, duh!”

“Of course I don’t want the fucking tape to get out!” Eben shouted, and Jay flinched. “But if that’s all I cared about, I’d give you what you want and let you go! Did you ever think of that, Sassy?”

Sassy covered her ears, then dropped her hands to her thighs, balling them into fists. “Stop. Talking. Dad.”

“If I was really this monster who didn’t love you, wouldn’t I just give you what you want? The money is yours when you turn eighteen anyway, I wouldn’t be losing anything. You’d be gone and you’d destroy the tape. It would be a win-win for me. So why won’t I just do that, Sassy? You tell me, why won’t I?”

Sassy wept. “I don’t know! I don’t know why!”

“Sassy,” Eben said, his tone gentler. “If I were to...” He choked back a sob. “The moment I agree to your terms, the moment I
pay you off
to keep my secrets, I stop being your father.”

Sassy continued to cry, sniffling.

“I am not going to do that, Sassy,” Eben said. “I’m not going to stop being your father. I can’t do that. I will
never
stop being your father. When you turn eighteen, you’ll get your trust fund, then you can do what you want. If at that point you still want to out me, to destroy me, then have at it. It will be your choice. But I will never pay you off to protect myself, Sassy. Never. Do you hear me? It’s not going to happen. So get that through your head.”