Jaq With a Q (Kismet) (12 page)

My attempt to talk Jaq out of the bathroom failed, but I did leave clean clothes on her bed, cotton pants and a white tee with pink and white stirpes. Not that it mattered, she never came out of the bathroom to change. She did, however, take a bath. I heard the water running from the other side of the door.

I never intended on drinking that many beers. It was something about the lake. My dad always had a beer in his hand here. It didn’t matter what he was doing, a cold bottle of beer was never far from him. Except in the lab that is. He didn’t know where Silas and I were when he was in there, let alone a beer. Of course, that led me to wonder where the notebooks were again which led me to search. There was something in there that would help a lot of people I was sure, but Jaq was the only one I cared about. If I could mimic the formula, Jaq could function as a normal human being, and I could keep her.

My eyes blinked away another fun memory with my last thought, Silas and I laying in a hammock, reading two different books, Silas’s a Goosebumps book, Stay Out of the Basement, and, mine, The Law of Success, by Napoleon Hill. Keep her? What the hell did that mean?

Chapter Eleven

I couldn’t talk Jaq out of the house the next day either, but I did catch her standing at the door while I worked right out front. Figuring that side of the house was the most important and wanting her to see me, to learn to trust me.

The day was weird. One minute the sun was shining and I was sweating my ass off, and the next cloudy with a chill. With all the tall pines, and rolling hills over the east side of the cabin, the sun didn’t even dry the dew until afternoon. Another reason Silas and I loved it here. You could sleep in a tent until noon with the perfect sleeping temperature.

I used the bottom of my shirt to wipe sweat from my forehead when Jaq called, standing right there in the door. “You know you could just open the door and talk to me. Come out here. It’s nice.”

“No, I don’t want to. What are you doing?”

I opened my hand and cocked my hip, staring right at her. “I’m making a garden with a path. Remember? We talked about this last night. You told me you wanted flowers that attracted butterflies, pink roses, and red tulips.”

“I thought we were just counting Skittles because I had an anxiety attack.”

I opened my hands toward the sky, directing her to look at the beauty. “No, I meant it. Look at this area, these trees, the view of the lake, it’s perfect.”

“I want flowers there. The path should go over there.”

My eyebrows raised with a hint of aggravation and my hand directed her attention to the six feet of sod I had just shoveled from the ground. “What do you think this is?”

“Oh.”

“What? You don’t like it?”

“I just thought you would make it go that way.”

“There’s a ravine there. Do you want to jump over it every time you walk around your flowers?”

“I’m not going to walk on it, but if I was, I would.”

A deep breath of air filled my lungs, and I gave her what she wanted. I’d always do that. Why? Now that was the unanswered, stepped-over question. “Here?”

“Left.”

“Here?”

“One giant step left.”

“Here?”

“Yes, perfect.”

Keeping my annoyance hidden, I placed my foot on the shovel and my phone on an old tractor tire, a makeshift sandbox holding even more memories. If she wanted it to go this way, she could have said something two hours ago. I literally just sweated my bag off for nothing; to cover it back up, that’s it. After the fifth attempt to get past rocks, I picked up my phone and broke the news to Jaq.

“I can’t go that way. There’s a huge rock. How about here?” I questioned, my shovel stabbing into the dirt and my phone landing face down on the stump. A distinct scraping noise shifted my attention from Jaq to the red brick, a confused feeling and a frown following. Wondering how it got there, I dug around it, finding another one and another, not just a few, a bunch. An entire walk way, but how? When? There was never anything like that here. My father built the house, and I was sure there was never a brick walk there, ever.

I quickly moved dirt with one swipe, wanting to see how far and where it led to. That’s when I remembered Jaq. “Do you see this?”

“Yes, I’ve been yelling your name for five minutes. That’s perfect. That’s exactly where I would do it.”

“No, it’s a brick road, Jaq. I didn’t do it. It’s already here, but I don’t know how it got here.”

“Maybe your mom did it.”

Letting that thought marinate for a moment, I discarded it. “No, she never came here.”

“Hello, how are you?”

I turned to the guy there to get some estimates, back to Jaq, and to my blinking phone. Gone like the wind. Undoubtedly locked behind the bathroom door. “Good afternoon. I’m well, and you?”

Once I’d showed the guy what I wanted done, I let him do his job while I did mine, calling Jaq before restarting. “Hey, it’s just the guy here to look at the things I want done around here. He’s just looking around. Come out. You’re fine, and I’m right here.”

“You’re so stupid. I hate you. Why would you do that? Now he knows where we are. He’ll come back.”

I scratched my head and had a serious talk with myself. Why did I do this again? “Stop, you’re being silly. He’s here because I hired him. Believe me, you don’t want me building our dock. That wouldn’t be safe. I’m good with my mind, not my hands. Come back.”

“Call me when he leaves.”

Click.

Transferring dirt from my hands to the stubbles on my chin, I dialed Silas.

“Hey, I was just about to call you. What’s up?”

“Silas do you remember a brick walk out by the old tractor tire?”

“Tractor tire?”

“Yeah, the one we used to play with dump trucks in. I cut all the briars away from it this morning. There’s a brick walk here, like a path.”

“No, there was never a brick path there. Wait, where was that tire? It was by the hammock, right?”

I glanced around at landmarks, resting my hand on one of the pines, a piece of a rotten birdhouse left hanging from the past. “No, by that big snowball bush and the patch of pines where we used to play paintball.”

“Oh man, paintball. I haven’t done that in years. I’m putting that on my list of things to do this year.”

“Silas? The brick path.”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry, man. There was never a brick path, I’m sure of it.”

“What about our mother. When did Dad build this place?”

“I don’t remember her being there, but I wasn’t even three yet when she died. I mean it’s possible, but I doubt it. He would have told us about that.”

That thought simmered in my mind for a quick second. “He never really told us anything about her, Silas. Don’t you think that’s odd?”

“I mean, I never really thought about it. They weren’t even together for five years, maybe he got over her and didn’t feel the need. You know how Dad was, he didn’t hold on to the past.”

I thought about that, too. He didn’t hold on to the past, or he didn’t talk about the past? There was a huge gap between the two. “Yeah, I guess. What’s up with you?”

“Not much, going to take a friend to lunch, maybe play a game of golf. How’s the wild girl?”

Even though it did piss me off, I honestly didn’t mean for it to sound as vile as it came out. “Stop calling her that. She’s not a wild girl.”

“Damn, Oliver. I was just messing with you. Calm down. How did the night go?”

I didn’t calm down. I let him know I didn’t find the humor in it. “She’s not a freak, she’s not a wild girl, and she’s none of your business. Don’t worry about how the night went.”

“Yeah, well, I’m just going to let you go. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it. Call me when you stop bleeding from your vagina. Geesh.”

I tossed the shovel to the ground out of frustration, unsure of who I was frustrated with. Silas for being such a douche, Jaq for being so different, or myself for ever getting involved?

The contractor spent an hour drafting and measuring around the property while I shoveled dirt from the mysterious walk, my baffled mind taking over the irritation, and Jaq. It was sort of hard to be irritated around her. There was something so innocent about her, so raw, and vulnerable. Like a baby bird lost and alone in this great big world. As crazy and weird as it sounded, I felt very protective over her.

It only took two nights to talk Jaq out of the house. That was way sooner than I thought it would take.

I had just put spaghetti and salad on the picnic table on the porch and begged her to come out.

“Okay, I’m out.”

I almost choked on own tongue, not expecting that at all. “Good, see how nice it is out here. Sit down, I’ll stay on the steps.”

“No, I won’t eat in front of you and I’m real hungry.”

I smiled and slowly walked toward her from the ground, my plate already in hand. “We’ll both look at the lake. I gave you wind. Sit down and enjoy the day?”

“Ollie.”

“You’re okay. I’m right here.”

The cat to the right of us caught my eye and I shot it a dirty look, telling it to go beg for food somewhere else with my glare. Unfortunately, cat-telepathic wasn’t my thing. The stupid thing meowed at me. “Oh, look at that. Did you see that fish jump?” I questioned, my tone soft and my eyes on the lake.

“I saw it. The fish.”

A smile moved around my bite of fish, fighting the urge to turn to her. “Silas and I used to catch some monsters out of here. Have you ever been fishing?”

“No, I don’t know how.”

“I’m going to teach you.”

“Yeah, sure you are,” she replied, doubt in every word.

Our first meal together was a huge success. Not to mention, it had a way better view than the one in her apartment would have been. I felt like we’d taken a few steps forward. Jaq talked to me, not about anything serious, but I would take it. If it took counting Skittles to make her happy and feel safe, I’d take it. I would do it.

I took great caution in my actions, not moving too quickly, and keeping my tone soft and tender, walking up the steps to her. Our eyes met as I took her plate, stacking it on mine. A gaze held by something powerful, evocative, and magical kept me from breaking the trance we shared. The fear in her eyes was still there, but not like it had been. They held a mixture of sadness, caution, and hope.

Jaq blinked first, but only because of the stupid cat. Her gaze left mine for the meddling animal. “I—I think she’s hungry.”

I stepped back, giving her space, but holding my ground. “We’re not feeding the cat. Once you do that, she’ll never leave.”

“Why does she have to leave? Maybe she doesn’t have anywhere to go. I bet she’s hungry and she’s worried about where she’ll have her babies.”

I looked straight through her, knowing without a doubt we’d just adopted a cat. “I just bought a couple cans of salmon. You can give her that until I go back to town, but I’m not taking care of her, you are.”

“Really? Okay, I will. I promise. Maybe we should make her a bed, somewhere out of the weather where her babies will be protected.”

The smile was fake. So fake. I didn’t want one cat, let alone a litter of them. Needless to say, I fetched the can of food. If she was that excited about befriending a cat, who was I to tell her no? At least she wasn’t locked in the bathroom, she was letting me come within a few feet of her, and she was talking. That was worth a litter of kittens. Maybe.

My feet shuffled across the wet wood and then stopped, hearing the sweetest angelic voice I’d ever heard in my life. Jaq spoke soft words to the cat, trying to coax her to the porch. “Hey, young lady. What are you doing out here all alone? Huh? Can you come up here? Come on, it’s okay. I’ll take care of you. I promise. You can trust me.”

The plates crashed in the bottom of the sink when I let go too soon. I left them with food still on them in order to get back to Jaq, a beer in hand. Jaq’s new furry friend jumped from the porch, skipping every step to get far, far away from me.

“No, wait, come back. It’s just Ollie. He won’t hurt you. Tell her, Ollie.”

Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

I glanced back at Jaq glaring at me, but that frightened her. Her irritated annoyance with me over scaring her cat away instantly changed to terror. I ignored it, keeping my tone quiet and my eyes on the lake. “I’m sorry, little guy,” I called, my thoughts
not
matching the sissified tone.

Frightened? I meant feisty. Her tone didn’t match either. Her expression showed something different than her smart mouth. “She’s pregnant, so yeah, she’s not a guy.”

I went to bed that night with my notebook, writing down anything and everything I thought to be important. Jaq liked cats, Jaq was becoming more comfortable with me, her sassy tone the proof. I talked her outside, but not off the porch. She tolerated me being close to her, but not too close. She could be a smartass when I kept my distance, but clammed up if I got too close. She hated every vegetable I gave her, yet ate every bite I placed on her plate. Jaq liked wine. A lot. And Jaq locked herself in the bathroom to do whatever. Even my conniving plan to play a game with her to get her laptop in there failed. She lied, telling me she was tired and she was going to bed. Her bedroom stayed empty the entire night.

When I looked in on her the following morning she was curled in the chair blocking the door, sound asleep, a blanket pulled clear to her chin.

I shook my head, wondering how the hell to get her to sleep without more drugs, and grabbed clean clothes for a shower. From there, I thought about how complex she was, soap running over my body. But then something hit me, an epiphany, if you will. Jaq wasn’t complex at all. She was simple like the universe. I smiled at myself and my analyzing, pausing to for the sound I thought I heard. Simple like the universe, I repeated in my head, stopping to listen again, this time turning the water off.

Jaq’s scream sounded like she was being murdered right that second. I jumped out of the shower, my heart in the pit of my stomach, grabbed a towel, and ran out. The screaming lowered to a muffled cry, and the pounding on the door stopped me in my tracks. With a frown and great confusion, I opened the door, grasping the towel around my waist.