Love Lift Me (3 page)

“Don’t
be. It’s ok. She’s going to be fine, I know it.”

“Of
course she will be. I shouldn’t have been asking you about your business,
though. I get kind of claustrophobic on these things I guess, and it makes me
ramble. You’re nice to talk to, though.”

“You’re
not so bad yourself,” I flirted.

Hale
would have been furious to hear me say that. Hell, he would have been upset
just to see me sitting and conversing with a man like Shane. Nevertheless, even
without Hale there to shoot me an angry expression, the conversation trickled
off until both of us were enjoying the ride in silence. Long trips will do that
to you. Fifteen minutes passed without a word between us until Shane finally
spoke again.

“Seeing
all these trees makes me think of home,” he said as he watched the landscape
whiz by outside the window. “My old home, anyway.”

“Where’s
that?”

“Up
in Michigan. A little rural pocket of a town called Snowberry. You could drive
into town and right back out and not even know you’d been there. I liked it,
though. Quiet. My favorite place to go was the woods right outside my parent’s
house. Right past the backyard. The trees there were so big and tall. I could
take a trail and lose myself in them for hours. It was my place to just think,
you know?”

“I’ve
got a place like that,” I said, already wishing I was there on a nice, sunlit
day. Maybe even with Shane. He could come, too. “Not as many trees as your
place, mind you, but still just as peaceful.”

“Does
this place have a name?”

I
nodded, watching his mysterious amber eyes examine me, and answered, “Stokes
Pond. Real simple, huh?”

“Simple’s
good.”

“There’s
an old pier out there my father used to take me fishing on when I was a kid. Most
girls hate fishing. I loved it because I could sit on the end of the pier and
see all the way to the bottom, the water was so clear. Watch the turtles, that
kind of thing. It didn’t matter if a fish got caught or not. Being out there
was like an escape, and it was a place I went to for figuring things out, even
after Poppa stopped taking me.”

“It
sounds nice,” Shane offered.

“It
is. Or was. I haven’t been back since forever. The old dock’s probably fallen
apart by now.”

“Maybe
not. You should check it out when you get home.”

Maybe
I would.

Shane’s
phone buzzed in his pocket and he answered, nodding silently and murmuring
quietly to the person on the other end. I watched the landscape through the
foggy window, seeing around his face in profile against the rain. Out in the
downpour, vehicles passed on either side of the bus and the seemingly infinite,
painted yellow lines on the asphalt in one far lane blurred into a single long
streak as we rode along. There were trees and more trees for miles, and besides
the occasional sign to point the way or advertise something no one wanted to
buy, I saw nothing else that stood out from them.

Hours
passed. We talked about nearly everything, from the odd choice of green
employed by the Median Bus Company to the overpriced, automatic back massager I
found for sale in one of the free magazines. Shane told me about his many trips
around the country, and I told him about life being yelled at by patients in a
hospital. The case he was trying in Wilmington never came up, and thankfully,
neither did Hale. The phone in my purse was all but forgotten.

As
we passed the city line into Greensboro, I reached up tiredly to rub my aching
neck and touched the thin chain that hung there. I’d almost forgotten I was
wearing it because I so rarely took it off. The locket twirled in my fingers
and I watched it spin.

“
Carol,
I want her to have it. I insist
.”

I
could still hear my grandmother’s lively voice as she argued with my mother on
the day she gave it to me. My sixteenth birthday. She’d called me over to her
favorite chair and draped the lovely necklace around my neck. Hanging heavily
on the bottom was a small locket, almost as thick as my little finger but no
bigger around than a quarter. An intricate, curling, abstract design was
stenciled into the metal on the outside edge. Superimposed over the polished
center were two doves with outstretched wings flying towards each other.

Grandmother’s
voice came to me again. “
You take care of that now, Mary. Your grandfather
gave it to me on the day he came home from the war
.” She always called me
by my proper first name, but I didn’t mind.

I
clicked open the latch, which I hadn’t done in months. Inside was the same
photograph she’d put inside that birthday morning, a picture of my family, taken
on a warm Easter day outside their church. My father standing proud in his
Sunday best, with his arm wrapped snugly around my smiling mother. They were
frozen in place that way forever. The photo was a little worse for wear and the
color had faded a bit, but there they were, looking young and happy and full of
life.

I
ran my finger along the inscription on the other side.
For Elise
. My
grandmother’s name. And below that, in the same stylized cursive,
To keep my
love and lift her spirit
.

The
locket was balanced in my hand and I sat, staring at it for the longest time,
thinking about how deeply they must have cared for each other. How much he had
loved her! It was no wonder she always wore the thing whenever I saw her,
before it fell into my hands that fateful day. She would have never parted with
it, I realized, unless she knew that her time remaining was drawing short.

“Whoa,”
Shane said, breaking me out of my trance. “It’s getting bad out there.”

Strong
wind buffeted against the side of the bus, howling as it went, shaking the steel
sidewalls and blowing a warm draft through the cabin. Hard rain crashed into
the window in waves like a thousand needles and the windshield wipers looked to
be going at maximum speed just to keep up. I could sense the bus slowing down,
but still the driver took us ahead, into the growing storm. A shot of fear
surged up into my stomach.

“Looks
like some of them are stopping,” I said, lifting my head up and over Shane to see.
A few cars had pulled over; wary motorists that weren’t about to try and brave
the hard weather until it passed. “Do you think we’ll have to do the same?”

“Hmm,
I kind of doubt it, Kat. This is a big bus. It can probably handle the rain.”

“I
kind of wish he would stop, though. Let it blow past.”

I
wanted to curl up in a blanket and forget about everything; the terrible storm,
my problems with Hale and mother, everything… except maybe Shane. Somehow, he
made it easy to forget all those things for a little while.

 Shane
nodded and pushed back in his chair before saying, “Raleigh is only another
thirty miles. By the time we’re finished there and back on the road, I bet this
whole thing will have passed over us.”

He
was only half right.

Four

A
few turns and exits later, we pulled into the boarding area at a transport
terminal that put the little one in Watauga County to shame.

The
rain was still blowing sideways when the enormous bus slid into a parking lot. Thankfully,
the other, equally large buses on either side of us blocked some of the
elements so the trip outside wouldn’t be too bad. It was hardly getting into
the late afternoon and the thick, fast-moving storm overhead blocked out the
sun into nothing more than a dull glow through black and grey clouds. Shane was
already up and grabbing his bag from the overhead compartment when the driver
groaningly exited his seat with a long stretch and spoke into the microphone
once again.

“Welcome
to Raleigh, ladies and gentlemen. In just a few minutes, you’ll be able to
exit. There are a few restaurants inside the main terminal and we’ll make an
announcement when we’re ready to continue on our way, so please don’t wander
too far off. For those of you who are permanently de-boarding, your luggage
will be on the carousel located at Gate C shortly.” Then, as if he’d suddenly
remembered something intimately regrettable, “And
thanks
for riding with
Median.”

As
soon as the driver hung up the mic, the other passengers began shuffling
around, ready to get off the bus.

“You
hungry?” Shane asked. “I could really go for something. I haven’t eaten since
first thing this morning.”

I
considered it for a moment.
Should I really go with him?
It was one
thing to just ride next to a guy or have an innocent chat, but it felt like something
altogether different when Shane asked me that. It felt like…a date…
almost
.

I
technically still had a boyfriend. That would most likely be changing soon
anyway, though. In the end, I decided that it couldn’t hurt and it was much
better than sitting alone and staring at my phone. If Hale didn’t like it, that
was tough. It was his fault I had to take a damned bus home and he didn’t
deserve to know what I was doing anyway.

“Sure,”
I answered confidently. “I’d love to.”

Once
the driver gave the all clear, the bus emptied out and we joined the shuffling
line of people. Shane and I made our way through the weather, getting peppered
with stinging rain only briefly as we left the safety of the buses to cross out
in the open before reaching the sheltered entrance gate. The terminal inside
was well-lit, with high ceilings that went up nearly twenty feet and smooth,
marble-tiled floors that seemed to extend in two directions for nearly a
quarter-mile each way. Tinted glass windows ran along the entire length of the
outermost walls, and through them I could see row after row of multi-colored
buses, taxi cabs, and rental cars. The sound of the storm raging outside took
on an insulated, heavy drone.

I
walked quietly beside Shane, wondering if I should try to say something to him
about my complicated relationship with Hale. Ultimately, I couldn’t think of
anything interesting to talk about other than how much nicer this depot was
than the one we’d left. So, I simply enjoyed his company as he blazed a trail for
us past the other passengers and made way for the glowing neon signs that
seemed to point us towards a quick meal.

“A
sushi place?” he said, stopping by a set of wooden benches in the middle of the
thoroughfare. Straight ahead of us there was a small eatery featuring a pink,
glowing frame of a fish with Japanese symbols that hung over the cash register.
Behind the counter there was a man in a chef’s hat diligently manning his post
with one elbow on the counter and a hand against his chin. No one was in line.
The poor guy looked utterly bored out of his mind.

“Uh,
no thanks,” I muttered. Sushi was not on my list of places to eat today. I was
cold and wet, and the last thing I wanted to eat shared the same qualities. It looked
like everyone else had the same idea.

“Oh
yeah, I know. It just seemed strange to find one here in a bus depot.” He
scanned the long corridor of restaurants. “There’s a burger place. How’s that
sound?”

“That
works,” I answered, my stomach already gurgling at the smell.

The
line wasn’t very long and the service was fast. Neither of us knew how much
time we had before the bus would board again and the driver hadn’t exactly been
specific. We grabbed a table near the wall and tore into the warm bag of food
like people that hadn’t eaten in days.

I’m
not going to say it was the best burger I’d ever eaten. I don’t even recall the
name of the place. Being there with Shane, alone with him among the crowd of
anonymous travelers going this way and that was the only thing I could rest my
mind on the entire time.

“So,”
Shane said between french fries, “Are you from the big city of Wilmington
itself? Honestly, you seem like more of a country girl than that.”

“Kirkland.
It’s a small town outside of Wilmington. Same county, though. My family owns a
farm there. That’s what most of the people do where I’m from - The ones I know,
at least.”

“I’ve
never actually been on a farm before. My folks both worked at Baker College.
Desk jobs. They weren’t teachers or anything like that. Administration, or
something…I think. To this day, I couldn’t tell you what they did there to save
my life. They retired early and now they’re the proud owners of a little
townhouse in Florida.” He stuffed a fry in the paper container of ketchup and swirled
it around before holding it up. “So what kind of stuff does your family grow on
this farm? Potatoes?”

“They
do, actually, but they also grow corn, soybeans, cotton, even broccoli,” I
answered. Shane turned up his nose at the last one. “Not a broccoli fan, huh? Daddy
changes it around just about every year. Keeps the soil rich.”

When
I discovered he shared my quirky habit of putting the fries on the hamburger
and making it all into one big sandwich, I couldn’t help being a bit enamored
by the coincidence. I’d never met anyone else that liked to do the same. Most
people thought it was kind of weird, stuffing your palate with everything at
once like that. Shane seemed even more surprised about it than I was.

“Are
you copying me?” He asked, watching as I laid out a neat row of fries across
the bun and smothered them with ketchup.

“Nuh-uh.”

He
titled his head as if to be sure I wasn’t pulling his leg and asked, “Really?”

“Yeah,”
I said, and felt the blush run to my cheeks again as a smile spread. “This is
the best way. I’ve always liked mine like this. You do yours too?”

“Definitely.”
he looked down at his burger and mashed it all together, with the edges of
nearly a dozen shoestring fries hanging out both sides. “What a coincidence,
huh? I’ve traveled over ten thousand miles and have the points on my credit
card to prove it, but I’ve never met a girl that liked stacking fries on a
greasy ol’ burger like I do.”

“It
must be fate,” I joked and raised my sandwich, tipping it towards his like I
was giving a toast. “Here’s to high cholesterol, then.”

“Hear,
hear.”

We
continued talking about small things as we ate; the weather, the food, things
like that. It was pleasant and altogether comforting to have a person to talk
to that I could say I knew, even if he was just an acquaintance. Sitting alone
would have been boring and I’m sure the food wouldn’t have been half as good. Shane
just seemed to make
everything
better.

As
he become more serious and began discussing the court case he was facing in
Wilmington, I found my gaze meeting his soulful, mesmerizing eyes again and
again. Before long, I was lost in them as he spoke. Shane could have been
telling me about quantum physics and it wouldn’t have mattered.

“…so
they called me down to the coast. The field office I’m usually at is in Ohio,
so it was a bit of a drive,” Shane said as I drifted along in his presence.
When he crunched up the wrapper to his burger and tossed it in the empty bag on
the table, I think I finally blinked. “And then the darn car broke down on me.
Next time, I’m getting a Beamer.”

Just
as I finished the last sip of soda in my cup, the PA system blared out the
announcement that our bus was boarding.

“Was
that us?” Shane said hurriedly, and emptied his tray into the trash.

“I
think so.”

We
started off, walking so closely together because of the crowd that I found
myself longing to hold his hand or attach myself to his arm as we went. I
barely knew him, yet there was something that seemed to call me to him. Normally,
had I been alone in such a new place, I would have been uncomfortable. With
Shane there, it wasn’t like that at all. He made me feel confident, safe. My
heart beat faster in his presence, and in a very,
very
good sort of way.
We’d made it through to the end of the food court when the PA barked out the
final call for our bus.

“That
was fast, Kat. Don’t they know how packed this place is?”

“It’s
like trying to walk through a stampede.”

“We’d
better hurry.”

“No
kidding. The food was good, but I’d hate to be stranded here,” I said.

Shane
looked down at me then and said something I hadn’t quite expected him to say.
His eyes were sincere and his smiled reflected truth as the words left his
mouth.

“I’d
be alright, being stranded here with you, Kat.”

Immediately
after saying it, Shane tucked his lower lip in and looked over at me like it
had accidently slipped out. I still hadn’t told him about Hale, and I had to
admit I’d been throwing flirty vibes off since the moment we met in Watauga.
What
was I thinking, staring at him like that the whole time, like some swooning,
tipsy school girl?

My
thoughts took a delightful turn as we quick-stepped along. I considered what
Shane and I might do if we really were stranded there together.
Would we go
out and have a drink together too? Would there be more small talk or would the
subtle flirtations become something more?
Maybe things would lead us back
to a hotel in the city and…
ooh
, delicious heat grew in my belly at the
idea of the exciting way an evening with Shane might end. It wasn’t like me to
be having such thoughts, but I had to admit I liked them. Maybe I had just gone
too long without a man’s touch. The last time was months ago, when Hale came to
visit for one long weekend.

My
mind clamped the fantasy off right there.
Could I really do something like
that with a man a barely knew? A one-night stand? Wasn’t I still technically in
a relationship?
I had to tell him about my currently conflicted
relationship status before he got the wrong idea.

“Shane,
I-“

“Look,
there’s the gate, and everyone else has already finished. C’mon, let’s step it
up or we really will get stuck here!”

In
the distance, I watched as the attendant took the last passenger’s luggage and
ushered him towards the bus. Just as the uniformed man was pulling the rope
across the exit, Shane and I came bounding up to him. The man took one look and
then thumbed for us to hurry on past and get back on the bus. Even in our rush,
I didn’t forget what I’d heard Shane say.

We
took our seats while the rest of the bus seemed to wait on us impatiently. Once
he’d put away his bag and adjusted into a comfortable position, Shane flipped
open his phone and grew immensely quiet.

So
now he was going to ignore me?

The
same driver from before stomped back on board only a few moments later, soaked
completely through in fresh rain. He gave another quick announcement, took his
place behind the wheel, and got us moving.

It
was like that for a while. Shane entertained himself by reading his messages
and I occasionally peeked out at him from behind the cover of a magazine. I felt
like he needed to know about Hale, and how that relationship wasn’t quite over
yet. Blurting it out suddenly didn’t feel natural though, and I didn’t want to
send mixed signals.

On
and on we went, with the storm hammering the metal shell of the bus the entire
way. Traffic had been standing still in Raleigh, but once we reached the open
road we began to take on speed and the weather became noticeably worse. I
wished the driver would slow down, if not only for the rain and the wind, but
so Shane and I could have more time together.

“Kat,”
he said, finally breaking the silence. His voice was blunt and purposeful. “After
this trip is over, I’d really like to see you again.”

My
pulse quickened.
Was my mouth hanging open? He was asking me out, right?

Shane
adjusted to my expression and went on, “I mean, I know we just met. But I’ve
really enjoyed spending time with you today. Maybe you can show me around your
hometown while I’m stuck in Wilmington for my case?”

“Shane…I
would-“

The
words stumbled to come out. There was so much to say and he’d caught me off
guard. Before I could finish telling him what I had to, there was a tremendous
bang and entire bus rocked violently. Someone shouted. Then another. At the
time, it sounded almost like a bout of shocked laughter.