Almost Like Love(35)
He caught Kate’s eye over the boy’s head, and she smiled at him.
It would have been physically impossible not to smile back. She had a streak of mustard on her chin, her jersey was covered with powdered sugar from her funnel cake, and she looked adorable.
Jacob talked a blue streak on the way back to Kate’s apartment, and since Ian wasn’t able to get a word in edgewise, he had plenty of time to remind himself that he shouldn’t walk Kate upstairs tonight. The urge to kiss her would be too strong, and he didn’t want to scare her off.
His resolution was aided by the fact that Jacob fell asleep against his shoulder a few minutes before they pulled up in front of Kate’s building.
Kate climbed out of the car on her side and then came around to his, motioning for him to roll down his window.
“I had a great time tonight, Ian. Thanks for letting a Sox fan use one of your tickets.”
After a week of being Hart, he was Ian again. That fact unexpectedly warmed him.
“I’m glad you had fun. Thanks for watching Jacob today, and for coming to the game with us. We had a great time, too.”
The mustard was gone, and she’d brushed off most of the powdered sugar, but she was still adorable.
Then she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. Her baseball cap fell off when it knocked against the window, and her hair came tumbling down, brushing against his face. For an instant he was surrounded by the scent of jasmine. Then she picked up her cap, backed away from the car, and waved goodbye.
His cheek still tingled where she’d kissed him.
CHAPTER SIX
When Simone called the next day, she didn’t waste time with pleasantries.
“I need you,” she said as soon as Kate answered the phone. “Code red.”
For Kate, a code-red catastrophe meant wine and a Joss Whedon marathon—preferably Firefly. For Simone, it meant chocolate and a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Kate rolled onto her side and glanced at the clock. It was eight thirty.
“What are you doing up at this hour?” Simone usually partied until dawn on Friday nights and slept until noon the next day.
“I told you, I have a code red. Meet me on the steps at ten?”
“Will do.”
The day was cloudy but warm, and Kate enjoyed the walk across Central Park. She left early and took her time, stopping on the way for two espressos. When she passed a group of kids playing baseball, she found herself smiling.
She got to the Met at five minutes to ten, but Simone was there before her, sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees and a scowl on her face.
Another indication of her emotional state was the fact that she was wearing jeans and sneakers and no makeup and hadn’t done anything to her hair.
“I feel like I’m meeting my new roommate freshman year,” Kate said as she came up the steps. “You look so sweet and innocent and guileless.”
She handed Simone one of the espressos, which her friend downed in a few grateful gulps.
“I might not be sweet and innocent anymore, but I’m still guileless. If I had any guile, I would have figured a way out of going to Ireland this summer.”
Kate sat down on the steps beside her. “You’re going to Ireland? On a plane?”
Simone nodded glumly. “I can’t take a boat—I won’t have enough time between my work schedule here and the production schedule over there.”
Simone was terrified of flying. Which, of course, begged the question, “Why on earth did you agree to work on a show in Ireland?”
Simone crumpled her empty espresso cup in her hands. “Do you mind if we go inside first? I need the House of Dior around me now.”
Simone’s equivalent of comfort food was the Met’s Costume Institute exhibit.
Kate patted her on the shoulder. “Let’s get you in there.”
Walking through the costume wing was like walking through the tropical-bird room at a zoo: brilliant colors, gaudy jewels, and a bewildering variety of tones and textures. After half an hour, Kate and Simone sat down on a cushioned bench in front of an eighteenth-century French court dress.
Simone took a deep breath. “So, you know we have a visiting director from a British theater company?”
Kate nodded. Simone belonged to an experimental performance group and did everything from lighting design to set and production work, although costume design was her first love.
“We’re doing Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream here in New York, and then we’re going to Ireland to perform there. I didn’t think they’d need me, but the director is insisting that the entire production team go along.”
The lighting in this wing was dim, but even so, Kate couldn’t miss the flush that stole into Simone’s cheeks.