Mr. Imperfect(45)

"I deliberately drove him away … I don't know why … it's all my fault."

"That makes the solution easy then, doesn't it?" Kezia looked at Don  uncomprehending and he said patiently, "What does an honorable person do  when they've made a mistake?"

"Fix it."

"Well then." Don tilted his hat to a jaunty angle. "Off you go."

Confused, Kezia looked into the old man's eyes, then she was running, up  the stairs, scrambling in her handbag for her car keys. Except she  couldn't drive without John Jason shifting the gears. She flew  downstairs and raced across the road to the doctor's rooms where the  nurse sat filing her nails. "Get your buzz saw and cut my hand free."

"I can't do that … you're not due."

"Please." Even in her agitation, Kezia remembered her manners. "Just  trim off enough to let me change gears. It's life or death." My life or  your death.

Ten minutes later she sat in her station wagon with a modified cast. The  old girl started with the first turn of the ignition-a good sign  surely-and with a squeal of wheels Kezia was on Main Street. And  straight into market day. Calm down, she told herself, we're meant to  be.

The numberplate on the vehicle in front bore the legend Bob4Me from Bob  Harvey's unsuccessful mayoral campaign five years earlier. Its  taillights flashed red and it pulled to a stop, blocking the main  street.

Kezia slammed on her brakes as Bob's wife climbed out, straightened her  floral dress and exchanged a few words with Bob. C'mon! Kezia's hand  hovered over the horn, but manners prevailed. Instead she bounced out  her frustration on the vinyl seat. Move it, woman! At last Bob put on  his indicators and waited for an opening to perform an illegal U-turn.  Toward the hotel.

Kezia's fist hit the horn. She wound down her window and screamed, "Move your bloody vehicle now!"

The citizens of Waterview stopped to gawk; she didn't care. Bob got out  of his cab, moving slow and sure like a gunfighter at the OK Corral.  Recognizing her, his jaw dropped.

Kezia thrust her upper body through the window. "Now, godamn it, or I'll ram this up the rear of your pride and joy!"

Bob scrambled back in the driver's seat and-possibly in shock from  having obscenities shouted at him by Waterview's sweetheart-stalled his  car. There was a smattering of clapping and catcalls, led by his wife  and Bernice May.

"Oh, this is ridiculous." Kezia pulled out and passed him on the wrong  side, blaring her horn to warn approaching traffic. Fifty meters ahead  the traffic light turned amber. She gunned the accelerator and blasted  through it. The speedometer hit sixty kilometers, labored to  seventy-five. Who was she kidding? She'd never catch Christian. Kezia  gritted her teeth. So, she'd die trying.

On the long road heading north, she coaxed the engine to ninety even  though the car shook so much she had to cling to the steering wheel with  both hands. The arrow on the water gauge quivered into the red. Please  let it be broken, like everything else on this heap. Still she eased her  foot off the accelerator. The speed dropped to eighty.

Wisps of steam seeped out from under the hood. Kezia thwacked the  steering wheel. Shit. Shit! Abruptly she took her foot off the  accelerator. Seventy, forty, ten. She swung onto the gravel.

Kezia got out. There was no one to hear, nothing to stand between her  and despair but desolate fields of harvested corn. Fists clenched by her  sides, she screamed her frustration until her voice went hoarse. Now  what? How many signs do you need that it wasn't meant to be?

"To hell with fate," Kezia croaked into the blue sky. "You've screwed me around for the last time."

In the glove compartment she found a rag, wrapped it around her hand and  pried open the blistering hood. The radiator hissed. It would have to  cool before she could refill it. Kezia got the water can from the boot  and gulped a couple of mouthfuls while she waited. It tasted sour and  warm but was better than dehydration.                       
       
           



       

With no shade on offer, she climbed back into the stinking hot car,  staring along the ribbon of road to where it faded into the horizon.  Christian would be miles away by now, probably thanking his stars for a  lucky escape. Admit it, you're as afraid of deep emotion as Christian  is. He had been her baptism by fire-and he'd left her. Worse, she'd  expected him to, maybe because she'd always fallen short of her parents'  expectations no matter how hard she tried.

Kezia started laughing at a joke that was so not funny and covered her  face with her hands. By demanding to know all Christian's secrets,  insisting he pass her tests before she trusted him, she had practiced  the conditional love she despised. Why had he put up with her for so  long?

Opening her fingers, Kezia spotted a speck of red shimmering in the  distance. Then heard the faint hum of an expensive car's engine and knew  exactly who was coming. And he'd find her here, doubting him yet again.  Shame paralyzed her. How many times can I screw this up and keep him?

The car materialized in a blur of speed and Kezia sat frozen as Consolation stopped alongside.

"Aren't you going the wrong way?" Christian asked.

"Actually, I might finally be heading in the right direction."

"And that is?"

She swallowed. "Toward you."

His teeth flashed white against his tan. "Is that so," he drawled, and swung Consolation off the road.

Kezia grabbed the oily rag and wiped her sweaty palms dry, then climbed  out of the car, pulling at the creases in her dress and feeling eighteen  again.

Christian leaned one shoulder nonchalantly against the station wagon. "You thought I'd left, didn't you?"

"We had a fight and I said some terrible things and you were seen driving out of town and … " Her voice trailed off.

"And?" he prompted. So, he wouldn't make this easy.

"And if you still want to get married, I'd like to." His sunglasses  reflected her hot and embarrassed face. "Or we could live in sin, it  really doesn't matter because I think I need to stop trying to change  you and just … love you the way you are." There was a catch in her voice.  "I love you," she said, and the words sounded like freedom. "I love  you."

"About bloody time," said Christian, and then she was in his arms and  they were trying to kiss except he was laughing and she was crying and  they made a pretty poor job of it.

He took off his sunglasses and dropped to one knee on the hot sticky  tarmac and Kezia bit her lip because she so nearly said, "You'll ruin  those pants." And he looked up at her with those blue, blue eyes and  said, "Did you seriously think you'd overtake a Ferrari in that heap of  shit?"

She looked at him blankly.

"Babe, I'm really going to have to teach you about cars."

"Obviously I didn't think I'd overtake you, but I was counting on you stopping for gas or chocolate."

He grinned at that-a crazy Christian Kelly grin. "You know if you marry me you'll be strapping in for a wild ride, don't you?"

She got cocky then. "Is that your proposal?"

"No." His wicked gaze trailed up her body to her face. "The proposal comes after you say yes."

"Yes," Kezia whispered, and found herself pinned against the vehicle, hot metal on one side, hot man on the other.

"What if someone comes?" she protested, because even clothed, their  bodies fitted sinfully close. Then she thought, to hell with it, and let  his hot mouth burn her, as well.

"By the way." Christian came up for air and trailed a finger down the  damp cotton of her dress to cup her bottom. Kezia tried to care that  they were on a public highway, but couldn't. "The business I had with  Bob last night. I bought your land back," he said casually. She gasped,  then squeezed him so tight he started to wheeze. "I figure we'll build a  house there for our annual six months in Waterview … " he managed to say  before she shoved him into the back of the station wagon and climbed on  top of him.

"That's another thing about your fancy car." She flicked open the snap on his pants. "No room."

Christian stopped her busy hands, intrigued. "What if someone comes?"

Kezia gave him a killer smile. "Count on it."



WITH A SELF-SATISFIED SMILE Kezia locked her station wagon. I am such a  loose woman and I like it. On the strength of that, she sashayed over to  where Christian waited by the Ferrari. "Does this look like a sashay to  you?" she asked, concentrating, then caught him looking at her with an  intensity that stopped her in her tracks. "What?" she asked, suddenly  shy.