“And, Maria’s mom is your sister?”
“Yep. Jen.”
“What does she do?”
“She works with us.”
“Us?”
He looked at me and warred with whether to tell me or not. “We all work together. Our great, great grandfather started Jacobson Buildings and Things Architecture. It grew and now it’s a pretty big company.”
“So, you all go to school to be architects and go work for the family firm?”
“Pretty much.”
“What if you didn’t want to be an architect?”
“You could be an accountant, lawyer or secretary. Anything you wanted as long as you work for the company. There’s a lot that goes into a big business like that.”
“Ok, so what if you didn’t want to work for them?”
“Uh, I’m not sure. That’s all we’ve ever done. That way we can stay together and work together. We all have knowledge of how to take care of the family in case something happened to one of us. Everyone’s taken care of. It’s a security thing.”
I nodded. “So, when do you go back to school?”
“August first.”
“That’s eight weeks,” I sighed.
“Yep.” He looked at me and rubbed his chin. “I talked to my uncle and he’s agreed, in fact he insisted, I stay here with them until I go back to school. That way I’ll be closer to you.”
“And when you do go back to school?” I asked softly.
He leaned close. “One thing at a time, Maggie.”
“Yeah. Ok, so now what?”
“Well, it’s Saturday. I was going to ask if you wanted to do something with me tonight.”
“Yes,” I said a little too quickly and rolled my eyes at myself.
He laughed softly and scooted his hand close to mine on the table, a few of his fingers grazing over my knuckles. “Great. We can go see your dad if you need to ask him first.”“Nah,” I mumbled, relishing the way my mind cleared of anything negative every time he touched me. “He won’t care.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. You saw him, he’s almost catatonic.”
“He’s been like that since your mom left?” I nodded as I picked at my pasta. “And what about the diner? Are you still going to work there over the summer?”
“Well, I have to if I want money. My dad sure won’t give me any for anything.”
“So, you only work there for extra cash?”
“Basically. School stuff, clothes. What is it?” I asked at his relieved expression.
“Nothing. That’ll just be one less thing to worry about later,” he said cryptically.
“What do you mean?”
He smiled and bumped my shoulder with his. “Nothing. Try the pudding. My grandma won county prize three years in a row for it.”
I allowed his subject change, but put it away for future reference.
“So where are we going tonight?” I asked as I tasted a bite of pudding and found that yes, it was delicious.
“Mugly’s.”
“Mugly’s?” I said, thinking I’d heard him wrong.
“Yep. A little place in my town, if you don’t mind the drive. They have awesome homemade corn nuggets and barbeque.”
“Mmm. I love barbeque,” I crooned.
He laughed around his spoon of pudding at my enthusiasm. “Well, I’ll file that little tidbit away for later use. What else do you love? I’m making a list here.”
It was my turn to laugh. “Um, popcorn, cherries, coffee, anything pasta. My all time favorite, honey buns, I eat at least one everyday.”
He smiled, leaning on his elbow watching me like he was thoroughly enjoying himself. “What else?”
“Concerts.” He made a noise to indicate he did, too. “Sci-Fi movies, the beach, the color blue, convertibles.”
“Really? Convertibles, huh? Well, then you’re in luck.”
“Why? Do you drive a convertible?”
“I do indeed.”
It hadn’t slipped my mind the cute, flirty banter that was flowing easily between us, that every time he smiled at me there were sparks in my veins. That I suddenly realized he was way out of my league and there is no way this guy would have given me the time of day had we not been imprinted.
But I remembered yesterday, when he walked me to Kyle’s, he did seem somewhat interested then. In fact, he seemed outright disappointed when Kyle was ready to go. Hmm.
Then I remembered he could read my feelings and peeked at him. He was still watching and shaking his head in amusement. I wrinkled my nose and he laughed.
“You said there was a way to turn that off, right?”
“Yep,” he answered, “it takes practice and concentration.”
“I’ll work on it.”
“Hey,” I heard from behind me. I turned to see Kyle. “You done?”
“Uh.” I looked down at my plate. I’d barely touched any of it. I’d spent most the time talking to Caleb. “Sure, I guess. What’s up?”
“How you holding up?”
“Good. Your family is really nice.”
“I told you they would be. You didn’t have anything to worry about. So, since you’re feeling all right, what are you doing tonight?”
I glanced at Caleb. He was watching Kyle with annoyance. “Caleb and I are going to dinner.”
He laughed humorlessly. “Are you? Well at least he’s gonna try to date you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Caleb asked.
“It means this is some fluke. Some joke. She’s nothing like you, she already got rid of one jock in her life and now you think you can just take her out on a date, like everything was normal, and it’s all just gonna be hunky-dory from now on?”
“Kyle, I don’t know what’s wrong with you.” As Caleb spoke, I looked around and saw that everyone was watching them with concern. “I’m sorry. I already said that.”
“Oh, yeah, you’re real sorry. Strutting around here, in my house, like you’re just king of everything,” Kyle spat and I was shocked by the venom in his voice.
“Kyle, that’s not fair at all. I didn’t choose-”
“But you were still the chosen one weren’t you!” he sneered.
“I can’t change that she's my significant, no matter what you feel about her. This right here is a prime example why they have the no-dating rule.”
“You hated that stupid rule just as much as me!” he yelled and pointed angrily.
“I know, but I didn’t break it,” Caleb countered quietly. “If you’d spent less time trying to get her to go out with you, you wouldn’t feel this way about someone who doesn’t belong to you.”
Kyle paled and then turned beet red. “That has nothing to do with it, though if I had touched her first instead of you, things would be a little different, now wouldn’t they? But she’s my friend.”
“I disagree,” Caleb said steadily.
Kyle’s hand shook with his drink in his grasp at his side. I wondered what was going on. I mean, I knew Kyle had a little crush on me, but Caleb knew an awful lot about it. Then Kyle’s dad came forward and put his hand on Kyle’s shoulder.
“Son,” he said softly, “I know this situation isn’t ideal, but Caleb’s right on this. What are you doing? Don’t stir trouble where there doesn’t have to be any.”
“I’m not, but, Dad, you should have heard the things he used to say. He hated this whole thing. He wanted out.”
“Kyle!” Caleb yelled and stood up.
“He thought the whole significant thing was a joke. He said it was faked or something. He wanted to leave and go to school in Arizona.”
“Kyle, shut up, man! That was before it happened to me, ok! It’s different now. And it’ll be different when it happens to you, too.”
“But it’s not going to happen to me, is it? You’re the special one and I’ll be stuck alone forever. The one girl I thought I’d risk it for.” He stuck one finger in to the air to drive home his point. “The one girl and you stole her right out from under me! Literally!”This was more uncomfortable than sex talk with Granny. I just wanted to crawl under the table. And the following silence after his statement was deafening. They were in front of me, but I could slip behind Caleb to the house and get a refill or something. So I did. But Maria caught me. “Where are you going, Maggie?”
I turned to look at them over my shoulder, completely embarrassed and uncomfortable. I started to walk again, shifting my gaze to the ground.
“Maggie. I’m sorry,” Kyle blurted loudly while Kyle’s dad said, at the same time, “Let her go, Kyle,” while Caleb said, “Maggie.”
“Um. I think I’ll just go home, but thanks for lunch. I really enjoyed it. I want to change before tonight.” I looked at Caleb. “I mean, if you still want to go.”
“Of course I do.” He sighed and came to stand in front of me. “I’m sorry about this,” he mostly whispered.
“It’s ok.” I needed to flee the eyes. “Can we talk, later?”
“Do you want me to walk you?”
“No, I’m fine. Really.”
“Can you even leave?” Kyle said condescendingly. “I mean it’s only day two. Last night you were on the edge the whole time. Go ahead. Try to just walk out of here without his help.”