Breathless (150 page)

I grinned as I read her texts. When I left my number on the bottom of the note, I hadn’t expected her to actually use it.

Me: Yeah, I do. I’ll talk to you about it tomorrow. Just wait for me by your car if you get to school before I do.

Emma: Okay…if you say so. You’re okay though, right?

Me: I’m fine, but I need to go. I’m at work.

Emma: Whoops. Sorry. I’ll see you tomorrow.

Me: It’s fine. Talk to you later.

I slipped my phone back into my pocket as I walked back inside. I couldn’t help but grin over the fact that Emma had to be on her date with Todd by now, yet she was texting me. Something as stupid as that shouldn’t make me happy, but it did. I was trying my hardest to avoid her, but for some reason, she kept pulling me back in. I didn’t belong in her world, but she didn’t seem to care about that. She was the one bright spot I’d found at my new school even if I didn’t act like it.

I walked back to the employee room and grabbed my bag. I made my way back out to the counter and started pulling my books out. Within a few minutes, I was working on my homework as I waited for Rick’s six o’clock to arrive.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, a woman walked into the shop, looking around nervously. She was a first-timer, I could tell. They always looked like they wanted to bolt before the door even closed behind them.

“Can I help you?” I asked, trying to put her at ease.

She stepped up to the counter and looked at me. “I have an appointment with Rick.”

I pulled out a clipboard and put our new customer form on it, not even bothering to ask if she’d been here before. “I’ll let him know you’re here. Just fill that out while I go get him.”

“Thanks,” she mumbled as she took the clipboard from me with shaking hands.

The woman was terrified.

“Ma’am?” I called as she turned to walk to the empty couch in the waiting area.

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry if I’m being presumptuous here, but I’m betting that this is your first tattoo, and you are terrified.”

She gave me a weak smile. “Is it that obvious?”

“Yeah, a little bit. I just want you to know that Rick told me a little bit of your story, and I think that your daughter would be so proud and honored by what you’re doing. You’re keeping her spirit alive even if her body is gone.”

Her eyes filled with tears, and I suddenly felt uncomfortable. I wasn’t good with handling tears.

“What’s your name?”

“Erm, Jesse.”

“Well, Jesse, I just want to thank you for what you just said. I wasn’t completely sure that I could go through with this, but now, I am. I want to remember my baby girl always, and I want to make her proud.”

“You’re welcome, and I’m sure she was proud of you before. You were her mom, so that made you her idol.”

She put the clipboard down and walked around the counter to stand in front of me. “Thank you, Jesse. You’re a good soul. I hope you know that.” When she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me, I froze, unsure as to what to do. I’d never had a customer hug me before, and I wasn’t exactly the type to like physical crap like this.

I patted her on the shoulder gently until she pulled away. “You’re welcome.”

Rick appeared out of nowhere and stood beside us. “Hi, Martha. Are you ready to get started?

“Yes, definitely,” she said. She finished filling out the forms, and then she followed him back to one of the rooms.

I breathed a sigh of relief when she disappeared. I was glad that I’d helped her realize just how important her tattoo was, but the hugging wasn’t cool. I didn’t like people to show me their emotions, especially when they did it physically.
Unless it’s Emma.
She could get physical with me any day. I groaned to myself as I pictured us getting physical together.
Way to give myself a hard-on at work.
Hopefully, Rick wouldn’t come out of the back for a while until I could get my dick in check.

We didn’t have another customer the entire night, and by the time the shop closed, I was ready to bolt. I’d finished all my homework two hours ago, and I wasn’t good at sitting still and doing nothing.

I couldn’t help but smile when I started my car. I really owed Emma for helping me. What could I do to thank her though? I was pretty sure she’d laugh at anything that I could offer.
Maybe I could buy her a burger or something?

Yeah, that’ll work.
I’d offer to buy her dinner as a thank-you.

***

The lights were on in our trailer when I pulled into the driveway. I was glad to see that Mom had actually made it home on time tonight instead of being stuck with a double again. As soon as I walked inside, I saw her standing in the kitchen.

She glanced up and smiled when she saw me. “Right on time, kiddo. I made us dinner.”

I glanced at the clock on the wall as I walked to the table. “At ten o’clock at night?”

“Oh, shush. We never get to eat together anymore, so I thought this would be nice.”

I kissed her on the cheek before I sat down. “It is nice. Thanks, Mom.” “You’re welcome. I made your favorite—chicken and dumplings.”

My mouth watered as she set a plate down in front of me. Even though

I’d grown up in Santa Monica, my mom was originally from Kentucky. When I was younger, all the kids in the trailer park would come to our house because my mom would always make Southern comfort foods. It was something that none of them were used to. My mom was an amazing cook, but over the years, she’d started working more, so she didn’t have time to make dinner very often.

After my mother said grace, I grabbed a fork and started shoveling food into my mouth. “This is awesome.”

She laughed, and then she started to eat as well. “I thought you would like it. I wanted to talk to you about something while we have a chance.”

My fork stopped halfway to my mouth.
So, that’s why she took the time to make my favorite food. It’s a bribe.
“Okay…”

“It’s nothing bad, honey. It’s just…I met someone.” “Met someone?” I asked, confused.

“Yes, his name is Mark. He just moved here a few weeks ago, and we met when he came into my work for lunch one day.”

“Wait. You met a guy? Are you dating him?” I didn’t like this—at all.

My mom and I were a team. We didn’t need some asshole coming in and screwing everything up.

“I’ve been on a couple of dates with him, yes. He’s really sweet, and he wants to meet you.”

I stared at my mom, really stared. Even though she was close to forty, she was still pretty. Her hair was blonde and curly, like mine, and her eyes were an unusual mix of green and blue. I must have gotten my height from my dad because I stood a few inches over six feet while my mom had barely managed to reach five feet. She was tiny and cute, and I hated this bastard for noticing her.

“I don’t want to meet him. I’m sure he’s an asshole, just like every other guy out there.”

“That’s not fair, Jesse. You can’t judge him before you even give him a chance. He’s been really sweet to me, and it’s been nice to have a guy around.”

“I’m a guy,” I said stubbornly.

“Yes, you are, but it’s nice to have someone besides my seventeen-yearold—”

“I’m almost eighteen. There are only a couple of weeks until my birthday.”

“My apologies. It’s nice to have someone besides my
almost
eighteen-yearold son to look after me. I’ve been alone for a long time, Jesse.”

I sighed as I put my fork down. I didn’t like the idea of my mom dating some douche canoe, but I didn’t want her to be alone either. “Fine. I’ll meet him, but I’m not promising to like him.”

“That’s all I’m asking of you, but I really do think you’ll like him once you meet him.”

“So, I’m assuming you already told him yes. When are we meeting?”

“Well, the tattoo place is closed on Sundays, so I thought he could come over then, and we could all have lunch together.” “Sounds exciting,” I said sarcastically.

“You’d better not be rude, or I’ll take my mama’s paddle to your ass,” she scolded.

I couldn’t help but laugh. My mom had threatened to use that paddle more times than I could count when I was a kid, but she’d never used it.

I saluted her. “Yes, ma’am.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”

***

I arrived at school early the next morning, hoping to beat Emma there. As soon as I pulled in though, I saw her sitting in her car. I parked next to her and shut off my car.

She smiled and stepped out of her car when she saw me. “Morning,

Jesse.”

I got out and walked around my car to stand beside her. “Morning.”

I knew she was waiting on me to start talking, but I was enjoying watching her squirm too much. She shifted her weight from foot to foot as she waited. Finally, she couldn’t stand it anymore.

“You said you wanted to talk?” she asked.

“Yeah, I did.” I didn’t elaborate. Messing with her was too much fun.

“Okay, about what?” she asked impatiently.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe about the fact that you had my car fixed for me. Why would you do that?”

Her eyes widened. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t have your car fixed.”

“Bullshit. I know it was you.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because you and Andy were the only ones who knew what was wrong with it. I talked to him last night after I got home from work, and he confirmed that it wasn’t him.”

“Oh,” she said as she looked away.

“Yeah, oh. So, tell me why you did it.”

“Fine. Yes, it was me. I knew you needed help, and I wanted to help you. I heard you talking to Andy about not being able to afford the part, and I didn’t want you to have to worry.”

“You don’t even know me. Why do you even care?” I asked, truly curious as to why she would help me.

“I don’t know. I guess it felt like the right thing to do.”

Wrong answer.
I didn’t want to be a charity case for anyone. “So, you did it out of pity?” I asked, getting angry.

“What? No! I just wanted to help a friend.”

“But I’m not your friend. I’m nothing to you.”

“That’s not true! You’re my friend…or at least I thought so.”

“I don’t have friends here.” I knew I was being an asshole, but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want the rich girl to befriend me out of pity.

“You would if you tried, but instead of trying to meet new people, you ignore everyone.”

“I’m not here to make friends with the rich kids. I’m here to get good grades and get a scholarship for college.”

“Can’t you do it all at once? I know you well enough already to realize that you always put what you want last. You’re a teenager. You need to have some fun.”

“I have fun,” I replied stubbornly.

“Really? What do you do for fun?”

“I work at the tattoo shop. I consider that fun.”

“See—you
work
for fun.”

I wanted to beat my head against my Jeep. This conversation was not going where I had planned. “Look, I just wanted to talk to you to thank you for helping me, and I was hoping to repay you in some way. Since we both know that I can’t afford the damn part, I was going to see if you wanted to get something to eat after school.”

“Like a date?” she asked with a small smile.

Shit.
I hadn’t intended for her to think of it like that. Then again, I guessed it could be considered a date.
Since when did I date?

“Uh, I guess you could call it a date if you wanted to. If not, you could think of it as the poor kid trying to break even with the rich princess.”

I realized my slipup as soon as the word
princess
was out of my mouth. I’d been referring to her making her princess castle in the sand the first time I’d ever met her. I was praying that she still didn’t know that I was that little boy. Hopefully, she assumed that I was just being an asshole by calling her princess.

“First of all, I am
not
a rich princess. My parents have money, not me. When I graduate, I plan on running as far away from my mom and her money as I can. And second, we won’t call it a date. We’ll call it two friends getting something to eat.”

“Sorry,
princess.
Do you want to do it tonight?” I asked.

When her face turned red, I realized how that sounded. “I mean, do you want to grab something to eat tonight?”

She snickered. “I’d love to do it tonight. Want to meet here after I finish my cheer practice?”

“Works for me,” I replied.

She started walking up the steps to the school. “Great. It’s a date.”

Five-Emma

My legs couldn’t carry me fast enough to get to Lucy to tell her about my not-a-date plans for this evening. I wanted to jump up and down and scream like a girl right there in the middle of the hallway, but I didn’t want to take the chance that Jesse might see me. There was no need for him to realize how excited I was. He had seemed less than enthused when I asked if it was a date, but I was going to ignore that and focus on the fact that I was going out with him tonight.
This day is going to drag by.

I hurried to Lucy’s locker, but she wasn’t there, so I made a beeline for class. Luckily, she was sitting in her seat, and Jesse was nowhere to be seen.

“Guess what?” I whisper-shouted.

“What?” she asked as she eyed me curiously.

“I’m going out with Jesse tonight.” “
What?
”
she shouted.

“Shh!” I glanced around the room to make sure that no one was listening. “He just asked me to go get something to eat after school.”

“Like a date?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“That’s great, but I thought you weren’t interested in him.”

That stopped me in my tracks. I wasn’t supposed to be interested in him. I was supposed to be ignoring him and focusing my attention on Todd. Todd and I had gone out last night, and it had been fun, but it didn’t make me nearly as excited as going out with Jesse.
I must be losing my mind.
I’d ogled Todd for two years, and when he finally paid attention to me, I didn’t even care.

“I, uh…” I stammered, trying to think of a way to cover myself.

“Emma, chill. It’s okay to like him. Honest.”