Counting Down (16 page)

“Something like that.”
She wiped sauce from her chin with a paper napkin. “It’s like you and I complete some sort of circuit. We seem to always be connected mentally, emotionally, or whatever. But when we connect physically the power gets kicked up a notch.”

Kyle squinted, processing the information. “I guess that makes some sense.” He turned to his plate, avoiding her eyes as he continued. “So after that… uh event… I guess I came to the conclusion that I don’t have to run from whatever this is between us, that I don’t have to worry about being sidetracked from the main purpose or anything like that.”

“Is that what you thought?” Abby almost choked on a laugh through a mouth full of pasta. “You must’ve gotten something completely different from that vision last night.”

“I don’t think so. I think we felt the same things.” He grinned a little, mostly to himself. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Part of me thought it might be easier on both of us to stay distant. This thing between us is… intense, distracting. I thought maybe I could do my job better and keep you safer if we weren’t friends or otherwise emotionally attached.”

She laughed. “That’s just
silly
boy logic.”

He sent her a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry, but it’s pretty dumb. Obviously we were meant to work together on this and, if past lives have relevance in the present, then we were obviously meant to be more than detached partners.”

Kyle couldn’t argue with that.
“I guess we are more useful as a unit. I think that maybe us being… um… close to each other is sort of a necessity for survival.”

She grinned with her mouth full, swallowed. “Is that your roundabout way of trying to get me into bed?”

He set his fork down and swallowed hard. “Oh. No. I mean, of course I think you’re very attractive but I wasn’t trying to imply anything by that. I just meant…”

Abby giggled.
“It’s okay. I know what you meant.” He breathed a small sigh of relief and
she
went on. “You’re right. We are more powerful together and I think there’s a purpose behind that. I feel like if we aren’t a team on this thing we risk more lives than just our own. We have a responsibility.”

He agreed with a nod and stole a glance at the soft skin of her throat, imaging his lips trailing a line from there to her mouth. Distraction was certainly an appropriate word for Abby, he thought.

After dinner they cleared the dishes together and neither of them avoided brushing up against each other as they moved from the table to the sink and back. In fact, they made a point of it, creating a tight path in the ample kitchen that neither of them strayed from.

When the table was clear he turned to her with a playful smile. “We’ll leave the dishes for tomorrow.”

“What if there isn’t a tomorrow?”

His smile widened and he shrugged. “
I’m counting on it.”

She returned his smile as he slowly raised a hand to press his palm to her cheek. He let his fingers slip along the soft skin behind her ear and under her hair. His eyes moved to her mouth while his thumb caressed her bottom lip. Her shuddering breath nearly sent him over the edge.

If he kissed her now, the way he wanted to, they wouldn’t make it out of the house to the next part of his plan. He wanted to do this right, wanted Abby Connelly to know what it was like to be wooed for once in her life. He turned around towards the door and offered up his hand. She slipped her fingers into his, fitting perfectly together while they walked out into the night.

Abby looked down at where their hands met as Kyle led her towards the front side of the barn. She could see her own skin glowing, not just his anymore. She lifted her other hand and saw that it was also shining in the dim light.

“Kyle.” She held her hand up in front of her, studied the white glow of it. “What’s happening?”

He looked down at his own hands and shook his head inquisitively. “I don’t know.” He turned a bright smile on her. “But it’s kind of cool.”

Abby let out a laugh. “I guess if we’re ever in a blackout we won’t need to light any candles. And leaving the lights on is pretty much standard from now on.”

Kyle laughed with her. “That might not be such a bad thing.” He said the last with a flirty undertone that made her smile widen.
An urge that was quickly becoming familiar stirred inside of him, forcing him to take a deep, suppressing breath.

In front of the barn Kyle had laid out a big blanket with paper plates, plastic forks, a store bought che
esecake, a six pack of beer
, and a battery
powered
mp3 radio.

Abby eyed the picnic before her. “What’s all this? Desert and drinks under the stars?”

“Exactly.” He pulled out both of their music filled phones and set them on the blanket. He had swiped Abby’s from the coffee table when she wasn’t looking. “First things first. We exchange phones and pick some favorite tunes for mood music.”

He watched her face, saw the light around her brighten.

They thumbed through each other’s phones, picking out songs and playfully teasing one another over their choice in music. After a few moments they settled on a playlist that had been labeled “chilled” on Abby’s phone and started on their freshly thawed, premade cheesecake.

Music swirled around as they swallowed their last bites and Kyle opened beers for them. “I wanted to get some wine, but the grocery store was cleaned out.”

“That’s okay. I’m one of those girls who actually likes beer.”

Of course Kyle already knew that, but he also knew wine was considered more romantic. His next surprise wouldn’t really add a touch of romance either, but he knew Abby would appreciate it.

“Oh, I almost forgot. I have one more gift for us.” Kyle pulled out a full pack of light cigarettes and waved them in front of Abby.

Abby let out a gasp that quickly turned into a laugh. “Where did you get those? They must be fifteen bucks a pack these days.”

“Well I didn’t exactly pay for them. I sort of found them when I was in town earlier. Thought you might enjoy the last smokes on Earth.” He packed the box against the back of his hand. “Besides, I’m a reformed smoker too and I guess you could say my will power is a little less than stellar since I started having visions about that which we are not speaking of tonight.”

Abby’s face was bright, almost astonished. Kyle soaked it in. He knew it was a silly thing for them to share, but civilization as they knew it was about to come crumbling down around them. If splitting a pack of cigarettes and a sixer of beer gave them some respite from the terror that was coming, it was more than worth it. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, Kyle thought, suddenly realizing these might be the last normal moments of his life.

“Oh my god. I had forgotten how good that was,” Abby said as she took her first puff. “I feel like a teenager doing something bad though. But I think that’s part of what I always liked about it.”

“Rebelling against something are you?” Kyle looked at her sideways and let smoke waft out slowly from his mouth.

“You should know.
You already know everything about me and I’m just scratching the surface of you.”

“Well I don’t know everything. Just random things here and there pop into my head. And sometimes I can hear what you’re thinking. But I think that’s your fault.”

“My fault?”

“Yeah, I think you send your thoughts to me somehow.”

She flicked her cigarette. “Huh. I didn’t realize I was sending anything.”

“Regardless, I feel like I know you already even though the last time I remember being with you was a few thousand years ago. Does that makes sense?”

“It does. It’s like we’ve been… friends… for a very long time. And I’m glad you don’t know everything.” She sat up a little to face him. “First, because some things are just plain private. And second, because I wouldn’t want either of us to miss out on the getting to know you stage… again.”

Kyle only grinned and they both looked up to gaze into the night sky and enjoy their smokes. It was hard to believe the world would look so different tomorrow, that everything would change in the course of just
twenty-four
short hours. In the meantime the two of them would share an effortless evening together full of simple indulgences.

“I’d like to know more about you,” he said.

She smiled over the rim of her beer bottle, holding it in the same hand as her cigarette. With the other hand she absently tugged on her earlobe.

“Well I’m the one with the learning curve. I think you should tell me more about you so I can catch up.” A soft laugh escaped her lips. “You can find out more about me later. I’m sure I’ll be broadcasting transmissions throughout the evening.”

“Okay. What do you want to know then?” He took a drag of his cigarette, held the butt between his forefinger and his thumb.

“How long have you had those tattoos?”

Kyle felt his face grow warm, remembering the feeling of her eyes on him earlier in the day. “Ah… those are from my bad boy phase.”

He took a sip of beer and looked out into the night, glancing up to the moon as he swallowed. He could feel her eyes on him again, saw her staring at his profile in his peripheral vision. Suddenly he wished he could read her thoughts at will.

She waited patiently, smoking and sipping her beer.

He continued. “I had dropped out of college and was pissed off at just about everything. I stole cars, got into way too many fights.” He stole a glance in her direction. “I don’t recommend spending the night in lock up.”

Abby’s eyes registered mild surprise. “You were in jail?”

“Well I wasn’t in a real prison or anything. I spent a couple of nights in the county jail before I could make bail.” He took a long sip from his bottle. “Looking back I think maybe I was just searching for my purpose, trying to figure out who I was.
Something I hate to admit because it sounds ridiculous even to me.”
He paused briefly. “I was living on the road, reading too much angst. Smoking, drinking, using ah… recreational narcotics… going through different women that I barely knew and didn’t really like.”

Abby studied him. “Life had no real meaning.”

“Yeah it was a ti
me of what you might
call building character
I guess
.” His fingers made quotes in the air. “But it was so empty and I wasn’t a very nice guy.”

“What pulled you out of it?”

He laughed quietly. It sounded a little wounded, even to him. “The girl who bailed me out of jail, but not in a good way.”

Abby leaned in, waiting for more and smoking her cigarette like it was something she still did every day.

“She was more messed up than I was and I was sort of implicated by association.” He chuckled sarcastically. “To keep the story short I got my ass kicked one too many times and I wanted out. Joining your uncle on the farm was my way of starting over and cleaning up. The land had always called to me and I wanted to… ah commune I guess.”

He waited a second for her reaction, but her face never changed. “You think I’m a delinquent now.”

Abby shook her head, eyeing him with an expression he couldn’t read. “No. I think you’re just you.”

Kyle was glad she didn’t press him further. He flicked his cigarette into the grass. Smoke billowed up around his face as he exhaled the last drag, illuminated by the shining light of his skin. “After that vision the other night,” he began again. “I think maybe I got the tattoos because of some subconscious past life memory.”

Abby’s eyes widened just slightly in agreement. “I was thinking something like that also. They look too much like the ones you… um… used to have.”

“Do you have any tattoos?” She blushed from her chin to her forehead and he suddenly heard the answer in his head. If she had a tattoo, she wanted him to find out where it was on his own.

They were quiet for a second before Abby blurted out her next question. “What do you remember? About us, I mean. All that time ago?”

Kyle turned, his eyes sweeping over her body until they reached her face. He watched her cheeks flush again, could almost hear her
blood
quicken.