"I understand," Caleb said. "I feel how confused you are. It"s fine. Maybe he"s just waking up. I told you it probably wouldn"t last forever."
"Yeah. But why now? Why when I"m gonna need-" I stopped myself from saying anything else.
"I know. I need you too." He came and hugged me to him, making sure to touch his palm to my arm so as to get skin contact, to take my troubles away. "Don"t worry. We"ll figure it out. In the mean time are ready to go?"
"Yes," I said, pushing away the weirdness. "I"m sorry about Beck. She"s a little quirky."
"It"s fine. My best friend is pretty quirky too. Vic. He"s pretty much insane."
I followed him out to his car...only it wasn"t a car. It was a motorcycle, a sleek, black Yamaha.
"I thought you said..." Convertible. Oh. I get it. "Ha ha."
He grinned and laughed.
"Hey, I didn"t lie. This is as convertible as you can get."
"I guess I have to agree with that," I said laughing.
"Ok. First things first." He grabbed my bag and put it in the compartment under the seat. "This won"t do." He motioned to my dress and lifted his seat again to pull out a jacket. He placed it around me and pulled the zipper up.
"It"s pretty warm out," I said mildly, wondering why he thought I needed a jacket on May.
"Not on the back of a bike it"s not."
"If you say so."
"Here," he came and put a small black helmet on my head, buckling it under my chin. "Now you can keep that pretty head all nice and in one piece."
"And where"s yours?"
"Right here." He pulled one off the handlebars and put it on. He climbed on and looked back at me expectantly. He flipped a switch on his bike and I could hear him in my ear in the helmet, "One leg at a time."
I sighed and climbed on behind him. I settled myself close to him as I could get. Ours legs lined up and touching all the way down. I blew a breath to steady myself and tried to play off my shakiness as anxiety about the ride instead of being so close to him.
"I have never ridden a motorcycle before."
"I a.s.sumed as much so I promise to take it easy on you; this time."
I heard him laugh as he cranked up the beast. I got queasy as I could feel it"s every rumble. I dreaded this ride now, for more than one reason and wondered if there was some way to back out of it. I thought I was trembling but couldn"t tell.
His hand came back to pat my bare knee, easing and soothing me.
"It"ll be fine. I promise you"ll love it."
"I"m ok." I lifted my feet to rest of the foot props. "I"m ready."
"Arms around me," he ordered. "And hold on tight."
I did as he said and leaned against his back as my arms hugged his midsection. I smiled at how comfortable it was. I felt him swirl his hand once on my knee before grasping the handlebars and slowly pulling away from my house. Then my street. Then my town.
Eight.
The helmet did an okay job of shielding my hair from most of the wind. He blocked a lot of it himself. He"d been right about the jacket. My legs were freezing.
We drove for about thirty minutes that way. We talked through the mics the entire time. He told me some about his family members other abilities. Like his Aunt Kelly and uncle Max, Kyle"s parents. She can decipher any language or code. Anything that is meant to hinder and confuse, she can figure it out. She can do any crossword puzzle and learn any computer pa.s.sword and then turn around and speak Chinese even though she never learned it. And his uncle can learn anything and teach anything, which I"d learned earlier today, at a crazy fast rate.
Then he told me his dad"s ability was that he can detect the earth elements. It"s one way they have enough money to pay for college for everyone and get the real estate they want. He can find precious metals and gems. They go expeditions once a year for it.
Wow.
And his mom, Rachel, she can move and bend metal. The family jokingly calls her Magneto, but she can only move small objects. The biggest thing she"s ever moved was a Volkswagen and that was pushing it.
And his grandfather, the one he looked so much like, he could look at someone and see their intentions. Good or bad, he could see if you were planning something malicious or helpful, if you"re lying to hurt someone. He couldn"t see the actual act but could decipher and sift through it and see if your intentions are good or evil.
There are many more people in his family that I had not met. Some didn"t make it to Kyle"s for the meet and greet. I tried to imagine what having such a huge close family would be like.
He also told me that the families are clans. Each family is separate from the other and most are civil but some are rivals who vie for land and "territories" or areas. They don"t like to be close to each other and they don"t ever mix if you are a rival clan, there has never even been an imprint between rival clans before; ever.
Once you imprint with someone, generally they would then be part of the clan of whoever the male is, since they share the same last name. For instance, he said his mother was from the Mitch.e.l.l"s clan and when her and his father imprinted, she became part of the Jacobson family and clan. She does see her original family some but scarcely. For the most part, you gain a new family.
I was fascinated by it all. I was a sponge and soaked up everything he told me but soon we pulled into the parking lot and he stopped the bike under a tree on the edge of the lot. He kicked the stand and let me get off first. I was wobbly, my legs tingling and unsteady.
He grabbed my arms to steady me before removing his helmet and laughed softly as he removed mine. I can only imagine the nest it was but he smoothed it back for me with his fingers, running them through and giving me shivers.
"You did well for your first time. I was worried you"d squeal and shake the whole way."
"You say that to all the girls who ride on your bike?" I teased but the thought of another girl on his bike made me tense with something...
Jealousy?
He smiled as his hands coasted down my arms and then to his sides.
"Never had a girl on my bike before."
He motioned his head for me to follow him.
"Why?" I asked as we moved slowly through the parked cars to the door.
"Well, our family has this rule. When they realized that we weren"t going to imprint, some of them wanted to try to find a wife or husband without being imprinted, when they got older than the rest of them did when they found their significant. The clan decided it was best for no one to date at all since they didn"t know what was going on. They didn"t want anyone to marry someone and then imprint on someone else. Therefore, there has never been a girl on my bike."
"You"ve never dated anyone, at all?"
"Nope." He waved to the hostess as she made her way to us. "Hey, Mrs. Amy."
She was about forty I"d say. Pretty with a high ponytail and I could tell right away she would be quirky and loud.
"Hey there, Caleb. What have we here?" she asked as she looked me over.
"This is Maggie. Maggie, this is Mrs. Amy. The owner."
"And the cook, waitress, dishwasher and hostess. He always forgets that," she said sweetly and laughed. "Well come on you two. I"ll give you a table in the back," she said conspiratorially and winked at Caleb.
We followed her and pa.s.sed a packed dining hall full of laughing people and waitresses wearing cowboy boots to the back. She sat us at a corner table and left with our drink order.
It was a small booth that only fit three people, if tightly, so we sat beside each other instead of across from each other. I wondered if that had been Mrs. Amy"s plan.
I turned to him a little so I could see his face. I fiddled with my silverware and put my napkin in my lap so my hands would have something to do.
"So, if you"re not supposed to date, why was Kyle taking me out that night?"
"Only I knew about it. His parents didn"t. He told them he was going to a grad party. That"s why he wanted to text you about leaving."
"Aha. So you brought me to his house thinking he"d get caught, huh?" I smiled and b.u.mped his shoulder.
"Maybe. He was breaking the rules." He smiled crookedly. "Plus, I was pretty disappointed when I found out that you were the one Kyle had been talking about."
I bit my lip to stop the smile and looked towards our new waitress as she placed our drinks on the table. I told Caleb since we hadn"t looked at the menus at all to order something for me. Whatever was his favorite and so he did. Then I started to quiz him again.
"So. What sport do you play at Tennessee? Maria said you played something."
"Swim team, 400 Meter, freestyle."
Oh boy. That thought brought a whole new line of thinking. shorts, arms, legs, water...
"Mmm. Are you any good?"
I leaned my chin on my hands and watched him as he scratched his chin.
"Uh, yeah, I"m ok," he played off modestly. "I guess. We made it to conference this year. Do you play any sports?"
"I ran track."
"You any good?" he smirked.
"I guess so."
"What did you run?"
"200 meter."
"My sister ran too. But she wasn"t very good. Don"t tell her I said that." We chuckled. "So, did you place?"
"State, two years."
"Nice. So, uh-"
"Caleb. Hi, there." I looked up at a sweet voice and saw a face just as sweet. It was a girl, looking at Caleb like he was everything she ever wanted. She was blonde, of course, tall and slender with a blue halter dress, very pretty. "Sorry, I don"t mean to interrupt," she said sweetly and lifted one bare tan shoulder.
"Hey, Ashley. How"s your summer?" he said not looking at her and twirling his straw in his gla.s.s.
"Well it just started, silly," she giggled and fiddled with her necklace. "But it"s good so far. My parents are making me do a summer internship at a law firm in Chattanooga."
"Sounds fun."
"No way. It"ll be torture. The last six weeks of my break will be spent working like a dog with no pay and no credits for it."
"Yeah, but you get the experience." He turned to me before she could say anything else. "Ashley, this is Maggie. Maggie, this is Ashley. She"s in my Economics cla.s.s."
"And your Geometry cla.s.s. But you"re always so focused that you barely notice anything in there." She turned to me and fixed a not very pleasant smile on her face. "Nice to meet you, Maggie. Is that short for Margaret?"
"Nope just Maggie."
She perched her pet.i.te behind on the edge of the seat next to Caleb and I felt an instant irritation. I could only a.s.sume this sweet faced girl would be trouble. And then trouble started to spew from her lips in the form of sugar coated degradation.
"So. Are you Caleb"s cousin from out of town?"
"Uh, no."
"Hmm. Are you his sister? I always a.s.sumed from the many times Caleb and I have talked that you were older."
"No, I"m..."
Boy, oh boy. I had no idea what the c.r.a.p to say. What was I? Would Caleb be upset if I said I was his girlfriend? Was I his girlfriend? Could I blurt out soul mate? I could tell this girl was interested in him and waiting anxiously for my reply. But I just couldn"t fit an explanation in my mouth.
Once again, Caleb came to my rescue.
"Maggie and I are on a date, Ashley."
"Oh?" she asked, her voice shrill and vexed. "And how did you meet? You don"t go to school with us, I know."
"She graduated with my cousin, Kyle, the other night."
"Oh." She looked genuinely crushed and hurt and then p.i.s.sed. "I thought you said you didn"t date."
"I didn"t date," he answered and seemed to look for an explanation that wouldn"t hurt her feelings.
"So, what? You just didn"t want to date me? Is that it? I"m not good enough for you? You could have just said that instead of making up some stupid "I don"t date" story," she sneered.
"Look. I didn"t date, that wasn"t a lie, but Maggie is..." he looked at me "different." He looked back to her. "I"m sorry if I hurt your feelings but I wasn"t trying to. Besides, aren"t you leaving for Va.s.sar in a couple semesters anyway?"
"That"s not the point." She glared at me. "Can you even enroll in college yet? You look like you just got out of preschool."