Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Blaise
NOW
I watch his taillights until his vehicle disappears from view. Did that really happen? Did he say he might like to go out with me if we weren’t mired in a potential criminal case together? He did, and it’s truly flattering. Houston is a great guy, and I genuinely like and appreciate him, but there’s no crackle with him like there is with Jack.
Speak of the devil. He comes out of the house with Fenway on a leash.
“I wondered if you owned shoes,” I tell him when I notice he’s wearing an old pair of sneakers.
“Hardy har har. I prefer to be au natural. You should be thankful I wear clothes. To hear my mother tell it, I was naked until I was five.”
“That could turn up in a Yelp review.”
“Which is why I’ve become such a bore in my old age. What’s cute as a five-year-old is apparently weird thirty years later.”
“Truer words were never spoken.”
“My best girl and I were about to go on a romp. Would you like to join us?”
“What do these romps entail?”
“Trails, sticks, mud, various decomposing animals. Whatever comes our way. We play it by ear.”
“Mud and decomposing animals, huh?”
He shrugs as he grins. “What can I say? My girl is unpredictable.”
“I’d love to go. Can I have five minutes to change?”
“Take ten. We’re in no rush.”
“I’ll be right out.” I quickly change into jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt and put my hair up in a ponytail. I slide my phone into a back pocket and grab my zip-up sweat shirt and sunglasses on the way out the door wearing my sneakers.
“That was quick.” Jack has been entertaining Fenway with the tennis ball while they waited for me.
She runs over to greet me like she hasn’t seen me in years.
“Down, girl. Don’t get Blaise dirty.”
I bend to give Fenway my attention and am rewarded with a wet lick that goes from chin to forehead in a flash and makes me laugh as I sputter.
Jack clips the leash on her and tugs her away from me. “If you laugh, you encourage her naughtiness.”
“I can’t help but laugh. She’s funny.”
“This is why she’s a mess. Everyone thinks that. Speaking of her getting you dirty, if you need to do laundry, you’re welcome to the washer and dryer at my house.”
“Thanks. I might need it after mud and decomposing animal day.”
Smiling, he leads me to an old white truck with a red stripe on the side that’s been lovingly restored. “This was my dad’s first and only truck. It’s almost fifty years old and still purrs like a kitten.” He holds the passenger door for Fenway and me. “You’re in her usual seat, and she moved to the middle without a qualm. She must like you.”
“I’m easier to lick when I’m sitting next to her.”
“That’s also true.”
“Where’re we going?”
“To a trail that ends at the beach. It’s her favorite.”
“Do you mind if I put the window down? It’s so nice.”
“Make yourself at home with me, Blaise.”
What a nice thing for him to say. “Thanks.”
“I love your name by the way. I’ve never known anyone with that name.”
“My mom wanted names that no one else had—Teagan, Arlo, Blaise and Juniper.”
“I like them all.”
“We didn’t when we were kids. I wanted to be Emily or Brooke like all the other girls.”
“Blaise is unique and special.”
“Until the boys start calling you Ablaze in fifth grade because you have red hair and that name.”
He rolls his lips together as if he’s trying not to laugh.
“It’s not funny!”
“It’s kinda funny.”
“Not even. They also called me Fire Ant, Fireball, Hot Pants and anything else they could think of to make me aware that my name was weird.”
“It’s beautiful, and it suits you.”
Is he saying he thinks I’m beautiful? And what if he is? I’d be okay with that.
“No work today?” I ask, eager to stop talking about myself.
“I got it in earlier. I try to quit early on nice days like this, especially when it’s about to get nasty for a bunch of months.”
“I hate the winter.”
“I don’t mind it. Gives us an excuse to chill out and do nothing after the frantic pace of the summer. My mom used to call it Crock-Pot season.”
“I like that.”
“She’d say it was time to get cozy, light the fire and watch football.”
“Sounds a lot more pleasant than winter in the city.”
“That’s gotta be a drag.”
“It really is. We walk everywhere, and there’s no way to stay warm and dry when you’re slogging through slush and ice and snow that turns black within a day. And then you add the trash piled up on the sidewalks on pickup day and the cars that fly by spraying you with ice water, and it’s a real treat.”
“What keeps you there?”
“I work in theater, and that’s the hub.”
“What do you do?”
“I manage Wendall Brooks, who’s starring in Grey Matter right now.”
“My friend saw that in New York. She loved it.”
“It’s a great show. Everyone loves it.”
“Is it a fun job?”
“It should be, but Wendall is a bit insufferable. He takes the fun out of it with his endless demands.”
“How’s he getting by without you?”
“I’m still keeping him organized and on schedule from here, but I can’t deny it’s nice to have a break from dealing with him in person every day.”
“Sounds like it would be. What’d you tell him about why you’re here?”
“I said it was a family emergency, and he shocked me by saying family comes first. I didn’t expect that at all.”
“Did you study theater in college?”
“Yep. I graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a bachelor’s degree in performance.”
“Did you do any acting?”
“Quite a bit, actually. It was one of the ways I survived, by losing myself in other people’s stories so I could be free of my own for a while. But I got tired of barely making the rent, so when I had the opportunity to work for Wendall, I grabbed it thinking it would solve all my problems. Instead, it created new ones.”
He pulls into a dirt parking lot and shuts off the truck.
When we get out, Fenway follows me. I grab her leash.
“Hey, so guess what?” he says as we head for the trail.
“What?”
“We both graduated from art school.”
“So we did.”
“And we’re both making a living at it despite a million people telling us we’d starve to death if we pursued these careers.”
“I’m barely scraping by on what I make.”
“Still… You’re in the game, and that’s more than a lot of our fellow grads can say.”
“I suppose.”
“What would you do if you could do anything you want?”
“I think about that a lot, but I don’t really know. I still haven’t found the thing that makes me excited to get up and go to work every day. That’s been sorely missing in the years I’ve worked for Wendall. He drives me nuts.”
“So why don’t you quit and find something that makes you happy?”
“Says the guy with crazy-ass talent who can do whatever he wants.”
“You think my talent is crazy ass?”
I nudge my shoulder into him and nearly knock him over, which makes us laugh like little kids. We’re holding each other up as Fenway gives us a puzzled look while we try to pull ourselves together.
Jack brushes himself off dramatically. “Didn’t see that coming.”
I can’t stop laughing. “I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t tell me one of your nicknames is Bruiser.” He quirks a brow. “Did you play football?”
“Not once in my whole life.”
“Whatever you say.”
He takes my hand smoothly and casually, as if it’s not the biggest of deals. It’s a thrill to hold hands with a handsome, funny guy on a gorgeous trail that’s popping with fall color as Fenway dashes ahead of us. She returns every minute or two to make sure we’re still there.
“I can see why it’s safe to let her off the leash.”
“She wants me in her sight at all times. The second she realizes she can’t see me she comes running back. She’s chipped and air tagged, just in case.”
“Good call.”
“I’d go mad if I couldn’t find her.”
“I would, too, and I’ve only known her a few days.”
As promised, the trail ends at a sandy beach.
Fenway goes crazy when she sees the water and takes off in a sprint.
“Did I mention she’s wet on the ride home?”
“I don’t think you did.”
“Thus the laundry offer,” he says with an irresistible little grin. “She loves it here so much that she entertains herself, splashing and chasing the gulls.” He leads me to a log on the sand. “Have a seat to watch the Fenway Show.”
It’s the best show I’ve seen in a long time, especially when she comes over to check in with us and then takes off to continue her performance.
“This is fun. Thanks for asking me to come.”
“It’s much more fun with you along.”
“A girl could get used to being with a nice guy like you.”
“Could she? That’d be awesome.”
“Things are about to get very weird for me.”
“I know.”
“A smart man would keep his distance from that.”
He slips an arm around me and kisses my temple. “I guess I’m not as smart as I thought I was.”
“That’s a pretty big statement to make.”
“Is it?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, let me make an even bigger one then. I like you. My dog likes you, which is really the most important thing. We want to spend as much time with you as we can, and we want to offer our support during this difficult time.”
I turn to look at him and he sneaks in a sweet kiss I don’t see coming. My hand rises to his face, and I lean into the kiss, which goes from sweet to sizzling in a matter of seconds.
We’re interrupted abruptly when wet, stinky Fenway crashes into us, nearly sending us backward off the log.
Jack manages to keep us from falling as we fend off the dog’s wild tongue. “For crying out loud, Fenway!”
She plops her butt down and smiles as she pants, clearly pleased with herself as she now has our full attention.
“Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be. She’s so funny.”
“No, she isn’t.”
“Yes, she is.”
Fenway barks, wanting in on the debate, and we laugh at her shamelessness.
“This is why she’s unmanageable,” Jack says. “She uses her cuteness to get away with murder.” He takes my hand and helps me up to walk the length of the beach with Fenway leading the way before we head back to the trail.
As we ride home with the windows down, I realize this has been the nicest afternoon of my adult life. I decide to tell him that.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
“Everything is more enjoyable when you’re not harboring a hideous secret.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Even knowing the shit could hit the fan at any second isn’t as bad as the secret was. I wonder all the time about how my life might’ve been different if I’d done the right thing then. Maybe everyone would’ve hated me, but I wouldn’t have had to carry a thousand-pound weight around with me.”
“Having everyone hate you doesn’t look as terrible now as it would’ve been then. Who knows what kind of damage that would’ve done, you know?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“It was a no-win situation for you no matter what you did. Still is. But you’re doing the right thing regardless of what it might cost you. That’s admirable.”
I’m still not ready to take praise for what I’m doing. Maybe someday I’ll get there, but that won’t happen today.
After a quiet minute, he says, “You want to grab some dinner?”
“What’re you thinking?”
“I know a place out at the point with great food. An old friend of mine is the owner.”
“Would it be a date?”
“Something like that.”
“I’d love to.”