6. Boone
Chapter Six
BOONE
I step outside and make a quick call to my contractor to tell him that I need to reschedule our meeting. When I head back into the nursing home, I see the class is already set up and ready to go.
The seniors are seated at a series of little folding tables, all kinds of frostings and candies and sprinkles laid out where they can easily reach. Doris and Eileen sit at a table, with Caroline sitting across from them.
As they catch sight of me, the two elderly women wave me over excitedly. They point at the empty seat across the table from them.
The one right next to Caroline.
"Saved you a spot with us," Eileen says. "Come on, Boone. The class is just about to start."
They pick up the bare cookies from the plate in the middle of the table and start piping frosting without a care in the world. Green and red frosting are smeared across the cookies in their hands, and sprinkles are thrown almost haphazardly.
Caroline grabs one of the cookies shaped like a snowflake and reaches for the white frosting. I grab a cookie, too, one of the bell-shaped ones. But I feel almost dazed. Like the hands holding the cookie in front of me aren't even mine.
After a moment, Caroline taps me on the shoulder.
"You okay, Boone?" she asks sweetly.
I set the cookie down on my plate. "Of course," I say. "I'm just… thinking about what I want to do."
"A real thinker, isn't he?" Doris says. She and Eileen giggle again as they look me up and down. "Real quiet, too. What a catch."
Even though she blushes furiously, Caroline turns to me again. "I can help you if you want," she says. "Just let me know if you need anything."
"I could definitely use a lesson from a pro like you. Mind showing me how to use this frosting?" I say with a grin.
Her cheeks turn even redder, but there's a playful sparkle in her eyes that tells me she's up for the challenge.
"Sure," she says, reaching across the table to grab the piping bag for me.
As the two of us start to work on our cookies, Doris and Eileen gossip to each other. They talk about all kinds of things I don't know anything about. Other people living at the home, the delivery man that comes by every once in a while, and even the pool boy they had last summer.
And while they talk, Caroline sits next to me, focused on her work.
Finally, without pulling her eyes away from what she's doing, Caroline says, "So, I've been thinking about our conversation in the car this morning. About your shop." She says this quietly, like she doesn't want to interrupt the two elderly women across from us. Or like she doesn't want them to overhear.
I reach over for the piping bag of red frosting and start to pipe some details with it, my hands shaking slightly. I'm not built for this kind of work. Not like she is.
"Oh yeah? What have you been thinking about?"
"I guess I just wanted to know more about…." She pauses like she's struggling to find the right words. "You talked about how you can tell I'm passionate about my art. And I realized that you haven't really talked about your passions."
I swallow hard. "My passion?"
When I ask the question, Caroline blushes furiously. "For cars. What made you decide to be a mechanic?"
I pause my work on the cookie to think about it.
"I've always liked cars. Growing up, I lived down the road from a junkyard. My brother, Paul, and I would walk down there after school and look at the new cars they brought in. I always liked figuring out how they worked. Cars were a good distraction back then. I liked working with things that I could understand. In a car's engine, everything makes sense. Every piece has a purpose."
Out of the corner of my eye, I see her nod. "Why are you opening a shop now?"
I chuckle at her question. "You mean, why was I in the military for so long if my real passion was for cars?"
Caroline grins. "Yes, I guess that was my real question."
"Well, I guess I'm just like you. Other, steadier work got in the way of my passion."
Another blush touches Caroline's cheeks, but she doesn't duck away this time. Instead, she frowns slightly.
"But why make the big switch now?"
"Because I realized I'd spent more than half my life in the Marines. And as great as it was, work like that eats you away over time. The longer you're in, the harder it is to get out."
Her eyes drift downward, and she nods, understanding exactly what I mean.
"Besides, it was time for a change. Sometimes change can be good," I continue.
But this only brings her frown back.
"You really think so?" Caroline asks. "After all the drama you've dealt with just trying to put your shop together?"
"I do."
Caroline looks away from me and twists the hem of her sweater between her fingers.
"I don't know," she replies. "Sometimes I think it's better not to take risks. If you never put yourself out there, you'll never get hurt."
My heart aches again. I understand where she's coming from. Life has a way of dealing harsh blows when you least expect them.
"I guess that's true," I say gently. "And you're right, not taking risks means you won't get hurt. But it also means you might miss out on a whole lot of wonderful things."
After almost fifteen minutes have passed, I finish my bell-shaped cookie. It's a bit rough, and the sprinkles didn't really land where I thought they would. But I still think it has its charms.
Then I turn to look at Caroline's plate. I shouldn't be surprised that she's so good at all this after seeing everything else she can do. But still, I stare down at her plate in awe.
In the time it took me to make a whole cookie, she's made five, each of them more beautiful than the next.
There's a snowflake cookie with white frosting and little white edible pearls at each joint. There are two bell cookies, and a mistletoe cookie frosted perfectly. And for all of them, she's used sanding sugar as shading and powdered sugar as snow.
And in her hands is one of the few reindeer cookies, which also looks amazing. Somehow, she mixed together the white and the chocolate frostings to make the perfect shades of brown for the fur and antlers. And while I watch her, she's carefully placing a little red candy where the nose should be.
When she gets it just right, she stops to smile proudly at her work. And I watch her face. The beautiful grin she gets when she knows she's done a good job.
"That's amazing, Caroline," I tell her, making Doris and Eileen stop their conversation to look at it too.
"It definitely is," Eileen agrees.
"Though I'm not surprised," Doris says. "After all, art is in Caroline's blood."
Turning to smile at Caroline beside me, I say, "Yes. It definitely is."
Shyly, she smiles back. My stomach twists into knots inside me again. My eyes drift down to her lips for a moment, as pink and soft-looking as spring petals.
I press my own lips together, imagining, despite my better judgment, what it would feel like having hers against them.
As Eileen and Doris go back to talking and decorating, Caroline nods to the bell cookie in my hands.
"Your cookie looks good, too, Boone."
I chuckle. "Don't flatter me, baby," I say, setting the cookie down on another plate to dry. "I'm not really made for this stuff. Not like you."
Looking back down at the cookie in her hands, she turns it from side to side. Like she's analyzing it. After a moment, she gazes around at the other items on the table.
Pointing to a small jar of black and white sprinkles, she asks, "Could you pass those to me? I think this little guy needs eyes."
"Of course," I say and immediately reach for it.
As I hand the jar to her, I feel something warm and slightly slick touch my finger. Once she's pulled the jar away, I turn my hand to see what it is. A little glob of chocolate frosting has been smeared across my pinky where her hand touched mine.
She blushes again when she sees it. "Oh my gosh," she says. "I'm so sorry, Boone."
But before she can grab a napkin for me, I bring my finger up to my mouth and lick the frosting off.
For a moment, she stares at me like she's surprised I've done this. But then she breaks out into laughter. It's a wonderful, tinkling sound, interrupted by the occasional snort from her nose.
But before I can get the first word out, Maggie appears next to our table.
Leaning over Caroline's shoulder, she says, "Hey, Caroline? Could I have your help with something? There's another batch of cookies in the kitchen, but I need to stay and watch everyone. Would you mind…?"
She lets the question trail off, but Caroline fills in the blank.
Standing so quickly that her thighs bump into the table, Caroline says, "Of course, Maggie. I'll be right back."
A few seconds later, Caroline walks back into the room. She balances a large tray of fresh cookies in her hands for a moment before Maggie clears some space on another table for her to set it down.
Now that she's back in the room, I can't take my eyes off her.
As Maggie accidentally knocks a spare jar of sprinkles onto the floor, the two women laugh playfully.
I watch as Caroline bends down to pick up the jar, my eyes floating upward to the curves of her hips as they strain against her jeans. Something stirs within me, a feeling I haven't felt in a long, long time. A kind of craving I forgot I knew how to feel.
I'm so in love with this woman.
I've never met anyone like her. No other woman has had her same focus, her same grace, her same kindness. No other woman has had a body like hers either. Those eyes that distract me. Those curves that dominate my mind.
And hopefully, one day soon, she'll feel the same about me.
I know this must be so hard for her. The loss of her husband, the guilt of moving on. But I can't help but want to be by her side through it all. To hold her and support her.
I'll keep trying, keep showing her that she's not alone in this world. That there are people who care about her and want her to be happy. And maybe, if I'm lucky, she'll see that in me too.
I'm so energized, so enthralled, that I could stand from this table right now and walk over to her. I could take her into my arms and hold her against my chest again. Whispering to her everything that I feel.
I could tell her how beautiful she is. Tell her everything I want to do to her. Tell her about the way my body secretly craves hers. I could lift her off her feet and pull her closer to me. I could let the world disappear around the two of us. I could lean my head to hers, the smell of her filling my nose and driving me into a frenzy.
And then I could kiss her. I could put my lips to hers and taste her, breathe in her scent through my hungering mouth. I bet she tastes even sweeter than the frosting on my finger.
What would she do if I kissed her like this? Would she stop whatever happened next?
And then I realize that she's looking at me. I fall out of the daydream again, staring back into those burning chocolate eyes. Feeling my thighs growing warm. Aching to feel her body against me again.
How much longer can I resist her?
The sun is setting as we drive back from the nursing home, casting long shadows across the road.
Our trip was a success. And now the car is filled with a comfortable silence, the radio playing softly in the background.
I glance over at Caroline, her profile lit up by the fading sunlight. She's beautiful, her brown hair glowing against the sunset like a halo.
I feel a warmth spread through me, contentment settling in my bones.
"If you could have any type of car, what would it be?" I ask, breaking the silence.
She looks at me, a bit surprised. "Oh, I like my Buick just fine, Boone."
"I know you do," I reply with a chuckle. "I'm just saying, if you got a new car, what would you want?"
She giggles then, a sweet sound that sends a jolt of affection through me. "Hmm... let me think."
After a moment, she turns to me, a twinkle in her eyes. "I think I'd like a baby blue pickup truck."
"A pickup truck, huh?" I laugh, raising an eyebrow at her. "You planning on hauling something?"
She rolls her eyes playfully. "No, silly. I always liked the idea of riding around in a big, sturdy vehicle. Plus, the color is cute."
"Got it. A cute, baby blue pickup truck. I'll keep that in mind."
"In mind for what?"
"Nothing," I reply with a grin, refusing to give anything away.
As we pull up to her house, I put the car in park but don't move to get out.
"I've got a few errands to run, sweetheart. But I promise I'll be back before dinner."
She nods, a soft smile on her face. Leaning across the center console, I press a kiss to her lips, savoring the sweetness of the moment.
Pulling away, I watch as she steps out of the car, her figure bathed in the soft glow of the porch light.
And then she's gone, leaving me alone with my thoughts and the promise of another evening spent with the woman I'm falling for.