Chapter Nine
Brady
We sped over the dark road as we headed back toward town, the warmth from dinner still lingering in the cab.
I glanced over at her, smiling at the memory of the two of us clearing the table after dinner and washing the dishes together like we’d done it a hundred times before.
At first, I washed and she dried. When I returned from gathering more dishes from the table, she’d taken over washing and I seamlessly assumed the role of drying. There was no debate, no resistance.
It felt like a dance where two people naturally match each other’s moves. Every once in a while she’d shot me a side look that had melted me clear to my core.
“Kelli’s food was actually really amazing,” I said because it felt too early to share how she was making me feel. “It was the best pot roast I’ve ever had. I wonder how Roy’s wife’s green chili stew is going to stack up.”
Elise laughed, the sound soft and genuine. “Is your new plan to eat your way around Basin Ridge?”
I grinned. “You know, as far as plans go, it’s not a bad one.”
Her eyes sparkled. “You might have to be careful though. You don’t want to go home not fitting in your pants.”
I caught the way her gaze lingered on me a second longer than it should have for someone driving, even dipping briefly lower before returning to my face. There was a steady sizzle in the air between us.
“They are getting tight.” My voice sounded choked. I’d meant it as a joke, but it had come out sounding more like a confession.
Yeah . . . this was confusing.
She’d said she wasn’t interested in dating me, but she was giving every signal that she was.
I tried to be careful, but I also wanted her to know that if she was into me, I was interested.
So I leaned into it a little. If she didn’t want to see me again, I’d respect that.
Still . . . for someone who claimed she didn’t want to be with me, she sure had spent a lot of the day with me.
Elise turned onto one of the side streets around the corner from where I’d left my car. It was a strange spot to stop.
She killed the engine and turned toward me. “Thank you for letting me tag along on what was really an interesting evening,” she said.
Her hair was messy from the wind; her shirt still bore a faint stain from Aaron’s enthusiastic grip.
“Aaron left his mark on you.” I nodded toward her chest.
She glanced down, then gave a small, self-deprecating smile. “I haven’t spent a lot of time around babies, but once you get past the ick factor, he was actually adorable.”
I laughed. That was exactly how I looked at little kids. And a lot of animals. And the elderly. Honestly, most people had a certain level of ick, but I was happier when I chose not to focus on it.
“Thank you for tonight. It felt good to sit around and talk about nothing.” She chewed her bottom lip before adding, “I don’t do that enough.”
“I have a sister like that,” I said. “Bella.”
For a split second she looked like she thought I might be insulting her.
“She’s brilliant,” I added. “And fierce. If there’s a problem in our family, she feels like it’s her duty to fix it, but that comes with a cost. Thankfully she met someone who understands her.”
“She’s the one who recently got married, correct?” Elise asked. “The one who eloped?”
I looked at her with appreciation. “You have a good memory. I don’t even remember telling you that.”
Her mouth opened and shut with a click.
I continued, “She married someone who is equally tense. Which you would think would make for an uncomfortably uptight partnership. But somehow they balance each other out. So maybe it’s like a negative plus a negative is a positive or is it a negative times a negative is a positive? I always get those two confused.”
Elise gave me a long look before saying, “Unfortunately a negative times a positive is still a negative.” She paused, her fingers tracing a small, repetitive circle on the leather of the steering wheel.
“Hold on, in this scenario are either of us a positive or negative?” She smiled.
“Which one would you want to be if we are?”
I let that sit for a second. Then I smiled. “All of this was a lot sexier in my head, and I’m trying to figure out how to spin this so I can get another kiss from you.”
Elise burst out with a laugh. “Is that where this was supposed to be going?”
I laughed too. “Only if you want it to.”
She tilted her head, eyes bright. The pause before she spoke had me holding my breath.
“There is a phenomenon where two signals are opposite in polarity—one goes up when one goes down. Individually they might look like noise or ‘nothing,’ but when combined they create a clear, perfect signal.” She shifted in her seat, leaning toward me enough that the scent of her perfume filled my senses.
The perfect signal.
Is that how she sees us?
She continued, “You’re viewing this through a reductive binary lens, but human dynamics aren’t logic gates.
It’s more like differential signaling. You have two polar opposite traces running in parallel as complementary signals.
Individually they’re just inverted voltages with no inherent ‘positive’ value, but when you run them through a differential amplifier, the common-mode noise is rejected and the SNR spikes. ”
I had no idea what she was talking about.
And that was hot.
“That opposition is exactly what makes the data viable,” she finished.
“Sorry?”
She smiled faintly. “In high-speed data, we send two opposite signals at the same time. On their own, they’re just mirror images of chaos.
But when they hit the receiver together, their oppositeness is what cancels out the background noise.
They have to be opposites to work. If they were both ‘positive,’ the whole system would crash from the interference. ”
I leaned over and cupped the side of her face. Her skin was cool, a sharp contrast to the heat rising in my chest. “If this is your way of saying that people don’t have to be the same to be compatible, I agree.” And for her I would go home and google the shit out of differential amplifiers.
She ran her tongue across her bottom lip. “That’s essentially what I’m saying.”
“Do you want to test this theory?”
Her chest began to rise and fall. Her eyes darkened.
“Yes.”
I kissed her slowly at first, giving her every opportunity to change her mind.
She didn’t.
Her fingers curled into my shirt, bunching the fabric, and that was it. Not slow anymore. She melted into me, her body softening against mine as the kiss turned heavy and urgent. There was a desperate edge to her, like she was finally letting go of all that calculation.
I pulled back only because I knew if I didn’t, I wouldn’t stop. And I didn’t want to rush this.
“I want to see you tomorrow,” I said, my voice rough.
“Okay.”
“How do you feel about going to the senior center with me and learning to play Scat?”
She blinked. “You’re inviting me to a senior center?”
“It’s surprisingly fun there. And you’d like the group. They’re hilarious. Just don’t sit next to Kara if you can help it. Although she is very friendly.”
“You’re serious?”
I hesitated.
I could take her anywhere. A cliff-side villa in Sardinia. A yacht cutting through the Aegean at sunset. Something cinematic.
The people in my father’s social circle did that. Led with spectacle. Measured an event by how many people envied it.
My grandparents were known to say that Hollistons cultivated friendships with the same discernment one uses when cultivating a garden. One doesn’t plant flowers they purchased from Home Depot next to heritage roses.
My grandparents were difficult to love.
And, I suspected, they were part of the reason my father spent the last few decades trying to outdo Cody Burke. Bigger donations. Bigger deals. Bigger houses.
All for appearances.
And for what? Who did it serve?
My mother had never been accepted into my father’s world. No matter how elegant she was. No matter how hard she tried. He should have chosen her over everyone else, but he didn’t. Ultimately it was why she left him.
I’d witnessed up close how little money mattered to him when it was all that mattered.
How people’s feelings came second to keeping up appearances.
I didn’t want to impress Elise; I wanted to help her build the connections I was sensing she was craving.
Would they accept her?
Why wouldn’t they? She was remarkable. Intelligent. Beautiful. And something told me she’d take the game seriously enough to win them over. “They play for quarters.”
Her smile grew, slow and real. “Okay, I’ll meet you there. What time?”
“Seven. So . . . it’s a date?”
“That depends on what agreeing it is would signify.”
“Tomorrow night? It determines who’s bringing the rolls of quarters. I’d like to.”
She studied me for a moment.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
She nodded. “Then it’s a date.”
I kissed her once more, slowly, tenderly, until we were both more than a little flustered. “I feel like I should walk you to your door,” I murmured.
“My apartment is on the other side of town.”
I inhaled, trying to calm my breathing. “Another time.”
“Yes,” she answered softly.
I exited the car. Floated out, really. She waved and drove away, the taillights of her car fading into the dark.
I’d like to say I was too cool to stand there grinning like a smitten teenager, watching until she disappeared from view.
But I’d be lying.