Chapter 13
Thirteen
When I pull into my driveway, the outside lights and some inside lights are on, but my parents aren’t home yet.
Jay pulls up next to the curb and doesn’t turn off his car, but I consider my dog and realize she must have to pee, so I walk over to Jay.
He rolls his window down when he sees me approaching.
“Hey,” I say, “come in for a second. I have to take my dog out.”
He nods and rolls his window back up before shutting off his car. I lead him up my porch steps and unlock the door.
“Kevin!” I shout, listening for the jingling of her collar.
“Wait, Kevin is your dog?” Jay asks, then he shakes his head, a smile on his lips. “That makes so much more sense.”
“What?” Kevin comes bounding down the stairs and jumps on me, her paws reaching me mid-thigh, her little tail wagging like there’s no tomorrow. “Hi, Kevin! I missed you too. Oh, I know, you’re such a good dog!”
After I give her thorough attention, with excellent pats and head scratches, Kevin tentatively sniffs Jay.
“Hi, Kevin,” he greets, holding his hand out to her, and after a few sniffs she allows him to scratch her head.
She stands on her back legs to get closer to him, and I watch in amazement as she lets Jay pick her up and pet her.
She revels in the attention, which confuses the crap out of me.
She doesn’t even let Kalani do that and only occasionally tolerates Emi picking her up, so the fact that she asked Jay to pick her up and cuddle isn’t lost on me.
It must be because she was home alone for a couple hours so any human attention is desirable. It’s the only logical explanation.
Jay, for his part, is doing a great job; he’s cooing and petting Kevin like a seasoned professional. It makes me happy that apparently Jay’s a dog person.
“Who’s a good boy, Kevin? Who’s a good boy? You are! Yes, you are!” he says, and his warm attitude toward her throws me off almost as much as her letting him pick her up.
I slip off my heels. “You mean, who’s a good girl.”
He pauses, his eyebrows drawn together as he looks at me. “Kevin’s a girl?”
Like every time I hear the line, I cackle. “Yes, Kevin’s a girl.”
He tilts his head at me, then resumes petting Kevin. “Why did you name your female dog Kevin? And why is that funny?”
I laugh again, rummaging through the closet for some sneakers. “Have you ever watched the movie Up? The one with the house and the balloons? It came out when we were little kids.”
“Yes . . . ?”
“There’s a line in the movie where the kid, who named the giant bird Kevin, finds out she’s a mom, and he says, ‘Kevin’s a girl?’ and I thought it was the funniest thing ever, so I named my dog Kevin so I could hear everyone say that line over and over and over.”
He sets Kevin down when she squirms and looks at me, an amused smile on his lips. “You’re weird.”
“I was like ten, okay?” I laugh, even though he thought I was weird before I shared that story with him. I find my shoes and pull them out of the closet, setting them on the floor. “Be back in two seconds, just grabbing socks.”
With my heels in my hand, I sprint up the stairs and throw them in my closet, then slip on some socks. Then I pull the cork from my little piggy bank where I’ve been stuffing cash and count out how much I owe Jay before replacing the cork and jogging back downstairs.
“Thanks again, Jay, really,” I say, handing him the amount he texted me earlier. He really did save my butt back there. If I’d called my parents to come rescue me from being arrested for not paying for dinner, they would’ve lost it.
He nods once as he stuffs the money into his wallet, the only acknowledgment of his kind deed.
I hook Kevin up on her harness and leash, and Jay keeps me company as she does her business on the lawn. He waits for me as I clean up after her and give her a treat and kisses before locking the door again and leaving her to snooze.
“Where are we going?” I ask Jay as I settle into the passenger seat of his car. It’s clean inside and smells like him—spicy and fresh.
He starts the car and pulls away from the curb. “You’ll see.”
—
The drive is relatively short, but by the time Jay pulls into a deserted parking lot, I’m reconsidering agreeing to this.
“Am I about to get kidnapped?” I joke as I exit the car, glancing around the dark space at what seems like the back of an abandoned building.
He scoffs. “As if anyone would want to kidnap you. You’d annoy the shit out of them.”
I roll my eyes but smirk. “So what are we doing?”
“You’ll see. Let’s go.” He opens his trunk and switches his dress shoes for black sneakers. I’d hate to admit it, but that’s smart. I wish I thought about keeping runners in my trunk; it would’ve come in handy when we went to the cliff.
He closes his trunk and locks the car, leading me around the back of the building and down a path that leads to more buildings. There’s barely any light, and the wind is stronger than it was before. Jay catches me shivering.
“Why don’t you ever bring a jacket?” he mumbles, unbuttoning his nice jacket and holding it out to me as we walk. I stare at it like it’s sprouted limbs and walked over to me of its own accord.
He scowls and shakes it. “Are you going to take it or not?”
I don’t want to, but it’s cold out. “Yes, thank you.” I snatch it from his outstretched arms and wrap it around myself. It’s too big for me, but it’s warm from his body heat and smells like him. I ignore the tingles that run through my body at the realization.
This new feeling confuses me and makes me unsure of myself around him, so I stick to what we know, which is teasing each other. “I didn’t take you for a chivalrous kind of guy.”
“I’m not. You’re shivering, and that would make what we’re about to do difficult. I don’t want to get caught.”
I can’t tell if he’s joking or not. “Wh-what are we about to do?” And why can’t we get caught?
He smiles knowingly, stopping in front of a chain-link fence and pointing at a building on the other side. It’s the back of the building, and even though there’s barely any light to see, it looks old and like it’s falling apart.
“I don’t get it,” I say, and he sighs.
“We’re going to hop the fence.”
I balk. “What? Why?”
“To get to the other side?” He shakes his head at me like it was a stupid question.
“Yes, and why do we need to hop the fence to get to the other side? What’s there? What’s in the building? Why can’t we just walk in the front?”
Jay sighs and shoots me a questioning look. “Are you asking all these questions to distract me from the fact you can’t jump a fence?”
“Of course I can jump a fence!”
His lips quirk up as he bends a bit and holds out his cupped hands. “Then do you need a lift, or can you do it?”
I grumble and ignore his outstretched hands, instead turning to the fence.
I don’t know why we’re doing this or where we’re going, but apparently I’m going to do it just to prove a point to Jay.
I grab on as high as I can and shove my foot in the space between the wires, then hoist myself up.
I see now why Jay was adamant about wearing sneakers, but I’m still in a dress.
“Don’t look up!” I scold Jay, even though he’s not even trying to peek up my dress.
“Nothing I haven’t seen before,” Jay smugly replies. “And I already know you’re wearing a navy thong.”
I gasp, losing my footing and landing back on the ground.
“How did you know? You peeked!”
He chuckles. “I didn’t have to. Remember, I’m well-versed in your panty habits. Plus, you just confirmed it.” He ignores my glowering at him, since he has a point, and gestures to the fence. “Come on, Princess, we don’t have all night.”
“Fine.” I turn to the fence and hoist myself up again. “But it would help if you could be less . . . you.”
He laughs, scaling the fence in two seconds and landing gracefully on the other side.
“Show-off,” I mutter, still clutching the fence in the same spot.
“Any time now, Princess.”
“I’m coming!” I hiss, climbing as best I can and throwing my leg over the top. I hop off the fence once I’m close enough to the ground and steady myself, looking at Jay expectantly. “Well, we’re over the fence. Now what?”
“Come on,” he says, turning and heading toward the building at a quick pace.
It’s dark and windy and eerily silent—I don’t even hear any traffic. We’re in a creepy back alley going toward the deserted back entrance of a sketchy building. I wrap Jay’s jacket around me tighter and jog to catch up to him.
“Are you nervous?” Jay asks when I speed up to keep pace with him.
“No.” But I answer too fast, and Jay’s lips pull up in amusement. He knows the truth. He always sees right through me somehow.
“Fine. Only a little—not because I’m alone with you,” I add quickly. I don’t want his ego to get any bigger than it already is, thinking I’m nervous to be around him because he’s all hot and smart and funny. “But because this place is a little creepy.”
Jay looks around. “You think it’s creepy?”
We’re in the middle of nowhere. The building looks old and decaying, and the ones around it aren’t faring any better.
This is the exact setting a movie location scout would choose for a horror movie, or the place a real-life serial killer would choose to set up his lair.
I resist the urge to stand closer to Jay and ignore the fact that I feel safe with him.
“If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck . . .” I trail off before finishing the idiom.
Jay knocks on the heavy-looking back door with its peeling paint and then takes a step back. “Then there’s a good chance it’s just a very confused swan.”
The door opens, and a boy is standing there. I recognize him as Jay’s redheaded friend, Caleb. He’s in a security uniform.
“What’s going on?” I ask, looking between the two friends, who greet each other with a bro handshake-hug.
“Still a surprise,” Jay answers before addressing his friend. “Thanks again for doing this.”