34. Conversation Hearts
thirty-four
Conversation Hearts
“ H ow is it that we’re the ones sitting alone baking cookies on Valentine’s day while Taryn has a date?” Jasmine leans across the counter, reaches into the mixing bowl, then licks a generous glob of cookie dough off her finger.
“At least New Year’s Eve worked out for one of us.” I reach for the beaters and take a glob for myself.
“Taryn and Ryder Hill, who would have guessed?” Jasmine says.
I lift the beaters off the bowl. “Me. She’s had a thing for him since grade school.”
Jasmine looks offended, or maybe just shocked that she’s not privy to every detail of Taryn’s life. “Really? And you guys never let me in on that secret?”
After everything that’s happened, I can’t tell her that Taryn was worried that Jasmine would have gone after Ryder if she’d known.
Jasmine reaches for the bowl. “Should we just eat it straight out of the bowl?”
I stare at the thick, creamy dough, thinking of the miles and miles it will take to work off that many calories. “Let’s at least roll out a few. I’ll do it while you’re picking out the movie, the sappier the better.”
“Got it.” Jaz starts flipping through our DVD collection while I cover the counter with flour.
The first batch is cooling and I’m up to my elbows in dough when someone knocks.
“Come in Prince Charming,” Jaz yells at the door. “There are a couple of damsels in here who need rescuing.”
“Really?” One word and my heart skips a beat.
The voice belongs to Jacob. I haven’t seen him since his brothers left.
“Not sure if I fit the job description, but I guess I’m an okay stand in.
” He walks in and hands Jasmine a package of Kisses and a bouquet of roses.
“A dozen red and one white.” He pulls the white one out of the center and hands it to me. “Gage’s order was pretty specific.”
“What a charmer.” I turn to Jasmine. “When did you start talking to Gage again?”
Jasmine leans in and smells the flowers. A smile plays across her lips. “A couple of weeks ago. We have an understanding.”
I roll my eyes. “Of course.”
“And this is from me.” Jacob hands me a box of conversation hearts. “I remember how much you liked these when you were a little kid.”
“Thanks. You shouldn’t have.” I bat my eyes and then set the box on the counter. “Excuse the disaster, we’re making cookies.”
He surveys the mess on the counter. “Who are you making them for?”
“Us.” Jasmine looks up from the card attached to the roses. She’s glowing, or maybe blushing. Whatever Gage wrote, she's cheered up immensely.
“You’re going to eat all of these yourselves?” Jacob asks.
I look over a mound of dough. “Maybe not all by ourselves. You can take some with you back to base.”
“So what have you been up to, kid?” Jacob helps himself to a piece of dough.
I slap his hand. “You can’t call me that anymore. I’m an adult now.”
“Wow, you mean you reached the big one-eight. You’re officially all grown-up.” I know he’s mocking me, but it feels good to be back where we were, back to casual teasing. No mention of Nate or what happened on Christmas Eve.
“Yep, January 28th. You missed it.”
“Sorry about that. I was doing some training in Spokane.” His revelation makes me feel better. Maybe he hasn’t completely been avoiding me for the last month and half.
He samples one of the freshly baked cookies. “These are pretty good. Not poisonous at all.”
I give him a wicked grin. “Yeah, well, we didn’t know we were making them for you.”
“That reminds me, you still owe me breakfast in bed,” he says.
Jasmine gives me a look, but I’m not about to explain that now.
“And you still owe me an oil change, but it would probably be pointless. I think The Nag is finally ready for the glue factory.”
“It’s not running again?” Jacob shakes his head. “What do you do to that car?”
“She’s an old beast,” I defend myself. “It doesn’t take much to slow her down.”
“Maybe you should give her to me. I know how to treat a classy lady like The Nag,” he finishes his cookie.
“You could give me your car. I’d be willing to go for a straight across trade.”
“Way too much power for you, little girl,” he dips his finger in the flour canister and draws a white line down my nose.
“I told you. I’m not a little girl anymore.” I reach into the canister and get the tiniest pinch of flour. I hesitate for a few seconds and then I sprinkle it on top of his head.
He sneezes and looks at me in disbelief. “You did not just do that.”
I start to back away from him. “Sorry, my hand just slipped.”
He grabs me around the waist with one arm and reaches into the flour with the other.
He puts a big handful on top of my head.
A cloud of white dust settles over me. The flour starts to trickle down my back and onto my face.
I cough, then shake my head. Flour flies into his face.
He grabs another handful. I duck and it catches Jasmine full in the face.
She screams, “What the–”
Suddenly flour is flying all over the kitchen. The whole room is enveloped in white powder. We don’t stop until we’re completely blanketed with flour, choking on flour dust, and the kitchen looks like a blizzard hit. I can’t believe how far a little bit of flour has gone.
I survey the disaster. “Mom is going to kill me.”
“You already look like a ghost,” Jacob pats my back and a puff of white comes up.
I pat Jacob on his head. “And you look like you’re ready for the nursing home, old man. Your hair is totally white.”
“We’d better start cleaning this up,” he says.
“Did I mention I have a date?” Jasmine says.
“Yeah, let me introduce you to your perfect match.” Jacob hands her the broom.
“Exactly who I wanted to spend tonight with, thanks.” She accepts the broom and kisses it.
It takes a vacuum, a feather duster, a broom, and more than an hour to get the flour cleaned up. Even then I’m sure we’re going to find flour in some odd place months from now.
Once we're finished Jacob reaches for a cookie. “So are you still teaching kick-boxing at the community center?”
“Actually, now that I’m eighteen I can teach at a club in town. The pay is a little better and it’s closer to home. But I only teach one class of kickboxing. Somehow they talked me into teaching an early-morning spin class.”
“Spin, that’s stationary bicycling right?”
“Yep,” I answer.
“So that should be pretty tame, just you and a bunch of old ladies?”
“No way,” Jasmine says. “It’s totally a kick-butt class. I’ve never been in a class where I sweat so much.”
“Oh c’mon how hard can it be to sit down and go nowhere?” Jacob challenges. “You guys should try PT sometime.”
“There are actually some guys from base who take the class." I lean against the counter. “They don’t act like it’s all that easy.”
“Old officers who spend all day behind a desk,” Jacob helps himself to another cookie.
“No, young guys too.” I reach over and take Jacob’s third cookie away from him and take a bite. “I’d like to see you try it.”
He raises his eyebrows. “Is that a challenge?”
“Take it however you want." I turn around to take another batch of cookies out of the oven. "But in case you do decide to take it as a challenge, the class is at 5:45 AM, Tuesday and Thursday. Fifth Avenue Fitness, on you guessed it, Fifth Avenue”.
“I’ll think about it.” He looks at his watch. “I need to get going.”
Jasmine wraps up a plate of cookies and hands it to him.
“5:45. A. M.” I remind him.
“We’ll see,” he says. “Thanks for the cookies.”
“He has a date.” I say as soon I hear Jacob’s car start in the driveway.
“Maybe,” Jaz says, stealing one of my conversation hearts.
“He only came by to bring you flowers from Gage.”
“Maybe.” Jasmine stares at the heart.
“I’m starting to think you and Gage are conspiring against us.”
“Maybe.” Jasmine says again, clearly avoiding the question. “What do you think ‘y re et’ means?”
“You’re sweet,” I answer.
“Why thank you.” She pops it in her mouth. “He drove all the way out here, on Valentine's Day. Does it really matter why he came? He could have just had the flowers delivered.”
I consider what she's saying, but then shake it off. At least Jacob and I are back on speaking terms. That might be the most I can hope for right now. “I’m not getting my hopes up again.” I tell Jasmine.
“I wouldn’t want you to.” She shakes three hearts out into my hand.
I read them one by one. “My guy,” “first kiss,” and "second chance." I close my eyes, put them in my mouth and wish the candies had the magic power I thought they did when I was a little girl.