28. Chapter 28
Erik
Erik: Are you busy?
I stare at my phone, waiting for Kylie to reply. It only takes a minute until the three dots appear, indicating she’s typing.
Kylie: Not particularly.
Erik: Fantastic. I’ll be there in 15.
Throwing on my jacket, I hurry to my car with a face-splitting smile. It might only have been a day, but I can’t wait to see her. And even less to finally take her on a proper date.
One could argue the autumn fair was our first date, but I refuse to accept it. She deserves a proper one. So I asked a buddy who knows more about stars than I do for the perfect spot to watch them and bought everything for a nice picnic.
The sky is clear today and it’s probably the last warm-ish day we will get this year, so it’s now or never. Well, now or in spring and I’d hate to wait until next year.
No idea how I got to her place, the entire ride I was picturing her reaction to the date I planned. I pull the bouquet I had Courtney make for her from my backseat and all but skip up the steps of her front porch.
My finger barely touches her doorbell when the door already flies open and she throws her arms around me.
“Hey, babe.” I chuckle and hug her back, then press a kiss to the top of her head. Then I take a deep breath and feel myself relax. “I’m very excited to see you too.”
“Good.” She squeezes me tighter. “That’s good.” Abby appears in the hallway and I break the hug so I can hold her present out of her dog’s reach. For a moment, she’s disappointed, then she sees the bouquet in my hand. “You got me flowers?” she asks in awe, disbelief written all over her face.
“Of course.” I hand them to her. “I made sure to tell Courtney to only use flowers that are okay with dogs. I remember Henry mentioning once how some are toxic.”
“Erik, this is so thoughtful.” Her eyes dart between me and the flowers.
And are they glassy? If flowers make her happy to the point she’s about to cry, I’ll get her more, every day, until she gets used to receiving them.
“Thank you. I love them.” She pulls me inside and rushes to the kitchen to find a vase.
“You can take off your shoes and jacket, you know.” I stay in her hallway and shake my head. “Nope. You go put on your shoes and jacket because we’re going out.”
“We are?” Her face lights up as she pulls a vase out of her cupboard. “Are we bringing Abby?”
I stare at her, confused as she fills it with water. Why wouldn’t we? “Of course we are.” The thought of leaving her here never even crossed my mind. “As long as she’s okay to drive on my backseat? If not we’ll have to take your car.”
“Sure.” Kylie puts the bouquet into the water. As she brushes past me, she stops to get on her tiptoes and give me a quick kiss. “Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.” I grin and trail after her. Abby is weaseling around our legs. Of course, she’d realize we’re going outside and demand to come along.
“I love surprises.”
I walk back outside, Abby following at my feet. Dry leaves crunch under my shoes. The trees around the lake are beginning to lose their red and golden colors to a dry orange.
“Do I need to bring anything?”
“Nope. Only yourself.” I open door to my backseat for Abby, then the passenger door for Kylie. She giggles as she climbs inside, cheeks flush as she watches me walk around the car and climb into the driver’s seat.
“So, more surprises.” I nod and make a mental note.
“You don’t have to—” She quickly backpedals, but it’s too late.
“Kylie.” I reach for her chin and turn her face to me. “Shut the hell up and say thank you.”
“Thank you,” she mumbles. As soon as I let her go, she pulls up her scarf to hide her red cheeks.
“So, how was your day?”
She lets out a deep sigh and relaxes into her seat.
“Exhausting. I have this one client who keeps changing his mind about timelines and tries to hit me with impossible turnarounds. I got to tell him off today, which was admittedly kind of fun. Oh, also…” I start the car.
“Gabriella recently did an anti-aging campaign that might be of interest to you.”
I glance at her as I pull out of her driveway, corners of my mouth twitching. “Are you telling me I look old?”
“What? No.” She giggles and lightly swats my upper arm. “No, no, no. But she found a guy who’s an expert at digitally aging up people. I asked her to get in touch with him. Can you send me an image of your mom and dad?”
“Sure, I can do that. Let me ask aunt Molly to send some over.” I make a mental note to message her as soon as we arrive so I won’t forget. “And then what?”
“Then this guy—sorry, I keep forgetting his name—can age Lilith’s image up pretty accurately. I know you had this done by a sketch artist, but I thought computer-made might be worth a try.”
Emotions burn in the back of my throat. “Thank you.” I can’t believe she’d go this far out of her way to help me find my sister. An endeavor that, by all means, is pretty unrealistic to begin with.
“That’s not even something you need to thank me for.” She rolls her eyes and lets out a sigh. “It’s, like, the least I can do.”
“No, it’s not. And you know it.” As we pull onto the highway, my hand frees up and I put it on her knee, rubbing gentle circles on it with my thumb until she stops it, only to lace her fingers with mine.
The sun sets in the distance, casting a golden glow over the red, yellow, and green forests we drive past.
It takes us half an hour to reach the spot my friend recommended and I’m loving every second of the drive. We talk about any and everything. My favorite book. Her favorite true crime documentary. Growing up in Wayward Hollow.
By the time we’re there, the sun has mostly disappeared behind mountains in the distance, only a hint of orange illuminating the sky.
“If it weren’t you with me, I’d get mad serial killer vibes,” Kylie whispers and stares at the off-road I’m pulling into. And she’d be wise to. The road consists of dried mud trails on the ground, leading through a thick forest.
“If I were a serial killer, I’d be smarter about it,” I promise her with a wink. She rolls her eyes.
The spot I pull into is not too far off the road. It’s a wide field atop a hill, so far up we can see for miles. Mainly treetops and mountains in the very distance.
Her stomach grumbles the moment I turn off the engine. “Shit, I should’ve brought a snack.”
“I’m way ahead of you,” I promise and get out. She climbs out of it before I can open the door for her, earning herself a playful glare.
“Hey, I’m not sitting around and waiting for you to walk around your car. I’m way too impatient, and you haven’t even told me what we’re doing here.”
“We’re having a picnic.” Her face lights up and she lets out the cutest giggle. “Come on, let Abby out of the car and I’ll get the food from the trunk.”
“Yay!” she squeals and opens the door for her dog. Meanwhile, I pull several blankets out of my trunk along with a backpack full of food containers.
“Come on, I can carry something.” She makes grabby hands. Knowing she wouldn’t accept an objection; I hand her one of the blankets, kissing the side of her head while I have her close.
She purses her lips and holds the blanket up. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. How about you go ahead and find a spot for us to set up at?”
“Okay.” Abby and her dart off. I watch them skip over the grass, pondering over the perfect spot.
Finally, they declare a space not too far from the car the winner and Kylie spreads out the blanket.
We can still see the car from there, but it’s also far enough away from the trees surrounding this free space so we can see the stars.
Both of them watch me expectantly as I make my way over with the food in tow.
“This is so cool,” Kylie declares and pats the blanket right next to her. Taking the hint, I sit down right there, our thighs touching.
“Thank you, Erik,” Kylie whispers once I’ve unpacked all of the food containers. There’s an assortment of pastries from Caleb’s, finger food I got from the supermarket and I got aunt Molly to bake me her famous pizza rolls for the occasion. She was all too happy to support my wooing endeavors.
Abby is running around the field, chasing invisible butterflies and clearly hasn’t noticed all the food on the blanket yet, or the can of dog food I brought for her.
“How did you get so into true crime?” I ask Kylie and open up the containers holding Molly’s pizza rolls.
“I had a lot of alone time.” Her smile turns sad.
“One evening I watched a documentary and got hooked. Though I have to say I’m not the biggest fan of this whole trend surrounding true crime.
” She waves a hand through the air and sighs.
“Documentaries are one thing, but I don’t know, gossipy kinds of podcasts or videos about those terrible people and their victims feel a little icky to me. ”
“There are gossipy podcasts about true crime?” My eyes widen. What a concept.
“Yep.”
I hold up a pizza roll for her and she bites into it. “I’m not sure what to think about that.”
“Trust me, it’s a can of worms you don’t want to open,” she says with a full mouth, then closes her eyes and lets out a groan and hits the blanket with her palm. “Fuck, this is delicious.”
“Thank you. I’ll tell Aunt Molly.”
“These are from your aunt?” Her eyes widen. “Damn, then tell her she’s a genius. Put it on thick, I want her to like me.”
“Sure. Speaking of,” I pull out my phone and shoot her a quick message asking for pictures of my mother and dad. Then I put it on silent and slide it right back into my pocket where it will remain for the rest of the evening.
We stay on the blanket, talking about anything. How she’s liking Wayward Hollow. How her ghost is doing. Her hobbies. I want to know everything about her. All her secrets, all her little quirks.
Today I learned she scrunches her nose adorably when she’s nervous and she loved learning about the stars as a child, yet doesn’t remember a single thing today.
The sun is now completely gone, and the sky is filled with more stars than I’ve ever seen at once.
At one point, Kylie nudges my knees apart and sits down between my legs, leaning against my chest and feeding me bits of pastry over her shoulder. I reach into my bag and put another blanket around her. Having a relatively warm day is one thing, but now, with the sun gone, it’s freezing.
“Is that the North Star?” She points east.
“No, it’s not.” I chuckle, pointing to the correct one.
Abby falls asleep on our legs while we continue to snack on Caleb’s pastries and watch the stars.
And then, once Kylie’s eyes keep fluttering closed and every second word is replaced with a yawn, I gather her and the food up and we make our way back to the car.
“Thank you, Erik,” she mumbles sleepily as we pull into her driveway. My heater is working on full power and she hides a yawn behind her hand. “It was the best date I’ve ever been on.”
“Likewise.” Before I let her out of the car, I run my fingers through her hair and gently pull her into a soft kiss. “I have an early shift tomorrow or I’d totally stay over.”
“Tomorrow?” she asks, and I nod.
“I’d love to. Hey, Kylie.”
“Yeah?”
“I still really, really like you, even when we’re not in bed together.”
Her lips pull into a tired grin. “I really, really like you too, Erik.” She gives me another kiss and then tears herself away from me to let Abby out.
I watch her, until she has unlocked her door and waves at me from the open doorframe, before I start the engine again and drive home.