Chapter 29 So Hard To Read
SO HARD TO READ
“Are you nervous?” Meredith asked Clay on Sunday afternoon.
“Hardly.”
They were driving to her parents’ house in Glens Falls.
He was driving. She thought he was joking about her driving ability but learned that wasn’t the case.
“Does anything make you nervous anymore? I’m sure you were in your past in the Navy.”
“I was but learned not to be. Nerves can impede your performance.”
“Something tells me that not much got in your way.”
Just like he was doing a good job of staying out of her way.
She didn’t know what she expected after their first weekend together.
Maybe that he’d talk to her more. Say hi. Call.
They texted a few times at night. It was all about checking in on her safety, not like a boyfriend asking about her day.
She was probably getting ahead of herself thinking that what they had was more than it was.
And it was driving her nuts.
All her thoughts were on Clay when she wasn’t at work.
Every time she went to do something, she’d find she’d already done it, but couldn’t remember actually performing the task.
First it was the dishwasher when she returned from her weekend with Clay.
Earlier this week, when she went to restock her kitchen and bathroom with her paper products like she did every few weeks, it was all full.
She scratched her head and laughed. Guess she was walking through life in a daze thinking of the hot guy next to her more than she should be.
Her home life was being done on automatic as if driving home from work and not remembering the cars she’d passed, just knowing she had.
She’d bet anything he wasn’t doing the same.
Which of course was a bummer since it always seemed as if she ended up with guys that didn’t think of her the way she did of them.
The last thing she’d do was admit that to him. It’d just give him another fault to look out for.
“You’re getting in my way,” he said.
She turned to look at him. Was he joking or serious?
His eyes said it was a joke. His firm lips said he was serious.
He was so hard to read.
“Why do you do that to me?”
“Do what?”
“Keep me guessing what might be on your mind.”
“I’m guessing all the time what is on your mind,” he said.
“All you have to do is ask me.”
“I could say the same.”
“Then ask,” he said.
“Maybe I don’t want to know the answer.”
“And you say I’m the confusing one.”
“I know. I’m nervous about today.”
“That is what I thought. Why? It’s your parents.”
“Because I don’t know what they will say and I don’t want what we’ve got to slow down,” she said.
Her mother was liable to bring up the shit with Fredrick. Which would just remind Clay what an idiot she’d been to stay with the guy, then to be petty and do what she had in her tiny form of revenge.
“It won’t slow down,” he said. “Unless you want it to.”
“I don’t. I’m worried you will.”
“I’m fine,” he said.
But she didn’t always believe it.
He rarely talked much. Though he had been more.
She’d spent Friday and Saturday night with him. Friday was wonderful. Well, the sex was always fabulous.
After she’d cooked dinner for him, they talked some about the event he had in the barn yesterday. It wasn’t anything she was part of, but she offered to help.
He hemmed a bit and she decided to not get in the way and went back home to do a few things and run errands. He came later, they had dinner together, and went to bed.
Today they were having an early lunch with her parents.
“Do you think I’m rushing us?”
“No.”
He was back to the one-word answers. “Where is your mind at with us? You told me I could ask. Or am I being a pain doing that even though you gave me permission?”
“Not a pain. We are taking it as it comes. Do you need more than the weekends with me?”
She wondered if he was worried that she was so high maintenance that she did.
She’d like it, but wouldn’t put that on his shoulders.
Having the time and freedom to do her own thing was good for her.
“I like what we’ve got,” she said. “I enjoy the time we have together, but if we spent more during the week we’d have even less to talk about on the weekends.”
“There you go,” he said.
She slapped his thigh, her hand stinging after. “You’re a joke a minute. I’m not sure how everyone around you can stand it.”
They pulled into her parents’ driveway ten minutes later.
“This is where you lived when you moved as a kid?”
“Yep. It’s a nice house. Too far away from Gale to really hang out much back then. I missed going to the orchards, but you were gone by then.”
“No one around to catch you or kill bugs?”
“Blaze did it a few times,” she said.
“That’s news to me.”
“You’re not jealous of your brother, are you?”
“Nope.”
They parked and got out. Her mother had the front door open before they made it up the stairs.
“Meredith, I’m glad you could come. Clay, it’s good to see you again, though I doubt you remember me.”
“I remember,” he said. “It was a long time ago.”
He shook hands with her mother. Thankfully, Meredith reminded him of her parents’ names. Raina and Christian.
They walked in the house, him handing over some cider that Meredith told him her parents liked.
“Thanks,” her mother said. “These are our two favorites. Christian is in the back. He’s got a roast on the grill. He’ll grill into the winter if I let him.”
“You normally do,” Meredith said.
They walked through her parents’ living room, into the kitchen, then the sunroom where they’d relax. Her father was on the deck next to the grill, saw them, waved and came in.
“It’s nice to see you again, Clay. I hear you’ve had your hands full with my daughter’s antics.”
She sighed. “That’s not nice, Dad. It was months ago what I did to Fredrick.”
“It’s not all her fault,” Clay said. “My mother said she would have done much worse.”
“So did my wife,” her father said. “I’m more ticked off that Meredith didn’t share any of those details with us. If I ask you to come talk to me alone, she’s only going to get annoyed.”
“That’s right, I will. I’m not a child. You can talk in front of me,” she said, crossing her arms.
“Fine,” her father said. “Be honest. Do you think Fredrick is the one who threw the rock through the window?”
“No,” Clay said. “He was ruled out. Along with Lana Ventura.”
“Then you have no idea who is doing anything?”
“It’s just a rock that we don’t know about,” she said.
“And your car.”
She sighed. “That could have been random. The same with the rock. There have been some things going on around the townhouses.”
“Maybe you should look for another place,” her mother said.
“No. I like where I live. It’s big and the rent is affordable and the people around me are nice. Things like this can happen anywhere. I’m not moving every time they do.”
“I’ve got a camera on her place. I can see who is outside now if it happens again. I’ll get alerted the minute they get close enough.”
“I thought you weren’t going to tell anyone,” she said.
“Your family can know,” he said. “So they are aware I’ve got you. Any father would want to know that.”
“I do want to know. Thanks for sharing. I’ll sleep better knowing it’s over.”
“It might never happen again,” she said. “So don’t lose sleep over it now. You’re not, are you, Clay?”
He held her stare, then looked away without answering.
Just great. Another thing to get her worked up when she couldn’t get anything in her life under control.