Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Rachel
No more girlfriend for him.
Having a love for Nordic noir in common had been a strange little coincidence in this new life in a new city, a small connection in a world filled with overwhelming disconnection. They’d bonded over their shared interest, but an invisible barrier had always been there.
Hands off. He's someone else's.
But now…
As the credits began, she couldn’t resist glancing over at his face, and he caught her gaze.
She felt like the air between them was vibrating.
Or maybe that was the beer? But here she was, sitting next to him on his couch, in real time, and things were changing.
The past was subtly morphing into a present that was full of possibility. Anything could happen, anything at all.
No more girlfriend, and here she was. She held her breath.
“You're right,” he said, pausing the show, blinking as he let out a long sigh. “Alissa loved me all wrong.”
“For a guy who’s from a town full of nothing but love, that's got to sting.”
“I played Cupid twice, even!” he said with an ironic smile, shaking his head, eyes briefly going distant with memory.
“You've now mentioned the Cupid thing repeatedly–pics or it didn't happen.”
Kell paused, clearly holding back saying something.
“You have pics, don't you? Pull out your phone! Show them to me.”
“You remember I mentioned Cupid before? You noticed?”
“I did.”
He watched her for a few seconds, something brewing between them that made her heart flutter.
“Come on, Kell. Show me.”
“Not on my phone. In a scrapbook.”
“You scrapbook? Guys don't scrapbook! No one our age scrapbooks!”
“My mother does. Gave it to me for my high school graduation.”
“Where?” Rachel scanned the bookshelf, which held an extensive collection of souvenir shot glasses, four golf balls, a Jon Snow action figure, and a scented candle in a jar. All Kell’s old favorite books were still back home.
“Here.” He disappeared into his bedroom and came back carrying a thick red photo album with a big white heart on it.
KELL was spelled out in white foam letters on the red background.
“OH, NOOOOOO!” Rachel chortled, unable to control herself. “I see why you keep it in the other room. If there's a Lisa Frank sticker in there, I'm searching for the time portal we fell through.”
“Hey,” he said softly. “My mom made that. Don't make fun of it.”
“Your mother is awesome, and I'm still totally making fun of it.”
Kell settled back on the couch next to her, the heft of the book making him flex his thighs. Leaning in, Rachel's shoulder touched his, sending a zing! through her.
“Awww,” she gasped as baby Kell appeared on the first page, sitting next to a big tree trunk, wearing overalls and munching on a piece of bark. “Your hair was blond!”
“Yeah. My brother Luke and my sister, Colleen, still have dark blond hair. Dennis and I got the dark hair, like Mom.”
“And this! Why is everyone dressed like a red heart?” The second page featured photos of crowds at a fair, everyone in red or pink. Heart-shaped hats, hearts on t-shirts, foam hearts on fingers–the theme was obvious.
“That's from the Love Games. Big competition in town.”
“People compete to see who loves each other more?”
“Something like that. Couples have to answer questions about each other. There's a proposal race. Wedding dress competitions. Best wedding cake–that sort of thing.”
“Sounds crazy.”
“It is.”
The next page showed a group of little kids in baseball uniforms, red and white with hearts on them.
“The Luview Cupids?” Rachel asked, squinting as she read the print on their shirts.
“Yep. We have a minor league team nearby, too. Same name.”
“'The Cupids? Seriously?”
“Not kidding. Are you really interested in this?”
“Totally! Keep going.”
The next few pages were pictures of family events, four children all growing up page by page, the family starting out with a small compact car and eventually ending with a big SUV.
Canoes and kayaks topped the vehicles, with beaming kids finally towering over their parents.
In between, festival after festival dominated, until a football picture, Kell on one knee, holding a ball, caught Rachel’s attention.
“Is the football team the Cupids, too?”
“Nope. The Luview Romeos.”
“No. Way.”
“Yes way.”
“That's...”
“I know. And it was fine until the first female player came along, two years ago. Now they're the Luview Heartbreakers.”
“I like that name a lot better.”
He laughed until she tried to turn the next page. His hand shot out to grab hers.
“Don't,” he whispered, his face inches from hers.
“Why not?”
“It's, uh...”
As he tried to stop her, their bodies twisted closer, Rachel breathing hard and laughing, but oh, how nice this felt. She hadn't been this close to a man in a while, and definitely not this close to a man she wanted to be close to. A man who seemed to know who he was.
Until she turned the page.
“That’s YOU?” she screeched, collapsing into uncontrollable giggles.
“Cupid is a cherished role!” he said in a defensive tone. “It’s very competitive.”
Wearing nothing but a white, uh... diaper? and carrying a bow and arrow, the guy in the picture was a less-developed version of Kell, but his smiling face and cheeky look was recognizable.
“It's a thing. You run around and use red Nerf darts to strike people, and they 'fall in love.'” He used finger quotes. “People eat it up.”
“Please tell me you get paid to do this. It's not all volunteer?”
He reddened. She nudged his shoulder with hers, the movement releasing a bit of his signature scent. How did he smell like woodsmoke, even now, after so many months in the city?
“You did this for free?”
“I did this for my town.”
“A noble sacrifice? Are you sure you didn't secretly enjoy the costume?” she teased.
Kell reddened. “Good grief, no. Hated every minute of it. But it's what we do in Love You, Maine. The economy depends on it.”
“I thought your family runs a tree service.”
“Sure. We do. And Colleen’s a nurse at the hospital. Luke's on the police force. Dennis is in the Army. But the town’s also devoted to...”
“Love,” she whispered, the word taking on a very different meaning when she was so close to him. How easy it would be to kiss him, to let impulse take over. Friendship was great and all, but it was hard hiding her crush on him, no matter how light it allegedly was.
Guys like Kell Luview didn't fall for her. They dated women like Alissa, strong and sure.
But Alissa had just hurt him. Badly. And Friend Rachel was here to soothe his ego, not stoke a fire between them.
Or... was she?
“Show me more!” she demanded, charmed by the stories, all laid out in picture form.
“There's the “I Will Always Love You” contest. That's the one Mom was helping with during that FaceTime call.”
“I have the worst voice ever,” she confessed. “Mom tried to turn me into a child singer, but after three years, it was obvious I sucked.”
“You endured three years of singing lessons before she gave up?”
“Yes.”
“That sounds awful.”
Rachel swallowed, her throat dry. “It wasn't so bad. When she thought I might be a performer, I got lots of attention from her.”
“You should have gotten attention just for being her child.”
“Oh, well,” she said, realizing how her words sounded. “I did.”
But... did she? Kell seemed to have a lot of assumptions about a warm, loving, enveloping family that were so different from her own experience.
Maybe the fakey-fake town of Love You, Maine, was actually more authentic than she'd ever dreamed.
“We need to stop looking at this,” Kell announced, starting to shut the scrapbook.
“Why? Are there more pictures of you as Cupid in there?”
He blushed.
“There are!” she hooted.
“We can do this, or we can watch our show, Rachel. There’s only so much time, so you have to choose.”
“I think there's plenty of time to explore both.”
“I am not sure my ego can handle this.”
“Why not? Seriously. It's who you are, Kell. It's adorable.”
“I am not adorable!”
“You are. Your town is.”
“I thought you hated my town. You said it was environmentally wasteful and schlocky.”
“It is. And it's adorable, now that you've shown me more of it.”
“You are so strange, Rachel. One minute, you bash me for my cheesy town. The next, you tell me how great it is.”
“I have a much better understanding of you now, though.”
“Me?”
“Sure. Living in the love-liest town on Earth explains your fascination with Nordic noir.”
“It does? How?”
“Because nothing could be colder and more opposite from Love You.”
Seeming relieved to move on, Kell snapped the scrapbook shut and started the show again.
The Iceberg Killer was gloomy, dark, and intriguing.
It was also easy to watch with detachment because the subtitles forced her to read and not react in the moment.
As she and Kell settled in for their binge-watch, she let her mind unfurl a little, processing everything that had happened in the short time since arriving at his door.
He had dumped Alissa by text.
Alissa finally replied after a week of silence.
Rachel met more members of his family and liked them a lot.
They were watching a show they both loved and under the same blanket, but not touching.
He smelled so good.
That last part was not actually part of her recap of events over the last hour or so, but it was pertinent. Kell Luview was more than a friend to her, though she couldn’t show that. Not when he was still hurting from what Alissa had done.
Was doing. Actively doing.
Rachel’s awareness was currently focused mainly on the fact that she and Kell were sharing the blanket. That didn’t mean anything was going on under it, of course. They were on the same couch, their bodies a good foot apart, not touching.
It was what the blanket signified that mattered.