Head Over Heels: Drive Me Wild / Midnight Cravings
“Suit yourself.” Jenna gathered the cards and put them back in the case. “I’m not sure how much I believe myself, but you have to admit, it is interesting that all the cards you picked were so consistent about this guy.”
“And so wrong,” Grace added.
“Maybe.” Jenna poured more champagne into both their glasses. “I’ve got an idea! Let’s call him!”
“Who?”
“Luke! Just like we used to in high school!” She dissolved into a fit of giggles. “Remember when we called Kenny Harrison and had him convinced that we were aliens who were coming to get him at midnight?”
Grace couldn’t help laughing with her. Although Jenna had been the one doing the calling and the talking, Grace had listened with fascination on the other line as Kenny had asked what to pack.
“Come on, let’s call Luke,” Jenna persisted, taking the cordless phone from the table and pushing the Talk button.
Grace wrestled the receiver from her grasp. “No way. We’re not teenagers anymore. We’re mothers. Mature women. We don’t pull that kind of prank.” The dial tone blared between them. “Especially not with caller ID and Star-Sixty-Nine technologies out there. And especially not with Luke Stewart. Our relationship is bad enough.”
Jenna took her hand off the phone. “You just had a little spat. You guys always had spats, and, as you know, there was a definite attraction.”
It was hard to deny, at least to Jenna, who had always known the truth. “Yeah, well, we’re not always attracted to the people who are best for us, are we?”
“No, that’s true,” Jenna agreed. “But sometimes you just don’t know until you give someone a chance. Even someone like Luke.”
“Even if I were willing, and I’m not, Luke doesn’t have any interest in me. He hates me.”
“I don’t think so. And I know you don’t hate him.” She wasn’t going to give up. “Let’s go to his house. Look in the windows and see if he has a girlfriend.”
Grace tossed the phone onto the sofa several yards away. “I couldn’t care less if he has a girlfriend or not.” She tried to sound nonchalant, but she did kind of wonder about his private life.
“Come on, admit you’re curious. Let’s go.”
Grace shook her head. “On top of the fact that it’s illegal to spy on people through their windows, we’ve been drinking. We can’t drive.”
“We’ll walk.”
“We’re not interested.” Grace hesitated. “Although there is one thing I’m interested in. Do you have any idea why Luke didn’t go off to college at Stanford, like he was supposed to?”
Jenna looked blank. “I didn’t even know he was supposed to.”
“Yes, you did—he got a scholarship, remember? It was a huge deal.”
“Hmm. That sort of rings a bell. But I don’t know. Why?”
Grace shrugged. “He mentioned the other day that he hadn’t gone but he wouldn’t say why. The whole thing just seems strange to me.”
“So you do care about him.”
Grace felt her face grow warm. “I’m just curious. Aren’t you?”
“Not particularly. But if you really want to know what happened, we could ask the cards.”
Grace snorted. “Oh, come on, the cards don’t know squat.”
“I don’t know, Grace, it seems to me they were uncannily correct for you.”
“About what? About a man in my life? There isn’t one. A journey? Not going anywhere. And a great fortune? Please. If I had that, I wouldn’t be driving a bus.”
“You have to be a little patient,” said Jenna, unflappable. “This is the future we’re looking at. The cards clearly said—”
Fortunately, Jenna was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell, although Grace had the uneasy feeling that she was going to be hearing a lot about what “the cards said” in the future.
“I was in the neighborhood,” Luke said when she opened the door. “I tried to call, but the line was busy. I hope you don’t mind me dropping by.”
Chapter Seven
The champagne hit her full-force as soon as she saw him.
“Uh. N-no,” Grace stammered. “I’m just surprised.”
“Look, about the other day. I shouldn’t have said that stuff. It wasn’t my place.” It wasn’t quite an apology, but she thought it was as close as she was going to get to one.
“Forget it.” She tried to gather her wits as they scattered like cockroaches in the light. “Do you want to come in? Have a drink?” She stepped back and gestured into the house.
He didn’t move, though his eyes flicked briefly behind her. “No, thanks. Did you pass the test?”
She smiled. “Yes, I did.”
“Good.”
“What, did you expect me to fail?” she demanded happily.
He gave a short laugh. “Since the day you walked into the garage at school, I haven’t known what to expect.”
Grace felt light-headed and silently cursed the champagne.
It was making her giddy. “Is that all bad?”
The porch light gleamed off his glossy hair. He looked like a model or something. A shampoo ad.
“Why are you looking at me that way?”
“What way?” She pulled herself together. “I wasn’t looking at you any way in particular. I just…I thought I saw a spider.”
“Ah.” He nodded as if he were talking to a crazy person.
“It’s gone now.”
“Oh, my God, Luke Stewart?” Jenna gasped from behind Grace. “I can’t believe it, we were just talking about you.”
“No, we weren’t,” Grace said quickly.
“Yes, we—”
“No, that was something else,” Grace said. Then, with a pointed look at Jenna, Grace stepped out onto the front porch with Luke, closing the door behind her before Jenna could say anything more. “Don’t want to let the bugs in,” she explained with a fast smile.
“You were talking about me?”
How did he do that, that almost-smile of his? How did he manage to look amused and above-it-all at the same time?
He was cool, that was how. He’d always been cool, even though he’d been an ace student, which was normally not considered cool at Bayside High School. But Luke gave off an aura of not needing anyone or anything.
Girls found it irresistible.
Not Grace, though. She had no trouble resisting him. “We weren’t talking about you,” she said. “We were talking about my job. Celebrating it, actually. We had a little champagne.” She was babbling and forced herself to stop.
The hum of the locusts rose around them, harmonizing with the chirping crickets.
“Well, I’m glad you passed,” he said, in a tone that suggested he was wrapping things up.
She didn’t want him to leave. Not yet. She wanted, somehow, to make things feel normal between them, so there weren’t awkward silences. “Have a seat,” she said, a little too eagerly, indicating the porch swing.
He watched as she went over and sat there herself. She stopped short of patting the spot next to her.
“I don’t want to interrupt your celebration,” he said, standing still under the light. “I just came by to see about the test and to give you these.” He reached into the front pocket of his jeans, took out a small key ring with two keys on it and tossed them to her.
Remarkably, she caught them, and closed her hand around them as if they were alive. They were warm from his body heat. “What are these for?”
“The bus,” he said, cocking his head slightly and giving her half a smile. An I-know-you’re-tipsy-so-I’ll-be-patient half smile. “Remember?”
“Well, yes.” She felt her face grow hot. Of course they were the bus keys, what was she thinking? Two small glasses, that was all she’d had. “I just meant…” She felt the keys, searching for an excuse for her stupid coy act. “There are two of them. What’s the second one to?”
“It’s a spare. Keep it in your wallet or something, in case you lock yourself out.”
“I’m not going to lock myself out.”
“Okay. Just in case.”
“Geez, you have no faith in me at all.”
“Don’t take it personally, Grace. I don’t have faith in anyone.”
She suspected he was kidding, but she couldn’t stop herself from baiting him. “Especially me, Luke. You’ve never had faith in me.”
He gave a broad shrug. “I have as much faith in you as I need to. I’m sure you’ll do a fine job.”
Fine. She’d always hated that word. “Thanks,” she said half-heartedly.
“Grace? Are you pouting?” He definitely looked amused.
“No.”
“Good.”
“Fine.”
Quiet settled between them.
“So, I guess I’ll go,” Luke said, starting to turn.
“Wait, Luke.” She felt as though she had to stop him. As though she had somehow to fix their conversation before she let him go. Before it got stuck in his brain as one more Bad Experience with Grace.
He looked back. God, had his eyes always been so blue? “What?”
She scrambled for something to say but came up short. “Nothing. I just…making sure…school starts at nine?”
“Nine-fifteen.”
“Ah. Well, there you go. Good thing I asked.”
He gave her a curious look but said, “Right. Wouldn’t want to get them there too early.”
She nodded and tried to look as if she was taking in more than just the sight of him, standing there looking sexy in the thick, hot air. She fully realized it was the champagne that made him look so good, and she didn’t want to say or do anything she’d regret later. “Good to know,” she said.
“Grace?”
“Hmm?”
“I was kidding. It doesn’t matter if they get there early. Just don’t get them in late.”
She forced herself to stop nodding and just leveled her eyes on his. “Deal.”
“You’ve got the list of students that I gave you the other day?”
“In my car.”
“You’re sure you haven’t lost them?”
“I haven’t lost them, Luke, come on, what kind of idiot do you think you’re dealing with?”
“Did I say you were an idiot?”
“Not in so many words, but you didn’t expect me to pass the test and you don’t expect me to be able to keep track of the key, and now you’re at least half convinced that I’ve lost the list of students I’m supposed to pick up. Is it me, or have you had really big problems with bus drivers in the past?”
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