“Does that mean she already knows who I am?” he asked, a cocky grin on his face.
“You didn’t give me enough time to tell her. I’ve only dated one person, so I don’t know a lot about dating practices these days, but I’ve heard you’re supposed to promise to call and make me wait two or three days. Then we go on our first date.”
“I’m not most guys.”
“Mhmm,” I said, peering at him from over my sunglasses. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
* * *
Twenty minutes later, we were staring down hotcakes that came glistening with syrup and butter, enough bacon to clog an artery, and a carafe of piping hot coffee. There weren’t any frills, but every bite was hearty and delectable. If I closed my eyes while savoring the maple syrup, I’m pretty sure I’d have been transported instantly to the trees the sap was taken from in Vermont.
“What’s the first thing you noticed when you walked into the restaurant?” Jessup asked between bites.
I paused, raking a pattern through the butter on my plate with the tines of my fork. If I were to be honest with Jessup, I’d barely paid attention at all. I was too distracted by him. He was wearing a fitted sweater that highlighted his broad shoulders and a cologne with hints of coriander and leather that made me want to bury my face into his chest and deeply inhale.
“The second the front door opened, I could smell the sausage cooking on a griddle and knew the food was going to be delicious. I also noticed all the newspaper clippings about awards they’d framed on the wall when the hostess was looking at the seating chart.”
He slouched back into his chair and smiled. “Told you I’d deliver. What do you think about the decor?”
I did a quick visual scan. The restaurant was decorated with old farm supplies that dangled from the ceiling and black-and-white pictures of local farmers, posing against their tractors and squinting against the sun.
“It has a certain kind of rustic charm, but I don’t imagine all of it would go over well with the fire marshal.”
He nodded.
“Everybody on campus can keep their fancy coffee shops and chain restaurants,” Jessup said, slathering pimento cheese spread across one of the complimentary biscuits. “I’ll eat where the old timers go at mom and pop shops like this. Glenwood Diner has character. They know how it’s done.”
He’d hit the nail on the head with his comment about dining out with old timers. We were easily the youngest patrons there by about a good thirty years.
“Is everything about you old fashioned?”
“Just the stuff that counts.”
That was an answer I could appreciate, but I wanted to know more.
“We’re starting on uneven ground. You already know everything they said about me at the auction and you know my ex. How about you level the playing field by telling me about yourself?”
“Fair enough. I’m studying civil engineering.”
“Why?”
He raised his eyebrows. “I think you’re the first person to ask me that. Everyone else always assumes it’s about the money.”
“So, it’s not?”
“No. I come from a small town where there aren’t a lot of resources or opportunities. To attract those things, you need the infrastructure to support them. My town didn’t have it. I want to go into engineering so that I can improve the infrastructure for underserved areas. Give people a chance.”
“I grew up in a small town, too.”
“Where?”
“Pinehurst.” I took a bite of my pancake and savored the butter on top as it melted on my tongue.
“That’s the place with all the golfing, right?”
“Unfortunately,” I said. I was anti-golf. Golf courses were harmful for the surrounding environments because of all the groundwater pollution that came from the fertilizers and pesticides used to treat them. Golf might have sustained the local economy in the place I grew up, but it wasn’t without consequence. I decided to spare him one of my diatribes against the major industries that were slowly eating away at the planet.
“Here’s the difference between your small town and mine. Money. Pinehurst brings in golf and tourism, which means your town had a steady cash flow. I grew up in Norlina. Do you know what we’re known for?”
I shook my head.
“Do you know where we are?”
“Geography isn’t my strong suit,” I answered, a little embarrassed.
“Even if it was, you still might not know. Norlina is so rural that the only available jobs are working at the grocery store, the school, a fast food joint, or a local farm. That’s it. If you want to go somewhere special to shop or you want to do something simple like going bowling, you have to leave the county. There’s nothing around. That’s the kind of small town I’m from.”
“What was that like when you were growing up?”
“Boring. The only things people knew to do were fun were the kinds of things young kids have no business doing. Most of my friends either had a baby or an arrest under their belt by the time I finished high school. If my mom wasn’t former military, I’d have probably been a little troublemaker like everyone else.
“Which branch?”
“Mom was in the Army. My brother is in the Army Reserves. I might join up myself once I’m out of school.”
“Is that what you want, or is that what’s expected?”
He shrugged. “Gotta make ‘em proud.”
“With a strapping son like you that’s smart enough to get into our hyper-competitive engineering program, I’m sure your mom’s bragging about you all over town.”
Jessup chuckled. “You’re not far off. Not because I’m anything special, but because my mom yapped about me to every single woman in Norlina that would listen after I left for college, hoping one of them would nab me so I’d want to go home and settle down.”
I noted the past tense. “Has she given up?”
The light left Jessup’s eyes, making me wish I could retract my question. “Mom passed away six months ago. Drunk driver.”
I reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t like to speak for other people, and certainly not the dead, but I doubt she’d ever give up on me finding a good woman. She always said I was the kind of bullheaded that meant I’d need a strong partner to keep me in line. If she’s up there watching, I bet she’d like you. Especially if you help keep me on track for exams next week.”
“Is that an invitation to a study date?” I asked, feeling a flutter of school girl anticipation in my stomach and my throat. It was an awkward transition— jumping between talking about death and flirting— but I could understand why that wasn’t something he’d want to talk about until he knew me better. The more time we spent together, the more he could open up if he wanted someone to talk to about the hard stuff.
“Sure is.”
“Then I guess we better square this bill away and get our books,” I said, trying not to grin like a fool. “Just promise you won’t distract me.”
His smile gleamed a brilliant white. “I was going to make you promise to do the same, but you’re too beautiful for me to think you could actually keep that kind of promise. So instead, you’re just going to have to throw something at me if you catch me staring to break my daze.”
* * *
After swinging back by my apartment so that I could get my things, we headed to campus.
The library was so packed it took us more than ten minutes wandering the stacks to find seats together. On the upside, our librarians were clearly sympathetic to the plight of college students during exams. Right inside the turnstiles, there was a table set up with coffee and muffins. Still stuffed from breakfast, we skipped the carbs but took advantage of the caffeine.
Jessup was no nonsense and got right down to business, pulling out his engineering textbook and starting in on practice problems. Despite his comment about finding me distracting, I might as well not have been there at all as so
on as he hunched over his notebook and knitted his brow, scribbling out answers.
I did my best to follow suit, breaking open a fresh pack of index cards. Even though my Spanish exam wasn’t cumulative, it was the one test I dreaded the most.
I loved everything about the romance language from the rolling Rs to the culture. What I couldn’t wrap my head around was how to conjugate the verbs or use the correct tense. Even with flashcards, consistent practice, and Isabella’s patient tutelage, I was barely able to keep my head above water despite racking in near-perfect grades in everything else.
As dumb as it sounded, part of me was sure it had something to do with Andrew. Spanish was the only subject we’d taken together after leaving high school. Freshman and sophomore year, we’d practice conversational Spanish every day so that we wouldn’t lose any of the vocabulary, reasoning it was like a muscle that might atrophy. Our families raised their eyebrows when we switched back and forth between the languages during times like Christmas vacation and summer break, but we both knew it would make easing into a new semester much easier.
Talking to myself in Spanish at home when I was in the shower or cleaning my apartment wasn’t quite the same. I’d lost my flair for being able to form a coherent sentence and speak with confidence. It was a skill I desperately wanted to get back for reasons totally independent of my grade. If I was going to work in sustainability, I needed to be able to work with people across cultures. I didn’t want a language barrier to keep me from that.
After finishing my flashcards for the final set of vocabulary words and reciting each one quietly under my breath, I decided to stretch my legs and give myself a quick mental break before diving into my material for agroecology. I stood as quietly as I could so that I wouldn’t jar Jessup from his thoughts and made my way back to the entrance, grabbing a copy of the school newspaper before plunking down on the cold concrete steps in front of the building.
I inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, hoping some of my exam anxiety would leave my body when my breath did. Then I cracked the paper open, balancing it on my knees.
I shouldn’t have been surprised to see Jessup’s face staring back at me from the grainy grayscale given that I’d met him in the newspaper office, but there he was, seemingly out of nowhere. The title of the article was “Student Leaves University Early to Take Over Family Business”. If that was true of Jessup, it was a pretty big thing for him to leave out when he was telling me about himself at breakfast only a couple of hours before. I bit my lip and dove into the article.
In the weekend leading up to final exams, our students can typically be found putting the final touches on their end-of-semester projects or pulling all nighters at the library. While Jessup Rice has plenty to do to get ready for his Engineering tests and final presentations, he has bigger concerns in mind. Despite the fact he’s only one semester away from graduation, Jessup is preparing to leave campus to take over the family business. “I’ll be back in time to finish my degree, but my family needs me now. They’ve sacrificed more than their fair share to put me through college. It’s time for me to step up and take care of them.”
Six months ago, tragedy shook the Rice family when Jessup’s mother was killed by a drunk driver. Jessup’s older brother Randy took over the family’s restaurant in their mother’s absence, running Rice Family Barbeque. He also became their younger sister’s legal guardian. “My brother had to learn how to become a parent and a business owner while working through his grief. To a smaller degree, I had to do the same. Randy serves in the National Guard. One weekend a month, he reports for duty. When that time rolled around, I’d leave campus to take care of our sister Amy and make sure things were running smoothly at the barbeque joint. About a month ago, Randy found out his unit was being deployed to the Middle East come January. With him gone, it’s time for me to be the man of the house and take up his mantle.”
When I asked Jessup if he was ready for the changes ahead, he simply shrugged. “Taking care of our country and our family are two of the highest callings there are. If my brother can report for duty, so can I.”
If you find yourself in Norlina, make sure to stop by Rice Family Barbeque and remind Jessup that when he’s ready to come back, his Coastal College family will be here to welcome with open arms.
The feelings that rushed through me caught me completely off guard.
First, I was inundated by awe that Jessup could be so selfless, so willing to put his dreams on hold that he’d walk away from college when he was so close to the finish line— especially given how passionate he’d been earlier when he was talking about his plans.
Immediately after, I was hit by a wave of sadness. I wasn’t naive enough to think the second person I’d ever gone on a first date with would be my last, but it was clear that I shouldn’t get attached to the idea of Jessup. Soon I’d blink and he’d be gone.
Finally, there was the realization that it didn’t much matter how I felt. He’d only asked me on our date because I’d begged him to save my ass at the auction. For all I knew, he viewed me as his last chance at a good time before he was gone. Jessup seemed like a gentleman— not the kind of guy that would try to use me and discard me— but I wouldn’t have blamed him for wanting to find something casual so he could blow off some steam before diving headfirst into a completely different life.
There was also the fact that at least part of what made him agree to help me with the auction in the first place was that he didn’t like Andrew. I’d never bothered to ask why. While it seemed like Jessup genuinely enjoyed my company, he might have also been enjoying the fact that his being with me would piss Andrew off.
I stood and made my way back inside, slipping the newspaper back into the stand before making my way upstairs.
Back at the table, Jessup shot me a smile that cut through my body and made all of my nerve endings buzz. If something as simple as a shift in his facial expression could do that, I knew I couldn’t trust myself to keep spending time around him without mistaking lust for other types of emotion.
“There you are,” he said. “Wander off to get more caffeine?”
“Just some fresh air. With so many people around, it started feeling a bit stuffy in here.”
“Nothing like the smell of hung-over college students that haven’t showered yet the morning after the biggest parties of the semester.”
I wrinkled my nose. He had a point. The library was smelling a little more like body odor than books.
“We could always move our study session to a coffee shop?”
“I was actually thinking it was probably time for me to walk home. I can prep for Spanish a little better when I can practice the phrases out loud without it bothering anyone.”
His eyes pierced mine and held them. “Let me drive you. I’d hate for you to lug that heavy backpack all the way to your apartment.”
“I’ll be okay. This way, you can keep studying.”
He stood and walked around the table to me, wrapping his arms around me in a hug. He squeezed me tight, so I squeezed back. It felt good to be wrapped up in his embrace, all warmth and cologne, the hair from his beard tickling my neck. I closed my eyes and leaned into him.
“Will I see you again?” he said, releasing me.
My heart screamed yes, but my head screamed no.
“I hope so,” I said, swinging my bag over my shoulder. “Thanks for breakfast.”
10
I was in my pajamas and a face mask cutting up fruit to make a smoothie with later that night when Isabella called. I tossed the chunks of strawberry and mango into the blender and ran my hands over a towel before picking up my phone, careful not to cover it in sticky smears of pulp.
After a long afternoon spent with my head in a textbook, it was good to hear her voice. Bright and bubbly, it always put me in a good mood and made me feel like getting into girlish mischief, which was lucky for Isabella, as she was always trying to drag me out to some party or event now that I was single.
&
nbsp; “So, you know how you made me promise to tell you when I was going on that date with your teaching assistant so that you could lurk in the bushes and watch us like a weirdo?” she asked, skipping right past a hello and the typical small talk.
“Mhmmm,” I said, shaking a spoonful of chia seeds into the blender.
“Well, Sawyer invited me to a party tonight. It’s in the light peach house on Azaela. You know the one.”
“The house you go to if you want to see the police bust things up.”
“Yeah,” she said, sounding distracted. I could picture her on the other side of the line, her phone wedged between her ear and her shoulder while she painted her nails or perfected her makeup. “He said for me to meet him there at 8:00. Want to drive there together?”
I suppressed a groan. I’d mentally committed to a marathon of chick flicks from the 90s, but Alicia Silverstone and Jennifer Love Hewitt would have to wait.
According to the clock, I had about an hour before I’d need to be at Isabella’s.
“Sure thing,” I said. “Just know I turn into a pumpkin at midnight tonight. I have to get back to the books bright and early tomorrow.”
* * *
As usual, Isabella was gorgeous, her hair styled in springy tendrils around her face. She was wearing stonewashed skinny jeans, black boots with a spiked heel, and a flowy black tank under a distressed bomber jacket. I’d slipped back into tunic and jeans. We probably looked like quite the mismatched pair walking into the party, but we were sister souls through and through. I couldn’t imagine life without her. On my worst days, she was quick to show up with Ben and Jerrys. On the best days, she was the one convincing me to roll the windows down so I could feel the wind in my hair or to stay up all night after going out so we could catch the sun rise over the beach. Being with Isabella made me feel uninhibited and free.
That was probably part of why I felt so protective of her. She was a free spirit with a trusting heart, sure she was invincible because she still believed in the beauty of the world. I didn’t want anything to taint that.
Carolina Christmas Kiss: A Vixens In Love Novella Page 5