Awaken Me

by Farrah Rochon

  He took her ice cream and dumped it on top of his, then he set his dish on the bench next to him.

  “What about this is ridiculous to you?”

  She shook her head. “Never mind.”

  “No, tell me. Because I’m trying really hard not to mess this up, and I need to know if I’m doing a good job.”

  “What is this?” Brooklyn asked. “What is it you’re trying not to mess up?”

  Rubbing the back of his neck, Reid released an uncomfortable laugh. When was the last time he’d felt this self-conscious around a woman?

  “This is me trying to court you,” he finally admitted.

  Her eyes widened. “Court me?”

  “Yeah, you know. It means—”

  Brooklyn cut him off. “I know what it means.” The sweetest smile traveled across her lips. “I’m just…surprised that you would go to the trouble.”

  “I didn’t realize I would be so bad at it,” he said. “I know it’s old-fashioned, but my mom loved to talk about how my dad used to court her. I figure if smooth-as-barbwire Clark Holmes could pull it off, I at least have a shot.” He looked over at her. “Please don’t tell me my dad is smoother than I am.”

  “You’re pretty good at it,” she said.

  He blew out a relieved breath. “Thank God.”

  She folded her hands together and stretched them out in front of her. Lifting her shoulders in a casual shrug, she asked, “So, what exactly are you hoping to accomplish with your smooth courting moves?”

  “You’re making fun of me,” Reid said at the amusement coloring her voice. He wasn’t totally upset about that. He liked the thought of making her laugh, even at his own expense.

  “I’m not,” she said, though the grin still creasing her face suggested otherwise. “I’m just…flattered. It will take me a while to wrap my head around the thought of a guy like you…you know.”

  Reid frowned. “A guy like me…what?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing. But I do want to know what the end game is here.”

  “There is no end game,” Reid said. “When I asked you if we could start over, you said you wanted to be friendly co-workers. I’m still onboard with that. We can be friendly co-workers…at work. But I don’t want our time together to be limited to just work.”

  There was a long pause before she said, “You’re asking me out.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “To be fair, you asked me out first. You bought me ice cream. If my mom was still here, she’d say we were going steady.” He joined her in her laugh, but then added a dose of seriousness to his voice when he continued. “I’m not pushing, Brooklyn. I’m not used to going slow, but I can. In fact, I want to. This is…nice. It’s different. Just sitting here talking to you—getting to know you. I like it.”

  That deep blush stained her cheeks again. “Me too,” she said. She reached across him and picked up the dish of melting ice cream. “But I’m not letting this go to waste.”

  Reid held his hands up and chuckled. “Sorry. Now, if my mom was here she’d chew me out for wasting food. That was an outright violation in her book. I became a pro at hiding peas.” He pulled the neck of his T-shirt out and peered inside. “I may still have some hidden down here.”

  His silliness garnered the reaction he’d hoped for, earning him another dose of her musical laugh.

  “That sounds familiar,” Brooklyn said. “Mine was cabbage. Not as easy to hide, so I just stubbornly refused to eat it.” She bumped him with her elbow. “Speaking of your mom, you never told me what your sister and brothers thought about the idea.”

  Reid was still getting over the shock of how seamlessly they’d moved from the seriousness of him revealing his intentions to court her, to talking about mundane stuff again. Is this how relationships worked? Why hadn’t he tried this before?

  Maybe because you never found a woman you wanted to be in a relationship with before Brooklyn.

  “I’m sorry I forgot to mention it,” he said. “They love it.”

  Her eyebrows spiked. “Really?”

  “Yeah.” He nodded. “I went in there just knowing they would laugh me out of the house, but they honest-to-God love it. My sister, Indina, is already moving full steam ahead with the idea. It’ll be interesting to see what she comes up with.”

  Brooklyn’s brows went from arched to slanted. “Wait, so you’re not going to be involved in the actual planning?”

  He shrugged. He would never admit to the disappointment he felt, but after coming up with the concept for the super hero party, it sucked that he wouldn’t have any input in how to pull it off.

  “You’d have to know my family to understand,” Reid said. “The fact that they even listened to me in the first place surprised the hell out of me.”

  “But you’re an equal part of the family,” she argued. “You should be able to have your ideas heard and taken as seriously as any of the others.”

  Her reaction validated the disgruntlement he’d been experiencing lately. He was tired of Indina, Harrison, and Ezra treating him as if he didn’t have anything to offer.

  “She was your mother too, Reid. What would she say if she knew you were being cut out of the decision-making?”

  “She would be pissed. When I was younger, she used to make Ezra bring me along when he would go out with his friends. He hated that,” Reid said with a laugh. “She really was a super hero, at least to me.” He tipped his head to the side. “Not just to me. Long after we’d all grown up, she was still running the children’s bible study at the church, and volunteering to mentor young girls at the high school we all attended. She didn’t know the meaning of the word selfish.”

  “She sounds amazing,” Brooklyn said.

  “She was.” Reid swallowed past the lump that had formed in his throat. “I miss her so damn much. I knew life would be hard without her, but I never thought it would be this hard. I was never aware how often I picked up the phone and called, just to talk to her, until I couldn’t do it anymore.”

  Brooklyn reached over and placed her hand over his. And in that moment, Reid realized this was the most he’d ever shared with anyone when it came to his feelings about losing his mother. He hadn’t even hesitated; that’s just how comfortable Brooklyn made him feel about opening up to her. It made him want to share more.

  Reid slipped his hand in his pocket and pulled out his phone. He flipped through his photos until he found the picture he was looking for. He smiled at the image, then held the phone out to Brooklyn.

  “This is the last picture I took with her,” he said.

  His mother sat up in the hospital bed, her shoulders covered in a pink, white and green shawl Willow had knitted for her. Reid stood just to the side of her, his arms wrapped around her as they stared at Liliana, who’d taken the picture.

  “She was beautiful,” Brooklyn said.

  He couldn’t speak, so he nodded in answer.

  She looked up at him as she handed him the phone. “I think your mom would be so proud of you for wanting to continue her legacy of doing for others.” She gestured to his phone. “She would want you to be a part of this. Don’t let them cut you out of it, Reid.”

  He slipped his phone back into his pocket.

  “You’re right,” he said. “And I won’t.”

  Chapter Seven

  Nestled in her favorite comfy chair in the upstairs room at Tubby & Coo’s, Brooklyn tapped the marker against her temple as she contemplated the length of the cape on her newest superhero. For some reason, cape length had become her newest thing to obsess over. Too long seemed to buy into the over-feminization of women superheroes, while a short cape didn’t seem superhero-y enough.

  “Ugh. Just draw one already!”

  Deciding on mid-back for the length, Brooklyn quickly added the flowing cape, shading it in with a midnight blue to match the logo on the heroine’s chest. The time it took to decide on the length for the cape was nothing compared to the hours she’d spent hemming and haw
ing over the interlocking Ds design for the logo. When it came to this superhero in particular, she’d debated every single detail. And for good reason. For the first time in three years, Brooklyn was preparing to share her drawings with another human being.

  The immediate tightness that pulled at her chest gave the tiniest indication of just how monumental even the thought of sharing her work truly was for her. Candice, the owner of the bookstore, was the only person who even knew Brooklyn came up here to draw. But, showing the utmost respect for her customers’ privacy, Candice had never once pressured her into sharing her work. Other than in the solitude of her own apartment or under her favorite secluded tree in City Park, this was the only other place where she felt comfortable drawing.

  Brooklyn knew she couldn’t keep her secret passion hidden forever. She would have to share her work if she ever summoned the nerve to apply for one of those fellowships. Of course, now that yet another had slipped past the deadline, the likelihood of doing so grew slimmer by the hour.

  But the illustration she’d spent the past week working on wouldn’t be shared with a grant or fellowship committee. It would be shared with a man she worked with every day. A man who’d swiftly turned into more than just an innocent workplace crush.

  Brooklyn set the sketchpad in her lap and covered her face with her hands.

  It felt as if she was living in an alternative universe. For years she’d maintained that like people went for like people, and super sexy, fine-ass men like Reid Holmes didn’t go for cute, but average women like her. She accepted that. She counted on that. Acknowledging those facts as her reality made it easy to crush on guys like Reid without setting herself up for a huge letdown when her feelings weren’t reciprocated. But this thing with Reid was not following the normal course.

  What had once been casual flirting had turned into something much more meaningful since their afternoon at the ice cream parlor. He called himself courting her for God’s sake!

  They’d established a pattern since that day. He worked out in the field in the morning, then moved into the trailer in the afternoon to manage the work piling up on Alex’s desk. They’d attempted to keep the talk in the trailer strictly work-related, but there was only so much either could say about the activity going on around the worksite. Their conversations eventually meandered onto more personal avenues.

  Yesterday, Reid had shared more about his mother. He talked about how hard it had been on his family to see their once vibrant matriarch deteriorate due to heart disease, and how proud he’d been of his dad for remaining strong throughout all of it. But then he broke Brooklyn’s heart when he spoke about the day he’d walked into his parents’ home about two months after their mother’s passing, and discovered his dad bent over their wedding photo, sobbing.

  Reid’s heartache had been palpable as he talked about his uncertainty in trying to decide if he should comfort his dad or allow him to mourn in peace. He’d chosen the latter and had never mentioned to anyone—neither his dad nor his siblings—what he’d witnessed that afternoon.

  His pain was still raw. It was undeniable. She ached for the self-professed Mama’s Boy who was trying to figure out how to navigate a world his beloved mother was no longer a part of.

  It touched Brooklyn on a personal level. Being a Daddy’s Girl, it was apparent with every day that passed that she was moving closer and closer to that same fate. One day, sooner than what was fair, her mother would become the widow who clutched memories of her beloved in her hands and wept over what had been lost. Brooklyn prayed that the multitude of medications currently keeping her dad from getting sicker would continue to do their job, but there was only so much his body could take, and his COPD would only continue to worsen.

  She rubbed her chest in an attempt to wipe away the ache brought on by thoughts of what she would one day have to endure. But at least she still had her Dad with her, unlike Reid, who bore the pain of losing his mother already. That was just one of the reasons Brooklyn was willing to do the one thing she had not had the courage to do in years.

  Her chest did that tightening thing again as the memory of what happened the last time she’d shared her drawings with other people flooded her senses. She would not let the trauma inflicted on her by that horrible bastard from that stupid online chat room get the best of her again. She’d allowed that faceless asshole to bully her into hiding for years; allowed his harsh critique of her illustrations to strip away her confidence.

  Not this time.

  She had not spent the entire week working on these drawings, taking time away from her own comics, just to let it go to waste. If there was a reason to finally share her talent with the world again, this was it.

  “You can do this,” Brooklyn reminded herself.

  Candice poked her head into the room and knocked twice on the wall. “Sorry to do this, but I have to close a little early today.”

  “Oh, no problem,” Brooklyn said. She closed her sketchpad and pushed herself up from the comfortable chair. “You mentioned you were closing early when I first came in.”

  “If you’re not done, I recommend finishing up at the coffee shop next door. They’re brewing their special fall blend and it is amazing. I plan to have it as many times as I can before the season is over.”

  “A nice cup of coffee sounds fabulous.”

  Brooklyn stuffed her sketchpad and markers into her beat up messenger bag, then made her way down the curving staircase. Its walls were peppered with floating bookshelves that made it seem as if the stacks of Young Adult novels were floating on air. She navigated around the pillars of bookcases that commanded the bottom floor of the tiny bookstore, waving to Candice on her way out.

  “See you next weekend,” Brooklyn said as she pulled on her sweater. She exited the store and turned left, heading toward the Bean Gallery Coffeehouse and Cafe.

  “I wondered how long you would be up there.”

  Brooklyn yelped and turned, finding Reid perched against the hood of her car, which she’d parked at the curb in front of the bookstore. He wore his signature worn jeans paired with a long-sleeve black T-shirt that molded to the arms crossed over his chest.

  “What are you doing here?” She clamped a hand over her erratically beating heart. “Are you stalking me?”

  He lifted a shoulder. “Maybe. You’re pretty stalkable.”

  “Is stalkable even a word?”

  A grin stretched across his face. “I don’t know. I’m just a lowly plumber, remember? I leave all wordy things to smarty-pants like you.”

  With anyone else, Brooklyn would have taken those words as a dig, but the smile on his face told her that his joke had not an ounce of maliciousness behind it.

  “Whether or not stalkable is an actual word, I’m going to take a guess that stalking me was not your original intent,” she said.

  “No, it wasn’t.” He pushed away from her car and covered the two yards that separated them. He stuck his hands in his pockets and tipped his head toward The Bean Gallery. “I happened to be on my way to the coffee shop when I noticed your car parked on the curb. When I didn’t see you in there, I figured the bookstore was the most logical place. I’ve never been to it, but I know Anthony has. They sell lots of Sci-fi stuff, right?”

  She nodded. “It’s funny that I’ve never seen him there before. Of course, I’m usually in the upstairs room, and all the adult books are downstairs.”

  “What’s upstairs?”

  She hesitated for a moment, the sketchpad in her messenger bag suddenly feeling as if it weighed three tons. “Kids’ books and a game room. It’s a cool place to hang out and read comics,” she answered. Coward. “I was actually on my way to get some coffee.”

  “You mind if I join you?”

  As if she would ever in a million years deny herself the opportunity to be in the same space with him. She was so fully immersed in this fantasy, Brooklyn doubted she would ever recover.

  They climbed the stairs to the huge porch at the entrance of
the coffee shop, but before Brooklyn could reach for the door handle, Reid stepped in front of her and pointed to one of the outside tables.

  “Coffee’s on me. I still owe you from our ice cream. What are you having?”

  “Well, I was going to have just a cup of brewed coffee, but now that you’re paying I want something fancy and expensive.”

  His rich laughed filled the air around them, and her body warmed from the inside out.

  “So, I’m ordering the most expensive drink on the menu?”

  “I’ll go easy on you this time. Get me just a regular latte.”

  She sat at a table, and minutes later, Reid returned with her drink and a muffin wrapped in plastic wrap.

  “Thank you,” she said as she accepted the cup and took a sip. She sat up straight. “Did you sweeten this?”

  He nodded. “I’ve noticed you put two packets of sugar in your afternoon coffee.”

  The significance of his admission sent all kinds of feelings traipsing throughout Brooklyn’s bloodstream.

  “How is it?” Reid asked.

  She took another sip and looked up at him. “Perfect.”

  His eyes dropped to her mouth and her heart began to pound like a base drum against the walls of her chest. She was walking the edges of very dangerous territory here. Ever since Reid made his intentions known, she’d made an effort to temper her propensity to fall headfirst. It wasn’t the easiest thing she’d ever done. Reid Holmes made it extremely difficult not to fall headfirst in ridiculously sappy, infatuated love with him.

  Brooklyn quickly tore her eyes away from his kissable lips and looked out at the sun gently setting over the trees of Mid-City.

  “So, what brings you to this neighborhood on a Saturday evening?” she asked. “It isn’t a typical party place.”

  “I’ll be thirty next week. I’m getting too old to party,” he said. She rolled her eyes. “I was down at Delgado,” he finished.