by Holly Rayner
“And you want none at all?”
“Er…”
We catch gazes, and he winks. “We can’t leave without having their tarte tatin.”
“If you say so,” I sigh, pretending to be put off by the suggestion of a yummy treat. “Anyway, dessert will make this night last longer, and that’s good.”
“The night doesn’t have to end after dessert.” Kal puts his hand on the table, only an inch away from mine. I swear I can feel his body heat.
“No?” I croak.
He shakes his head slowly, seductively. “How do you feel about karaoke?”
My jaw drops.
“Karaoke?”
“Yes.”
“You’re into that?”
“What makes you think I wouldn’t be?” he asks.
“I dunno, just…” I wave my hand at him. “Your general… everything. You’re refined. Classy.”
“And that means I don’t know how to have fun?” he teases.
“Okay, now that you put it that way, I sound ridiculous.”
“No, no. I appreciate that you see me as, what was your word? Classy?”
“Classier than me. I love karaoke.”
“What do you know?” Kal’s hand closes the distance between us, his firm-yet-gentle touch lingering on my fingers.
The room bursts into technicolor.
“It’s another something we have in common,” I say.
“Oh, I’m sure we will discover many more somethings.”
The waiter arrives again, and he must be saying something, but who knows what it is? All I can see and hear is the man sitting across from me.
Chapter 7
Julia
The bar Kal takes me to is a world away from the French restaurant. It’s small, dark, and packed with rowdy people cheering on those brave enough to get on stage and sing. We navigate through the crowd, looking for a place to settle. Luck finds us a booth that a bus boy is just finishing wiping off.
Taking a seat facing the stage, I catch sight of a familiar face. Magnolia, cocktail in hand, sways near the stage, mouthing along to the current Top 40 hit that a well-meaning man is butchering.
“A drink?” Kal asks, raising his voice over the noise.
“Sure. Gin and tonic, please.”
He’s walking for the bar as the song ends. Magnolia turns around, and I wave to catch her attention.
She’s a deer bounding across the bar.
“Hey!” she squeals, taking Kal’s vacated seat. “How are you?”
“Great. You?”
“You look amazing,” she says, skipping over answering my question. “Are you… wait. Are you meeting a guy here?”
“Actually, I’m here with one already.” I glance in the direction of the bar. Kal’s profile is to us as he talks to the bartender.
Magnolia gapes. “Mr. Hottie Carpenter-slash-painter!”
“Kal,” I correct. “Mr. Hottie Carpenter-slash-painter is his father.”
We both lean into the table with laughter.
“Are you here with anyone?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “My friend Rachel might come later, but it’s me right now. Are you going to sing?”
“Um.” I bite my lower lip. When Kal mentioned karaoke, I was gung ho. Being here makes me feel differently about it.
In New York, you can go to a random bar, make a fool of yourself with any eighties ballad of your choosing, shake it off, and go home. That’s because it’s easy to be a part of the crowd there, someone who comes to a bar once and never shows their face again. There’s always another bar to hit up.
Here, it’s different. I’m sure I could count the number of bars Sterling has on my fingers. You do something memorable in a town this small and it never goes away.
Do I really have the gumption for it?
Magnolia shrugs. “If you don’t want to do it, I understand.”
“Are you going to?”
“Can’t. I already sang four times tonight. They banned me from doing it any more. Said I was hogging the mic. I have to wait until next week.”
“That sounds about right for you.”
“Your date is coming back.” Magnolia nods at Kal, who’s bringing over two glass tumblers. “I better skedaddle. Update me later, okay?”
Before I can respond, she’s out of the seat and gone.
“Was that Magnolia?” Kal asks, setting our drinks down.
“Yeah.”
I must look surprised he knows her name, because he elaborates. “She’s a hard personality to forget.”
“So true.”
Another singer has taken stage, and she’s brought her wine with her. White liquid sloshes over the glass’s rim as she puts everything she has into the music.
“Wow,” I comment. “That’s, um…”
“Passionate?” Kal suggests.
“Absolutely.” Getting as close as I can to the table, I stretch even further across it. Even with Kal and I sitting at the same table, it’s hard to be heard over the music.
“What draws you to karaoke?” I ask.
Humor—or perhaps only simple delight—plays at the corners of his mouth. “I enjoy seeing people shed their inhibitions without fear.”
It’s an interesting answer. I can’t help but feel there’s more, though. Something he’s not telling me.
Or is that because I have that general sense about Kal? He’s a man who holds his cards close. He’s enigmatic, and I want to say that makes him more interesting, but I’m not sure. Were he to show me himself completely, I would be even happier.
But maybe I’m misinterpreting things. It’s hard to say when you haven’t known a person for even a week.
The woman finishes, and the host takes the stage, a paper in her hand.
“Thank you, Kathy!” she calls out, and the last singer goes back to her table amid thunderous applause.
If nothing else, it seems Sterling is a very supportive town.
The host looks at her paper. “Let’s see… it appears we’ve come down to the end of the list. If anyone…”
“Ooh!” Magnolia waves her hand.
The host smiles but sighs. “Anyone other than Magnolia want to take a go?”
Kal touches my wrist. “Will you sing with me?”
“Really?” Pleasure floods my chest. It feels like the cutest boy in school is asking me to prom.
How can I say no?
He offers my hand, and I take it.
“We will!” Kal calls.
There’s some scattered applause. Magnolia whoops.
With Kal’s fingers married to mine, we walk for the stage, where the host hands us each a microphone.
“What will it be?” Kal asks me.
“Hm.” I study the list of songs on the nearby screen, painfully aware of the dozens of eyes on my face. I’m not an awful singer, but I’m also not great.
I pick a crowd-friendly duet that’s in the charts right now. Even if I end up butchering it, it could be people will be happy to hear something familiar and catchy.
The music starts, and Kal sways along. I nod my head, feeling more awkward than anything.
When he lifts the microphone to his face to start the male part, I’m struck dumb. His voice is amazing.
Is there anything this man doesn’t do well?
The female part arrives, and my voice is shaky as I start off. Kal doesn’t seem to notice, though, as he smiles and bobs his head along.
His good attitude helps my confidence, and soon we’re dancing as we sing. Taking my hand, Kal spins me. I land perfectly against his chest, and there are whistles from the audience.
Too soon, the song is over. We exit the stage with laughter, more claps and cheers filling the air.
“That was awesome!” Magnolia squeals as we pass her.
I squeeze her shoulder. “Thanks!”
Back in our booth, I sip my cocktail and fan myself.
“Enjoy it?” Kal asks.
“That was the most fun
I’ve had in…” I have to think hard. “Months.”
“That was probably the most fun I’ve had in years.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask him why he hasn’t gone out more. Surely he could get a babysitter for Maya?
Like his past, though, it’s none of my business. There’s tons I want to know about Kal, and if I want to get the details I suppose I’ll have to stick around and wait for them.
Which is fine by me.
This summer, which only a week ago seemed long, now feels incredibly short. I almost don’t want to return to Brooklyn at all.
“What are you thinking about?” Kal asks.
“How much I like it here.”
“You looked sad.”
I guffaw. “I did? That makes sense. I was thinking about how I don’t know if I’ll even want to go back home come fall.”
Kal cups his jaw in his hand. “Selfishly speaking, I wouldn’t mind you staying in Sterling one bit.”
“Yeah?” A delightful shiver creeps up my back.
Life would be very different in Ohio, but I can see it being a real thing. The people in Sterling are warm and welcoming, the pace of life slow, the air fresh.
“I can see why you settled down here,” I say.
“It is a wonderful place to raise a child.”
A latecomer to karaoke takes the stage, and we stick around for that. Eventually, there’s nothing to stay for other than more drinking. Since Kal’s been nursing his one cocktail the entire time we’ve been here, I figure he’s not the type for that.
The car ride home is too short, this town way too tiny for nights like this, when a girl wants her date to drive her around till dawn. We drive with the windows down, the cicadas’ music filling our ears.
“You know what those are?” Kal asks.
I look at his face, illuminated here and there by street lights we drive under.
“I heard them once, in high school. I was camping with a friend in Virginia.”
“Do you find it jarring?”
“I find it beautiful,” I say without hesitation.
The porch light at our final destination catches his smile. He takes the car all the way up Shay’s drive, and when I reach for the door handle he stops me with a touch to my shoulder.
“I’ll get that,” he says.
My eyes roll, but I’m smiling. “Oh no!” I say with sarcasm. “A chivalrous man? Please. Don’t.”
Chuckling, Kal comes around the car and opens the door for me.
At the front door, I fumble nervously with my keys. If Kal notices my anxiety, he doesn’t let on.
“Thank you for tonight,” he says. “It did me good to see you enjoying yourself.”
“Yeah?”
“Very much so.”
He steps closer, and a palpable heat sizzles in the limited space between our bodies. I tilt my face up, and suddenly my nervousness dissipates. His dark eyes draw me in; I wouldn’t be able to look away if I wanted to.
Soft fingers graze across my cheek. Kal cups my face, bringing his mouth closer to mine.
The kiss is sweet and focused, a few intense yet restrained swipes of his lips against mine.
He steps back, smiling wide. My body is jelly, my knees shaking.
“Thank you for tonight,” he says, his voice husky.
“Th-thank you.” I swallow, trying to shake the haze that his touch has brought on. “Hey, can I choose our next outing?”
His eyes light up. “Absolutely.”
“Great.”
Kal steps off the porch, but he’s still facing me. “Good night, Julia.”
“Good night, Kal.”
He smiles, walking half of the way to his car backwards, and we wave as I go into the house and lock the door behind myself.
I don’t even hang my purse and keys up or kick my shoes off. Sighing, I lean against the closed door. Kal’s presence makes my heart race, and his touch melts me faster than lava.
I’m more convinced than ever that I’m starring in that eighties teen rom-com.
Chapter 8
Julia
Three days go by. Three long, painful days.
They’re made even worse by the fact that what I’m longing for is right next door.
I’m not trying to play it cool or anything. Usually, if I want something I go right for it. Kal has a kid and a job, though, and I can imagine life in the summertime is just as hectic as it is during the school months, what with getting Maya up and to where she needs to be that day.
He’s not me, with hours and hours of free time to pass.
Since we already set a date for seeing each other after karaoke night, I don’t try to run across the yard and get a hit of him, much as I want to. Instead, I pass the mornings in Shay’s sunroom, reading, journaling, and listening to some podcasts a grief counselor in New York recommended for me. In the afternoons, I go for walks through town or by the river and hang out at the coffee shop.
Evenings have surprised me by not being as lonely as I expected them to be. Magnolia comes through on her promise to show me the giant measuring cup, and another night we go to a movie in the next town over. Life in Sterling is already shaping up to have its own special routine.
Still. The morning that I’ve planned to pick up Kal and Maya, I’m nearly skipping.
I don’t even ring the doorbell. Maya must have seen me coming through the window, because the door flings open and she’s in front of me, jumping up and down, her two ponytails bouncing.
“You’re here! Dad, she’s here!”
Maya grabs my hand. Kal appears in the doorway, bringing the scent of pine and soap with him. Such simple smells, but on him they’re intoxicating.
“Good morning,” Kal says. If there’s anything better than his grin aimed at me, I don’t know what it is.
“Hi,” I breathe.
Maya’s still clutching my hand. “Dad said you’re taking us somewhere special.”
“Yes. How does the zoo sound?” I check for Kal’s approval.
“Yippee!” Maya does a little dance on the front steps.
“How did you know she loves the zoo?” Kal asks with a wink.
“I had a feeling.”
“Maya,” Kal says. “Go grab a few bottles of water, please. You can put them in the purple cooler.”
“And a snack? I need a snack.”
“There are some apples in the fridge.”
“Oh, never mind,” Maya says, quick on the draw. “I can wait for lunch.”
She’s gone in a flash, and Kal closes the door behind her, giving us a moment of privacy on the porch.
“How have you been doing?” he asks.
“Good. You?”
“I’ve been…” He blinks, one corner of his mouth lifting as if he has a secret. “Distracted.”
My heart goes into overdrive. We’ve texted some since our date, but I’ve tried not to get too worked up and believe I’ve been on his mind as much as he’s been on mine.
“Same here,” I say.
Kal closes the last bit of distance between us. His fingers graze my wrist, and his dark eyes study my face. His lips part, throat rolling with a swallow…
I shift forward, lifting my chin.
“I’m ready!” Maya screams, throwing the front door open.
Kal clears his throat and steps away from me. “Good. Let’s, uh, hop in the car.”
Maya rushes toward her dad’s car, and Kal sends me a sizzling look. Or maybe it’s only a normal look in his book, and it’s just that every time the man directs any attention at me, I’m in danger of melting into a puddle.
We join Maya in the car, where she’s already buckled up in the back seat.
“Windows down?” Kal asks.
“You know it.”
He hits the button for all four windows, and we take off. The humidity that seemed oppressive my first day in Ohio is now nothing but a nice addition to the sunshine.
Since the windows are down, it’s kind of hard t
o talk during the drive to the zoo, but I don’t mind. Listening to the radio and catching the breeze with my hand is all it takes to be happy.
Every once in a while, I catch Kal watching me, a thoughtful expression on his face. When I stick my tongue out, he kisses the air, and I grin giddily. Curious to see if Maya has noticed anything, I flip down my sun visor and look at her in the mirror there.
She’s turning the pages of a book, completely oblivious to the goings-on in the front seat. Not for the first time, I wonder what she thinks of my appearance in her and Kal’s life. Not that I’ve been stalking their house or anything, but I haven’t noticed friends over since I moved in. It seems like an adult guest might be kind of a big deal.
Once again, I wonder about her mother, the biggest mystery of all.
When I checked on my phone earlier, it said the drive to the zoo would take about an hour, but in what seems like no time at all we’re pulling into its massive parking lot.
Maya takes the lead, tugging on Kal’s hand. She pulls him over to an exhibit near the front, detailing ocean conservation efforts.
“I’ll get the tickets,” I call to them.
If Kal has an answer, he can’t get it to me. Maya’s taking up all the air in our immediate vicinity, talking a mile a minute and pointing at basically anything composed of atoms.
The zoo has an aquarium inside. Starting there, we check out the penguins, sharks, and manta rays and watch a Pacific red octopus open up a jar and extract the stashed treat.
Once we get outside, Maya keeps running ahead on the paved trails winding through the zoo. After the third time of reminding her to stay close, Kal gets on one knee and has a serious conversation with her. His voice is too low for me to hear what he says, but she hangs her head and nods.
It does the trick. She stops going to spots where we can’t see her. Even though she keeps up a quicker pace than us two old folks, she keeps looking over her shoulder to check on our whereabouts.
“You worked some kind of magic,” I say.
Kal shakes his head. “It’s not magic. More like practical science. I told her that if she doesn’t behave appropriately, this will be the last time we come here for a while.”
“So you come a lot?”