The fingers of this hand wherewith I write;
And, ever since, it grew more clean and white.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Where one drop of blood drains a castle of life,
so one kiss can bring it alive again.
Sleeping Beauty
In a swirl of kissing contemplations, Katie had to hurry to get ready for her date with Rick. While it had been a couple of weeks since their last official date, the two of them had managed to meet the past two Tuesdays at the fountain for lunch. Each time, Rick had only half an hour. He always brought Katie her favorite roast beef sandwich, with mustard, and each time they had managed to tuck in a few snuggle or splash moments.
As Katie dashed around her room to get ready, romantic thoughts joined hands and danced around gleefully in her imagination. She was more than ready for a few mushy moments with Rick. After reading the kissing quotations, she felt as if her cuddle compartment needed to be filled up.
Katie sang while she was in the shower and then went through her clean clothes options in record time. Taking a few extra minutes to pay attention to how evenly her mascara was lining up on her eyelashes, Katie played with her rarely used eyeliner pencil. The results were pretty good. She missed not having Christy in her dorm room the way she had been last year. Christy would have a few tips at this point, and then she would send Katie out the door with a cheery boost of confidence.
As usually happened when Katie’s thoughts drifted to her friendship with Christy, she opened the door to sadness. The sadness wasn’t related to Christy but rather to what Katie had missed in her growing-up years. Because she wasn’t fussed over or given any particular encouragement about how she looked, acted, or developed, in many ways, Christy became Katie’s primary source of inspiration and instruction in those areas. Not that Christy deliberately tried to be a role model for Katie. The life lessons came naturally, blooming in the spring of their friendship.
Katie stopped to look in the mirror. “What a different person you might have become if it weren’t for Christy.”
As soon as she mumbled that thought, another thought came to her. This thought brought wings with it and seemed to attach those wings to a longtime heaviness in the corner of Katie’s spirit. That heaviness was the sad, sighable sense that she never had been nurtured or mentored the way so many other women at Rancho had been. This time, though, when the thought settled on her, she saw how God had sent Christy her way to be that caring, nurturing friend. The invisible wings lifted the old heaviness of feeling neglected and fluttered away with it.
“You gave me everything I needed, didn’t you, Lord? So what if my mother didn’t excel in the pal department? You gave me Christy. You gave us to each other. All these years you were filling in the missing pieces for me, weren’t you? You took care of my nurturing needs when I wasn’t even paying attention. And now I have new friendships with Julia and Nicole.”
The realization brought tears to Katie’s freshly made-up eyes. “Oh, no, you don’t!” she commanded the tears with a quick blink. “You little teardrops go back to where you were hiding. At least for now. I don’t have time to redo my eye makeup.”
Katie breezed past The Kissing Wall and past The Peculiar Treasures Wall. She paused by her photo just a blink and noticed Em still hadn’t come up with a verse for her. All the other girls had verses. Maybe she would need to find one just to complete the wall at last.
Stepping outside Crown Hall into the late September evening, Katie smiled. The air was warm and carried the scent of dry grass. The sky was edged in a soft pink glow from the sunset.
Rick was walking her direction and wore an immaculately pressed short-sleeved shirt. He was the only guy she knew who ironed his shirts or sent them to the dry cleaner. He looked great. The best part, though, was the way his expression warmed when he saw her.
“Hello, gorgeous,” he said with a half-grin.
Rick is so mushy right now. Eee! Romantic Rick. This is going to be such a great night!
24
Katie slipped her hand into Rick’s as they walked to his car. She knew it was an excusable vanity, but inwardly she wished more women were around campus to see her promenade out to the parking lot with her dreamy date.
“I have something for you in the car,” Rick said.
“What is it?”
“You’ll see.”
Rick’s surprise was a huge bouquet of mixed flowers waiting for her on the passenger’s seat. The color combination of the floral assortment and the fragrance from the day lilies was so intense his car was overwhelmed by the scent when he opened the door for her.
Katie was stunned at the size of the bouquet. “Did you clean out a whole floral shop?”
“No, I called in the order. I told them I wanted a mixed bouquet of their best and most fragrant flowers, and this is what they created. I think they captured exactly what I asked for. It might seem a little over the top. A little on the bold, stunning, and dramatic side, but that’s why they remind me of you.” Rick closed her door and gave her a smile.
“Thanks.” Katie didn’t quite know what to do with the flowers. She felt like a pageant princess holding the huge bundle in her lap. If Rick’s car were a convertible, she might have felt compelled to seat herself on the top of the backseat and wave to people as they drove by.
Rick put on some of his favorite music and kept glancing at Katie, smiling at her. “You look really good,” he said.
“Thanks. So do you. Tell me about Arizona. How’s the café working out? Are you going back there soon?”
“Not for awhile. We’re in a holding pattern at the moment, waiting for more paperwork to clear. No more trips for me for a bit. I’m hoping that means you and I will be able to spend more time together.” With a smirk he added, “That is, if you can manage to fit me into your schedule.”
Katie reached over and playfully gave Rick’s earlobe a tug. “Oh, I think I can manage to schedule you in occasionally.”
“Good. I’m going to hold you to that.”
Katie smiled contentedly. It’s been too long since Rick and I have been together. I’m really tired of being in the slow lane. We’ve made it through our first month of adjusting to a bunch of changes. The way I see it, we are overdue for our next DTR. I’m not going to start the conversation now, though. If Rick doesn’t initiate a talk about our relationship at dinner, I will afterwards.
Their short drive to Temecula brought them to the Thai restaurant where they found they would have to wait two hours to be seated in the bustling new eatery.
“Would you like to wait?” The hostess checked the seating schedule in front of her.
“What do you think?” Rick asked.
Katie shook her head. She didn’t want to wait that long to eat.
As Rick ushered her back out to the car, Katie said, “I’m surprised you didn’t call ahead.”
“I did. They don’t take reservations. I guess we’ll have to go to Plan B.”
“Okay, what’s Plan B?”
“I don’t know. I’m sure we can come up with something.”
After ten minutes of debating options, they ended up driving through a fast-food restaurant, ordering hamburgers, and then hur- rying to make it to a movie at the theater down the street from the Thai restaurant.
The theater was packed, and the film was disappointing. Katie described it as one of those comedies in which all the good parts are what you see in the trailers, but the film itself is a dud.
Added to that, the air conditioning didn’t seem to be working in the theater. She and Rick had started the evening sitting close. By the end of the film, they both were feeling claustrophobic and weren’t touching.
“What do you think?” Rick asked as they left. “Should we try the Thai restaurant now?”
“I’m not hungry enough for a sit-down meal,” Katie said. “Are you?”
“Not really.”
Even though they were outside, with the night air cooling t
hem off, she still felt claustrophobic and edgy.
“I could go for some ice cream,” Katie said.
“How about if we buy some at the grocery store and take it back to my apartment?”
Katie was surprised. She couldn’t remember Rick’s ever suggesting they go to his apartment.
“Is your roommate at the apartment?” Katie asked. “I haven’t met him yet.”
“No, he went to a staff retreat this weekend. His name is Eli. I thought you knew him.”
Katie shook her head. “I don’t remember meeting him. How’s it working out having a roommate?”
“Great. Neither of us is ever there, so I haven’t gotten to know him very well.”
“I suppose we could go to your apartment and have some ice cream. That is, under one condition,” Katie said.
“What’s that?”
“I get to pick the ice cream.”
“Are you afraid I’m going to pick something you don’t like?” Rick asked.
“What? Like something over the top and stunning and a little on the dramatic side?” Her grin was full of mischief.
Rick did a double take. “You don’t like the flowers.”
“I like the flowers. I just had to tease you.”
He looked at her again. “No, you don’t like the flowers, do you? Be honest.”
Katie bit her lip and wished she hadn’t made the revealing comment. “I love the intent behind the flowers, but to be honest, you could have picked a single California poppy from off the highway, and it would have meant just as much to me. Does that make sense?”
He nodded slowly.
“I’m not a real frou-frou kind of person, so the extravagance just feels . . . I don’t know . . . extravagant.”
“That’s how the bouquet was supposed to make you feel. That was the message.”
“Then I got the message.” Katie smiled, but she couldn’t tell if things were smoothed over with Rick so she added, “Thanks again, Rick. Really. Thank you for being extravagant.”
“You’re welcome.” His eyes were fixed on the road ahead and didn’t wander over to Katie with any sort of soothing look.
“I just like spending time with you, Rick. I want you to know that so you don’t feel as if you need to lavish me with half of a floral shop to make our time together memorable.”
Rick turned into the parking lot of the Sherman Brothers’ Grocery Store.
“Why didn’t you go to the Grocery Kart?” Katie asked.
“Why would I go there?”
“Sherman Brothers is way more expensive.”
“Grocery Kart is a cavernous warehouse, and I don’t feel like bagging my own groceries.”
“Groceries? It’s a single container of ice cream.”
Rick got out and closed his door without answering.
“Okay,” Katie said under her breath. “This is turning into a disaster!”
Note to self: Be nice to the poor guy. He’s really trying. Stop spouting the first thing that comes into your mind!
They walked side by side into the grocery store. Katie decided on mint chip ice cream right away, but the brand she reached for came in a square container.
“Get the mint chip in the round container,” Rick said.
“Why?”
“Ice cream in round containers tastes better.”
Katie laughed. “No it doesn’t.”
“Just get the round one.”
Katie gave Rick a cheeky look and picked up both the containers. She seemed to have forgotten about her most recent note to self. “How about this: We’ll buy both and do a taste test. And you’re paying. You’ll see there’s no difference between round and square ice cream.”
“Fine, but your test isn’t going to be valid.” Rick led the way to the ten-items-or-less line.
“Why do you say that?”
“You’re buying two different brands. They use different ingredients.”
“No, they don’t. Ice cream is ice cream.” She picked up the square container after the woman at the checkout rang it up. Katie read off the first five ingredients. “Check your round ice cream, there, Doyle. I bet you anything the ingredients are the same.”
The checkout clerk seemed to be repressing her amusement as she asked, “Would you like paper or plastic?”
“Plastic,” Katie said. “And a couple of plastic spoons, if you have them. We can settle this right here and right now. As a matter of fact, you can be our impartial judge.”
The woman held up her hand. “I make it a point to stay out of all marital conflicts.”
“We’re not married,” Rick and Katie said in unison.
She looked surprised. “Brother and sister, then?”
“No,” Katie said firmly.
“We’re just . . .” Rick didn’t have a defining term he could use.
Katie felt compelled to give one to this stranger, although she wasn’t sure why. She wanted to say, “We’re ‘almost’ a couple. This is an ‘almost’ date. Right now. We’re on an ‘almost’ date. I know. Hard to believe. Not many couples go on dates, almost or otherwise, to the grocery store. Especially the Sherman Brothers’ Grocery Store. But, hey, we’re not like every other ‘almost’ couple.”
Instead, Katie heeded her earlier note to self and kept her mouth shut.
The woman looked even more amused that neither of them could clarify their relationship. She held out the cash register receipt and said, “Well, you certainly fight like a married couple.”
Neither Katie nor Rick seemed to find her comment romantic or worthy of a response. They strode together to the car, and Katie said, “Her comment was completely uncalled for.”
“She’s working late,” Rick said calmly.
Katie turned and put her hand on her hip. “You’re defending her?”
“I’m not defending anyone. I’m only saying, what does a person who works the late shift at a grocery store have to talk about?”
“It doesn’t matter what shift she’s working, it’s all about customer ser vice. Isn’t that what you preach all the time at work?”
“Well, the Sherman Brothers’ Grocery Store isn’t the Dove’s Nest. And I’m not the manager of Sherman Brothers’.”
Katie slid into the passenger seat. “Next time, we’re going to the Grocery Kart.”
“No, we’re not,” Rick said.
Katie couldn’t be certain, but it seemed that Rick slammed her door a little too forcefully. The overpowering fragrance of the flowers in the backseat was a sweet mockery to the tension between them as Rick revved up the Mustang’s engine.
Nothing about this night was going the way Katie had dreamed it would.
Rick and Katie didn’t say anything to each other during the four-block drive to his apartment. When they arrived, Katie left the flowers in the backseat but picked up the bag with the two cartons of ice cream.
Rick met her on her side of the car and took the bag from her. “Hey,” his voice was low. He reached over and gently touched her shoulder. “Come on.”
He leaned closer.
She felt herself calming down. It was crazy to pick a fight now. Katie eased up. With a rising sense of the comfortable rhythm they had shared during their long phone conversations over the past few weeks, she said, “Come on, yourself, Rickster. We have an ice cream taste test to conduct.”
He put his arm around her shoulders, and they started down the pathway to his apartment.
“You know,” Rick said with an edge of tension still hanging in his voice, “if you and I are going to keep working on nicknames for each other, I think Rickster needs to be thrown out.”
“Why?”
“It sounds like ‘Trickster.’ That’s not me, Katie. It might have been back in high school when you started calling me Rickster, but that’s not me anymore.”
Katie realized his comment was true. Her high school nickname for him hadn’t been born of warm and favorable thoughts.
“Okay, that’s fair.” She softene
d a little more. “Why do you think it’s been so hard for us to come up with nicknames for each other? I mean, how long did it take for you to come up with ‘Killer Eyes’ for Christy?”
Rick stopped walking and turned to stare at Katie in the glow of the apartment complex lights. His jaw flinched. He didn’t say anything, but instead started to walk again. Unlocking the door of his apartment, he held the door for her and then said, “Katie, does that bother you?”
“What?”
“That I called Christy ‘Killer Eyes’?”
“No, of course not. Why should it? She does have killer eyes.”
Rick put the grocery bag on the counter of his small kitchen and turned to Katie. “Here’s the question I’m trying to ask: Does it bother you that I had a thing for Christy?”
“No.” Katie shook her head and kept her gaze steady as she looked into Rick’s sincere, brown eyes. “It doesn’t bother me. That was then. This is now. The key word in your question is, of course, ‘had.’ You had a thing for Christy. You don’t still have a thing for her.” She paused. “Do you?”
“No, absolutely not. That was high school. I definitely was infatuated, but I think 90 percent of it was because she was a challenge. She was the unattainable new girl. I’ve changed, Katie. You know that.”
“Yes, I know.” Katie put the ice cream in the freezer. She didn’t want to mess around with her taste test challenge until both of them were back in a light-hearted mood. When she turned around, Rick still was looking at her pensively.
“There were a few others,” Rick said in a stiff voice.
Katie didn’t know if he meant a few other nicknames for Christy or a few other high school crushes. Either one, it didn’t matter to her. This wasn’t news. Katie had been around for the various seasons of Rick’s changes. More than anything, she wanted their relationship to work. If it was going to work, she knew she had to be ready and willing to accept Rick on every level, just as she wanted him to accept her with all her flaws and quirks.
If they were about to move out of the slow lane, as Katie believed they were, then opening up to each other was a good thing. It was like using a turn signal. Rick was signaling a change. And Katie was ready.