“It's ok, Al. Really. We can make it work.”
We as in his family. The damn Masons. Jess parked the truck at the coffee house and looked at me. I pulled the door handle and jumped out, preventing another aggravating discussion over my bank account that got weekly Mason deposits.
I marched up the steps on the wooden patio attached to the front of the store. I caught one of Sadie's stupid heels in a crack, causing my foot to stay and my body to go flying. The impact left me face down across the crackly boards.
“Damn it!”
“Let me help you.” Jess unleashed my foot. Standing up, I pulled off the damn pumps and chunked them in the patio trash can resulting in a satisfying thud.
“This is why I don't wear those ridiculous things. I've got a splinter in my hand too.” I held up my palm as the blood oozed down to my wrist. Jess laughed right in my face. “Stop that!”
“You’re a girl who hates girl things, but you freak out over a splinter.”
“That's a small dagger, you jerk.”
“Ok. Ok. Small dagger. Let’s go inside. I'm sure they have a first-aid kit with tweezers for small hand daggers.”
“I hate you right now.”
“I know. Your cheeks are showin’ that temper of yours even in the dark.”
“Stop harassing me.”
“Me harrassin’? Oh, that’s nothin’ compared to what you’re gonna get from Sadie. She’ll be pissed at you for destroyin’ her makeover project.”
“Why does everyone think I need some style intervention? I have a style.”
“You do?” I saw the crinkles around the corners of his eyes as he baited me with the question.
“I do. It’s called Alex.”
“That’s the truth. It’s one of a kind, complete with a voice-recorded talk box of insults.”
“That magically only comes out at you.”
“Go sit in the table while I order so they don’t notice your nasty feet.” Jess held the glass door open.
“I have nice feet.”
“For a sasquatch.”
I flipped him off then walked in the door. About a dozen students occupied the French inspired café tonight. I plopped down at an empty table and wrapped my hand in a napkin.
Jess returned with two foamy mugs the size of soup bowls. He slid in the booth across from me then fished something out from his pocket. “Here's the tweezers and I got you a cappuccino with those extra shots of espresso you like.”
“Thanks. You know that's my study drink. Are you trying to keep me out all night with you?”
“Maybe,” his pancake syrup voice drug out the word.
I took a sip, feeling the warm liquid slide down my throat. “That tastes perfect. I might have a new favorite place.”
“You have a little right there.” Jess pointed to my mouth. My tongue absently licked it off the corner of my lips. The color flashed on my cheeks when I realized Jess was watching me. I reached for the tweezers to work on my cut. The splinter was large and deeply imbedded under layers of skin.
“This isn't working.”
“Let me try.”
I slid my hand across the table. His fingers tightened around my wrist. The expression on his face changed to complete concentration. The pain of the wound faded to another part of my mind as I watched him. A piece of hair fell across his eye. He lifted my fingers up closer to his face to get a better look.
“I'm going to have to pry it open a little. You ok with that?”
“Yeah…I once let you cut my hand with a dirty knife. I think you're pretty safe with the tweezers.”
“I guess that’s true,” Jess smirked. His fingers gripped my hand. They felt warm in every place he touched me. I watched blood trickle from the opening. I bit down on my lip, trying to calm down.
“You sure you're ok?”
“Yup.”
“Well, I got it. That was one hell of a splinter. I mean small dagger,” he winked.
Grabbing a napkin from the table, Jess dabbed the blood then pressed my hand closed to keep it in place, but he didn’t let go. He touched my wrist, looking through my handmade bracelets. Jess slipped a finger under the brown band woven from the hair of BB's mane.
BB had died about a year ago. She was grazing in a small pen outside the horse barn when a sudden spring thunderstorm crept up on the ranch. She got spooked and took off across the meadow. Frank found her a few hours later, halfway down a raven. He put a bullet through her brown skull to end her suffering. Jess used a tractor to extract BB from the jagged rocks and took her to the burned up stump.
Before we buried her, I snipped a few pieces of her beautiful mane. I made two braided bands; the one Jess looked at on my wrist and the other matching one he wore just under the cuff of his dress shirt.
Jess let go of my wrist and picked up his mug. I saw him exhale deeply in contemplation as he looked back at me. “I can't change your mind ‘bout this summer?”
“I need to do this.”
“I know and I understand. It’s just hard to think you’re not comin’ home this summer.”
Sadie helped me apply for ‘a summer in paradise’, according to the brochure for Camp Rochellas. She said working with kids at a camp was as a community relations gold star on my resume.
“It’s just a couple of months, Jess.”
“I know. But even here, I could find you in about five minutes if I needed you. I can’t do that if you’re in some swamp in Louisiana.”
“We can still talk. That's what these little black boxes are for, Frank.”
“Funny, Al. But Arlis is gonna be total shit without you.”
“I know, but you’ll still have Frank,” I winked at him.
“Yes, I’m already plannin’ to take him to hang out with the has-beens at Nickel Bridge.”
“You'll be ok.” I absently patted his arm.
“I guess.” He picked up my hand, holding it tight in his palm. Jess intertwined our fingers, brushing my skin with his thumb. I watched him across booth. I watched the blue eyes get dark on the corners as I let him hold my hand.
“I heard your parents earlier, talking about Sprayberry.”
My question came out and hovered in the air. I watched him across the table, his jaw clenched slightly in response. His fingers gripped my hand. “They want an answer by the end of summer.”
“That soon?”
“I guess Frank’s doin’ ok for now, but who knows how long he can run the whole damn place. Some of the guys have been with him awhile but he’s gotten little confused lately. Mother said she needs to work on a Plan B if I am not gonna run Sprayberry.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I don't know. It’s a lot of pressure. Shit, I thought Frank would outlive Moses just for spite. It's too early for this decision. I don’t want to even think ‘bout it. If somethin’ happens to Frank, I’d have to leave school. I’m nineteen. I don’t know if I want to run a cattle ranch the rest of my life.”
“I know it seems like that now, but you love Sprayberry,” I said quietly. “I know you do more than anything else. I think you would be happy there.”
“I don't know. Maybe…if the circumstances were right, I could stay there forever.”
I felt a little fidgety and suddenly hot. His eyes shifted to me with the deep meaning of those words. I knew what he really wanted; something I couldn’t give him. I bit down on my lip.
His fingers rubbed over the top of my hand. “And this is why I didn’t want to talk ‘bout it. I just want to have fun with you tonight.”
“I’m having fun.” I smiled, sadly at him. “I’m sorry I brought it up.”