I didn’t notice the plate sealed up with plastic wrap until I was a few steps from my bedroom door. It looked to be some slab of beef, accompanied by au gratin potatoes, green beans, and a dinner roll, complete with a knife and fork on top of the plastic wrap. Resting on top of the silverware was a folded piece of paper.
I gazed down the hall again, half expecting to see Jesse leaning against the wall and watching me with that smile of his. I exhaled when I found it still empty. I grabbed the plate and note and ducked inside my room, trying to close the door as noiselessly as Rose. Apparently she had the gift, or years of experience, because that darn door creaked and groaned so loudly I worried the entire house would hear it.
After setting the plate on top of the dresser with my shower bag, I leaned into the door for support and opened the note. My heart raced before I read one word.
My turn to ask a question.
I swallowed. I hadn’t realized our game of question and answer would go on past the truck ride. If Jesse assumed it would carry on the rest of the summer, I was in trouble. Opening up wasn’t exactly a strong point for me.
Shaking it off, or at least trying, I finished reading the note:
Are you seeing anyone? And before you get all literal on me, you know what I mean. Do you have a boyfriend?
So much for keeping the questions in the non-personal realm. Only because I knew if I didn’t write my answer down right away, I never would, I went over to my purse to dig a pen out. I didn’t stop to wonder why Jesse wanted to know if I was seeing someone. I didn’t pause to wonder what he’d think when he read my answer. I had all night to overanalyze the hell out of his question. Right then, I just needed to get my response down on paper.
Uncapping the pen with my teeth, I scribbled down my reply.
No. I’m not seeing anyone at this very moment, but that’s not to say that might change the next moment.
Flipping the note around, I scribbled down my question because it was my turn:
My turn. Are you seeing someone? And before you get all vague on me, you know what I mean. A special girl, boy, or cow in your life?
After inhaling the dinner roll, I slipped the piece of paper underneath my door. I knew he’d come back to check for it. Then I finally crawled into bed.
I’d finally fallen asleep before I heard those boots make their return journey.
Chapter Three
I ignored the first knock on my door. It was still dark, and I was so sleep confused, maybe I’d imagined the knock. I’d almost convinced myself of that when another knock sounded; it was a bit louder.
“Rowen?” came a soft, girl’s voice. One of the older sisters, though I couldn’t make out who.
“Yeah?”
“Mom told me to come and wake you up.”
I didn’t know what time it was, but I didn’t need to. It was dark outside. It wasn’t time to get up unless there was an emergency.
“Why?” I asked, sitting up on my elbows in bed.
“It’s breakfast time,” she said. “If you need to use the bathroom, it’s free. We’re all done using it.”
Before I could reply, assuming I could work up a reply in the midst of my shock, whichever sister had roused me in the middle of the night for breakfast started heading back down the hall.
Reaching in the general vicinity of the nightstand, I fumbled around until I found my cell phone. My eyes bulged when I saw the time. Four fifteen a.m. I usually went to bed at that hour; I’d never once gotten up so early.
Was it some kind of sick prank? In my world, it might have been, but in the Walkers’ world, I knew it wasn’t. From the breakfast smells creeping into my bedroom, I guessed breakfast was just minutes away.
I groaned as I sat up. After crawling into bed, I hadn’t fallen asleep as fast as I thought I would. I don’t know when I fell asleep exactly, but the last time I’d checked my phone, it was a little past midnight. My mind couldn’t stop over and under-analyzing Jesse’s question. Did he ask if I was with someone because he was curious? Did he ask because he wanted to ask me out? Did he ask because he wanted me to think he wanted to ask me out? Or did he ask just because he knew I’d be up half the night over-thinking the hell out of it?
From what I knew of Jesse, the last option was the most likely.
On top of the overanalyzing, the scent I found waiting for me when I crawled under the blankets kept me up too. That Jesse smell that clung to the air inside the room was about a hundred times more potent when I crawled into bed. It was like he’d laid down on my bed after dropping my bag off and rolled around on the sheets, quilt, and pillows. Trying to fall asleep while every inhalation seemed as if my nose was pressed into his neck, while trying to figure out some cryptic question, was not easy.
As evidenced by how difficult it was for me to crawl out of bed. I took about a minute to throw the covers off, then another minute before I could swing my legs over the side. By then, there was just enough of a sliver of sunrise to cast a gentle glow throughout the room so I didn’t need to turn on the bedside light.
Putting one foot in front of the other, I made it to the dresser. I pulled out the first couple of things my hands fell on. A few minutes later, I opened the door and immediately inspected the ground where I’d slid my reply to Jesse. It was gone. Either he’d come back for it, one of his sisters wound up with it, or a little mouse ran off with it. I decided to do something out-of-character and think positively. The right person had wound up with it. Whoever that was . . .
While I lumbered down the hall, I plaited my mass of hair into a side braid. I made a quick stop over in the bathroom to apply a couple coats of mascara, slick on some dark lipstick, and pop in my dark contacts. Normally, I didn’t leave my bedroom without a full face of makeup, but I didn’t want to press my luck. It had been a while since my wake-up call, and I didn’t want Rose to have to come looking for me.