SKIPPING TIME

Chapter 18.5

                 

When Ray came back from walking her dog, Cacee stood at the sink doing the dishes. Shane gave her a perfunctory wag of his tail before scampering to Jess's bed and hopping up to sleep beside him. Ray grabbed a towel with an appreciative grin. "Thanks."

She returned his smile. "No problem"

He picked up a pot and began drying. "So, I got the impression you didn't want to talk about this, but I need to understand how you ended up here, sweetheart."

Back to this again. She felt better now though, and curious enough to wonder how Ray would explain things once he heard the whole story.

Cacee dried her hands and said, "I'll be right back." She walked to Jess's bedside, rummaged through her backpack, took out the picture she'd stared at so many times and returned to Ray's side.

His eyes clouded as she held it out to him. "Where did you get this?"

"I found it hidden in my mom's drawer years ago."

Ray traced his finger across her mother's red hair, like he wanted to reach through time and touch her. He blinked rapidly a few times before asking, "What does this have to do with you skipping?"

She tucked the picture carefully into the pocket of her pajamas and began washing the strainer.  "I should start at the beginning."

Ray motioned for her to continue.

"The night we skipped, Jess asked me to meet him in our clearing at midnight. He wanted to tell me goodbye. He's moving far away, first thing in the morning, as soon as we get back."

She glanced sideways at Ray. He tried to conceal his smile as he said, "Moving, huh? Well-that's..." He lowered his head but she still saw the way his smile widened.

She rolled her eyes. "It's just the reason I went to the clearing so late."

Fortunately, as she spoke Ray bent to put the pot back in the cabinet. She returned her eyes to the sink and kept them firmly fixed on the diminishing suds. The last things she wanted Ray to realize was that even the thought of Jess moving choked her up. She gave a few fake coughs before continuing, "Anyway, I bought him an art set, for his birthday and I gave it to him that night. He likes to paint, and he's good at it."

She glanced at Ray. He looked like he'd just decided to take a shower in guilt. "What's wrong?"

"Today's your birthday, and I didn't even..."

"Don't worry about it, Ray. Really. It's not like there haven't been a few distractions. It doesn't matter."

He shook his head. "It does. I owe you sixteen years worth of presents. I'll make it up to you though, princess. I'm sorry you didn't have a better birthday."

She smiled up at him. "I got to meet my father. I'd say that's a pretty good birthday present."

Ray grinned at her so widely she ducked behind her hair again. She heard him chuckle, but her mind was already wandering back to the other thing that had made this an awesome birthday.

"Is this like, your sweet sixteen? As in... never been kissed?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I think you know why I'm asking."

And, of course, she had. She'd known exactly why Jess was asking, why he was lying so close that Fourth-of-July sparklers were lighting up inside her, why those forest-green eyes of his kept straying to her mouth. God. Why did Ray have to pick then to knock? Couldn't he have held off another five minutes? Five minutes of kissing Jess would've made this the best birthday in existence.