Chapter Eight
February 13th. 2009
© 2005 Kimberly J. Fish
This is a work of fiction
An Emerald Marks the Spot
Chapter eight
Brad placed a restraining hand over Kali’s as she threatened to yank open the truck’s passenger door. “You realize crazy cousin O may be watching from her front window. If she sees you she’s going to wonder why you’re prowling in her yard with grass stains on your backside. And with her gun skills, well, it’s a risk.”
The box grew heavy in her arms and Kali knew the minute she turned the engagement ring over to Brad was the moment she could get back to living her normal routine, minus kisses and heartache. “So what do you recommend Sherlock? That we wander down to the streetlamp and rip open the box top?”
“Way too obvious, Dr. Watson. Lucky for you I have a handy-dandy Swiss Army knife and pocket light. If we do this fast we can be out of here before she’s off the phone.” Brad reached for the grocer’s box and led the way toward the cover of tall hydrangeas.
She watched him stab the old masking tape. The set of his jaw, the grip on his pocket knife told her what his ambivalent conversation couldn’t. “Brad, I’m sorry for what I said in the back yard. I didn’t intend to hurt your feelings. I was just thrown off by the. . .circumstances.”
“The word is kiss, Kali. I kissed you. And it wasn’t because of the ring. It’s because I’ve wanted to kiss you every day for the last ten years.”
“You don’t have to sell me, Brad. I told you I’d give you the ring.”
Brad handed her the open box. “The quicker you find the ring, the faster I can get down to business and straighten out ten years of miscommunication.”
Kali glanced at the tissue paper illuminated by his pen light. “Ten years is a long time, Brad. Things settle.”
Brad looked at Kali through the dark shadows. “For the first few years after college I kept up with your career through a relative who worked at the Washington Post. Then he lost track of you and I just sort of figured you married another attorney and the two of you had gone off to suburbia to make brilliant babies. Until I googled your name on the internet and found out about your cheese-making awards, I didn’t know you hadn’t.”
“You kept watch over me?”
“Go figure. I may have been the one to break our engagement, but that didn’t mean I had stopped loving you.”
”Don’t go there. Don’t say those words.” Kali started tearing through the tissue paper. “Give me five seconds and we’ll get the ring and be done with this charade.”
Brad folded his arms across his chest.
Kali sensed he wanted to say more, but he didn’t. And neither would she. Lifting off lids, she saw her graduation program and her senior yearbook. She found her final report card and the letter of acceptance from the Senator’s office under a six or seven sets of Cross pens. Scooting aside congratulations cards and snapshots of Lacy and Aunt Annalise at her graduation, Kali looked up from the bottom of the box. “It’s not here.”
”You can’t be serious.” Brad’s tense arms dropped to his side. “How many college boxes did you have?”
“I don’t know. I kind of threw a lot of stuff together that last day in the dorm. The small keepsake box must still be up in the attic.”
Brad looked over his shoulder to the cottage with the lamps gleaming in the front window. “It’s getting late. Let’s go get dinner and we can come back here tomorrow.”
“No,” Kali panicked at prolonging intimate contact with old memories. Walking toward Brad’s truck, she tossed the box onto the passenger seat and slammed closed the door. “I’ll just ring the bell. We can be out of here in five or ten minutes tops.”
“Depending of course on how serious Olivia was about that shoot first ask questions later policy,” Brad said following Kali up the front steps.
Kali rang the doorbell hearing Olivia’s footsteps pound across the hardwood floor. As the door flew open, Kali sucked in her breath and forced a smile. ”Hello, Olivia. I know you must be surprised to see me here, like this, so late. But I’d like you to meet. . .a friend.”
Olivia’s gaze raked Brad’s body and her eyes went from frosted suspicion to rank invitation. “Well, any friend of yours is a friend of mine, right?”
Kali’s stomach turned. She felt Brad move a step backward and closer to her side. “I know it’s an imposition, but I do have a favor to ask.”
Olivia’s gaze moved to the pick-up truck parked at the sidewalk. “Is that your vehicle? Where have you been ’cause I saw that the moment I drove home.”
Brad answered before Kali. “We’ve been walking around, admiring the gardens. And plant life.”
“In the dark?” Olivia asked. “There are crazy people out there. You could have been hurt.”
Brad stalled.
“Olivia, would you mind if I took a quick peek up in the attic,” Kali asked. ”Seems I left something of Brad’s in one of my college boxes and he’d like it back.”
“Well, you’re welcome to crawl around through the junk,” Olivia said stepping aside to let Kali enter the door. “But leave your friend down stairs where I can get to know him a little better.”
Kali grinned seeing the wheels turn behind Olivia’s big blond hairdo. “Sure. Thanks, O. But, it may take me a minute or two. And Brad may be thirsty.”
“Oh, I’ll take care of him alright.”
“Kali, honey, sweetie pie,” Brad called with some panic in his voice. “Please, don’t be long.”
To be continued. . .