Away (13 page)

“Well your grandma is going to be all sorts of mad cow if you don’t hurry your ass up. We’re going to be late,” he hollered over to us.

Jason waved him on as he walked slowly back to his side of the truck.

“Scared?” he asked chuckling.

I crossed my arms over my chest, and although seeing him laugh only made me want to do the same, I was able to keep myself under control and the scowl on my face. I was embarrassed, not to mention angry because I knew I was right. I knew what was going to happen. It was too risky and dangerous. I couldn’t believe I almost let myself get out of the truck.

“I’m done laughing now,” he whispered to me while he drove us down the street. I kept my eyes straight ahead of me watching the road in front of us. “It was a little funny, Cassie,” he said, teasingly.

I sat biting on my bottom lip, unsure of whether to give into his humor or to keep my embarrassment to myself.

He reached over and put his hand on my knee. “Come on now; give me a smile. It was fun,” he said.

I turned my head to face his direction and held up my thumb and index finger about an inch apart. “Okay it was a little funny, but still not even close to being fun,” I told him.

“I’ll get you to have some fun in the street, you just watch. Can I at least get a smile pretty girl?” he asked softly.

I turned my head back to the front and let a small smile sweep across my face. “I knew it was in there somewhere,” he said.

It was in there, and an even bigger one wanted to rise to the surface too, but I was still too embarrassed over my reaction to let it out. Not to mention I was still wondering over and over again why he wanted me in the street.

“Are you nervous about tonight?” he asked, interrupting my over thinking brain.

“Actually, I am,” I admitted to him. I was unsure of what to expect at his grandma’s house, it had been a long time since I was with grandparents.

“Don’t be, you’ll have fun. It’s not hanging in the street with me, but it’s a good time,” he smirked.

“Very funny Jase. But really, what if they don’t like me and what if I don’t like the food, and what if-” I tried to finish but he cut me off, holding his hand up.

“Whoa there, you need to calm down,” he said, putting his hand back down.

“First of all, they will like you. Just don’t be so nervous and uptight. Relax, okay?” I nodded yes, trying to think of how I could be less uptight, because I didn’t even realize I was. “Second of all, the food is delicious and you’ll love it. It’s not salads and burgers,” he said. “But if you don’t, we can use a code word,” he suggested.

“A code word? What do you mean?” I questioned him.

He turned down a dirt road that was quite bumpy, making it hard for me to try and sit still. “Hang on Sweetheart,” he told me as we made our way further down the road. “A code word, it’s like something you can use in place of the real word so people don’t catch on.”

“I know what a code word is Jason,” I replied.

“Well then why did you ask?”

“I just was unsure of what you meant by using a code word for food,” I told him.

“Well, let’s use green light, since you are so fond of them,” he said, turning his head, smiling in my direction.

“Hahaha, you’re so funny,” I sassed him.

“Green light will be love, yellow light will be like, and red light, obviously, you hate it,” he said.

“I’m just supposed to shout out green light while I’m eating to let you know I love the food?” I asked.

“Of course, why not? That way if there
is
something you ‘red light’, then I’ll know and I’ll eat it for you. We don’t want you making a bad impression do we?” I slapped his arm and started laughing along with him.

“Fine, but if people give me strange looks, I’m stopping,” I told him, unsure of how his code word plan was really going to pan out.

“Deal,” he said with a wink as we pulled up to a very car packed dead end dirt road.

My eyes had to look as wide as saucers as we parked and headed up to the house, the house that was busting at the seams, it was so full of people. “Don’t worry. They are going to love you, Cassie,” he told me as he put his hand on the small of my back, guiding me through the front door.

Here we go.

“MOOSE!” J
ASON
YELLED
AS
WE
walked through the door. Scared to death, I pivoted behind Jason and ducked for cover. I’ve never come close to a moose and as loud as he yelled it, I definitely didn’t want to start now.

“Cassie?” he questioned before he bent down, looking me straight in the eyes with a confused look on his face. “What are you doing?” he whispered with a raised brow. I began to hear a few whispers and chuckles from others in the room.

“You yelled moose, and correct me if I’m wrong, but those aren’t gentle animals,” I whispered back even more confused than I already was.

Jason closed his eyes and let out a breath before shaking his head. “You are correct, but this moose, he’s as gentle as they come,” he said before grabbing my hand and standing us both up. I kept my body behind him as I clutched onto his arm, preparing myself to meet a moose in person. There was always a first for everything.

“Where is it?” I raised myself on my toes, whispering into his ear.

“You’re looking at him,” he smirked. “Moose, meet Cassandra. Cassandra, meet Moose,” he said as the guy from the intersection walked forward.

I released my grip on Jason’s arm giving the guy a questioning glance. “Oh.” Letting out a sigh, I was mortified that I just now caught on. “I’m really humiliated now.” I reached my hand out to shake his.

Between the laughter of Jason, his friend ‘Moose’, and the giggles coming from around the room, I was ready to escape to his truck and hide.

“Name’s TJ,” he said, letting go of my hand.

“So how’d you get a name like Moose?”
The poor guy.

“Not by choice. That’s for damn sure.” TJ shrugged.

“Yeah, we just kind of ran with it,” Jase smirked as he continued. “A few years ago we had spent the day in Estes Park. We walked around, went to lunch, and just had a good time. Before we left, we decided to take a picture of the scenery. I’m ready to take the picture and TJ decided to jump in it. I started to count and by the time I got to three his face was just priceless.” He paused, letting out another chuckle, trying so hard to control his amusement of his own story.

I started getting the giggles, not even knowing what for, but hearing his laugh was just too much not to join in.

“Could you just get on with the story?” TJ asked, apparently getting frustrated.

“He had the biggest look of shock and horror on his face that I’ve ever seen in my life. His jaw was literally on the floor. I snapped the photo and right after I did, TJ came running toward the car yelling ‘MOOSE, MOOSE’, so I looked behind me and sure enough there he was… the biggest moose we’d ever seen,” he said, showing me the size of the animal with his hands.

“It’s the only moose you guys have ever seen,” a girl’s voice said from behind me.

“We dashed into the car and thankfully the moose must have been spooked because it stopped and took off in the other direction, but the picture, Cassie, oh my God,” he said. “It was priceless. Never will I ever forget his face. We kept the picture and forever named him Moose.”

I looked over at TJ who was clearly sick of hearing this story, yet was obviously trying to hold back a smile.

“That’s classic. I’ve got to see this picture,” I told the guys.

“Too bad we don’t have time to. Looks like it’s dinner time,” TJ said, walking away with his head down.

“I have a copy of the picture, I’ll show you,” he said before placing his hand on my shoulder, leading us down the hall amongst others for dinner. “Before we eat, I want you to meet my grandma,” Jase said with a smile a mile wide. You could tell he really cherished her.

“Can’t wait,” I told him only half-nervous, the other half excited to meet a lady who wanted to have everyone over for dinner. It takes a special lady to tolerate this many people in her house.

We walked into the kitchen. It was mad chaos as people loaded their plates with food served buffet style. I spotted what I thought was his grandma right away. She was the only one in the kitchen with white hair in a cute little bun on top of her head; she was standing next to Trish, both helping pile everyone’s plates high.

“Grandma,” Jason said, giving her a hug and kiss on the cheek. He stood about a foot over her, which looked ridiculously cute.

“Cassandra, this is Grandma Maggie,” he said as he moved back next to me. “Dad’s side, of course.”

“Cassandra, I’ve heard so much about you,” she said as she grabbed my hands in hers.

I cringed. I could only imagine the things she might have heard. On top of being lost, there was crashing into their precious town tree, and staying in a stranger’s house amongst all the gossip. “I hope good things?” I asked coyly.

“Oh, don’t worry, all wonderful things,” she said as she peered over to Trish who was grinning right with her. “It’s a small town dear. We all know when there is a new person here.” She gave me a wink, surprising me with her slightly feisty personality. I liked it.

“I had a feeling.” I teased, making a chuckle escape her lips.

“Go eat now kids before it gets cold,” she said, shooing us away.

“Grandma, get your plate first, please,” Jason told her sternly, well, as sternly as you could tell an adorable little lady like her.

She gave him the ‘I’m your grandma. I make the rules look’. “You know I will. I just want to make sure everyone gets taken care of first.”

He shook his head at her and then gave her a ‘Yes Grandma’ look before leading us into the line.

Plates in hand, we headed to the back room where a table was set up.

“Saved you guys a seat,” TJ said, patting the seat next to him as we made our way to the table.

Jason pulled out the seat next to TJ for me to sit in. This could be extremely awkward, but I tried to replay the words Jason told me in the truck and not to be uptight.

Jason sat down right next to me and everyone immediately got silent and focused on eating. Our plates were full, and thankfully, I was hungry, but I failed to recognize any of the food that Jase piled on my plate. I was sheltered when it came to home cooked meals. I took a deep breath and remembered I had a code word in case of an emergency, which made me feel more awkward at the thought of having to use it. I took my fork and stabbed it into a heaping mound of green beans that were probably my safest bet, but also suspicious because they were drowned in some sauce that I could only imagine was butter and tossed with bacon. As soon as I started chewing, I knew they were the best tasting green beans I’ve ever had in my life. Before I devoured the mountain of them, I decided to give the chicken dish a go. I took a deep breath and put a bite of the chicken casserole in my mouth. It was wonderful. I could sense Jason’s eyes on mine, so I turned my pleased mouth toward him as I finished chewing another bite of the casserole. He leaned his head closer to me, raising his brow, expecting an answer.

“Green freaking light, Jason,” I yelled a little too loudly, causing him to shift his gaze to his plate, clearly mortified by my unintentional outburst of excitement.

He raised his head and I mouthed the word ‘oops’ at him as we both glanced around the table that had gone silent and all eyes were on me.

I could feel my cheeks were on fire as they began getting hotter and hotter the more stares I got. I needed to recover quickly. I thought of the only thing in my mind that made any sense.

“The green light that we passed on the way here, crazy it’s the only one. It’s not like that where I’m from.” I tried to cover my embarrassment, feeling Jason pat my leg under the table as I did.

“Where are you from, Cassandra?” the girl from the front room, whose name I believed was Kasey asked.

“Boulder,” I answered in her direction across the round table.

“What brings you to Keaton?” she asked, immediately making Jason choke on his dinner.

“I’m just passing through… was passing through… well actually, I’m not even supposed to be passing through,” I said, keeping my eyes on Jason as we both curled our lips into a grin.

I turned my focus back to Kasey. “It’s a long story,” I said, hopeful to change the subject.

She nodded and went back to eating her food.

I tried to do the same but the silence was reminding me too much of being at dinner with my parents and I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Moose? Have you lived here your whole life?” I asked him.

“Yes ma’am.”

“What is it that you do?” I asked, curious about who I could only guess was Jason’s best friend.

“I work at the mechanical shop,” he stated proudly.

Oh, help us all, he was the one working on my car? Shit.

Jason must have seen the look of horror displayed on my face as his eyes found mine.

“He’s fixing my car?” I whispered to him. I would be lucky if it was finished next year. This wasn’t a mechanic. He was a kid.

“If it makes you feel any better, his dad owns the place, and Moose has been doing this since he could practically walk,” he tried to sweet talk me.