Mayne Attraction: In The Spotlight (29 page)

“So it’s settled. You’ll go…if you have
permission?” he asked after he’d fixed my face.

His face looked very satisfied with no
misplaced ice cream anywhere. I could only imagine what Ash must
have been thinking. I glanced around the parking lot repeatedly,
but I hadn’t been able to pick him out.

“You came all the way from…where did you
come from?” I asked.

“Raleigh. I got back from
Cambridge…recently,” he answered, lost in thought for a moment.

“You came all the way from North Carolina to
ask me this? Why didn’t you just call?”

It was a valid question, and the answer was
important to me.

He seemed to sense that and chose his words
carefully.

“Last summer was a huge disappointment, and
I wanted to make sure it didn’t turn out that way again.”

He was very sincere and I smiled and blushed
in response, despite myself. I could say the same for my summer,
though calling it a ‘disappointment’ wasn’t accurate enough—the way
describing a great white shark as a fish wouldn’t be accurate
enough.

Just as I expected, after he made the pitch
to her, my mom was ready to hand me over to Gray on the spot,
perhaps even transferring legal custody, if that’s what he
required. She actually seemed a little disappointed that he didn’t
want me for another few weeks. Before he left that evening, Gray
had promised to send a detailed itinerary, with dates, addresses
and phone numbers. He made definite plans to pick me up himself on
the morning of our departure, the third week in June, some
twenty-odd days away, but who was counting?

If I was being truthful with myself, I had
to admit that I was kind of excited. This was the trip I had been
looking forward to taking last summer, though I’d had no advance
dinner date plans at The Fairmont Banff Springs by this point. I
was keyed up, but I knew it wasn’t just about going to such an
awesome place. It had more to do with trying to understand why I
was invited. But I was also nervous about who I’d be leaving
behind…and explaining myself and my plans to him…shortly.

Ash met me in the tree house around
midnight, as had been our plan before my evening had been
commandeered. He was there first, waiting for me for who knows how
long. I felt completely guilty, but what was I supposed to have
done? Besides say no to going on a trip with my former heartthrob,
that is?

“Are you mad at me?” I asked, very
sheepishly, as I came to rest on the floor of the structure, my
back pressed up against the opposite wall, mirroring his pose, my
bare toes touching his, which were also uncharacteristically bare
as well.

“Should I be?”

His voice was calm, with no accusation
flavoring his tone, to my great relief. It was very dark and my
eyes hadn’t adjusted yet, but I wished I could see his face more
clearly, to gauge his mood. The batteries had died in my little
lantern style flashlight, and I hadn’t gotten around to replacing
them.

“That was Grayson. He’s an old friend, in
town from North Carolina, just for the day. He wanted to go out for
ice cream, for old time’s sake,” I said as evenly as I could,
fighting down the nerves.

“He seemed very….enthusiastic…about you,”
Ash replied, after an uncomfortable pause.

Here it comes, I thought and braced myself.
Then my mind took a different tack, an offensive one.

“As enthusiastic as you are?” I asked,
trying to be coy.

“Something like that, yes.”

His voice was too smooth and low. It made me
nervous. That was a first. I’d never ever felt nervous around him
before. It seemed like something important to share. I leaned
forward and wrapped my arms around his bent knees. He pulled back
from me, slightly, but in such close quarters he couldn’t
completely escape.

“You know, this is the first time I’ve ever
felt nervous around you. Normally, your presence relaxes me.”

He didn’t respond, so I continued.

“I had a feeling you’d be unhappy about the
way I spent my evening. I’m sorry.”

I dropped my hold around the top of his
knees to find his hands. They were loose and non-committal—they
didn’t hold mine in return.

So a jealous Ash is a sulky Ash…but not an
angry Ash. That’s a good thing. But how can I achieve an appeased
Ash?

“Would you like to hear what we talked
about?” I began.

“What is his last name?” he asked, rather
abruptly, ignoring my offer.

“Gregory.”

That was rude.

He would have to ask nicely now before I’d
let him in on my evening, and my upcoming plans.

“Do you have some romantic history with this
boy, or was he just being incredibly forward with you?”

There was the accusation I’d been expecting.
I understood exactly how he felt, and the empathy helped to
restrain the hackles that were beginning to sprout on my back.

I took a deep breath, composing my thoughts
and myself.

“I met Gray two summers ago when I went with
my grandpa on a trip to Iceland. He was working on a survey with
Gray’s dad there. Gray was supposed to be helping with the survey
too, but he was nice enough to baby-sit me while we were there so
my grandpa could focus on work.”

My eyes were starting to adjust. Ash was
looking at the ceiling. I pressed on.

“Gray’s a lot of fun, and I had a huge crush
on him. But I haven’t spoken to him since Iceland, until tonight. I
was surprised to see him.”

I’d seen Gray more recently than that, but
the speaking to him part was the truth. I paused again, trying to
get the words just right in my head.

“Let me just be clear on a few things. I
don’t dream about him, and I don’t imagine being married to him,
and I don’t hang out in tree houses at midnight with him,
understand?”

I was abruptly turned around and in Ash’s
lap, facing the wall I had been sitting against just a second ago,
with his arms wrapped securely around me and his lips at my
ear.

“I’m sorry. That was unforgivable—pressing
you like that. It’s none of my business. You should have told me
so.”

I could feel his breath against my ear while
he spoke. My own breathing was uneven from the surprise and
pleasure of such a bold move. He was normally very careful about
touching me. Up to this point it had been strictly hand holding and
the occasional hug and, of course, my numerous but thwarted
experiments.

I laughed a little nervous laugh and said,
“Are you kidding? And miss out on this?”

Then I crossed my arms up over top of his
and squeezed. He sighed and I felt the air move across my neck. It
made me shiver with happy pleasure. He squeezed a little tighter in
response.

“Besides, I thought I was your business,” I
added, pleased with my joke.

He chuckled lightly. I didn’t want to ruin
the moment, but he seemed appeased, for the moment, and I needed to
get on with the news. I sighed and moved forward with it.

“Mr. Gregory, his dad, offered me an
internship position this summer on a survey project in Canada. Gray
came to extend the invitation in person.”

I let that hang out there, concentrating on
analyzing his reaction. He loosened his grip on me by a
fraction.

“I really want to go. It’s in Alberta, in
the Canadian Rockies. It’s always been a dream of mine to go
there…but…I don’t know…”

I realized that I wasn’t playing fair now,
framing things in this way, but at least I was being honest.

“What don’t you know?” he asked, squeezing
the tops of my arms in his hands.

Being in his lap, feeling his warm shape
around me and his hands on my body felt wonderful. I had to regroup
to concentrate on speaking again.

“Well, I don’t know if I can go that long
without you. It would be for a whole month. Plus, I’m not sure
you’ll say yes, so...”

It was more honesty on my part. I wanted to
reassure him that I wasn’t planning to make this decision
independently, though I actually already had, technically.

He made a nervous one syllable laugh—I felt
it in my hair.

“I’m flattered that you feel you need to ask
my permission, but no matter what you decide—and Love, it is your
decision—we won’t be apart. Even if I wasn’t madly in love with
you, I’d still be following you to Canada or around Louisville this
summer, either way.”

It sounded like a smile in his voice at the
end.

I chuckled.

“Yeah, I guess that was dumb. Like my taking
a trip into the wilds of the Canadian Rockies wouldn’t require
security.”

He dropped his hold on me completely and
exhaled deeply. I turned to face him, trying to get a better view
of this extreme mood change.

“What is it? What did I say?”

I was back to being nervous again.

“Will you be…camping?”

He said ‘camping’ like it was a dirty word.
Was he skenephobic (fearful of tents)?

“Yes?” I replied, tentatively.

I didn’t understand the issue here. Geologic
surveys were not conducted indoors. He was infinitely smarter than
me. Surely he knew that much.

“Is that a problem?”

There was a long pause. Finally he broke
through the silence that was starting to get very loud to me.

“I’ve never…camped before. It seems I have
some preparations to make.”

I could tell it was hard for him to admit
this. But I was pleased. If his problem was more about camping than
about Gray, then this would be easier than I thought.

“Thank you,” I said, turning around to hug
him chest to chest with my arms around his back, below where it was
pressed into the wall of the tree house. I squeezed him as hard as
I could and tried to concentrate on how it felt having him inside
my arms. I still had him trapped when I announced, “Now I get
everything I wished for.”

Then with a happy sigh I turned my face to
listen to his heart—it was racing. Always cautious and extremely
gentle, as if I were a china doll, he rested his chin on my head
softly and warned, “Be careful about that.”

I knew exactly what he meant. All of my
wishes, the old and the new, were on a collision course. I only
hoped that when the dust settled, Ash and I would be able to walk
away from it…still holding hands.

Chapter 25
–
Eco Challenge

I was in need of a plan. I was searching for
a solution to get myself as capable as possible for my upcoming
outdoor adventure, which was now less than two weeks away. Ash had
informed me that he would be spending the better part of the coming
week out of town with Ray Torrence, of all people, ‘brushing up’ on
his survival skills. I’d called him on it when he tried to make it
sound like he thought of asking for Ray’s help because it had come
up in conversation during our dinner together that Ray used to be a
Marine.

Though he obviously knew I was aware of my
security team, he never brought them up, and I took this to mean
that he would rather not discuss it. He seemed surprised, though,
when I revealed that I knew Lidia and Ray were on the team,
something I had pieced together after our dinner at my house. I’d
made a point to clear up his misconception, assuring him that I
wasn’t stupid enough to actually believe someone like Lidia
Torrence would work for a driving school, and then take time on a
weekly basis afterward to be my friend and mentor.

When he thought I had expressed doubt about
the sincerity of the ‘friendship’ aspect of my relationship with
Lidia, he’d surprised me by taking up for her, affirming her
genuine fondness for me. I knew he didn’t care for her, so the
candor in his begrudgingly favorable admission added weight to its
veracity.

Though she was very feminine and
fashionable, I had a hunch that there was more to Lidia than her
exceptionally beautiful surface. I decided to test my theory and
see if I might be able enlist her help with a girl version of
survival training.

We met once a week on Sunday afternoons to
visit and catch up. This time we were having brunch at Panera.

“I’ve been invited on a trip to Canada,” I
began as I took a bite of bagel and a sip of cream flavored with a
hint of coffee.

She looked surprised though I knew she
wasn’t really.

Life will be so much better when this stupid
game is over, I thought in a moment of concealed peevishness.

“Wow. That’s exciting! Who are you going
with?”

You, your husband, Ash, and everyone else on
your security team.

“Some friends I met through my grandpa. They
own a research and mining company and would hire out Grandpa’s
services from time to time. Anyway, I’m invited to help with a
survey project near Banff, in Alberta. It’s an intern job, but
there’s kind of a complication.”

I wondered if I would regret going down this
path, but it was too late to abort now.

“What kind of complication?”

She seemed more worried than she should be.
She hadn’t been briefed about this part and I smiled inwardly at
that thought.

“I’m going to be spending most of my time
with a guy that…”

I realized this was hard to say out loud—I
never had before.

“A guy that…?” she encouraged.

“Well, I just…suffered through a really bad
broken heart over him. He didn’t dump me or anything. It’s not like
we were together.”

“What happened?”

She was very serious.

“Well, it’s been a couple of years ago, now.
His name is Gray. I met him when I was traveling with my grandpa
for work. I had a huge crush on him. But when Grandpa died I
figured I’d never see him again. You know, connection closed. I
guess I sort of gave myself a broken heart. Then out of the blue he
shows up on my doorstep acting like he was the one who had the
crush and invites me on a month-long date in Canada. I don’t know
how to feel about this...and, well…I’m terrified of a
set-back.”