Divine (33 page)

“
Alright, see ya
later, Steve,” I said as I watched him walk back to the
kitchen.

He pushed through the
kitchen door but stopped short, sticking his head back out to see me.
“Bye Summer. Happy Birthday.” He smiled and let go of the
door, disappearing from view.

I looked at Brittany
and smiled. “I guess I'll be taking the cake with me.”

Her smile fell into a
serious stare. “Hey Summer,” she ignored my comment with
a whisper, “Fox got you something.” She bent down again
next to the counter and pulled out another white envelope, handing it
to me gently with a curious face.

“
Oh,” I
stuttered as I took it from her. “Um, okay.” I flipped it
over and ripped it open, using far less care with it than I did with
Brittany's envelope. Inside was a single note that was scribbled in
his semi-professional handwriting:

Happy Birthday
Summer. I would love

to take you out
for a nice dinner,

just the two of us.
I'll take you to

the nicest place
in town. Just let

me know what day
works for you.

Sincerely,

Fox

I stared down at the
note in disbelief. Was he actually asking me out on a date? What
nerve that man had, knowing that I was in a relationship with Jonah.

“
Well? What is
it?” Brittany asked, stepping on her tippy toes to try and see
over the top of the white piece of paper in my hand.

“
Here, you read
it.”

She took it from my
grasp and quickly read it over. “Oh, my, gosh,” she
blurted, “I can't believe this Summer!”

“
Yeah I know.”

She handed the note
back to me and put her hands on her hips. “What are you gonna
do? Are you going to tell Jonah?”

Oh god, Jonah. What
the heck am I going to say to him?

I nodded softly while
reading over the letter a second time. “Yeah, I'll tell him.
But, he's not going to be happy about this.”

“
Well I don't
blame him; our boss is blatantly coming on to you.”

I folded the letter up
and stuck it deep in my purse, wishing that I didn't have to deal
with the miserable situation Fox was putting me in. “I'll have
to take care of this later. Jonah's getting ready to come pick me up
at my house.” I gave her a weak smile and grabbed the cake off
of the counter. “Thanks again, Brittany. I'll try to call you
later.”

“
Okay, Summer.
Have fun today.”

A customer held the
door open for me as I rushed out, holding the uncovered chocolate
cake. I sat it on the hood of my car and opened my door, throwing my
purse inside before grabbing the chocolatey mass again and bringing
it in with me. I sighed heavily and sank into my seat with its weight
pressing against my lap.

What am I going to
do? I can't believe he is doing this . . .

My body jolted with the
sudden ring of Jonah's call. I sat the cake on the passenger seat and
picked up my purse to scrounge around for my blaring phone.

“
Hello?” I
finally answered, taken aback by the amount of nervousness that came
across in my voice.

“
Hey, I'm at your
house. Are you almost here?”

My hand lightly shook
the phone as I held it against my ear. Just thinking about telling
Jonah what Fox had done was making me a nervous wreck.

“
Ashy, hello,”
he called out, waiting for me to reply.

“
Yeah, I'm sorry.
I'm just getting ready to leave work. I'll be there in a bit.”

The other end of the
line was quiet for a moment. “Are you okay?” he spoke up
with concern. “You seem like something's wrong.”

“
Yeah,” I
sighed lightly into the phone, trying hard to keep my voice from
wavering. “I'll tell you when I get there.”

“
Oh, okay. Well
now you have me worried.”

“
I'm sorry, it's
nothing to worry about. I'll see you in a few minutes.”

“
Alright then,
bye.”

“
Bye.”

I ended the call and
drove away from Walley's. First off, it was so frustrating having to
deal with Fox's attitude in general, but now the guy was trying to
get between me and Jonah.

He's trying to get
between me and the man that I love.
The words easily rolled
through my mind.
The man that I love. I do love Jonah; I'm in love
with him.

Of course I could never
tell him that. Well, not right then, anyway. And I was always the
type of girl who didn't like to seem too desperate. If a guy was in
love with me, then I wanted him to say it first.

Maybe one day Jonah
will tell me that he loves me. I really hope so . . .

When I saw Jonah's
truck parked in my driveway it made me even more apprehensive. I
pulled up next to him and got out, bringing my purse and the cake
with me.

He opened his door and
stayed in his seat, looking devastatingly handsome wearing a tight,
white t-shirt and a black baseball cap. “Hey, Happy Birthday,”
he offered with his gorgeous white smile.

Oh god Jonah, you
look so good in those tight shirts . . . And you're so happy to see
me. I'm sorry to have to ruin it . . .

“
Hey you. I'll be
right back, I have to run this cake in.” I hurried into the
house and threw the cake in the fridge next to my dad's. I sort of
felt like I was cheating on my dad's dessert with another one, one
that was more decorated and bigger than his.

Sorry Dad, I'll have
to explain that later.

When I walked back out
I went around to my side of the truck and climbed inside. I shut the
door and threw my seat belt across my chest, all the while taking in
the mouth watering aroma of Jonah's sultry cologne.

“
Are you ready to
tell me what's on your mind?” he asked almost instantly, not
wanting to wait any longer to hear what I had to say.

I looked over at him
from across the cab. His eyes were gentle and had a look of worry to
them as he waited for me to say something back.

“
No, not really,”
I sighed. “Maybe we can start driving and I'll tell you about
it.”

He looked down at his
keys that were hanging from the ignition. “Okay, if that's what
you want,” he said as he reached up and gave them a twist,
starting the trucks loud engine and pulling out of my driveway.

I looked down at my
purse and thought about the letter that lay folded up on the bottom.
“Jonah, I really don't want to tell you this.”

He looked over at me
with a serious face. “Tell me what?”

“
Well,” I
slowly let out, “I went to work today because Steve said he had
something for me. He made me that cake that I had.”

“
Yeah,” he
nodded, “why would that make me upset?”

“
Uh, well, that's
not the part I was talking about.”

“
Okay, then go
on.”

“
Well, Steve made
the cake and Brittany got me a gift certificate to a spa.”

“
Aha, that's
nice.”

I braced myself as I
got ready to deliver the devastating blow. “And, Fox wrote me a
note asking me to go to dinner with him.”

Jonah's head shot over
to me, his face sharp with seriousness. He sighed heavily and then
looked back at the road in deep thought.

“
Are you going to
say something?” I asked softly.

He shrugged his
shoulders and kept his eyes ahead. “Are you gonna go with him?”

“
Jonah!” I
shot out in disbelief, angry that he had actually asked me that
question. “How could you think that I would do that?” He
stayed silent, which made me even more upset; I hated it when I
couldn't tell what he was thinking. “Answer me,” I
insisted wildly. He kept to his silence while watching the car in
front of us. I reached over and grabbed onto the sleeve of his tight
shirt, pulling him toward me. “Let me see your eyes,” I
begged him.

“
Why do you want
to see my eyes?” he barked, finally saying
something.

I let go and sat back
against my seat with uneasily crossed arms. “Because I have no
idea what you are thinking and I hate it when you shut me out and
don't say anything to me. At least your eyes will tell me what's on
your mind.”

He listened and peered
over at me, letting me see the color of his feelings. But there was
no unique hue this time, just the crystal blue that he normally
pierced me with.

“
There,” he
spat out. “Are you happy now?”

“
No, they aren't
a different color.”

“
That's because
there's not a color for confusion.”

The words dangled in
the air between us.
So, he's confused?
I guess it's better
that he's confused than angry.

“
Jonah, I'm
really sorry that he did that; I'm actually really upset. He has no
respect for me and the person who . . .”

The sound of the
blinker clicked in the silence as he took the exit off of the highway
toward the cove. “The person who . . .” he said, asking
me to elaborate.

“
The person who
I'm with.”

The person who I'm
with. What I really want to say is the person who I am in love with.

“
Exactly. You're
with
me,
not
him.
”

“
I know,” I
agreed. I leaned over and rested my hand on his leg and rubbed it
consolingly. “I don't want to be with anyone else but you.”

He looked over at me
with a faint smile and took a hand off of the wheel, placing it
lightly on top of mine. “I know, Ash.”

I sighed heavily with
relief, feeling the closeness come back between us. “Well, I'll
talk to him tomorrow.”

“
Tomorrow? It's
Sunday, I thought you didn't work.”

“
Yeah, I forgot
to tell you that Brittany asked me a few days ago to cover it for
her.”

He held my hand in
silence and stared ahead as we drove down the dirt path to the cove.
“Just be careful,” he warned me. “I don't trust
him. And now that I'm not allowed on the property I can't be there if
he tries to do something to you.”

“
Well, I don't
think he would try to hurt me or anything.”

“
That's not what
I meant.”

I frowned at the
thought of Fox trying to make a move on me. Most girls would love to
be touched by the strong hands of my cocky boss; he was very
masculine and quite frankly, was a pretty sexy guy. But I didn't have
eyes for him; I had eyes for Jonah.

“
Well,” I
sighed, “if he tries anything I'll fight back. I don't want
anything to do with him, unless it has to do with him signing my
paychecks.”

He let out a light
laugh and looked over at me with a pleasant smile. “I know you
won't let him touch you. You're more consumed with trying to touch
me
.”

Boy was he right. And
hopefully the day would lead to more of that. Now that I was
officially an adult, maybe he would treat me a little more like one.

* * *

When we got to the cove
we parked in our usual spot in front of the mountain of boulders and
got out of the truck. The sun was shining on us warmly at the moment,
but in the distance there were some approaching clouds that looked a
little angry.

Jonah nodded toward the
dark thunderhead as he took off his shoes and socks and threw them on
his floorboard. “I heard there's supposed to be a summer storm
today; it looks like it's heading our way.”

I reached onto the seat
and pulled my new pink bathing suit out of my purse. “Leave it
up to San Francisco to have a thunderstorm in the middle of summer,”
I chuckled as I shut the door and walked around the to other side.

Jonah's eyes fell on
the two pieces of pink fabric that I held in my hands. “Is that
your new suit?”