Newton Neighbors (New England Trilogy) (11 page)

He shrugged and crossed the distance to her.
 

“Hi, yourself. You look great.” He leaned over to kiss her on the cheek, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“You have a bike,” she said, glancing at his helmet and then mentally kicking herself for stating the obvious.
 

Dan held the enormous headgear under his arm and nodded. “Yep. You like bikes?” He grinned.

She bit her lip. “I don’t know. I’ve never been on one. I expect they’re very exciting but quite scary, too.”

He laughed. “You got it, girl. Are you ready to be excited?”

Jessie went straight for scared. “I don’t know if I have the right clothes, and I don’t own a helmet.”

“It’s okay.” He took her arm and guided her to the biggest motorcycle parked in the lot. “I have a second helmet for you, and I promise I won’t drive too fast.”

Up close, the machine looked even more intimidating. It was huge. He put the extra helmet on her head and clipped the toggle underneath. Jessie felt like a little girl getting dressed by her father. It was a long time since she’d experienced that.
 

Dan clipped his own helmet on and mounted the bike. When he kicked the pedal to fire up the mighty engine, she shrieked. He looked back as if to say “get on,” so she threw her leg over. It took a lot more effort than she thought it would. Then she settled on the padded seat and lodged her feet onto the pedals on either side.
 

She was acutely aware of how snugly her legs were wrapped around his body. At a loss for what to do with her hands, she placed them on her knees. Again, Dan looked back at her. Talking was almost impossible with the muffled helmets and noise of the engine, so he took both her hands and wrapped them around his waist, tight.
 

“You’re gonna need to hold on,” he yelled as the bike began to move forward.
 

Jessie was pretty sure it would have been very exciting if she dared to open her eyes. She never thought of herself as a coward before, but seeing the road rush by—just inches under her feet—terrified her. She knew if Dan crashed, they were both dead or worse.
Imagine if I break my neck and have to be hospitalized for life
, she thought in a panic. Here she was, over in America to get a qualification so she could help out at home, and she was taking chances that could result in her being in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Some help she would be to her family then.

“You okay?” Dan bellowed over his shoulder. They were driving out Route 9, away from the city and out of Newton.
 

“Yeah,” she yelled back without much conviction. Was he trying to scare her? That would be a bit tacky. She reckoned he must have felt her fear, because he slowed down. At the new speed, Jessie began to look around and tried to relax. It was a clear blue-sky afternoon, and Route 9 wasn’t congested. He turned off the larger road and drove for another few miles. They came to a gate that was closed to motorists, but with a little careful maneuvering he was able to get the motorbike through a pedestrian access and onto the private road. They drove for about another mile before arriving at what looked like a beautiful deserted beach on a private lake.
 

He cut the engine and glanced back over his shoulder to gesture she could dismount, which Jessie was more than happy to do. Her legs felt wobbly, but she managed to unclip the helmet strap and pull it off.
 

“Enjoy that?” he asked, pulling off his own helmet—again with that amazing smile.

It was impossible not to smile back at him, so she did and nodded, too. Just like the last time she’d seen him, he had slight stubble peppering his chin. His hair was a bit messed up after the helmet, but he combed it through with his fingers, and she caught a glimpse of his tattoo again.

“What did it feel like?” he pressed her for a reaction.

Jessie was a little tongue-tied. The truth was she’d been terrified and thought she was crazy to be on the back of a bike. She thought he was even crazier to own one, but it was exciting, too. “Exhilarating,” she finally said.

He looked at her and laughed. “Exhilarating?” He said it like it was a new word to him. “I like that. I guess it’s a good start to a date—exhilarating.”
 

“This place is pretty.” Jessie looked out over the water. “Where are we?”

“I wanted to take you here because it’s kinda special to me. It’s called Morses Pond.”

“That’s no pond,” she said with a laugh. “It’s a bloody lake.”

“You think?”

“Oh, what do I know? Everything seems bigger in the States.”

He raised his eyebrow and gave her a predatory grin. “Everything?”

Jessie felt herself blushing. Was he asking what she thought he was asking? Just as fast as his wolfish grin appeared, it faded again. “During the summer it’s real busy with a boardwalk and lifeguards, but now it’s all shut up for the winter. It’ll be frozen over in a few more months. I spent all my summers here when I was young, and I love it.”
 

Dan went over to the lifeguard hut which was boarded up for the winter with a
no trespassing
sign nailed on the door. He started to scour the ground until he found a few pebbles. She watched him move to the water’s edge where he stopped and focused on the lake. He furrowed his brows in concentration, arched his right arm back, and snapped it forward so fast she could barely follow it, but she saw the little pebble skip along the water’s surface easy enough.

“Wow, five, six, seven—that’s great!” she said.

“Eight, nine, ten.” He kept counting as the pebble seemed to defy gravity and bounce on top of the water until it slipped down into the inky blue.
 

She walked over to him. “I’ve never seen a pebble go so far before. How’d you do that?”

He shrugged. “I’ve done fifteen, but it depends on the stone, the water, the wind. Too many variables.” He looked at the sky as if the weather was to blame for his lower than average score.

“Well, I’m impressed. Show me how you did it.”

He glanced at her with a look of mild surprise. “You never learned to skip stones?”

She shook her head. “Come on, share your secrets.”

He laughed. “I’d rather teach you how to skip pebbles!”

They searched for stones, and Dan explained how they bounced better if the pebbles were disk shape and smooth, but they were difficult to find. After a while, they had a small bundle and the lesson began.

He stood behind her and took her right hand in his. “You need to focus on the surface of the water. Don’t think about the stone.” Dan placed a pebble in the palm of her right hand, but she couldn’t concentrate on the lake. How could she think about that with the warmth of his body pushing against hers? She smelled his aftershave, and when he leaned forward, his chest pressed into her back. Jessie felt him pull her arm back, but they weren’t working together and he almost knocked her over when he tried to throw her arm forward too fast.

The little stone arched in the air and sank into the water with a satisfying plop.

“That was probably the worst skip I’ve ever seen,” he said.

“It’s harder than it looks.”

“Let’s try again.” He bent down and took another pebble from their stash. This time she really tried to listen to him and work with his body, and the result was better. The second stone bounced once before it sank.

“Success,” she shouted and glanced over her shoulder at him. He smiled back. They were so close. It would have been easy for him to kiss her, but he looked away at the ground as if he were scouring for more pebbles. His reaction frustrated Jessie, so she focused on her stone bouncing.

The third one sank like a brick.
 

“The secret is all in the wrist action,” he said. “Watch me do it.” He stood back from her, giving her the perfect excuse to study his form as he again stood, legs apart, leaning back a little. He stared hard at the water, his face solemn. He looked even cuter with his serious face on and his lips slightly open. She had been watching his mouth so intently that she missed the actual throw. The stone bounced along the water’s surface again, but it sank too fast.

“That one wasn’t so good.” He scowled.

“Bad stone, I say.”
 

She was over the terror of the bike ride, and he looked like he was enjoying himself, too.

“So tell me, Jessie, what do you think you’ll do after your year at college here?”
 

“I’m going home. I have to. My family’s in England,” she said. They both sat down on the beach and looked out on the water. “What about you? You settled in New England?”

He looked out over the water and nodded. “This is where I grew up. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

This is good
, she thought. They were laying out the parameters of their relationship straight away. Sometimes it was a pain being a psychology major. But it was good to know, just the same. Wasn’t it better to be open and honest from the start?

“Hungry?” he asked.

“Yes.” She braced herself for the fact they were going to have to drive to get to any restaurant—Morses Pond was deserted.
 

Dan jumped to his feet. “Stay here. I’ll be right back,” he said and jogged back to the motorcycle.

She hadn’t seen the storage space on the bike and was surprised when he arrived back to her with a promising looking brown paper bag.

“Dan, a picnic? How clever are you?” Even though it was November and back in England it would have been impossible to eat out, in Massachusetts it was hit and miss. Some days it was so cold Jessie needed gloves, but the next day she could be in jeans and a T-shirt. Today was a little cool for the T-shirt, but she was more than happy to sit out with Dan to eat and chat.

“Who says romance is dead?” He smiled as he opened the bag and pulled out two sandwiches, potato chips, and two cans of soda.

“This is perfect,” Jessie said, and she meant it. At first she’d been a bit surprised when he suggested collecting her midafternoon. She was used to first dates being an evening affair. They usually involved dinner, wine, and some guy trying to get as much action as he could. This was different. Dan, it seemed, was different.

“I’m guessing the beach is man-made.” She stroked the sand they were sitting on.

He nodded because he had a mouth full of bread and turkey.

“In England, where I live, it’s quite a distance from the sea, but we’ve nothing like this. There’s a town pool, but it has to be indoors. Dorking is too cold—even in the summer.”

“Hey, wait for the cold. Believe me, New England winters are big.”

“So I’ve been told. I’m looking forward to the snow. We don’t get much of that in the UK.”

“Well, you should have enough here to last you a lifetime. But the skiing is great.”

“You ski?”

“As much as I can. You?”

She shook her head. “Lots of the kids did back in college in London, but there was never enough money in our house for that.”

“I’ll take you this winter if you like,” he said.

“Are you a bit of a speed junkie?”

“Fast bikes, fast snow, fast women.” He laughed and looked at her sideways so she knew he was joking.

“I’m into slow bikes, slow snow, and even slower men,” she said in a small voice. He furrowed his brow.
 

“I should have picked you up on my bicycle? Might have taken a bit longer to get here.” He reached over and stroked her cheek, and the mood between them changed. Their eyes met. “I can go slow, Jessie,” he said, and her stomach flipped.
 

Was he going to kiss her? It felt right—natural. But then, just as fast, he looked away and stood up.

“Did you hear that?” he said. “Sounded like thunder to me. Don’t think you’d like to ride in the rain. That would kinda spoil the day. I should get you home before the storm hits.”

Jessie blinked, coming out of the daydream she was in. There she was, thinking about kissing him, and now he was talking about driving her home. Did that mean the date was over—already?
 

Dan had their lunch things in the paper bag in seconds. He was just as quick putting Jessie’s helmet back on her head, and he drove fast taking her home. Again she hung on tight, but she wasn’t so scared this time. Jessie adapted fast. That’s what all her tutors had said about her. She knew she could change to suit a new set of circumstances, which was good, because this wasn’t like any date she’d been on before. Dan hadn’t even made a move on her. How frustrating.

There was no way she was going to sleep with him yet, but she’d been looking forward to a bit of romance. Every guy she’d ever dated had made a move on her on the first date. Why hadn’t he?

She tried to hide her disappointment when he got her back to the dorm. It was only five o’clock. Jessie had assumed the date would last for the entire afternoon when he’d suggested a three o’clock pickup.

“Looks like it’s not going to rain after all,” she said, trying to sound more chipper than she felt and also hinting at the fact they could stay out longer if he wanted. Dan didn’t take the hint. He took his helmet off but didn’t dismount from the motorcycle.