Chapter 135
“Hey, Cass,” Jamie said, smiling at me. “How are you?”
“Great,” I replied, trying to sound excited. “How are you?”
“Not too bad, thanks. Ready to get you up to Des Moines so you’re up to speed with everyone.” He sounded like he was repeating something Aaron would say, not like himself exactly, but I just nodded.
I looked at Christian for a second and managed an awkward smile with a mumbled, “Hi,” and he awkwardly smiled back at me. Jamie turned and looked at him but then made an expression like he was used to this sort of strange behavior.
“Cassidy has her laptop set up in the dining room,” my mom said, ushering them that direction as she closed the door. I took a few steps backward and they followed. I wasn’t sure if my mom was done with her thought, so I said nothing, and by the time I figured out she was, we were almost in the other room, and I felt like a weirdo again.
My laptop was on the dining room table. I had decided Christian didn’t belong in my bedroom. I opened it and said, “Do you need my password, in case it restarts or something?”
“Uh, probably not,” Christian replied, “but if I do, I’ll get it from Jamie.”
“Okay.” I wondered why he didn’t just want me to write it down but thought it was probably a good thing that he wasn’t insistent that I just hand it over to him. “Is there anything else you need?”
“Do you have any bottled water?” Christian asked, his hands on his hips.
I had meant computer related, so his question threw me off a bit. “Uh….”
“I’ll get it,” my mom said, squeezing my shoulder as she walked by. “Would you like a glass of ice?”
“No, thank you,” Christian replied, as if ice was repulsive. I usually tried to avoid looking at him because there was something about him that gave me the heebie-jeebies, but I couldn’t help but stare in awe right now. He was so weird….
“Here you go,” Mom said, handing it to him, and he plucked it out of her hand with a quick thanks and pulled the chair out in front of my laptop, causing me to jump backward to keep from getting hit by it.
“Shall we go?” Jamie asked as Christian began the sort of frantic typing one might see at the airport. I could tell Jamie was slightly amused at his friend’s behavior but that he was also used to it, and I wondered if it was anything at all like my appreciation of all things Emma, though I hated to compare her to Christian.
“Yes,” I nodded, turning to look at my mom.
She put her arm around my shoulder and walked with us to the door. I grabbed my phone and cross body bag off the table next to the door and my sunglasses from the little bowl I kept them in. “Now, drive carefully, Dr. Joplin,” my mother said, her arm still draped around me. “I know you can put her back together, but I’d just as soon keep her in one piece. She’s more fragile than the other young ladies you’re used to working with.”
“Yes, Mrs. Findley,” Jamie replied, smiling at my mother hen. I could feel my face turning red. Why did my mother have to be so embarrassing?
“Be careful, honey,” she said, kissing me on the head.
“I will.” I hugged her back but didn’t kiss her on the cheek like I usually did. She looked a little hurt, so I rolled my eyes and gave her a quick peck.
“Have a good time.”
“I’ll have her back in a few hours,” Jamie assured her as he opened the door and I followed him outside. Why did I feel like I was going on a date? My mom had a way of taking awkward situations and making them impossible.
My sentiment didn’t change when Jamie opened the door for me. If he pulled out a corsage, I was bailing. Of course, he didn’t, but he did close the door for me before running—in slow motion, for him—around to the driver’s side and climbing in beside me.
“Well, that was… weird,” he said, starting the engine. He pulled out some dark sunglasses and put them on, and I tried not to think of him as the same special agent type individual who had whisked my sister away from her first Vampire encounter.
“You think?” I said, rolling my eyes. “My mom, God love her, sure knows how to embarrass a person.”
“Oh, you’re mom’s fine,” he argued, turning the corner at the end of the street. He was driving just as recklessly as he had the last time I was in a vehicle with him at the helm. “I was actually referring to Christian.”
“I can totally see that, too,” I agreed. “But my mom talked to you like....” I stopped myself. I definitely couldn’t say what I was thinking.
“Like I was taking you to the prom?” he asked, merging onto the highway going the speed my dad goes when he’s out on the open road.
“Uh, yeah.” I wanted to grab the bar above the door but didn’t do it. Jamie just snickered. “Explain to me why you guys drive so fast?” It probably shouldn’t have been a question, but it came out that way. Elliott had done the same thing in the Lamborghini once, though I got the impression he was either trying to scare me, or he thought I’d have fun flying down the highway. I had no idea what Jamie’s objective was.
“Am I scaring you?” he asked, weaving out from behind a semi-truck and evading a minivan that happened to be changing lanes. The other drivers just kept on going like it was no big deal, like they didn’t even notice, and I realized we were going so fast, we might’ve seemed like a blur to them.
“Not scaring exactly,” I said, trying to relax. “Just… different than, say, my dad.”
He laughed but didn’t take his eyes off the road, which I was thankful for. “Don’t worry. I’m not driving nearly as fast as this vehicle is capable of going or my reflexes will allow. You’re perfectly safe.”
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