Page 7 of Fast Track to Forever
Stepping into Kat’s room is like stepping into a time capsule, but I don’t want to be that shy boy anymore, and I don’t want her to see me that way. Maybe this is why I’ve stayed away for so long. I’m scared I’ll become the Giraffe again. And I can’t help but zip up around her. She glows. I glower. How could she ever like me as anything other than a fond childhood memory?
“Take a seat.” She gestures to the bed while she busies herself with taking several pieces of jewellery out of drawers.
I sit down and nearly sink into the bed. “Whoa!” I stabilize myself with one hand.
“Please don't break my bed.” She chuckles.
My mouth opens and closes like a fish. A fleeting image of her and I tangled in this bed paralyses my brain.
“You should see your face right now, Will. It's a picture.”
She rummages through the pieces of jewellery and shows me two bracelets. “Which one should I wear?” I make a mental note that she likes bracelets and file it away for later.
“Uh, maybe this one with the little padlock on it?” I point at the one in her left hand. She nods and slips it on her wrist. She tidies away the rest in her cabinet.
I notice the silence in the household for the first time. “Where are your mum and dad?”
She picks up her handbag and cocks her head to one side. “They've gone out.”
The idea that I'm finally alone with the woman I've always wanted gives me all the sweats. Nobody else has ever made me feel like this. Nobody else has come even close. I bunch my fist until my short nails dig into my palm. “If you're ready we can head off now.”
Her eyebrows rise but she doesn't say anything. Kat follows me out in the fresh evening summer air and locks the door behind her.
Kat
The car airconhums a silent whirr. I don't understand Will. I really don't. He's like a web of secrets. He behaves like I'm his younger tiresome sister. Yet he brought me flowers and asked me out to dinner. Albeit at his parents’ place. Apart from the hug yesterday, Will hasn't made a single move towards me. Will the Hermit. Damn.
I can’t take the whirring, awkward silence anymore, and I throw out the first words my brain can find.
“So tell me what should I expect at dinner with your family?”
His brow furrows. “I think Dad said stew and mashed potatoes. Maybe a chocolate dessert.”
I chuckle. “I don't mean the food. I mean is everything okay? Everyone getting along? No sore topics?”
A shadow crosses his face. “Apart from them still working there and not moving into the house I bought them, probably not. Oh, and me not having a proper career.”
I splutter. “What? I mean, fair enough about the house, they can live where they want to. But you're a race car world champion. Thatisa career.” I touch his arm. Tingles make their way from the tip of my fingers, straight to a sudden arousal. Don’t be ridiculous, Kat, I scold myself. It’s just fingertips on Will’s arm. His muscly, perfectly toned arm.
He opens his mouth to say something but closes it again. I continue to rest my palm on the back of his arm. It feels… natural. Will left when he was seventeen, right after he graduated high school. He always had that quiet determination, but I felt a restless energy when it was just him and me. I would have never picked him for a race car driver, but I knew that whatever he wanted to do, he would achieve it.
“I'm very proud of you, Will. You've done amazingly.”
He smiles, keeping his eyes on the road, and expertly pulling into the lodge’s driveway.
I squeeze his bicep, try not to notice how firm it is, then drop my hand to my lap and grasp for something else to move the conversation forward. “Are you staying with them at the back of the lodge?”
“I'm hanging out during the day but at night time I'm crashing in Sunshine Bay. I need a little bit of distance.”
When we get to the door, he rests his palm on the small of my back and it sends a shiver right through me. It’s definitely not just the cold air. My body is sending all these mixed signals and my brain is too confused to interpret them. Shush, body. It’s Will! We’re friends. Or…
“Katarina!” Mrs. de Jong envelops me in a warm hug. “We haven't seen you in forever. Look at you, you've grown so much.”
“Not as much as Will,” I chime back, with a glance at him. “Can't believe we used to call him the Giraffe. Now he's more like the Eiffel Tower.”
“Hard like steel and attracting tourists.” Daryl's voice rings out from the hallway.
No, he didn't just say that. I suppress laughter. Will is covering his face with his hands, looking genuinely upset. Mrs. de Jong quickly changes the subject.
