Page 84 of Fighting For Light
“Maybe.” I shift in my seat, a little sore from last night, but I’m certainly not mad about it.
“Speaking of furniture, I was looking at rocking chairs for you.” He picks up his phone and hands it to me. He tells me his code, and I tap on his web browsing app. It’s not a website for purchasing baby furniture. It’s a website for furniture design.
“Wait, Kai. This is tobuilda rocking chair. Are you going to try to build me a rocking chair?”
“Well, yeah, I wanted to build you a crib, but I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to do both. So I picked a rocking chair if that’s okay with you.”
My heart does that fluttery thing when he makes an effort to do anything for me, even hand me the salt. In other words, myheart has felt like that since he carried me into his house. “I didn’t know you knew how to build anything.”
“We have lots more to learn about each other.”
“I’m surprised every day because you’re my best friend. I figured we knew almost everything there was to know.”
The GPS says we have about an hour to go and plenty of time to learn something new. “I’ll start then. I actually remodeled the kitchen and bathroom myself.”
My jaw drops. “No way,” I mutter. He chuckles and checks his mirrors before changing lanes.
“Lots of YouTube, and I may or may not have hired a contractor to teach me as I went.”
“That’s commitment,” I say, leaning against the armrest.
He turns and looks me in the eye for a moment that feels like hours but is only seconds, and says, “When I commit myself to something, gem, I’m all in.”
Breath whooshes from my lungs, and blood pulses through my body. “I really wish we weren’t going to a freestyle competition.”
He grins. “So tell me something you don’t think I know about you.”
I adjust the vents in the truck because I’m too overheated for comfort for multiple reasons. The further south we go, the warmer it gets. “Hmm, I have to think about that one.” Kai leans over and turns the AC all the way down, increasing the fan speed. “Thank you,” I mutter. He hums and waits for me to tell him something. “I really like puzzles.”
“Huh, interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you do a puzzle.”
I shrug, looking out at the landscape and other cars on the road. “I don’t have much time to do them, and when you live in an RV full-time, there isn’t room for them.”
“Then, we should get some for the house,” he offers.
“I’d like that. You, next. Tell me something I don’t know about you because clearly, there is more than I thought there was.”
“Well, you know about my family. That was most of it. You know, basically everything else. But did you know that I like reading? I don’t do it much, no time for it, but I do it when I can.”
“What kind of books?” I ask.
He thinks for a moment, and his fingers drum on the steering wheel. “For a while, I was reading about families who helped build the country, so I guess that was more historical. Then I was reading about military strategy, but I guess that was more for…a purpose.”
“But do you read anything fun? Like fiction?” I stare at his profile with his strong jaw and clean-shaven face. It’s hard to have a beard when you’re constantly in a helmet; it gets irritating. His hair has grown out a little. It’s not as short on the sides, and it’s longer on top. I love running my fingers through it. My eyes go from his face, down his strong column of a neck, to his broad shoulders, cut arms, and to his hand on the steering wheel.
He clears his throat. “I can feel your eyes all over me,” he says in a gravelly tone.
I reach for his free hand and link my fingers with his. “You didn’t answer my question.”
His hand grips mine back. “Yes, I read fiction,” he says.
I tilt my head, looking at him a little longer, only because I know he can feel it. “What kind of fiction, daredevil?”
He shrugs. “You know. Action and adventure, thrillers…”
A smile grows on my face, and I get to my knees awkwardly, ignoring my seatbelt, and lean forward to his ear. “And?” I say, drawing the word out.
He visibly shudders, and satisfaction rolls through me. I will never get over the way he reacts to me.
