Page 72 of Jake and Conner
If my suspicions were correct...
"C'mon, Bailey," I said, getting myself dressed. "We're heading out on a little adventure."
* * *
Mary did indeed havea shift at the ice cream parlor that day. She greeted me as I walked in and asked if I wanted to order, though, as if she had no idea what her brother was scheming.
"Did Conner come by earlier?" I asked, anyway.
Mary grinned and bent down to pet my dog. "You know my brother is at work today."
"You sure he didn't give you anything for me?"
"He might have," Mary mused, moving on to wipe down a table near where I was standing. "But I wouldn't know anything about that unless you agreed to do me a favor."
"What kind of favor?"
"Oh, don't worry, it's a small thing." Mary's grin grew wider, which did nothing to reassure me. "I only want you to take this little letter and place it on Livvy's pillow.Without reading it," she added as she pulled an envelope out of her apron.
My eyebrows climbed my forehead. "Are you serious?" I'd never known that Mary had a thing for mysister. "Livvy has a boyfriend, you know."
"True, but he's a douche."
I gaped at Mary in a less than dignified way because I couldn't argue with that. "He might be a douche, but he was her choice," I made myself say, recalling my parents' advice to let Livvy make her own mistakes.
"Don't get so dramatic, Jake. I'm not asking you to be my accomplice in adultery. I'm only asking you to deliver a simple message." She waved the envelope in her hand, glancing left and right to check if anyone was listening in to our conversation, but it was an unusually warm day today and the few customers who were around in the AM had taken to sitting outside in the sun. There was another employee on shift with her, but he paid us no mind.
"Fine," I grunted, mostly because Mary had something that I wanted--but also because I thought that she might actually make a better partner for my sister, even if it was weird if she and I both married into the same family. Not that Conner and I had made plans to marry yet...
Mary beamed at me. "Great. I knew I could count on you. If my brother likes you, you can't be an idiot." She extended the envelope to me. I took it.
"I think you have something else for me too," I reminded her.
"Oh, yeah, that. What's that about, anyway?" She dug a small strip of paper out of her pocket, turning it this way and that. "Conner said it was some sort of game." Mary glanced around the empty store again before her eyes settled back on me, glinting. "It's nothing kinky, is it?"
"I don't think it is." I snatched the paper from her. Bailey barked as if she wanted to take a look at it too. "Quiet, girl," I said, looking at the hint Conner had left for me.
There was a single line written on it in black ink.
You could sit here with me for hours.
"What does it mean?" Mary asked.
I shrugged as if I didn't know, although I did. I didn't even have to think about it for long. The park wasn't far from here, and as kids, we'd spent a lot of time there. Not necessarily on the playground, but in the shade of an old oak tree, resting comfortably against the thick stem. Conner usually brought a book and I'd had a couple of comics to keep me entertained, although I didn't always read them.
Conner probably didn't know this, but when I climbed up into the tree, it wasn't because I was getting restless but because I liked to watch him from above.
But telling him that would have been weird.
As I had expected, I found a note from Conner to me in an envelope tied to one of the oak's lower branches, right next to the heart shape I'd carved into the bark with a pen knife once when we were younger.J + C, it said inside, because I hadn't been the most original teenager, and honestly, the C looked very angular.
Conner had told me off too, when he saw it, claiming I was damaging the tree for no reason. I told him that I did have a reason, that I wanted to leave evidence of our love for future generations to find. Conner hadn't been impressed, but he'd called me an idiot and given me a kiss, which was how I knew that I was forgiven.
The note on the tree hung so low that I could get it without climbing--I only had to stretch a little. The small envelope held another piece of paper with a single line written on it.
You showed me what it was like to be kissed.
Okay, this one was easy. Conner was referring to our first kiss, which had happened in my tree house. I'd hung a mistletoe and lured him under it. The memory made me smile. I'd been so ridiculously nervous that day. And then Conner had fled the scene almost as soon as we'd parted and I hadn't known what to think at all.
