Page 42 of Through the Fire
“What?”
“Details!”
He struggled to put what made Kit so incredible into words. “When she’s just being polite, she smiles with her lips together. When she means it—when she thinks something is funny or I say something that she honestly likes—her teeth show.”
With an exaggerated sigh, Leila said, “Give me the basics first. You can’t start with her toothy grin like she’s the reappearing Cheshire cat.”
“You know I hate Alice in Wonderland references.”
“I know, and rightfully so. It’s a creepy book and even creepier movie. Back on track, though. Is Kit short? Tall? Round? Skinny? Black? White? Hair color? Length? Give me something I can mentally slap that smile onto.”
“I’d estimate she’s five feet and two inches. She’s not round or skinny, but athletic, like she exercises rigorously and consistently. I haven’t asked her what her ethnic background is, but I’d guess that at least one of her parents is of Asian descent. Her hair is black. It was all up in a bun, but I believe it would be long when loose.” Now he was picturing how it would feel to release her hair from the knot it was twisted into, to watch it fall heavily over her shoulders and down her back in a dark sheet of silk. Uncomfortably warm, he coughed to ease the constriction in his throat.
“That’s perfect, Wes. She sounds gorgeous.”
“Yes.” In his mind, Kit was both perfect and gorgeous.
“What happened the other times you met her?” Leila asked eagerly. A corner of Wes’s mouth twitched up at her excitement. He hadn’t expected her to be so thrilled that he’d met someone he liked. “Did you ask her out?”
“No.” His small smile died. “I was planning to during our last meeting, but her partner interrupted before I had a chance.”
There was a shocked pause on the other end of the call. Wes didn’t know what had caused his sister’s silence, so he kept his mouth shut, waiting for her to tell him.
“Her…partner?” she finally repeated, and Wes understood her surprise.
“Kit is a police officer. A member of the K9 unit,” he explained.
Leila’s relieved sigh was loud enough to make Wes pull the phone away from his ear. “Oh! Partner. I thought you were talking about a partner-partner.”
“What?”
“Never mind. The important part is that this Kit is single. She’s single, right?”
“As far as I know. She wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.” Even as he tried to assure his sister, doubt filled him. A lot of people didn’t wear rings, after all. Maybe he’d imagined the interest on her part. The thought brought him back to his reason for calling. “I need you to tell me if she’s flirting or just being nice.”
“O…kay.” She sounded doubtful. “What did you say to her, and what did she say back?”
Wes recounted their conversations to the best of his ability, which he knew was pretty accurate. Everything Kit said was burned into his memory. It was embarrassing, sharing his awkward first encounters with his sister, but it was worth it to get her take. He needed more data, and Leila was excellent at interpersonal interactions, something he had never mastered. He felt like he could understand Kit better than he could most people, since she seemed so straightforward, but he didn’t trust himself. Reading people wasn’t one of his strengths, and he needed a second opinion.
“Huh.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. “What? Do you think she’s not interested?”
“No.” His heart gave a hopeful little hop, only to sag at her next words. “Maybe. I’d need to watch her while she’s talking to you to give a more definitive answer.”
“Do you want to come visit me?”
She laughed. “I do, but I can’t. It’s this damn dissertation. I’m in the homestretch and determined that I’m going to finish it before Christmas.”
Disappointment struck, but only for a moment before an idea occurred to him. “Next time we talk, I could take a video of her.”
“Nope.” Leila’s response was firm. “That is guaranteed to backfire horrifically. She’s going to think you’re either a weirdo who takes excessively long selfies or a perv. Do you know how many movies I’ve seen where this exact thing happened and the guy always, always regrets doing such a stupid thing?”
“You shouldn’t base your decisions on what works in the movies,” Wes said, although he mentally nixed the idea of capturing video of Kit. Even as the thought of recording her had popped into his head, he’d dismissed it. Leila had just confirmed his original instinct—she was always right when it came to things like this.
“Promise me no hidden video,” she said.
“Promise. You sure you can’t come and visit?”
