Valentine Wishes (Baxter Academy Book 1) Read online

  Maybe someday I’ll convince her to go. It would be fun. Hell, it would be great.

  We pull into a hot dog stand that I went to with my uncle and his kids a few weeks ago. Loved the chili dogs with onions and have been hungry for since. Then again, perhaps I should avoid the onions. At least not on a date.

  “I love this place.” Jacqueline gets out of the car before I have a chance to open her door. I grab her hand as we stroll up to the window. We could have parked in a closer spot, and a waitress would have come to us, but I don’t really want to eat in the car, even if they have cool trays that are supported by your window.

  A perky waitress comes to the open counter. It’s open on three sides, with windows to shut when it’s closed. Tall bar stools are placed at the counters and some people are sitting at them. Others are at the round tables, while some eat in their cars.

  “What can I get for you?” the girl asks.

  “Chili dog basket, but only one chili dog instead of two,” Jacqueline answers. “And a root beer.”

  “Anything besides chili?”

  “Onions.”

  Well, if my date’s going to have onions, so am I.

  “What will you have?” she asks me.

  “Same, but two dogs.”

  I give her my name and then Jacqueline and I find a table and take a seat.

  “Things still going good at the camp?”

  “Yep. The kids are great this round.”

  They call my name and I go grab our food. Jackie unwraps a chili dog and bites into it. I’m focused on those lips and the dog and our Sunday morning conversation comes back to me in a flash. That perfectly rounded mouth sinking over the bun and dog…I shut off the image and hope my dick doesn’t get any harder.

  “That’s great. I mean about the campers, and that.” I finally manage to say and quickly take a drink of my root beer.

  “It is.” She dips a fry into some ketchup. “But Theo pointed out, we aren’t really giving these kids a break and that it should be a high school.”

  I give it some thought. “A high school like that would be great, but I don’t see how it’s possible.”

  “Me either. It’s too bad though. A ton of kids could benefit but I haven’t a clue how something like that could even be developed.”

  “You do want to be a principal one day,” I point out.

  A small smile comes to her face. “Yeah, I do. Maybe one day, once I’ve got some experience, I’ll figure it out.” She crumples up the paper from her hot dog and sets it aside. “So, have you decided on a house?”

  “No. I don’t think I want to buy yet.”

  She nods.

  “I’m just not ready. Hopefully I can find a decent place to rent though. And soon. I’m sure my aunt and uncle would like to see me gone, not that they’ve said anything, but I am taking up half of their basement and I really want to get in my own place.”

  “Me too.” She blinks up at me. “Not that I want you in your own place.” Her face turns pink. “I want my own place. It’s hard going back home after living on your own, but I don’t see that happening until next summer.”

  My heart stops for a minute. Does that mean she isn’t taking the job in Queens? Do I even ask?

  “It’s better that I stay home and help Theo, and hope I can get a good job next year, after he graduates.”

  It’s all I can do to keep from grinning. Since I met Jackie, and not knowing if she was going to be here or in Queens, it’s been kind of hard deciding where I want to live. If she was going to be in Queens, I’d find a place in Albany, so I’d be closer to the train station for trips into New York. But, since she is going to be around here, I’ll go back to looking for a place to rent between the two towns. Even if things don’t work out, I’m only stuck with the place for a year whereas a mortgage is a lifetime, or until I could sell it, and that’s just too much of a pain in the ass at this point in my life.

  I crumple the papers and toss them in the empty French fry container. “Ice cream?”

  Jackie pats her flat stomach and shakes her head. “Rain check? If I eat anything else, it won’t be pretty.”

  I have to chuckle. I’m a bit full too, but I ate all of my meal. She polished off one chili dog, and only about a third of her fries.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  “Family picnic, remember,” she says it with a grimace.

  “Right! Picnic.” I can’t imagine it would be so bad though.

  Her cell phone lights up and she glances at it and then frowns.

  “Something wrong?”

  “No.” She shakes her head then holds the phone out to me.

  It’s only just out of reach

  “You don’t know who it is?”

  “No.” She shrugs and sets it aside.

  I glance at the phone. She had put it on the table beside her as soon as we sat.

  “Sorry.” She cringes. “I know it’s rude, but I’m one of the administrators of the camp and after last week, they need to be able to get a hold of me in case there is another incident.”

  “I get that.” At least she didn’t have it out in hopes of a more interesting conversation.

  “I only check to see if it’s them. If it’s not, it gets ignored. I promise.”

  “Or a stranger sends a text.”

  Her face turns pink. “Sorry. It just took me by surprise.”

  I just chuckled. “Don’t worry about it.” I’ll only worry about it if she starts taking calls that are not Baxter related.

  Then again, this is the second odd text she’s gotten when she’s with me. “Are you getting those a lot?”

  Jackie just shrugs. “I think I’ve gotten six.”

  “When did they start?”

  She scrunches her nose in thought. “The first one was last week after I left Sullivan’s to come look for you and your flat tire.”

  It is probably nothing, but I just can’t let it go. It’s not in my profession to do so, even if it is probably something as simple as a wrong number.

  “I should probably respond and let them know they have a wrong number.”

  “Don’t.” I don’t know why I blurted that out, but for some reason I can’t explain, I don’t want her responding, or encouraging whomever it is. Shouldn’t they have figured out by now they do have wrong number?

  This is stupid. I’m on a date, not at work. Senseless texts that are probably just being sent by accident. I need to stop working my day job when on dates with Jackie.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I love this little area between Baxter and town. It has the diner that Ashley and I meet at on Friday mornings, the hot dog stand, an ice cream shack and a drive-in theatre.

  It’s as if this little area never really left the fifties. As the rest of the world moved forward, this place showed no progression. Families are everywhere. While parents talk, kids are playing on the swings and slides. Brett grabs my hand as we walk back to his car. The sun is starting to go down and I’m wondering what we are going to do next.

  He pulls out of the parking lot and instead of turning left or right on the main highway, he crosses to the newly paved road leading into the drive in. Tonight they are showing Jungle Book and That Touch of Mink. All movies are family friendly and old, like tonight.

  “Up for a movie?”

  “Sure.” I have not been here since I was in high school and they still play two movies a night. Families or couples can come and go as they please, or watch both. The first one, which will start shortly, is a kids’ show. They always start with something to entertain the little ones and usually before it is over, the kids are happily asleep in the back of cars and the adults can enjoy a movie or two. It is a great way to have family time that turns into a date with your spouse without having to pay a sitter.

  “You know what I like about drive ins,” Brett says after he finds a spot that is not too close to the concessions or bathroom, where people will be constantly walking by the car, but not so close to the screen th
at it will be difficult to watch.

  “What?”

  “I can comment and not worry about people shushing me or disturbing them.”

  “You’re a movie talker?” I assumed the Boy Scout would be respectful of all and not utter a single sound once a movie started.

  “Not talker, per se, but I sometimes comment.” He looks over at me a bit shyly. “Sometimes I just want to talk to the person I’m with. You can do that in a car.”

  “What if I don’t want to talk,” I tease. “You do realize that the second movie has Cary Grant.”

  “So?” He asks slowly.

  “Well, nobody comes between me and Cary, if I can help it.”

  He chuckles and shakes his head.

  “What?”

  “Not Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp?”

  “They don’t hold a candle to Cary Grant.” I sigh. “They just don’t make men like they used to.”

  “You know, it could be they just don’t make movies like they used to.”

  “Then maybe they should start.”

  “Whew!” Brett leans back and unbuckles his seatbelt. “And here I was afraid you wouldn’t want to see these movies.”

  “Oh, I’ll take a classic movie any day. Especially if it has-”

  “Cary Grant,” he finishes for me.

  We aren’t so much watching the movie as laughing half way through Jungle Book. I hadn’t noticed until the movie started that all of the cars around us have kids in them. Kids that sing at the top of their lungs with every single song. I don’t care and it’s fun.

  “One pretty face, flirting eyes, and a guy leaves his best friends behind,” Brett says as the credits roll.

  “He should have ignored her and hung out with the bear for the rest of his life?” I laugh.

  “Of course not.” Brett grins and turns toward me. “I mean, a bear is great to pal around with, of course, but a girl, well, they are a lot more fun.”

  I quirk an eyebrow. “Really?”

  “Well, in a different kind of way.”

  The cars around us start up and within five minutes we are practically the only car in our little area of the drive in.

  This is turning out to be an almost perfect date. At first I was worried when all the kids around us starting singing because it wasn’t exactly the mood I was going for when I decided on the drive in, but Jackie seemed to enjoy herself. And, now the kids are gone. If any other cars show up next to mine, there will probably only be adults in them.

  The one drawback is that the front seat of Uncle Quinn’s car is that it isn’t a bench seat. I’d really like to sit closer to her, my arm around her shoulders, maybe more. This is a drive in. Isn’t making out kind of required? But, how do I get her in the backseat without being obvious?

  She comes out of the bathroom about the time I get the drinks and hold them so I can hit the restroom before we walk back to the car. When I come out, she is now holding a cardboard holder with our drinks, a bag of popcorn and candy.

  Jackie shrugs and smiles. “It’s weird watching a movie without popcorn. And it is—”

  “—Cary Grant. I know.” I laugh and walk with her back to the car and then look at the food again. “You know, my uncle told me no food in the front seat.”

  She lifts and eyebrow and smirks. “Really, Boy Scout, that’s the best line you can come up with to get me in the backseat.”

  Shit, did I just piss her off? Overstep?

  “Well, open the door so I can slide in.” She lifts the tray. “My hands are kind of full.”

  My embarrassment only mounts, but I open her door. She hands me her tray and then grabs the release so the passenger seat folds forward and she slides in. I give her back the tray and hurry around to the driver’s side.

  “This is much better,” she says as she slides closer to me.

  “Yes it is.” My arm goes around her shoulder and she rests her head on mine.

  A car pulls in beside mine and cuts the engine. Shit. So much for being alone.

  Another pulls next to the passenger side. A teenage guy in the front seat gives me an approving nod and cocky smile.

  So much for making out with Jackie in the backseat of my uncle’s car. Too many people around and I sure as hell don’t need approval from a kid that probably just got his license.

  “This reminds me of when I was in high school,” Jackie says.

  “Spend a lot of time here?”

  “Like almost every weekend. There isn’t much else to do in the summers.”

  The movie starts and she snuggles closer against me. I may be watching the movie but my mind is on kissing her, and more. It doesn’t help that the people in the cars on either side of us disappeared, without leaving their cars and I have a fairly good idea of what activity is going on in them. I just can’t bring myself to do the same. Besides, every time I decide I’m just going to kiss her, some asshole walks by the car. By the time the credits are rolling, I haven’t kissed her once.

  “Well, that sucks,” I say when it’s over.

  “What?” She’s looking at me as if she’s afraid I didn’t like it.

  I can’t tell her it’s because we didn’t make out. “After all that, he finally gets the girl and he has hives.”

  She laughs. “Commitment does that to guys sometimes.”

  I shiver. I don’t have anything against commitment, I’m just not ready for an until death do us part speech. However, if I were in that same situation and Jackie was upstairs in a bedroom waiting for me, I sure as hell wouldn’t get hives. At least I hope not. Performance anxiety at its worst.

  I wonder if he even got them on his dick. That would really suck.

  I laugh at myself. It’s a damn movie, but still makes me wonder if a guy does get hives, does he get them there too, because that would majorly suck.

  “What’s wrong?” Jackie is looking at me oddly.

  “Just thinking about hives in uncomfortable places.”

  She bursts out laughing then climbs through the opening of the two front seats, that perfect ass right in my face. I give it a quick slap, but not enough to actually hurt.

  Jackie yelps and gets in her seat. There’s no way I can do the same, and push the driver’s side forward so I can get out.

  “Why did you do that?”

  “It was there. It’s perfect. I couldn’t help myself.”

  “So, are you into slaps and things like that,” she asks out of curiosity.

  Hell no, is my first reaction, but I hold that in. “No.”

  “Oh.” She seems almost disappointed. Maybe I should find out what Jackie is into and what she’s not before we go further.

  “Would you want me to slap you?” I finally ask as I pull into the line of cars leaving the drive-in, hoping her answer is no.

  “Oh, no.” She’s waving her hands as if it’s something she would not go for. “But, I do have a little confession to make.” She holds her index finger and thumb about an inch apart.

  “What?”

  “When your uncle stopped me that morning. I was watching you, wishing it was you stopping me, and alone, and that maybe being in your handcuffs wouldn’t be so bad.”

  “So, bondage but no slapping,” I clarify, as if taking her seriously, though just the idea is so far out of my comfort zone I’m not sure what to think.

  “Actually, no.” She looks down as if embarrassed. “I’ve never considered either as something I’d want to try. It was just a thought that popped into my head while you were waiting for your uncle.”

  Thank goodness. I’m all for having fun in the bedroom, but not into bondage or any of that. I look at Jackie out of the corner of my eye. Then again, I think I’d try just about anything with her. I reach over and caress her wrist with the tips of my fingers. “If I were to use handcuffs on you, they’d be the furry kind. I’d hate to chafe such lovely skin.”

  Her face turns a bright red. “Let’s don’t and say you did.”

  I burst out laughing just as the cars f
inally start to move again.

  ***

  Uncle Quinn and Aunt Helen are up and watching television when I get home. It’s kind of late and I didn’t expect them to be awake.

  “You didn’t wreck my car did you?”

  Did he stay up because he was worried about the car? “No.”

  “No scratches or dings.”

  I shake my head. He acts like it is one of his kids.

  “No spills?”

  “Nothing. It’s exactly how I left with it, except for a little dust from the drive-in.”

  “Nice back seat.” He’s grinning.

  “Quinn,” Aunt Helen chastises.

  There is no way in hell I’m telling my uncle that Jackie and I were in the backseat so I shrug. “It looked nice.”

  A look of concern comes over his face. “Do we need to have the talk? I know my brother-in-law wasn’t around much, but I thought you would have figured out a few things by now. If you didn’t use the backseat…”

  “Good night, Uncle Quinn.” I can’t help but chuckle as I head down the stairs.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Some men have everything

  And some have none

  I have no idea when that text was sent but it was the first thing I saw when I unplugged my phone from the charger. These are creeping me out and I was just about to respond and ask who it is, even though Brett told me not to, but my grandmother calls up that breakfast is ready. Hopefully they’ll figure out they have a wrong number and go away.

  Instead of eating, Theo’s pushing the scrambled eggs around on his plate. Like the day before, and the ones before that, he’s pale and there are circles under his eyes. “I wish you would take your meds.”

  “Good morning to you too, dear sister.”

  “Leave him alone,” my grandmother chastises. “We’re seeing the doctor on Monday. I’m sure there’s something to help with his headaches.”

  “Maybe he should try the stuff he’s already been prescribed.” I know he hasn’t really given the meds a chance. I checked his bottles after our little talk. He maybe took about five of the pills, each. It’s like he’s not even giving them a chance and I know for a fact the one that is supposed to help with his depression isn’t an overnight med, but needs to build of up in the system to be any good.