Reaper's Hollow: The Complete Series

Chapter 16-1

Chapter 16

Wilken’s was one of the only decent places in town to eat, though there was a truck stop out on the main highway headed toward Tarrytown, and they’d gotten a McDonald’s a few years ago, though the latter certainly didn’t fit the description of good eating for Ru. She knew the café would likely be very busy on a Sunday afternoon, but hopefully not until the church crowd got out, which should give them time to get through lunch without a rush. It had occurred to her that she might see some of her students, but she didn’t think there’d be too many questioning glances since Kyle’s sister would also be there. It wasn’t like this was a date. At least, that’s what she kept telling herself.

She’d decided to go casual, tossing on a pair of jeans and a blue sweater. Granted, she had chosen that color because it played up her eyes, but it wasn’t like she was wearing a dress. She hadn’t even paid that close of attention to her makeup. She tried to convince herself she hadn’t spent much time on her appearance as she pulled into a parking spot and checked it in the rearview mirror.

A bell chimed over the door as she pushed it open. It took her just a moment to spy Kyle’s increasingly familiar face smiling at her a couple of booths away. Ru gave a little half-wave in her nervousness and headed that direction. As she approached, he slid out of the booth, standing to greet her.

“Ru, hi. Nice to see you.” He offered his hand, and she took it, that warm feeling spreading up her arm again.

“It’s nice to see you, too,” she replied, letting go.

“This is my sister, Jessie.”

Ru noticed the slight woman he’d been sitting next to for the first time, wondering how she hadn’t even seen her there before. She was tall, though not as tall as Kyle, with the same dark hair. Her eyes were brown, and though her face was pretty, it had a sharpness about it that was a bit off-putting at first. As soon as she smiled, Ru felt more at ease, thinking maybe Jessie was just cursed with the tragic condition known as resting-b***h-face.

Taking her hand as she slipped into the booth, Ru said, “It’s nice to meet you, Jessie.”

“You can call me Jess,” she said releasing Ru’s hand, still smiling. She wore a deep purple sweater that contrasted nicely with her eyes, and Ru thought perhaps she’d made too hasty of a first impression. Her hand also seemed warm and familiar, though not quite in the same way that Kyle’s had.

She returned her attention to him. The emerald polo shirt he wore beneath the same brown jacket he’d had on the evening before made the green in his eyes pop. “I hope you weren’t waiting too long.”

“No, we just got here,” he assured her. What was it about his smile that seemed so inviting, like she’d known him for years?

Before she could say more, a waitress came over to take their drink order. She jotted it down on her notepad and said she’d be back in a few minutes.

“So what’s good here?” Jess asked, opening her menu. “I was looking at the chicken fried chicken, but that seems like a lot of food for lunch.”

“It is a lot of food,” Ru agreed, “but it is really good. The chicken and dumplings are also very good. And you can never go wrong with one of their sandwiches.” She was contemplating what she might get herself. While the chef salad was one of her favorites, she didn’t want Kyle to think she was one of those girls who ate like a bird. Of course, he did know she’d downed a pint of ice cream last night….

“I always thought the idea of an open-faced sandwich was odd,” Kyle said, looking from Jess to Ru. “Who wants to eat something with a face?”

Ru was doing her embarrassing laugh again and fought to rein it back in. Why did everything he said strike her as hilarious? “I guess I never thought about it that way,” she said, once she had control of herself. She decided to go with a grilled chicken sandwich and set her menu aside. The other two were still looking at theirs when the waitress brought back their drinks.

Taking a long sip of her iced tea, Ru tried not to stare at Kyle. The waitress was also having a hard time, though he was probably half her age. Ru knew her from around town, but they weren’t exactly friends. Her name tag reminded Ru that her name was actually Melinda even though everyone called her Mendy. “Are we ready to order?” she asked, still staring at Kyle even though it would’ve been more polite to start with one of the ladies. They each ordered a sandwich of some kind and fries, and Mendy wrote it down before smiling at Kyle one more time and heading for the kitchen.

“I just want to say, I really appreciate you taking the time to meet with me, especially since you don’t even know us,” Jess was saying, and Ru had to force herself to look in her direction. “I’m super excited about tomorrow, but I’m also scared.” She gave a nervous laugh, and her brother patted her on the shoulder reassuringly, which Ru found endearing.

“I can imagine. Are they going to have you start out all on your own tomorrow?”

“No, thankfully. They said there would be a substitute for the next two weeks while I transition. So I’ll be observing and interacting with the kids, but they want to keep the woman whose been covering the class the last week in there for a while, so they have a familiar face.”

“That makes sense,” Ru nodded. Thoughts of what would happen to her own babies if she was swept away, either with Cutter and his group or by something else, crossed her mind. It was never an ideal situation to take over a class in the middle of the year but especially not when something tragic had happened. She hadn’t called Liddy last night to see if she knew anything, turning to the Tarrytown newspaper instead. Apparently, the young teacher had been found dead in her home of natural causes. It was both alarming and heart-wrenching since she was only twenty-seven, just a couple of years older than Ru.

“The team seems very supportive,” Jess continued. “I just have so many questions, I’m afraid I’ll drive them crazy asking them all. And most of them were close to Ms. Paul, the woman who died, so they’re contending with that as well.” Jess looked a little green, and Ru wanted to do everything she could to reassure her. She knew what it was like to be a new teacher.

“Well, ask away,” she said, smiling as encouragingly as she could. “I might not be able to answer your specific questions about how things are done at your new school, but I definitely know the state curriculum and can help with routines and procedures, that sort of thing.”

Jess seemed to relax a bit and launched into a series of questions. Ru did her best to answer them, and even after their food was delivered, the conversation continued between bites. Ru’s sandwich was delicious, and her new friends seemed to like the café’s fare as well. Ru couldn’t help but steal glances at Kyle, who she assumed would have to be bored to tears listening to two teachers talk about student expectations and the best way to get twenty-two kids’ attention at the same time, but he looked genuinely interested. She felt his eyes on her face more than once and turned to give him a shy smile before returning her outward attention to Jess.

Ru loved talking about her job and became enthusiastic about answering Jessie’s questions pretty quickly. She gave her as much help as she thought she should without overwhelming her. Even though Jess seemed excited, she was certainly a new teacher. A few times, she had to ask Ru what something she said meant, and Ru remembered to take it back a few notches. There were some things only time and experience would teach her.

Over an hour after she’d first sat down, Jess leaned back in the booth and said, “Well, you’ve certainly been very helpful, Ru. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you’ve been willing to take time out of your weekend to come and help me.”

“Oh, don’t mention it,” Ru replied waving her off. “Obviously, I love to talk about teaching. If you have any other questions, feel free to give me a call anytime. It’s too bad we aren’t at the same school.” She thought about mentioning they’d just hired someone at the beginning of the year but held back. Clearly, she couldn’t trade Cutter for Jess—this was teaching, not baseball—and that would potentially open a whole can of worms she didn’t even want to think about.

“Well, I need to go to the restroom. So, if you’ll excuse me….” She looked at her brother who politely slid out of the booth to let her out and then sat back down across from Ru.

“Thank you, so much,” he said, his face sincere. “I think you’ve really calmed her down.”

“Really, it’s no problem,” Ru said, happy to finally be alone with the handsome stranger, even if it was just for a few minutes.

“I could tell she was nervous when she ate the whole pint of ice cream in one sitting. She never does that.” Kyle laughed, his eyes crinkling around the edges.

“You’re kidding?” Ru said. “Who does that? I still have most of mine in the freezer!” She hoped she made it clear she was being silly, and when he laughed even more, she joined in.

“Well, anyway, thank you. It’s really hard being out here all alone. She had a lot of friends back home, and she almost didn’t take the job because she was afraid she’d miss them too much. It’s great that she’s already met someone so nice. I honestly can’t tell you how amazing you are to go to all this trouble.”

“It’s really no trouble at all.” Ru smiled but was struggling to hold his gaze. Once again, she could feel the color creeping into her face. She almost wished Jess would come back from the restroom before she said something silly. As far as she could tell, Kyle was just being nice and wasn’t interested in anything more from her than a friendship. Ru was finding it difficult not to stare at his bottom lip, thinking about leaning across the table and biting it. Hard. She shook her head and refocused her attention to her hands in her lap.

“I was thinking, if you’re not busy Friday evening, would you like to go catch a movie or something?”

Ru raised her eyes, almost wanting to ask if he was serious. She gazed into those deep hazel orbs and realized she didn’t need to ask. He was. “Uh, yeah. Of course. That sounds great.” The urge to explain to him that there was no movie theater in Reaper’s Hollow and they’d have to go out of town was suppressed as his smile widened. He probably already knew that or would figure it out. She’d still go. Gotta travel to the moon to see a flick with you? No problem. I’m there.

For some reason, Kyle looked relieved, as if there had been a chance she would turn him down. “Great,” he said. “I’ll call you later this week, and we can work out the details.”

Nodding, Ru said, “That sounds… great.” She realized as soon as the word came out of her mouth that he had just used the same word, and she probably sounded like a moron. But looking into his eyes, she couldn’t think of anything else to say to make it any better.

“Ahem.” They both looked up to see Jess standing next to Kyle’s side of the booth, a knowing smile on her face. “Sorry to interrupt, but can you at least scoot over so I can sit down?”

“Sorry,” Kyle said, looking at her sheepishly as he slid over next to the window so she could have his seat.

Jess didn’t say anything, just smiled as she leaned across him to grab her glass and took a drink.

“Well, I should probably be going anyway,” Ru said, looking around to see where Mendy might be so she could get the bill. She caught the waitress’s eye, and the woman headed in her direction.

“Thank you again, so much, for everything,” Jess said, her expression nothing but sincere.

“It really is no problem.”

“You guys all set? Need any boxes or drinks to go?” Mendy asked, and even though she was addressing all of them, her eyes had settled on Kyle.

“I think we just need the check,” he said, smiling at her, but Ru saw it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Okay, then.” She took the bill out of her apron and handed it to him, perhaps lingering a bit too long when their fingers accidentally touched. Eventually, she backed away.

“How much do I owe?” Ru asked, grabbing her wallet out of her purse on the seat next to her.

“Are you serious?” he asked, staring at her as he pulled his billfold out of his back pocket. “You gave my little sister invaluable advice. The least we can do is buy you lunch.”

Ru opened her mouth to protest, but before she could, Jess said, “Yes, we can definitely afford the cost of a chicken sandwich in exchange for your wisdom.”

Seeing as there was no point in arguing, Ru simply said, “Then, thank you. I appreciate it.”

“We appreciate you. I appreciate you,” Jess said, glancing at her brother for a second and then giggling before returning her eyes to Ru, “more than you’ll ever know.”

Feeling a blush coming on again, Ru averted her eyes. She really didn’t think she’d done that much, but it was nice to be appreciated. “Well, like I said, call me if you need anything.” She decided she should probably walk out before they did. Otherwise, the awkward goodbye would be repeated in the parking lot. She gathered up her belongings.

“I definitely will,” Jess nodded.

“Good luck tomorrow. It’ll be great. Just make sure you wear comfortable shoes.” That was the best advice she’d ever gotten when she was a new teacher.

“I will.” Jess looked a lot more confident now than she had when Ru walked in an hour or so ago.

She slid out of the booth and stood there for a moment, not sure what to say. Kyle passed the check to his sister who set it at the end of the table along with the money to cover it. “I’ll call you in a few days,” he said, catching Ru’s eyes.

Nodding, she tried to think of something clever to say and realized any response would sound ridiculous, so she just waved and said, “See you soon,” to both of them and then turned to head out the door. Perhaps she should’ve thanked him again, or shook his hand, or said something sexy, but all she could think about was not looking idiotic, so she concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. An older gentleman held the door open for her, and she realized the church crowd would be coming in now. If she was going to run into any of her students, at least it would be in the parking lot.

She fumbled for her keys and remotely started her car. Once she was inside, she took a few deep breaths before gently turning the key and buckling her seatbelt. Part of her wanted to stay to watch Kyle exit the restaurant, just to see him again, but that seemed like it would be a little stalkerish. Instead, she shifted into reverse and headed out of the parking lot, wondering what she was getting herself into. The last time she’d agreed to go out on a date with an extremely attractive guy, she’d ended up in a creepy old house learning about the supernatural. At least with Kyle, I Won’t have to worry about any of that, she thought to herself as she head home. He seemed pretty human to her.