Taylor seems to have that realization at the same time I do and we start to walk faster to where we parked her car, five blocks away in one of the municipal lots. We’ve only made it about a block when there’s a roll of thunder overhead and rain starts to fall. Light at first, but slowly graduating into a downpour.
“Oh boy. No wonder we were the only two people in the shop,” Taylor says, letting go of my hand in favor of shielding her cone from the falling condensation. “Should we make a run for the car?”
“With a head injury? No.”
“You know what else is bad for a head injury? Being shouted at.”
Down the side street, I see the entrance to a Catholic church. Settling my hand on the small of her back, I guide her in that direction. “I’m sorry.”
She does a double take and almost slips on the rain-slicked sidewalk. “Oh, honey! You apologized!”
Honey?
A thousand pinwheels start spinning in my stomach at the same time.
“Don’t get used to it,” I mutter, trying very hard to stick to the mission of getting Taylor out of the bad weather, before she gets sick and has an almost-concussion. Not very easy to accomplish when she’s grinning at me and rapidly turning into what looks like the winner of a wet T-shirt contest. “We’ll wait out the downpour in here.”
She sizes up the heavy wooden door. “You think it’s open?”
“They’re always open.”
“Oh.” I usher her into a dark vestibule. There is a dim glow coming from the church nave but a quick sweep of the place determines no one is inside. When I return to the vestibule, Taylor is leaned up against the stone wall adjacent to the door, licking her ice cream in the shadows. The heavy, outside rain echoes in the small space, no signs of lightening up. It’s like we’ve walked into a different world. Just the two of us.
You need to stop getting carried away before it’s too late.
“Let me try a bite of that,” she says, distracting me from that troubling thought. Flirty. Is she being flirty or am I imagining it? “And you can try a bite of mine.”
For a moment, I interpret that suggestion as sexual. At least until I remember the ice cream cone in my hands. Approaching her, I hold the cookie dough to her mouth, my balls tugging when she licks it, then sinks her teeth in, leaving a lady-sized bite behind. “Mmm.” She winces. “It’s good, but too rich for more than one bite.”
“Lightweight.”
She laughs, low and musical. “Your turn,” she murmurs, lifting her ice cream to my mouth. “How do you know Catholic churches are always open? Were you raised Catholic?”
I nod, taking such a big bite of her butterscotch ice cream that she gasps. “Yeah, that was mostly down to my mother. She dragged us every Sunday. Made us wear shirts with collars and summarize the homily afterward. If she suspected we weren’t listening during mass, we didn’t get to play baseball with our friends afterward.”
“Your mom sounds like a badass.”
“She is.” She’d adore you. Everyone would. “You didn’t go to church growing up?”
“Once in a while on Christmas, since my parents traveled a lot. They couldn’t really get their…footing in the community where we lived. They were always kind of the odd ones out. People either decided they were bad parents for putting their lives at risk constantly or they were simply intimidated by the two art crusaders down the block.”
“Did that mean you and Jude had a hard time getting your footing, too?”
“Me, maybe. But not Jude. He makes friends wherever he goes. People are naturally magnetized to his ability to try anything once.”
“Sure. But you’re the one who gave him that confidence.”
Her ice cream pauses halfway to her mouth. “What?”
“Jude. Your parents were busy, right? You raised him. And now…” I bite into my cone, sort of baffled by her confusion. She doesn’t already know what I’m telling her? “You’re still his biggest supporter. I’ll admit he’s cool. I like him. But you basically act like he shits rainbows, Taylor. His confidence and bravery comes from you.”
“Oh my goodness.” To my horror, her eyes flood with tears. “What a beautiful thing to say.”
“It’s…I’m just speaking the truth.” Her dam breaks on a sob. “Jesus Christ.”
She sniffles up at me. “Should you be cursing like that in church?”
“No. Please don’t tell my mother.”