“It’s all part of my selection process.” Keller taps his finger to his temple, indicating how smart he is.

“I’m afraid to ask.”

Keller smiles. “If a chick can’t laugh at my jokes, she’s not for me.” He shrugs.

“So you’re waiting for a girl to think you’re funny, rather than disgusting?”

“Yep,” Keller says proudly.

I chuckle. “Great plan.”

“I thought so.”

“You’re going to be alone for a long time, jackass.”

“Nikki laughs at my jokes,” he grins. “And she’s smoking hot.”

“Stop looking at my girlfriend.”

“What should I do, cover my eyes whenever I see her?” he goads me.

“You know what I mean. Stop looking at her like that.”

“I don’t think I can. She’s got some ass, man.” Keller mimes a shapely ass with his hands.

If it was anyone else in the world, they’d be laid out on the floor right now, admitting that they are openly ogling my girlfriend. But Keller…well…he’s just Keller. So I wind up and punch him in the arm, hard enough to leave a bruise, but falling short of beating the crap out of him.

“Oww!” Keller rubs his arm. “What did you do that for?”

Clueless. Totally clueless. We walk the mall for another hour in search of the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for Nikki, but nothing seems to be right. We stop at the last jewelry store in the mall. The sales clerk looks perplexed when Keller asks her, with a completely straight face, if she can direct him to their lingerie department. Luckily, Keller sees some guys from the team outside of the store and I get a few minutes to look around without being kicked out of yet another store.

“Who are you looking to buy a gift for today?” The saleswoman asks hesitantly.

“My girlfriend.”

“For Valentine’s Day?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you looking for anything in particular?”

“No. I guess I’m just hoping something jumps out at me.”

The young salesclerk smiles. “Tell me a little about her, maybe it will give me an idea to help point you in the right direction.”

“She doesn’t really wear a lot of jewelry. Well, sometimes she wears these beads. But they’re not really fancy jewelry, she just wears them because they were her Mom’s.” I look around and everything just seems too formal and cold to give Nikki. “To be honest, I’m not even sure if jewelry is the right gift for her,” I admit with a defeated shrug.

“She wears her Mom’s beads? Did her Mother pass away?”

“Yeah, last year.”

“Hmmm.” She looks around the store. “Maybe I have an idea.”

She walks away for a moment and comes back with a black velvet tray. A long gold chain hangs delicately on it, a large pretty heart weighing down the bottom. She sets it down in front of me. “It’s an antique, so it’s a little different than most that you see today.” She presses something at the side of the heart and it opens. “It’s a locket. There’s room for two pictures. Maybe you could put a picture of her Mom on one side and you on the other.” She turns the heart over. “The back is inscribable, you could even write her a little note.”

A heart to represent her favorite holiday, a place for a picture of her Mother and me and room to leave her a note. “I’ll take it.”

Chapter 34

Nikki

Nervousness and excitement mix for a potent cocktail. Not unlike my limited dabbling with alcohol, this cocktail leaves me nauseous and ready to throw up. I’ll never be able to sleep tonight.

My phone rings and I smile at the goofy selfie that comes up, indicating it’s Ashley. We took the picture on my last day in Texas. We’re both lying in the grass, our long hair splayed all around us as we look up, smiling widely for the camera. It was about one heartbeat after we snapped the shot that Ashley realized she had a huge Texas size spider crawling on her face. The picture captured that short second where she was still smiling, yet the spider appears prominently on her check. Absolutely priceless.

“Got any plans for Valentine’s Day?” she asks, teasing. Over the last month we’ve gone from talking twice a week to hour-long deep conversations every single day. Sometimes more than once. She knows how anxious I am about tomorrow.

“Valentine’s Day? Nah. I was thinking maybe I’d stay in, snuggle up with a good book,” I quietly close the door to my room. Aunt Claire is home and I don’t want her overhearing my conversation with Ashley.

“I think I might be more excited about you doing the dirty deed than you are. You sound so calm.” Every time I talk to Ash she has a different name for sex. Today’s isn’t terrible, but in the last week we’ve had makin bacon, rockin the trailer, bumping uglies and my personal favorite, one I still don’t even understand, roasting the broomstick.

“I’m far from calm. Every morning I wake up panicked about something that could go wrong. Today I envisioned myself throwing up on him before the bacon even made it into the frying pan.” I plop down on my bed on my stomach. My face is so close to my pillow, I can smell Zack, his shampoo leaving behind a scent I’ve come to associate with him in my bed. I take a deep whiff and smile as I exhale.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” I lie.