I was in shock. The girl was completely unfazed by me. She wasn’t nervous or shy, and she wasn’t shrieking at a deafening volume every time I ran my fingers through my hair, smiled, or spoke. She wasn’t even speechless. She was normal. I hadn’t seen normal from anyone in a long time, unless it was from my parents and sisters. I’d forgotten just how much I liked it.
“Cabot?”
I’d been thinking and didn’t hear what she said. “What?”
“Did you need anything else?”
“No.”
“Aces.” She held out her hand. “It was a pleasure to meet you.”
Grabbing her hand in mine, I gave it a shake. Her hand was small, but the handshake was firm.
“Likewise, Kei.”
She disappeared from sight before I could put together another sentence.
After less than half an hour, it was already obvious that I was going to be looking for excuses to visit the main house.
The normal girl who saw me as a completely normal guy was nothing less than extraordinarily interesting but didn’t seem to find me extraordinary at all.
C H A P T E R
3
With the cell phone to my ear, I walked circles around the small kitchen in the guesthouse.
“What kind of teenage girl lives in Africa, preaches the gospel, and doesn’t see movies or read magazines but cusses like a sailor and walks around in nothing but a sweat shirt?”
“Horny church girls that are hoping to get hooked up with a millionaire,” James said from the other end of the phone.
“But she didn’t even know who I was.”
“She
acted
like she didn’t know who you were. She knows who you are, Cab. Everyone knows who you are.”
“Not everyone.”
“There might be a few people left on the planet who don’t.”
“Like people in Africa?”
“She knows.”
“I don’t think so. I could tell. She didn’t have a clue.”
As I got more anxious, I wandered out of the kitchen and paced back and forth between the bedroom and living room while listening to James pontificate about the redheaded girl in the house next door. Being his normal pessimistic self, he was convinced that Kei was a harlot who was up to no good and wanted nothing more than to have a rich, young man hanging on her arm. I, on the other hand, was just as convinced that she was clueless about my identity, and the possibility had me practically giddy.
“James, what are the odds that a poor, man-hunting black widow also happens to be Oliver’s niece? I think the girl’s legit.”
The sound of a splash in the pool traveled through the house and made my heart rate soar. I ran to the window and opened the blinds just enough to see out but not enough that she could see me.
“Don’t get your hopes up, Cab. She’s young, single, and poor. You’re young, single, rich, and famous. You can’t trust her.”
Her head popped out of the water, and I watched as she started swimming laps across the pool.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“What?”
“You’re too quiet. You’re up to something.”
“I’m watching her in the pool.”
“She’s in the pool?” he screamed. “She’s trying to get your attention. I bet she’s wearing a barely there bikini.”
“I told her she needed to get in the sun. It helps with jet lag.”
I was crouching below the window like some middle-aged pervert spying on the hot high school girl living next door. Well, that or I was acting like some of my fans did when they spied on me. For a second, I realized why they got a kick out of doing it. It was invigorating.
“What’s she wearing?” asked James, interrupting my thoughts.
“I can’t tell. She’s swimming.”
For no apparent reason, we were both whispering.
“Is she jailbait? The last thing we need is you getting caught with someone underage.”
“She’s twenty.”
“Sounds too convenient. Are you sure?”
“Yeah. She told me she was.”
“Maybe she just
told you
she was twenty. Can you get a hold of her purse and check her ID?”
“No!”
“What about a passport?”
“I’m not going to spy on the girl.”
“Cab, you’re sitting in the dark, watching her through the blinds. Isn’t that the same thing as spying?”
“I’m not spying. I’m observing.”
“Find out her last name. I’ll run a background check to see if her story pans out.”
“I don’t want you running a background check. It’ll be fine. If she isn’t for real, I’ll sniff it out.”
“Just leave her alone altogether. You’re there to relax and prepare for your new project. Ignore the chick and get in the zone.”
Kei swam up to the ladder and started climbing out of the water, which made my heart rate go from racing to stopping altogether.
“Please don’t be wearing a bikini. Please don’t be wearing a bikini. If she’s legit, she won’t be wearing a bikini.”
“What’s she wearing?” he asked.
“Wait.”
We sat in silence, both holding our breath, while I waited for her to extract herself from the pool. As she ascended each rung of the ladder, more of her suit revealed itself.
“I don’t see her stomach. It’s a one-piece!”
She climbed completely out of the water and reached for a towel.
“And she’s wearing shorts over the bathing suit.” I was jumping up and down like a rabid fan on premiere night. “Score! This girl’s for real.”
“Be careful, Cab. I sense too much excitement in your voice. So let me put it bluntly. Get caught with this girl, do you, then in trouble you will be and to prison you may go.”
“Yes, Master.”
I closed the blinds and ran into my bedroom. “I gotta go, James. I’ll call and check in later.”
“Cab, you be—”
I threw the phone onto the bed, changed into my swimsuit, and made my way outside to talk to Kei. I tried to sneak up on her, but my flip-flops slapped against my heels as I walked.
“I thought I was only going to see you if you got lonely,” she said without opening her eyes.
“I
was
lonely.”
“Well, that didn’t take long,” she said dryly, still not looking at me.
“I heard you out here and thought you might want some company. Maybe I can help keep you awake.”
She opened one eye and looked over at me. “You’re out here for me? That’s incredibly polite of you, leaving your seclusion to keep a poor girl from nodding off. You’re quite the martyr.”
“I really am. Consider it a public service project.”
“So I’m charity?” Her eye was locked on mine. Not once did she glance at the rest of my body.
“Not charity. A project.”
“I see. Pull up a lounge chair.”
“Nah. I think I’ll go for a swim first.”
“Suit yourself.”
She closed her eye and relaxed into the chair.
“Is the water cold?” I asked, trying to keep her attention.
“I didn’t think so.”
I kicked off my flip-flops and dove head first into the sparkling water. Within milliseconds of being in the water, my entire body felt like needles were shooting into my skin and my toes started to go numb.
“You said it wasn’t cold! It’s freezing.”
She opened her eyes and sat up as I tread water and tried to keep my teeth from rattling.
“It wasn’t cold to me. But then again, I do bathe out of buckets when I’m home. There’s no such thing as warm water unless you’re using it to make tea.”
“I wish I would’ve known that
before
I jumped in.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“Well, that’s one question I’ve never thought to ask a girl.” I laid my arms and chest onto the warm cement ledge and let my body float on the surface of the water behind me. “Are you going to join me?”
“Better not.” She reached over and put on a T-shirt before standing and grabbing her towel. “I’m to be leaving you alone, remember? And besides, I think I’ll go take a short nod.”
“Oh.” I couldn’t tell if my disappointment was obvious.
“Enjoy your swim.” She slipped on her sandals and started to head inside.
My immediate dilemma was that if I climbed out and went inside, it would be obvious that I only came out to see her, so I had to pretend that I enjoyed my time in the pool when, in all actuality, I was pretty sure that hypothermia would be setting in within just a few minutes.
As I swam through the water, a terrible realization hit me. There
was
nothing spectacular about me. If it weren’t for all the media attention, nobody would even notice me. Proof? Here was a girl just out of the middle of nowhere in Africa, and I couldn’t even get
her
attention.
“Cabot,” she said, finally turning to me.
I instantly felt better.
I did get her attention. Maybe I’m not losing my powers after all.
“I feel I should inform you that your lips are turning blue.” With that, she turned, went inside, and let the door close behind her.
C H A P T E R
4
I sat in the overstuffed chair with the binoculars shoved into the sockets around my eyes. Hours of sitting had accomplished nothing. I saw two brown birds and a few squirrels. Even a big city boy like me didn’t need an overpriced nature book to identify them.
It had been two days since I’d seen Kei. Actually, we were creeping into the third.
Saturday and Sunday passed, and she hadn’t so much as walked onto the back patio. Even the few times that I went inside the main house to make myself some tea, she was nowhere to be found.
In complete disclosure, part of the reason I was camped out on the chair with the binoculars was because the seat gave me a direct line of vision to the back of the main house. Had she walked past a window, I would’ve seen it, but she didn’t, at least not during the hours that I sat watching.
I was truly and undeniably turning into a stalker, and while one would assume that I’d be disgusted with myself, the truth was that I saw it as completely justifiable. In my humble opinion, it was rude of her not to check on me at least once since our meeting. Even when a basket of food showed up outside my door the night we met, she managed to do it in the few seconds that I was either asleep or in the bathroom, and I didn’t see or hear her.
She was like a ninja, a missionary ninja, there but not there, at least not that I could see anyway.
I put the binoculars back up to my eyes and stared into the kitchen. There was no movement.
My cell phone rang and caused me to drop the binoculars into my lap. For a second, I thought I got caught.
“Yeah?” I asked, putting it to my ear, picking up the binoculars again and holding them up to my eyes.
“Hey, baby.”
“Hey, Mom.”
“How are you?”
“Good.”
“Just good?”
“Yep.”
“Are you not in the mood to talk?”
“I’m kind of busy.”
“Doing what?”
Stalking a girl.
“Working.”
“This is your vacation. You aren’t supposed to be working.”
“Well, I am.”
Working on seeing this girl.
“Okay…well, your sisters and I were hoping we could come for a short visit while you’re there, the three of us. Candice has to work and can’t get any time off.”
“Oh.”
“Do you think that producer friend of yours would mind? I’ve always wanted to see the Appalachian Mountains, and I’d also like to see the Biltmore Mansion.”
“I’ll talk to him and see if there’s a good time.”
“Really?”
“Sure. I just want to wait a little while. I don’t want to spring anything like that on him when I just got here myself.” Actually, I wanted more time to figure that Kei girl out.
“Okay, sweetie. Well, what else is going on?”
“Not much, I—”
Just then, Kei appeared. She walked out the kitchen door and started watering plants.
“Mom, love ya, but I’ve gotta go!”
“Cab—”
I hung up on her, threw the binoculars on to the ground, and ran to my front door before regaining my composure and swinging it open.
“Oh, hey.”
She turned and glanced at me before going right back to watering. I thought it was odd that instead of squatting down to water the lower plants, she bent all the way over at the waist.
“Are you good?” she asked without looking at me.
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t wake you, did I?”
“No. I didn’t hear you at all. Didn’t even know you were out here.”