Chapter 15- part 1

Chapter 15 is a very long chapter. I knew I wouldn't be able to do it all tomorrow, so I thought about posting it all tonight. Except that I am too tired, so, here is Chapter 15 part 1. Chapter 15 part 2 will be posted by 6 pm Friday night.


CHAPTER 15

Jon let out a deep breath as he settled into the passenger seat of Kate’s car. He closed his eyes and tried not to think about the pain his face was in. Kate was trailing a few seconds behind him. Jon could hear as she got into the car and put the key in the ignition. What he didn’t hear was the engine turn over. After about a minute, Jon opened his eyes again.
“Your car okay?” he asked.
“My car is fine. I’m more worried about my agent.”
“Why are you worried about me? I’m fine. I just hate Hobbs with the searing white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t hate me with the searing white hot intensity of TWO thousand suns.”
“You have already almost gotten killed several times this week and it’s only Wednesday. I just worry about you. My job is to keep you safe.”
“Was it safe for you when you went to high school?”
“What do you mean?”
“High school. You know, that big building where a bunch of obnoxious teenagers hang out between seven and three every day from September until May? You know, high school.”
“Safe? I’m not quite-“
“Kate, this is my high school experience. Hobbs and I have hated each other for so long, I can’t even imagine having a life where I don’t have an evil nemesis lurking in the halls of my education building. Hobbs is a dumbass jock. Always was, always will be. I would be amazingly surprised if, by the time the ten year high school reunion rolls around, he hasn’t flunked out of college, gone on with an NBA team, been traded at least five times, then fired with no other team wanting him, come back to Salt Lake, live off the fact that he was a bench warmer for a few years, own a car dealership, and go home and get drunk every night and beat his soon to be ex-wife and kids before drifting into la-la land. The only reason that today had anything to do with the Agency is that they put me in the same gym as Hobbs. That’s it. Otherwise, this was just part of my own personal hell which is high school.”
Kate looked at her protégé with a look that Jon couldn’t quite read.
“What? Do I still have blood somewhere on my face?” he asked.
“No. You’re fine. I was just wondering, how does a teenager already have so much of a look forward attitude on life?”
Jon was almost embarrassed by the question. “You’re acting like I’m Yoda or something. I’m not, Kate. I was just a painfully geeky elementary school student eight years ago.”
Kate smiled. “Eight years ago? That would put you in fourth grade!”
“Yes it was. Fourth grade. You know how in kindergarten you start making friends at school? You get a sense of the kids you like to play with and the kids you don’t?” Kate nodded. “Boys of course don’t play with girls ‘cause they’re yucky. And vice versa, I’m sure. So, you have these boys that you play with, and little by little you feel more comfortable with some than with others. Either you like the same colors, games, books, whatever. So, that’s what happened to me, Stan, and Greg. I met Stan in kindergarten and Greg in second grade. We just had an almost immediate bond for some weird reason.
Stan and I were inseparable in kindergarten and first grade. Then, on the first day of second grade we were put into a table with Greg and three other kids. We never clicked with the other three, but we hit it off with Greg immediately. So, we were in the same class in third grade, too. But then, the unthinkable of elementary school happened. They were in the same fourth grade class, and I was in a different one. I cried the whole day before starting fourth grade because I wasn’t going to be with my friends.”
Kate’s face turned into a slightly bemused look of sadness.
“So, the next day came and I walked to school with them, but when the first bell rang, we parted ways. I vividly remember watching them disappear into their class before I went into mine. So, the first day of fourth grade, I was put into a table with five other kids who I knew, but never really liked. Two of them, Scott Sandberg and John Mackay were even in my neighborhood, but I never played with them. During class, they would do the stupid things that kids do. Take your pencil for thirty minutes at a time and then return it when you finally went to tell your teacher, punch you in the back all the way down the hall to the lunchroom until you turned and hit them back, and then you got into trouble, all those things. At recess, even though I was with Stan and Greg there, they would run by and call me four eyes because of my glasses. Normal kid stuff.”
“Normal, but thoroughly pathetic. Why can’t kids just be nice to kids?” Then, in quick, slightly different tone, she asked, “Do you mind if I turn on the heater?”
“Go for it. I’m a little cold myself.”
Kate did so, and the car rumbled to life. “Please, continue.”
“Where was I?”
“They were mocking you at recess, and lunch.”
Jon found his story foothold again. “Right. But it really started getting on my nerves when I started wearing a Legendof the Lone Ranger shirt to school and they would just mock me for liking movies and that movie in particular. For about a two-week period, I had knots in my stomach every day as I woke up. I played sick for two days in a row, but quit when I heard my parents talking about taking me to the doctor the next day if I wasn’t feeling better. Then, one day, they were teasing me as we were walking down the hall to go to the library and I had a flash of lightning go through my brain. The thought that came was- these guys are jerks. Who cares what they think? I like it. I am who I am, I like who I am, and that was that. Simple. I ignored them and never once thought about the whole peer pressure thing again Stan, Greg, and I just did what we wanted and never looked back. We were also never separated again after that. When we got into junior high and high school, sure there are classes that we don’t have together, but we have the same lunches, lockers next to each other, so .it all works out.”
Kate slowly shook her head. “You three are like one in a million. Or, three in three million. You know what I mean?”
“Yea. I do.”
“Keep it up, Jon. You’re going to go far.”
“Thanks.”
“Now, we need to get you home to get ready for your big date!”
“Kate-“ Jon warned.
“Don’t you worry. We’ll make it.” Kate screeched her tires as she pulled out of the parking space.



“Remind me what you’re doing here, again?” Jon asked.
“I am here to make sure that you are ready for this,” Kate replied.
Jon walked back into his bedroom, barefoot, but with a pair of khaki pants on and an unbuttoned polo shirt. “Ready for what? My date?”
“There are many things that you need to be ready for tonight.”
“Like what? Is an assassin going to follow me and try to kill me?”
“Possibility, but you present no threat at the moment. There is no reason for someone to do that to you yet.”
“Yet?”
“Don’t forget, Jon, you are going up against killers, here. You saw what they could do last night.”
Jon stopped dead in his tracks. “Thank you, Miss Thompson, for bringing a ray of sunshine into this dreary day!”
“I’m just being honest here! It is a distinct possibility that after tomorrow or so, you could have a tail on you. I just want you to be prepared for that!”
“I can be prepared, but how about if we don’t start talking about it until after my first date with Aleisha, please? I would like to worry most about what to do at the end of the date with her, thank you very much. Let THAT be on my mind for the next few hours, and then I can start thinking about the yakuza hit squad on my ass!”
“Sorry I even brought it up!”
Jon nodded. “Thank you. Now,” he said, turning his attention to even greater matters, “what shoes should I wear?”
Kate looked at Jon’s pathetic assortment of shoes. “I would definitely go with the shiny black pair. Your church shoes?”
“If you’ve been following me, you know I don’t go to church.”
“You went once.”
“When?”
“The end of May, I believe?”
Jon made a buzzing noise. “Nope! Wrong! That was a funeral. I went to A church, not TO church.”
“My mistake. How about your funeral shoes?”
“Is that a slight reference to the fact that you think I’m going to choke tonight?”
“No, Jon, that was a reference to the fact that you just told me you went to a funeral a few months ago and I assume these are the shoes you wore. Believe it or not, I followed you and took note of your actions, not your wardrobe.”
“Probably wouldn’t have the job if you were counting fashion points against me.”
“Probably not.” Kate picked up his shiny black shoes from the floor.
“You weren’t supposed to agree with me on that one.”
“Not my fault if you are a fashion victim.”
“I seem to remember that you gave me a gun this morning, Kate. Seems like I have yet to test it out.” Jon smirked.
“I just tell the truth, Jon. That’s it. No need to kill the messenger.” She paused. “Literally.”
Jon grabbed the shoes out of Kate’s hands, sat down on the edge of the bed, and started putting on his shoes.
Kate let silence linger for a moment before she asked Jon the next question. “So, since you brought it up, what are you going to do at the end of the date?”
Jon looked up. “Remind me what you’re doing here again?”
Kate got a fake disappointed look on her face. “Honestly! I’m here to help you.”
“Thank you. I know that. You’re here as my official Agency trainer. I think we’ve been over this before. You are not my mother. You are not my sister. You are not my girlfriend. You are not my sex adviser. You are my Agency Trainer! Nothing more!”
“You’re right. I am your Agency Trainer, but an Agent has to be a happy Agent in order to be a successful Agent.”
“What? Is that in your Agent training handbook?”
“It’s true! Think about it! In anything in life! You said it yourself earlier when you were talking about those kids who picked on you. You took two days off from school sick just because you didn’t want to face them, right?”
“Yes. So?”
“So? It works in the real world, too, Jon. Whether you are a student, a construction worker, a paper pusher, or a fry cook, you will do your best work when you feel you are successful in all the other areas of your life. When your mind is not occupied by thinking about a bill that needs to be paid, a girl you should’ve called, or a joke you shouldn’t have played on the boss, your mind is more open to thinking about your job while you are doing it. It’s basic human psychology.”
“So, you’re telling me that if I have a good night tonight, then I won’t be so concerned about my face hurting and having to face Hobbs tomorrow?”
“Basically, yes.”
“Okay, fine. You want to help me?”
Kate nodded.
“How about you tell me where I should take her for dinner?”
“Where do you like to go?”
“I’m a food guy. As long as there is food, I will eat it.”
“What does she like?”
“I don’t know.”
“What if you find out and then you can decide?”
“I don’t want her to think that I am unprepared guy!”
“Unprepared guy?”
“While I was at the barber, there were no good magazines, so I read Cosmo.”
Kate laughed. “What kind of barber has Cosmo?”
“Okay, not a barber. I went to one of those Great Clips type places and they have Cosmo, okay?”
“Are you telling me that you actually pay someone to give you that haircut?” John glowered at Kate. “So, sorry. Continue.”
“ So, I was reading this article and it said that one of the top five girl’s pet peeves is an unprepared guy on a date. They don’t know where to go eat, what movie to see, what club to go dancing at-“
“You? Dance?”
“I was using it as an example! But, anyway, I don’t want her to think that I have put no thought into the date!”
“Jon, I honestly don’t think she’s going to care! I don’t know Aleisha, but I don’t think it matters where you take her! I think it matters that you are going to be the one who is taking her!”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You are completely hopeless! Do you realize that?”
“What do you mean, Kate?”
“Like I said, I don’t know her, but every single indication that she has given you, both verbally and physically, is that she likes you already. She wants to be able to go out on a date with you. You could take her to the city dump and as long as she was with you, she would enjoy it.”
“Well, I would have to keep the conversation going. I would have to make her laugh, at the very least, to enjoy a date like that.”
“You do make her laugh!”
“Way to help build me up here, Kate!”
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I mean, she enjoys you. You just need to go and be yourself. If you can do that, women forgive a lot!”
“How do you know that?”
“Excuse me, Jon, but have you looked at me recently? Believe it or not, I am of the female gender.”
Jon shook this sarcastic remark off. “Not what I meant and you know it.”
“Let me tell you a little secret truth about women, Jon. Actually, let me tell you a little secret truth about women that you want to date and spend time with. They want a guy that they like. That’s it. That’s the simple mystery of women. There are women who just like the so-called bad boys, but those aren’t women that you want to date and spend time with. Those are women that you would use for sex and move on.”
“Kate, I’m in drama club, remember? I haven’t had the chance for sex yet.”
“Believe it or not, Jon. You have and you missed it, but that’s neither here nor there.”
Jon put up his finger to get Kate to explain, but she pushed ahead.
“Men and women are alike in more ways than they are different. Some men and women just want conquests. Some men and women just want friends. But, for the most parts, men and women are looking for companions for life. Men and women don’t get married to get divorced. That happens because they are no longer what the other thought they once were. If they could be themselves and communicate better, the divorce rate would drop like a stone
Men and women want companions to spend time with. They want people who don’t lie, who are honest and respectful. They want someone that shares the same qualities and interests. They want someone who can laugh with them, not at them. They want someone who can talk with them about anything and know that their viewpoint is heard and validated. They want someone that they feel comfortable with and around. They want someone who is not rude, who is generous, and has the same outlook on life as they have. That’s all it takes. Women will forgive lulls in conversation, the awkward time of trying to decide what restaurant to eat at, and which movie to see, if the guy is himself.”
“That sounds awful hard.”
“It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. Just be yourself, Jon and the rest will follow. If Aleisha likes you for who you are, then all the little things will slide by. If she doesn’t like you for who you are, then she isn’t someone that you want to waste your time with.”
Jon thought about that. Then, he stood up and gave Kate a hug. “Thank you.”
Kate was shocked by Jon’s physicality. Not by the hug, but because it seemed so natural. She couldn’t tell if she was happy or distracted by it. Was the relationship becoming too far away from a trainer-trainee relationship? Was this a romantic hug or a hug of pure friendship? Kate hugged him back.
The two of them stood in a silent embrace for what seemed to be an eternity for Kate, as her thoughts were swirling in her head. In reality, only a few scant seconds had passed before Jon loosened his grip on her, but it must have been, in Kate’s mind, at least an hour.
“Thank you,” Jon repeated.
“You’re welcome.” Kate’s face was a healthy shade of red.
Jon took a breath, as if to say something, but then released it quickly.
“What’s up, Jon?”
“I am going to be myself, Kate. I promise. I believe you when you say that that is all it takes to win a girl’s heart. But that still doesn’t change the fact that I can barely sustain a single coherent thought.”
“Why does it seem to me like you are going to ask me for something?”
“Because you’re my trainer and you have been following me and you know me better than I know myself.”
Kate closed her eyes and braced for what she knew was going to be the next words out of Jon’s mouth.
“What do you need, Jon?”
“You bugged the place yesterday, didn’t you?”
Kate started shaking her head. “No, Jon. I refuse. I will not-“
“You bugged it. You were the one. I know you were! I’ll wear a wire-“
Kate was shaking her head vigorously now. “No, Jon! Absolutely positively not!”
“You are a girl, so you can help me with the tough stuff. I won’t need you all night, just a time or two.”
“Absolutely not, Jon! I won’t help you-“
“You are going to be following me, I know you will be.”
“This is crazy! How well did it work for Cyrano? It didn’t!”
“Kate, I won’t try to impress her. I won’t try to be someone I’m not-“
Kate turned away from Jon and put her hands to her ears.
“Jon, you are not going to convince me on this! I am no longer listening to you!” She walked out of Jon’s room and down the hall.
“That is so childish, Kate! You look like a fool.” Jon followed after her.
“Who looks like a fool? Do you realize what will happen if Aleisha finds out? Do you? All that trust that you have built up with her will go kablooie, Jon! It’s not worth it! Just be yourself and you’ll be fine!”
“I just need a safety net, Kate! I* would feel a lot better if you could coach me along.”
“You are seventeen years old, Jon! You don’t need a chaperone!”
“You’re right! I don’t need a chaperone. You’re right! I need a friend.”
This caught Kate’s attention.
“I’m asking as a friend, Kate. You said that if an Agent feels successful, he could keep his mind on the job. If I have you giving me encouragement, telling me all the faux pas and when I do something well, I can keep my attention on being myself. You know how women think, so you can help me by giving me a play-by-play and know if I’m doing well.” He paused and stared at Kate’s deep blue eyes. “Please. As a friend?”


Jon walked up to Aleisha’s house, hands deep in his heavy winter coat pockets, staring at his shiny shoes. “This is so weird. Monday I never would have believed that I would have a date with Aleisha Madsen a scant two days later.” Jon noticed the puffs of breath that were hanging in the wintry air.
“Believe it, pal,” came Kate’s reply in his earpiece.
Jon paused before knocking. “Here we go!”
“You’re going to do fine, Jon. Do we really need to continue this?”
Jon ignored her and gave the door three loud raps. While waiting, he moved the tiny earpiece around, just finding a more comfortable fit.
Jon almost accidentally yanked the earpiece out as Aleisha opened the door. He visibly jumped.
“Did I scare ya?” Aleisha asked with a devilish grin.
“A bit,” Jon admitted. “Are you ready?”
“Let me grab my coat.”
As she reached into the closet behind her, Jon noticed how easy she made the whole date thing look. She was wearing a tan pair of slacks, a simple brown pull over sweater and slip on black flats. She probably had agonized over what to wear for about the same amount of time as he had, but it seemed like she had just found the outfit and put it on very casually. Aleisha grabbed a navy blue jacket and exited her house.
“I’ll be home about ten!” she called back to her parents.
“See you then, dear!” the deep bass voice of her father carried through the door.
Jon stepped back as Aleisha shut the door to her house.
“You’re not going to need more than that jacket? It’s pretty cold out here.”
“I’ll be fine,” Aleisha reassured him.
Jon’s lungs tightened up as he took a deep breath of the icy air. “So, where to for dinner?”
“Anywhere is fine with me.”
They reached Jon’s car and Jon opened the door for Aleisha. “What kind of food do you like?”
“Italian sounds good tonight,” Aleisha answered as she settled into the passenger seat.
“Sounds good to me, too.” Jon shut the door. As he went around the car, he whispered into his lapel. “Good Italian place in the area?”
“I like Italian Village, myself.” Kate’s voice crackled.
“How about Italian Village?” Jon asked as he climbed into his seat.
Aleisha smiled a smile that would light up a thousand-watt bulb. “Never been, but it sounds great!”
“Good!” Jon smiled back at her. “Now, if I could only remember how exactly to get there,” Jon said aloud.
Aleisha’s brow crinkled as she looked sideways at Jon.
“Go to 45th south and go east until 9th.” Kate whispered directions in Jon’s ear.
“Silly me, I should’ve remembered that it was on 45th,” Jon smiled at Aleisha as he turned to key to bring the car to life.
“Have I ever told you that you make you laugh, Jon?” Aleisha asked.
“I think that’s a first.”
“You make me laugh,” Aleisha repeated.
“That’s a good sign, Jon,” Kate told him.
Jon put the car in gear and headed out of Aleisha’s neighborhood.
Kate waited until they had turned the corner and headed out onto the main road before she started her car. Since the wire had a range of a mile and a half and she knew where they were going, she didn’t need to follow too close behind.
There was only the noise of the car engine in Kate’s ear.
“Say something, Jon. Women like to know that they have someone who can start conversations,” Kate prodded.
“So, how was school today?” Jon asked.
“It was a little strange.” Aleisha looked at Jon over the shoulder of her jacket. “Why weren’t you there?”
Three sentences into the date and Jon was already trapped and needing an escape route out of the conversation.
“You had to help a friend. You can tell her that much, Jon,” Kate helped.
“I had to help a friend. Stan, my friend. You know Stan, right?”
Aleisha nodded. “Yes. Yes I do.”
“I helped him. He needed help.”
“So I gather.”
“Calm down, Jon,” Kate whispered in his ear, “you do fine at a diner table with a man who may be a double agent, you can handle this girl. Just take a few deep breaths and keep talking.”
“Are you feeling better after yesterday? Your face looks even more bruised today than it did yesterday.”
“I’m still hurting. I’m stiff, but I’m okay. My face hurts a lot more, but it’s just bruising. It’ll go away. Fact is, I haven’t even thought about it since I picked you up.” Jon wanted to get the conversation onto safe ground as soon as possible. Keep it away from Agency speak. “Anything exciting happen today?” Jon asked, putting the pressure of the conversation back on Aleisha.
“No one could talk about anything other than Jake Spencer.”
“I heard about that.”
“Careful, Jon,” Kate cautioned.
“He and another kid were shot and killed over at that Arctic Circle just down the road. It even happened while we were in the talent show!” Aleisha reported.
“I know. That’s what I was doing today, too. Jake was on the basketball team and Stan knew him. It hit him pretty hard.”
“I can imagine. Did you know him at all?”
“Jake? Not really. Stan talked about him a bit, and I knew him to say hi in the halls, but that was it.”
“He was in my English class last year. He was a lot like Stan. Not the myth of the dumb jock at all. Very smart, very witty, and quite a nice guy.”
“Did you date him?”
“No. I thought about it a time or two, but I never did anything about it. Then, he hooked up with Mandy Jensen, and he was never as attractive after that.”
“She can be a real brat sometimes, can’t she?”
“Jon, I’m not a fragile flower, you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“You can call her a bitch if you want. It doesn’t offend me. In fact, I’d probably agree with it.”
“Okay.” Jon took a deep breath. “She can be a real bitch sometimes, can’t she?”
Aleisha smiled. “You know it.”
“Once I had a class with Mandy and she actually asked the teacher if the United States was friendly with the country of Alaska.”
Aleisha laughed heartily, and Kate gave a snort in Jon’s ear.
“I mocked her, of course, and it wasn’t long after that that my house was toilet papered. No doubt in my mind who did that job,” Jon added.
“She was in my gym class two years ago,” Aleisha offered. “After she made it on the cheerleading squad, she actually took money from the class if they thought our team would win or lose the next game.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. We were in the locker room, and she would keep her tally of who owed her what on the inside of the locker door.”
“How much was she making?”
“Not much. The girls would only bet a quarter or so. Probably only five bucks a week, but that would buy two diet Cokes a day.”
“So, she doesn’t know Alaska is part of the Union, but she has the math skills to be a bookie? That’s an interesting trade-off.”
“They say that some of the dumbest people are some of the smartest and vice versa.”
“Take a look at Mrs. Perry. That proves that theory.”
“Speaking of which, why does she have it in for you, Jon?”
“I had her last year. My parents wanted me to be in accelerated English, but I took Humanities instead. I was lucky and got put in the dumb class.”
“Really?”
“Not really, but kind’ve. Some of my other drama friends were in the class, but there were also cheerleaders and other jocks. Mandy was there, come to think of it. Anyway, all of my friends were in one corner of the room, and the rest of the class were dumbshits. So, Mrs. Perry knew the majority of the students were idiots, so she taught the class like it was a first grade class. So, to make it interesting, I was the class clown. I would crack jokes that only our corner would get.”
“For example?”
“We were talking about Greek and Roman architecture and one of them builds that scene of top of the columns. You know, they have a real elongated triangle that spans over several columns and there’s a scene in it?”
“Oh, yes, okay. I know what you mean.”
“So, those are called friezes. So, Mrs. Perry asks if anyone knows what a frieze is. She becomes like that teacher in Ferris Bueller, you know? “ Jon imitated Perry. “Frieze? Frieze? Does anyone know what a frieze is?” He dropped the funny voice. “ So, no one is raising their hand in the rest of the class and our corner could answer but, I think, everyone else was asleep by that point. So, I just started singing. Frieze a jolly good fellow, frieze a jolly good fellow, frieze a jolly good fellow, which nobody can deny.”
Aleisha laughed, and Jon was sure that he could hear Kate crack a smile on the other end.
“So, “ Jon continued, “she got so upset at me, that she made me do forty pages of book busy work by putting commas in the right places, and quotation marks here and there, and just a lot of that crap. It was easy, just a lot of it. So, I turned it in the next day, and she was livid! She thought it would take me a week or so to finish it, and it’s almost like she’s had me on her list ever since.”
“You really can be a smart-ass, can’t you, Jon?”
“Can be.”
Again, a silence cast itself over the car, but this time, there was no trepidation in it. It was a comfortable silence. They drove several blocks without saying a word.
“You okay up there, Jon?” Kate asked. “Still breathing?”
Jon began to speak as a yes to Kate’s question.
“Aleisha, may I ask you a question?”
“Isn’t asking if you can ask me a question a question in and of itself?”
Jon didn’t have a response, which caused Aleisha to laugh.
“She got you there,” Kate told him.
“I suppose it is, yes,” Jon finally replied.
“Then, I give you permission to ask as many questions as you want of me during the entire night, so you can stop asking if you can ask me a question.”
“Fair enough. Anyways, For my original query-“
Aleisha knew she had Jon over a barrel and was enjoying his nervousness and lack of response. “We’ve known each other so long, Jon, I don’t know if I can remember your original query.” Aleisha was beaming by this point.
“You got me. Okay, you got me. I’m just not going to even try to dig myself out of this one. I’ll just shut my mouth now, and drive.”
Aleisha could also tell that Jon was not serious about this, but she played along. “Fine,” she answered with a devilish glint in her eye.
“Oh, come on!” Jon pretended to be in a rage. “You’re supposed to beg me to be in a talkative mood or something, aren’t you?”
“I won’t beg, but I am curious what you were going to ask me.”
Kate could almost hear the sweat break out on Jon’s brow.
“I was just wondering if you’ve been waiting for me to ask you out for very long?”
Aleisha broke eye contact with him and looked down at the floor for a moment before re-engaging eye contact. “I wouldn’t use the word waiting, but I was hoping. I’ve always liked you, Jon.”
“Me too.”
Aleisha’s eyes lit up. “What an arrogant thing to say, Narcissus!”
Jon smiled and put up his finger. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it!”
Aleisha stopped the feistiness and grabbed Jon’s finger out of the air. “I know.” She brought Jon’s hand down to the seat and held it tightly.
Kate heard a satisfied sigh from Jon followed by several minutes of a nice silence. Kate didn’t get the feel of grasping for straws for conversation, just that it had taken a deserved break.