Instead, he kept his hands on the wheel while she fed him Chick-fil-A nuggets and wafflefries.
They’d stopped only long enough to walk Archie, fill up the Impala, grab a bite for dinner just outside of Jackson. Twice, he’d managed to trap the tip of her index finger between his front teeth, run his tongue over it, and suckle it before setting herfree.
Both times, he heard her breathcatch.
“Delicious,” he whispered the secondtime.
She giggled and popped a waffle fry into hermouth.
It was just after seven o’clock, and they would make it back to Lafayette around ten-thirty if there weren’t any accidents on the basin bridge. Jacques wondered when he should tell Rainey that he wouldn’t be taking herhome.
He wasn’t ready to let her go, and she needed to meet Pal sooner or later. It might as well be over coffee in the morning. Given her stubbornness and what he guessed would be her hesitation to sleep under his grandfather’s roof, Jacques figured he might need the three-or-so hours to convince her. He was about to launch into his argument when his phonerang.
Again.
Kate had called while he’d waited for Rainey in the music studio, and he’d ignored it. She’d called again while he was filling up the car an hour ago, and here she was again. Obviously, the girl couldn’t wait for him to get back to her. The lanes in front and behind were empty, so Jacques swiped his finger across the screen and held the phone to hisear.
“Hello,” he said, finishing the bite of waffle fry Rainey had just fedhim.
“Gilchrist! What the hell? I’ve been trying to reach you for two frickin’ days!” Kate’s cranky rasp burst through the phone and had Jacques pulling the device away to preserve hishearing.
“Like I told you Sunday, on a road trip with my girl,” he said, grinning atRainey.
She grinned back and took a sip of hersoda.
Jacques realized if he kissed her then, she’d taste like root beer andbliss.
“You can’t answer the damn phone?” Kate shrieked, pulling him away from his kissing fantasy. “Don’t you know what it means when someone leaves you a voicemail saying ‘Call the fuck back! Likenow!’?”
Jacques could only chuckle at her tirade. “I called you back last night. You didn’t answer,” he defended lightly. “But you have my attention now. What’s up? We got anothergig?”
“No, dumbass, we’ve got a recorddeal.”
The blood vessels in Jacques’s ears must have dilated because as soon as he heard Kate’s words, all sound went gauzy and muted with a hum. Like he’d pressed seashells up to his ears. Moving stiffly, he flicked on the Impala’s blinker, glanced in the rearview to check for traffic, and aimed for theshoulder.
“Jacques, what’s wrong?” Rainey questioned him with roundedeyes.
He couldn’t find the words to reassure her, and his hands held the steering wheel and phone, so he couldn’t say what he needed to say withtouch.
“Gilchrist?” Kate’s impatient voice seemed to echo from a greatdistance.
Angling the car safely away from the traveling lanes, Jacques came to a stop. Archie stood up on the seat behind them, excited that they’d soon be taking awalk.
“Jacques? Babe, everything okay?” Rainey’s hand was now on his knee. Worry etched herbrow.
Her touch seemed to ground him because then the words were there. “It’s fine,” he managed. “Goodnews.”
“Fuck, yeah, it’s good news,” Kate growled. “JAG wants to signus.”
Jacques choked. “JAG… As in Jagjaguwar…” He swallowed and tried again. “As in the label of Bon Iver… and Foxygen… and MightyTiger…”
“Yeah, that JAG,” Kate said, a grin of satisfaction now evident in hervoice.
Jacques quickly switched the phone to his left hand and grabbed Rainey’s with his right. “Holy shit,” he breathed, his voice going a little shaky. Everything was going a littleshaky.
Rainey’s fingers tightened around his, and in her eyes, he sawcomprehension.
“JAG?” she mouthed, her bottom lip disappearing between herteeth.
