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Sitting up on the bed, I ask, “What about me?”
“What about you? You look great.”
He doesn’t divert his attention from my face, so I break the tension. “You’re insane. I’m a mess. How about you put your ballcap on and we go eat breakfast before we head back to Sarasota?”
* * *
The rental car has satellite radio, which I’m not used to having. I browse to find a song I want to sing when I finally land on “Jack and Diane” by John Cougar. My friends and I used to cruise around singing this song out of our rolled down car windows.
Tackett pounds his fingers in rhythm against the steering wheel during the drum section. His profile is manly with an angular jaw and a proportionately sized nose for his face, but when he grins his smile could light up the ocean at night.
“Did you listen to this song with your high school friends? It’s an oldie but a goody.”
He repositions himself in the driver’s seat and slows his thrumming. “No, but I listened to it with my brothers.” His voice has an edge to it.
“Are you close with your brothers?”
“Yeah, pretty close. Jayson’s five years older and Cayson is six years older than me, but they tried to include me whenever they were home. Jayson went to college close to our hometown at the University of Santa Cruz so I’m a little closer to him. So last night when you asked about Nic, well, he’s married to one of Jayson’s friends. Nic has been following my career ever since Kaylee and he married. I was actually at the horse races with them, Wilson and Kenni when Nic found out they were having a baby.”
“Wow, what a small world.”
He turns down the music. I notice the veins on his forearms as he makes the smallest of movements. “What about you? Obviously, I know you and Megan were split up into different foster homes, but do you have other brothers and sisters with your adopted parents?”
“Yep. They’re older than me too, but I’m not adopted. I was fostered by the same family for the last nine years of my life.” I browse for another song and crank up the radio. I don’t want to ruin the present with the past.
We’re four hours into the drive to Florida when Tackett pulls into a Dairy Freeze. He pops the trunk open and pulls a canister of something from his bag. He motions for me to get out. It’s a roadside, walk-up ice cream shack. He places his order at the screen window, hands them a container and asks if they can put a scoop of protein powder in the shake. He also asks for skim milk. Geez, this guy needs to live a little. I’m not used to friends that are one hundred percent committed to anything.
The breeze is blistering, but least we’re both wearing ballcaps. Tackett gave me his Kodiaks hat, and I pulled my ponytail through the hole to secure it in place. He wears his Sharks flat-bill and his hair curls around the edges.
“Hey, there’s a little walking trail behind here.” His voice breaks up my thoughts. “Do you want to stretch your legs? I need to move—all this sitting is leaving me with too much energy.”
I have a way you can burn some energy but it sure as hell doesn’t involve a walking trail.
“Sure, do you think it’s safe?” I bite into the ice cream, dipped in hard butterscotch. The first few minutes we’re both silent, enjoying our frozen treats and stretching our legs.
“I know it’s windy, and the weather app says to expect high winds, but there’s no warning issued for our location.”
“Okay.” I step over a rock. “So, do you like nature?”
“I guess,” he answers. “I grew up in Monterey, California which is the best place on earth. You have the ocean, and the sea otters bark every morning, but there’s also rolling hills and it’s always seventy degrees.” He stops and does lunges. “All I’ve ever really enjoyed in my free time is baseball, along with a little fishing and camping.”
In the middle of the walking trail is a bench where you look into a field of mustard. It’s swaying forcefully from the wind. Tackett takes his phone out, taps a few times and looks at the weather. “Hmm. We need to get to Sarasota and as far away as we can. You ready?”
“Yeah.”
His phone starts ringing. Both of his brothers call as well as his mom. “Worried about me?” he playfully asks the voice on the line. He pauses, inhaling a balloon full of air. “I’ll text you. Yeah, love you too.”
Not wanting to eavesdrop, I start back to the car. Soon, he’s sprinting past me on the trail. “First one to the car gets control of the radio.” I can hear his laugh as he gets farther away. If I wasn’t in flip flops I could definitely keep up. As I bring up the rear, Tackett rewards me with a gleaming smile while he leans against the car, twirling his hat. There’s an indention rimming around his hair and the blond edges curl out.
“Umm. What music will I play? Nirvana?”
“I like Nirvana.”
We both drop into the car. “Imagine Dragons?”
“Oh, I love ‘Whatever it Takes.’” She fawns over my choice in music.
He chuckles, “Of course you do.”
