Read Online Indirect Route by Claire Matthews - Free Book Online Page B

window and took his bright red box of food with a rueful grin.  “Try to contain yourself.”
    “I wasn’t going to say anything.”  She was biting the inside of her lip so hard, she felt as if she’d soon draw blood.  She took the food from his hands so he could drive. 
    “Do you—“She stopped herself.
    “What?” 
    “Do you want me to put the straw in your juice box?”
    “Go on, get it all out.”
    “You can’t have the cookie until you finish your sandwich.”
    He closed his eyes and sighed.  “Keep ‘em coming.”
    Janie took a deep breath and shook her head.  “I’m done.” He eyed her suspiciously.  “I am!”
    “Just hand me my burger.”  She obeyed, unwrapping the small hamburger and handing it to him, holding it between her thumb and index finger.
    “Oh!  I touched it!  Did I ruin it?”
    “What?  No, of course not,” he said, grabbing the burger and biting it in half.  “I don’t mind you touching my food.  I just don’t like the idea of strangers touching it.” He reached across the gearshift and grabbed a handful of fries from the box on her lap.  “I wish I could explain it.  I’m not a germaphobe.  I mean, not entirely.  Hell, I just sucked on your face for a good half hour.”
    “Language!” Janie cried, stealing a fry.
    Aaron rolled his eyes.  “It’s just the unknown that bothers me, I guess.”
    “But life is just a series of unknowns.  Do we know whether or not a bus is going to mow us down between here and the hotel?  Do we know if an asteroid’s on a crash-course with earth as we speak?  If you take that line of thinking to the extreme, you’d never leave the house.”
    “I get it.  You think I haven’t had this argument with myself a thousand times?”
    Janie stopped.  “Well.  Of course you have.  What a sanctimonious shit I am.”
    “No you’re not.  You’re right.  I just wish I could make my crazy self listen to my not-so-crazy self.”
    “You’re not crazy.  And I shouldn’t tease you.  I’m sorry.”  She reached out and threaded her fingers through his. 
    “Don’t make me into some kind of tragic figure, Janie.  I told you when we first met—I’m kinda weird, but I’m cool with it.  I just have to surround myself with other people who’re cool with it, too.”
    Janie smiled.  “That’s about the most normal thing I’ve ever heard.”  She stole another fry, then read him the kids’ jokes on the bottom of the Happy Meal box until they arrived back at the hotel.
    Holding hands in the hotel parking lot, Janie was surprised to find that she wasn’t nervous around Aaron, even after the interlude they’d shared earlier in the evening.  Something about him made her feel comfortable in her own skin.  She hadn’t felt so at peace with the world since before her mother died.
    “So, what’s on the agenda for tomorrow?” Janie asked once they were back in their room.
    “Let’s see…” He opened his laptop and looked at the document he’d compiled earlier in the day.  “We need to hit up some of the employees at JPI—see if any of them remember Kenneth.  We also need to talk to some of the other neighbors on Cypress Hill Drive.  I imagine there are a few people around who still remember him and your mom.  Possibly even you.”
    “It’s still so weird to think I lived in that house.  With my mom and a man I know almost nothing about.”
    “Do you think your mom had a job while she was here?  Maybe before you were born?”  Janie stopped pulling her pajamas and makeup bag out of her suitcase and looked at him curiously.
    “Oh my God.  Why didn’t I think of that earlier?  My mom was a pianist.  She taught private lessons to kids.  Usually she arranged them through the elementary schools in the area.  And she played for churches.  We can ask around tomorrow.  I bet some of her former students still live in the area.”
    “Now you’re thinking like an investigator.”  Aaron smiled