Chapter Thirteen

I'd thought he was going to propose. I really had. But no. No such luck. Things like that don't happen to me.

Okay, okay. Good things do happen to me. Like meeting Jesse, Jesse being alive, winning the purse competition thing. But will Jesse ever propose? The jury's still out on that one, folks.

I was thinking of all this while he and I walked back to the group of people we'd gone to hang around with on the beach. I don't know what he was thinking, but I think he knew what I was thinking about.

Or at least I hope he did.

"What we were thinking about, anyway?" I asked.

He threw a sideways glance at me. "You don't know?" He was smiling at me. God how I love that smile. That secret smile that is just for me.

"No."

"The future," he said meaningfully. This was good. This was very good.

"What about it?"

Okay. So I was prodding him. Big deal. I wanted to know what he was thinking about. Can you blame a girl for wanting to know what her boyfriend is thinking? What kind of girlfriend would I be if I pretended not to care?

"That's for me to know…and you to find out later," he said mysteriously. The enigma that is Jesse, I swear. He can't give me a straight up answer about anything. It's always some cryptic thing he has to say.

"Aw, come on, Jesse.…" I said, hoping he would tell me then.

"Susannah, Susannah…" he chided. "Even you can wait patiently for something so unimportant."

"Even me? Oh, that's too funny, Jesse," I said, fake-punching him on the arm. "But what you think," I said more seriously, "is not unimportant. Not to me, anyway."

"Querida," he said. "I don't want to explain right now. Not in front of everyone who is here. Some things are better discussed in private."

I kicked some sand, thinking. In private? Jesse wanted to speak to me in private? I hoped it meant what I thought it meant.

"Well, fine. We'll go somewhere and talk then," I said.

"No," he said chuckling. "We'll talk later. Right now, you need to see your friends." He pointed to CeeCee and Gina, who looked really pissed at me for having left them alone with Allison, who had abandoned Paul for to go and talk to them.

"Okay. Bye," I said, kissing him on the cheek.

He looked embarrassed. "Susannah…" He said. Jesse doesn't go for PDA. He says PDA should stand for Private Demonstration of Affection, not Public Display of Affection.

I ran over to CeeCee, Gina, and Allison. Allison was busy giving an account of how she and Paul had met. CeeCee and Gina looked really bored.

"Sorry, guys," I said, interrupting Allison's speech. CeeCee and Gina looked relieved. Allison, who noticed that Paul was back from the snack bar, went over to cling on him.

"I just wanted to see how Jesse was doing while you guys were talking. I didn't know The Kling On was going to come back," I said, sitting down on the beach blanket.

"It's not a problem unless you jip us out of an explanation, Simon," Gina said. "Then it will be a big problem." She rolled her eyes. "I don't get what Paul Slater sees in her. I mean, he's hot, and he seems kind of smart…and she's not. Don't smart guys usually go for smart girls? Unless, of course, they're the totally arrogant type who date stupid girls in order to show off their smarts."

"Um, Paul is the arrogant type. You just don't know him well enough yet," I said. "Trust me," I added quickly.

"Yeah, Gina, he is kind of haughty," CeeCee said. "He cursed at Kelly Prescott- you remember her, right? She was the girl who had the issues with the Chinese tanks- during our junior year. He told her to shove candy bars up her ass…Not that it offended me, or anything. I'm just saying that he could treat women better." CeeCee smiled. "I often wanted to tell off Kelly and Debbie. I just couldn't get the best opportunity to do it in front of everyone."

I thought about how he'd treated me before the night we went back to 1850, and kept my mouth closed. I didn't want to explain everything just yet.

"Not to mention, he was way rude to Suze, too. He practically blackmailed her," CeeCee added.

"Oh, really? Someone actually found something to blackmail Simon with?" Gina turned toward me. "Describe."

"Now is really not the best time, Gina," I said. "He's standing right over there." I pointed at him. "See?"

"So? We can leave and talk. I'm getting bored anyway," Gina said.

"I'm afraid Simon does owe us a huge explanation, and this sweater is getting rather warm," CeeCee said.

I sighed. I just wouldn't win, now would I? I was stuck having to explain it all to them, whether I wanted to or not.

"Okay," I said. "We'll go to my house and talk. I'll explain while when we get there. Just let me go say good-bye to Jesse."

I walked across the sand to Jesse, who was lying on a towel reading a book. I was really quiet as I walked across, hoping to sneak up on him.

I watched him as he read. He didn't seem to notice me, which, for once, I was glad he didn't- I wanted to watch.

He looked so perfect, sitting there, reading. He was tan from being in the sun all day, and his hair was curly and slightly windblown, which gave it a messy, but still sexy, look. He was also shirtless, so I could see his chest, which was still extremely buff, and the thin band of dark hair that led from his navel down to the edge of his swimming trunks…and possibly below.

Had I been observing any other guy that way, I would have passed these observations off because of sun-drunkenness, but this was Jesse, so I was one-hundred percent correct in my observations, if I may say so myself.

So, I just stood there, looking at him, and thinking about him, and how our kids might turn out- if we ever get married and have kids, that is- when he noticed I was there.

"You were thinking about me were you?" he said. It totally unnerves me when he says that.

I mentioned that before, right? The fact that he always knows I'm thinking about him, I mean. Well, it's really weird. You see, whenever I'm thinking about him, he knows. I'd say it's love, but I don't know when he's thinking about me. I think it's another side effect of his previous condition, you know, the one where he was a ghost. I mean, that's why he's a mediator. So why wouldn't he know when I'm thinking about him? I mean, he always came to me when I was thinking about calling him when he was a ghost…maybe that's why he can tell if I'm thinking about him.

"Maybe," I said, sitting down next to him. I turned around for a brief moment and saw CeeCee throw her hands up in exasperation.

He put his book away. It was nearly sunset. He wouldn't be able to read it for much longer anyway. "Susannah, I- " he started, but he never finished. Something was really wrong with him. He could usually say what he needed to say, but not this time. Whatever it was, it must have been something big.

Like, for instance, proposing. Oh, he never even hinted of that, but the whole being quiet and staring off into space on his part reeked of pre-proposal jitters. Or at least according to the editors of Cosmo.

"Jesse…is something wrong?" I asked. The sun was sinking- a big orange fireball- into the ocean. The deep red rays of light lit up Jesse's face, bringing out his tan and highlighting his hair. He looked far away, as if he were not really at the beach talking to me.

"No, querida," he said, glancing at me meaningfully. "Right now, everything is perfect, but…" He sighed. "…there is something I want to say, but I don't know exactly how to say it."

"I'm sorry, Jesse," I said. I glanced over my shoulder to see a pissed off-looking Gina staring at me. "Listen, CeeCee and Gina want me to explain everything- about the mediator thing, I mean- to them. And I mean it when I say they want to know everything. Would it be okay with you if I explained, you know…" I was suddenly very uncomfortable. This wasn't really a subject I liked to discuss with Jesse. I doubted I'd enjoy discussing it with Gina, David, and CeeCee.

"Of course it would be all right with me. They need to know, Susannah," Jesse said. Even though I hadn't finished that sentence, he knew what I'd meant.

"Okay." I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, longing to do more, since sunset is a perfectly romantic time, in my opinion. "Bye, then. Enjoy your book."

He grabbed me and kissed me, on the lips. "Good-bye, Susannah," he said as I got up-- giddily, but with regret that I couldn't kiss him again-- to leave.