Page 13 of Give Me a Shot

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Thirty minutes later, the small group filed out of the School and toward their parked cars. The core Ren Faire planning team had been set—Jess, Mo, Lana, Doug, and Theo—and had exchanged numbers so that they could schedule another meeting once they’d spoken to other students and teachers in fields related to their own. Jess fumbled in her bag, not really focused on where she was going as she approached the parking area.

“Jess,” a gruff voice said from behind her. Mo jogged to catch up. “You dropped this,” he said. He held out a keyring just as she hooked her finger into her own inside her bag.

“That’s not—” She lifted hers out, but her office keys weren’t there. “Right,” she said, looking at it. “That ring keeps popping off.” She reached out, and he put the keyring in her hand. “Thanks.”

“Sure,” he said. He shoved his hands in his pockets and took a few steps to the side but continued walking in the same direction as she was. She realized that the truck she’d parked next to must be his. It was strange for him to walk a little away from it.

“Are you…did you purposefully give me space just then?” she asked, looking at him. He shrugged.

“I make people uncomfortable sometimes,” he said.

She hesitated to make the joke but decided to risk it.

“Especially in dimly lit hallways.”

He looked confused a moment, then his eyebrows went up, and he let out a quick exhale. Almost like a laugh.

“Learned my lesson with you,” he said as they reached their cars.

“Wonder if my crossbow would work on Doug,” she said. “A lesson on not prying into people’s lives.”

Mo’s face darkened.

“He’d deserve it,” he said.

“You know, I really like the School so far, and I don’t want to be rude,” she said. “But that was kind of an ambush.”

Mo nodded slowly, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets.

“Sorry about that,” he said.

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” she said. “It looked like you got ambushed, too.”

He nodded again.

“I guess it’s kind of a compliment,” she said. “If they think we’re that good.”

“Suppose.” His eyebrows furrowed, and his jaw moved like he was stretching it as he glanced back at the School.

“And for a good cause,” she said.

He sighed.

“For the best cause,” he said, looking back at her.

Jess wasn’t sure what else to say. She’d never have imaginedthat she’d want to continue a conversation with someone who had scared the life out of her in the middle of the night. But Mo was surprising. This huge, imposing guy—aware of the negative effect that could have on others and willing to take the initiative to mitigate it—who seemed to be hiding an anxious kid inside. She wondered what other contradictions he was hiding. She didn’t want to be weird, though. She sighed loudly.

“Have a good evening, Mo,” she said. “I’ll see you around. Or at the next meeting.”

“Good evening, Jess,” he said. He walked around to the driver’s side of his truck, got in, and pulled away.

Chapter Five

Mo

“Okay, sugar plum, serpentine belt,” Mo called out to Madison as he straightened up from the open hood of the lifted car he was working on. The shop was closed on Sundays, but he’d decided that it was important for Madison to have some good automotive skills, so he’d taken to bringing her into the shop with him from time to time on their weekends together. That particular Sunday was doing double-duty for him; the basketball league’s thank-you banquet had been the previous night, and Mo was in desperate need of some quiet, reflective time to evacuate the remaining tension from the hours of being in an enclosed space with loud music, excited kids, and painful small talk. While he was appreciative of what the parents had wished to express, the hand-drawn cards from the players touched him much more than anything else. That, and seeing Maddie have a good time dancing with the players and their siblings.

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