Free Revelations by Carrie Lynn Barker Page A

chair?”
    Jonas lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Let’s sit in the truck. I’m due for a break, anyway.”
    “First,” I said, grabbing the red rag from his back pocket. He stopped, and I reached up and took his chin in my hand. I drew him down to me and wiped the grease from his forehead. “Little dirty,” I explained.
    “Thanks, babe,” he said. He reached out and grabbed the shirt he’d left sitting on the roof of the truck.
    “Come on.” I took his hand and led him into the truck. He got in the driver’s side, and I got in on the other. The windows were open, and I rested my feet on the sill. I leaned back into the old leather seating and turned my head to Jonas. “Feeling better?” I asked.
    “What?” he said as he looked my way.
    “Hermione. She told me you weren’t feeling well last night.”
    “I’m fine,” he told me.
    He was faking, and I could tell, even without reading his mind. The strange tingling began in my hands, and it was an itch I didn’t know how long I could ignore. Instead of vigorously scratching my palms, I reached over and put the back of my hand against his cheek. He pulled away from me.
    “Jonas,” I said. I was suddenly filled with worry. Jonas, being cold blooded, has a normal body temperature of about seventy one degrees. Mine’s ninety seven point one, which I am told is not really normal, but oh well. It was easy to feel the heat off his skin. “You know you can tell me anything.”
    He looked at me with those golden eyes. His smile was slight and somewhat forced. “I know,” he said.
    I raised my eyebrow.
    “Okay,” he said. “So I’m not feeling so great. So sue me.”
    “You have no money,” I said. “Jonas, why didn’t you say something last night?”
    “Because I was fine last night,” he said. “I went to bed at about one thirty. I got up at one forty five feeling pretty crappy. I got a drink and found Hermione in the kitchen, and she said she’d make me some tea. You really can’t say no to Hermione’s witch doctor medicines. Then I went back to bed and she brought me her stupid concoction. I’m okay. Really.”
    “Liar,” I said.
    He rolled his eyes at me, a little trick he’d been using more and more often, one he picked up from me.
    So I leaned over and put my hand against his cheek again. This time he didn’t pull away, only leaned into my touch. “We should go inside.”
    “Not until I get this truck started again,” he said to me. “I think I have an idea on how.”
    Since I knew he wasn’t to be deterred, I said, “Wanna know how good a mind reader I am?”
    “Every day,” he said.
    I pulled my feet back into the truck and got out. He moved to follow, and I motioned for him to stay put. “Just go through everything you’d do yourself, and I’ll follow your instructions. Think clearly and in order or I’ll get confused.”
    Jonas eyed me suspiciously, then did as he was told. I followed his thought-out directions, reading deeply into his mind to keep myself on track. I don’t know what I did, but I did what he wanted to do. I used this tool, tweaked this thing or the other thing. I found myself bent over the engine of a pickup truck, doing repairs I never thought possible, but with Jonas’s help, I was able to do everything correctly. When I discovered Jonas thinking about the round curve my ass made as I bent over the truck, I smiled and chewed on my ever-chewed bottom lip. I enjoyed being the centerfold in Jonas’s imagination.
    After a few minutes, I put the last tool back in the tool box, brushed my hands together and leaned in through the driver’s side window. “Start her up,” I said.
    Jonas stuck the key in the ignition, turned it, and the truck roared to life.
    “Yes!” I shouted triumphantly. I pumped a fist in the air for emphasis.
    Jonas grinned at me. “How’d you do that?”
    I tapped my temple. “If it’s in your head, it can be in mine.”
    Jonas reached behind him and pulled his old red rag