"But I didn't ask what you wanted to do for a living," Kayla pointed out. "I asked what crazy thing you'd like to do. Learning to paint isn't that hard, it's not like wanting to walk on the moon or something."
"Well, see, now, I didn't think of that. Can I change my answer?"
"You can do anything you want." Kayla managed to sound amused, encouraging, and sanctimoniously condescending all in one sentence, although her expression, which was obviously intended to be funny, sold the last part.
"Gee, thanks. I think you've got a second career as a motivational speaker ahead of you."
"Oh, God, no, I'm going to retire to my castle with my cats and never be seen in public again, like Enya."
Jordan laughed. "Like who?"
"Oh, man, you don't know Enya? She's this Irish singer with an incredible haunting voice and she doesn't tour, she doesn't do concerts, she just lives in her castle with her cats and releases an album every once in a while and charts with it. One of my older costars introduced me to her music about fifteen years ago and now it's my go-to chillaxing music."
"Chillax? I don't think anybody says that anymore!"
Kayla grinned at him. "I do."
Jordan made a show of taking notes. "Enya…chillax…anything else I should know?"
"How did this end up about me? We're talking about things you want to do!"
"We're having a conversation," Jordan said, trying for the same high-falutin' tone she'd managed a minute earlier. "That means talking aboutbothof us."
"Oh, you really are scripted. Who's feeding you lines? Barney, is it you?" Kayla looked under the table and the Border Collie sat up fast enough to bump his head, clearly hoping for food. "I don't think it's him," Kayla said as she gave the dog's head a pet.
"If it's him my second career is all sorted out. I'll go on variety shows with my magnificent talking dog."
"I thought you were pet-sitting."
Jordan waved, dismissing the detail. "I won't tell if you don't."
Kayla laughed. "I will not be party to dog-stealing."
"…yeah, that's fair. I hadn't thought about it likestealing. I was just gonna, like…borrowhim for a while. This is great," Jordan added more softly. "I'm sorry for outing you as being from around here if you didn't want that to be known, but I'm really glad to see you again. Don't take this wrong, but running into old high school acquaintance isn't usually this much fun. And it happens kind of a lot around here."
Kayla glanced out the window, her gaze lingering on the snow that had just started falling. "I'm kind of surprised there's anything left to Virtue, honestly. It was kind of dying when I left. It seemed like everybody was leaving. Even though…"
"Even though?" Jordan's eyebrows went up, but Kayla shook her head, so he let it go and nodded agreement. "Yeah, you're right. It was like everybody was trying to get on the last bus out of town, when we were in high school. But something's changed. Maybe it was Zane Bellamy making it famous. You remember Zane?"
"Yeah, of course. He's even dressed me a couple of times, but we pretend we don't know each other. I mean, we don't, really. He's about five years older than me, so I didn't go to school with him or anything, but, y'know, small town and all that. And yeah, he kind of put Virtue on the map, which…" She trailed off again, frowning, and worry sprang up in Jordan's heart.
"Which what?"
"Oh, just…I think it's better for Virtue to be kind of unknown, that's all."
"You said that before. Why on earth would you think that? I think it's great Zane brought all that attention here. People are moving back to Virtue instead of away!"
Kayla studied him a moment, finally shaking her head with a funny little smile. "You really don't know. That's…I didn't realize…well, I'm going to have to explain it to you, but I can't right now. I've got to get back to set, for one. But look, Jordan, all else aside you're right, this has actually been great and…would you like to do it again sometime soon?"
Jordan frowned faintly at her. "What are you talking about? I mean, yes! Yeah, of course, I'd love to see you again. But…what is it I don't know?"
"Some of Virtue's history, that's all. Stuff I kind of thought everybody secretly knew." Kayla laughed. "Because I'm very self-centered and it's all about me, I guess. It's nothing bad," she said as his eyes widened with thoughts of what kind of secret histories small towns in movies often had. "Honestly, it's nothing bad, just less common knowledge than I thought. I'm sorry, J, I really do have to go."
Getting a nickname from Kayla Walsh, aka Kylie Quinn, washed away every other thought in Jordan's brain, and he felt himself light up. "'J?'"
She wrinkled her nose, the cutest thing he'd ever seen. "Is that okay?"
"I'll have to try it on for size," he said, not meaning that at all. "No, it's amazing. Nobody ever gave me a nickname before. 'Jor' is stupid, and 'Dan' isn't a nickname, it's just a name."
