Drawing Hearts. J.M. Jeffries

up her boyfriend jeans and tugged her red tank top into place. If she could ride a camel to the pyramids in Egypt, she could throw a ball down the lane and knock down the pins.

      “Stand here,” Reed ordered, pointing at a mark on the slick floor. He positioned her hands around the bowling ball. “Now, you’re going to swing the ball back like this and take three steps forward. On the last one you’re going to slide, like this, and stoop a little.” He demonstrated for her. “Then throw the ball when you reach this mark.”

      She did so, and the ball ended up in the gutter. The ball was much heavier than it looked. Eventually it reached the back of the lane and disappeared. A moment later it reappeared in the ball return, clinking into Reed’s ball.

      “You get two tries.” Reed helped her position her feet again.

      She paced forward and threw the ball. It sort of stayed in the middle of the lane and eventually reached the pins, knocking down three. “I’m a bowling rock star,” she cried, raising her arms in victory.

      Reed laughed. He sat at the scoring console and entered her score. Then he stood and picked up his ball. She studied the way he stood, his feet together, the ball poised in front of him. He stepped forward and threw the ball in an oddly graceful set of motions. His ball slammed down the lane and smacked into the pins. Several fell down.

      “You knocked some down,” she said, feeling a small thrill of excitement. She was enjoying herself. Who knew bowling could be so much fun. She wanted to knock all the balls down.

      His ball came back through the return. He picked the ball up and swung it again. It rolled down the alley and knocked the rest of the pins down.

      “That’s a spare.”

      “I think I’m going to enjoy this.” She picked up her ball.

      They bowled a few frames and while she waited for her ball to return after her last gutter ball, Reed announced, “It’s time for beer and nachos.”

      She shook her head in surprise. “I haven’t had beer and nachos since college.”

      “Life can’t be all salad and smoothies.” He walked over to the bar to put in his order.

      She tried not to think about the calories. Oh, well, she’d work it off tossing that ball around and maybe hitting a few pins.

      “You don’t strike me as a bowler,” she said after a couple more frames.

      “I had to find a way to connect with my employees besides work. Downtime was important. And stress was a big part of the day.”

      “How did you get into artificial limbs?” Miss E. had told Kenzie about his business.

      He lifted a nacho to his lips, cheese dripping on his fingers. He wiped the cheese off with a napkin. “Five years ago Dad lost his leg below the knee in a training exercise and decided to retire from the navy. I’d moved away from writing phone apps to internet security at the time. I remember what he went through, getting his prosthesis to fit correctly. He wanted a leg that looked like a real leg. Later, I started experimenting myself and ended up developing software that took all the measurements needed and crafted a realistic-looking leg that matched the real leg. Watching my dad walk, you’d never know he had a prosthetic leg. And from that I developed other applications for the medical field.”

      “That’s really impressive.” He’d made a huge contribution to making people’s lives easier. All she’d ever done was try to make women look pretty.

      “I did it because I love my dad.” For a second he looked sort of sad.

      Kenzie wanted to comfort him to take the look away. She realized he’d never said anything about his mother. “Where are your parents?”

      “My dad lives in San Diego and my mom was killed in an auto accident seven years ago.”

      “That sucks,” she said. “I didn’t mean to say that quite that way.”

      “You’re right. Losing my mom sucks.”

      Cheers sounded at the other end of the alley. She glanced around. A woman jumped up and down, throwing her hands in the air and whooping. “I did it. I did it,” she cried. Her companions clapped and she bowed.