by Carrie Elks
The two of them walked out to the parking lot. “So, I heard your brother’s new single the other day,” Brad said, sliding into the driver’s seat. “It was pretty sweet.”
“Thanks.” Tanner was still getting used to the fact that Gray had left town and signed a record contract in L.A.. “I’ll let him know.”
“You think he’ll ever come back here?”
“No idea.”
Brad shrugged. “Can’t blame him if he doesn’t. This town’s a shithole. I can’t wait for college.”
College. Another reason why Tanner needed to get up the guts and actually talk to Van. They were both planning to go to Duke University in the fall, and there was no way he wanted this awkwardness there.
“So anyway, you decide who you’re taking to the prom?” Brad looked over his shoulder and reversed out of the space.
“Haven’t thought about it.” It was the truth. He and Van had always laughed at how seriously everybody took Senior Prom. They’d even talked about doing a Carrie-style prank.
“I hear Chrissie Fairfax wants you to take her.”
“Right.”
“I… ah… was thinking of asking Savannah Butler.” Brad shifted the car into drive, glancing at Tanner from the corner of his eye. “If it’s cool with you.”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“She’s your friend.” Brad shrugged. “And I know you didn’t like Nate going out with her.”
“Nate’s a dog.”
Brad laughed. “No argument there.” The car pulled onto the road into town. “But seriously, I won’t hurt her. I just want to take her out, that’s all. She’s a cool girl.”
“Yeah, she is.” Tanner stared right ahead. “And too good for you.”
“I won’t ask her if you don’t like it. Bros before…” Brad trailed off before he could say it. “Well, you know.”
“Why wouldn’t I like it?”
“Nate thinks you like her. As in actually like her. I told him he’s talking crap.”
Tanner felt a shiver snake down his spine. “Yeah, well he is.” He frowned. “She’s my friend, that’s all.”
“So you don’t mind if I ask her?”
Tanner opened his mouth to say he minded like crap, but then he closed it again. Because Brad was one of the good ones. And Van was already pissed at him for telling Nate to back off. He didn’t want to upset her again.
“I don’t mind.”
Maybe she’d say no. He let that thought warm him for a moment.
“Great. I’ll ask her tomorrow.” Brad’s grin was wide. “Thanks, man.”
“Sure.”
At least Brad wouldn’t get her first kiss. That would always be Tanner’s. He ran the pad of his finger along his bottom lip, remembering how good her mouth had felt against his.
“And you should ask Chrissie. Maybe we could even go together,” Brad said, pulling into the town square. “We could go in together for a limo or something.”
“Sounds good.”
As soon as Brad pulled into a space outside Murphy’s Diner, Tanner opened the door, climbing out of there like the car was on fire.
His body felt weird. Like every muscle inside of him was coiled up tight, and the only way to get some relief was to hit something.
Or someone.
Watching Brad swagger into the diner like he was king of the damn hill made him realize exactly who he wanted to hit.
But he had a plan. And getting suspended from school for fighting another student didn’t figure in it all.
Damn, he hated this. As far as he was concerned, graduation couldn’t come fast enough.
Chapter Twenty-One
Van crossed her arms and looked at the field in front of her. It was a complete mess right now. Where grass had once grown was overturned earth criss-crossed with deep tracks thanks to the heavy construction vehicles the team was using. But even through the devastation, she could see things starting to take shape. The screen was half-constructed, along with the building to the left that would house the refreshment stand on the ground floor, and an office above it for the general manager.
For her. It was still strange to think that. It was like a circle that was finally closing itself. She was back here, in Hartson’s Creek, working at the drive in. And at night she lay in Tanner Hartson’s arms.
“I got a couple of things for you to sign off on,” Rich called out when he spotted her. “The audio visual equipment should arrive next week, so we’re concentrating on the screen and the projection room. Once that’s all in we can work on the field and finish the buildings. You okay with that?”
She was impressed at how much was getting done. Not that it surprised her. She’d seen how much Tanner was paying Rich’s construction company for such a short deadline. He really was keen on getting this up and running.
“I’m good with that. Is everything still going to plan?”
“Yes, ma’am. No glitches so far. Even the rain two nights ago didn’t cause any problems. And I’ve checked the forecast for next week, it should all be good.”
“So the completion date is still achieveable?” she asked him.
“Yes. For sure.”
Van nodded, her lips pressed together. She and Tanner had already agreed that Saturday July fifth would make the perfect opening date. It was a holiday weekend, everybody would be in a party mood, and she had just enough time to organize an opening gala before they showed the movie. Hopefully that should get them some publicity and bring the movie-lovers out.
She’d held off sending out invitations until she checked with Rich. She’d been burned too many times planning events like this. But she knew Virginia summers. They were hot and humid, with only the occasional storm that passed almost as soon as it arrived. It would rain thick and heavy for an hour at the most, then the sun would come out and dry it all up again.
If the construction was finished on time, that gave them some leeway to have a rehearsal where they could run all the systems and the refreshments, inviting a few friends to try the drive-in out, before the gala. She made a quick calculation. They could have the rehearsal the weekend before the opening. That would give them a week to iron out any issues.
“Oh, hey, Tanner,” Rich said, looking over her shoulder. Van felt her skin warm up, the way it always did when he was around. She turned to see him walking up the field, his jeans low, his t-shirt tight against his muscles, with a blue football cap pulled low over his thick hair.
Her stomach gave a tug as he smiled at her, his eyes crinkling. It felt new and old at the same time. She smiled back, glancing carefully at Rich, hoping he didn’t know what was going on between her and Tanner.
Right now she was happy keeping things on the down low. Gossip still hadn’t died down about her mom’s appearance at the Moonlight Bar, and she certainly didn’t plan on adding any fuel to the fire.
Her relationship with Tanner wasn’t anyone’s business. It was too precious to be tainted by wagging tongues. Too new for her to do anything but protect it. Even if she did want to go and shout about it to everybody, she was too busy anyway. With the drive-in, Zoe, and Tanner, of course. The perfect triumvirate.
Tanner skimmed his fingers across the top of her bare arm, then reached forward to shake Rich’s hand. Even that briefest of touches was enough for the goosebumps to rise on her skin. Van swallowed hard, trying to slow her heart down. Why was it so difficult to keep a poker face?
“Everything under control?” Tanner asked.
“All good. I was just telling Van about the audio visual installation next week. Once that’s done, we have a couple of weeks to finish up the parking area, buildings, and the playground. We should be good to go by completion day.” Rich shrugged. “Of course it does mean working weekends.”
Tanner lifted a brow. “Whatever it takes.” He gave Rich a nod then turned to Van. “You got time for a meeting?” he asked her. “I have lunch in the truck. I thought we could go over the opening plans while we eat.”
/> “Sure.” Van nodded. “Let me sign these papers and I’ll be with you.”
Five minutes later, she was climbing into Tanner’s rental car, an oversized beast of a truck that probably ate fifty gallons of gas for breakfast. He was still trying to decide which new car to buy, since he’d had to give up his old one when he sold the company in New York. “I see your taste in cars hasn’t improved,” she said, biting down on her lip as he started up the engine.
“What do you mean?” he asked, his brows knitting together.
She looked around the interior. “This is pretty much a penis extension in vehicular form,” she told him, grinning at his raised eyebrow. “And I have to tell you, you don’t need one.”
He grinned. “This was all they had left in its class. I’ll get something better soon. And for what it’s worth, you used to love my old Camaro.”
“I loved the way it meant I didn’t have to walk to school or the drive-in anymore,” Van told him, remembering the rusty orange sportscar with a smile. “But it stank like ditch water and was so unreliable.”
“I have a lot of good memories from that car.” Tanner pulled out into the main road. “A few of them with you.”
Her face heated up as she remembered prom night. They’d both gone with other people, though the four of them had traveled in the same limo. One paid for by her date, Brad. They hadn’t gone home together, though. After a few drunken fumbles, Brad had finally gotten the message that she wasn’t planning on giving him her virginity on prom night, no matter how much he’d paid for the limo. He’d gone off in a huff, leaving her without a ride home.
“Remember prom night?” Van murmured, as Tanner pulled onto a dirt road. The same one his Camaro had juddered along as they drove to the overlook together. Him in the black dinner suit he’d inherited from Logan, who’d inherited it from Gray. Van in one of her mom’s more demure dresses, that somehow looked anything but demure when Van put it on.
“Yeah, I remember.” Tanner nodded. “I hadn’t wanted to go at all.”
Van blinked. “So why did you?”
“Because Brad Wilshaw told me he was taking you. I wanted to be there to make sure he didn’t take advantage of you.”
“Yeah, well he tried.”
“It’s a good thing I went then,” Tanner said simply.
“What happened between you and Chrissie that night?” Van asked. “One minute you were dancing, the next she wasn’t talking to you anymore.”
“Nothing.” He pulled up next to a tree. The outlook was empty. From here you could see all of Hartson’s Creek, from the sparkling blue water that gave the town its name, to the vibrant green grass of the town square and the glinting white roof of the First Baptist Church.
“I thought you liked her.”
“Yeah, I kind of did. But it turned out, there was somebody I liked more.” His eyes met hers, and she felt her chest tighten.
“Is that why you didn’t get a ride home with her?”
“She offered me a ride. I asked if you could come, too. She told me to choose between her and you.” Tanner shrugged. “There was no competition. It was always you.”
Those words again. They warmed her and made her afraid at the same time. If it was always her, what had happened over the past ten years?
“It was sweet, the way you made me wait at the school so you could run home and get your car.”
“I didn’t want you to ruin those shoes you were wearing.” He winked at her. “They were hot.” He cleared his throat, a smile lifting his lips. “I also had an ulterior motive. I wanted to get you up here and I couldn’t do that without a car.”
The air was sparking between them. Despite the cold blast of the air conditioning, her body felt overheated as she remembered that night. Their second kiss. Less fumbling this time. More sure. They’d lain on the grass together, looking up at the stars sparkling in the dark sky. Then he’d touched her, until she saw stars behind her eyes, swallowing her cries with his warm, wanting mouth.
“Is that why you’ve brought us up here now?”
He grinned. “I really do want to talk to you about the drive-in,” he told her. “But I also don’t know if I can talk to you without kissing you, and I figure you don’t want Rich and his crew seeing that.”
The way he was looking at her made her stomach do a flip. Intense, dark, needy. “I don’t,” she said softly. “I hate it when people talk about me. About us. This thing that’s happening between us.” She gestured at the space between them. “I want it to stay between us. And I’m grateful that you’re thinking of my needs.”
“I know you,” he said, a half-smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. “I know how you think. And though I want to go and shout about you to the world, I’ll take this at your pace.”
“Even if it means playing it cool in front of everybody else?”
“I hid my feelings for you for years,” he said, biting down a grin. “I can do it for a few more weeks.” He leaned forward to brush his lips against hers. “At least in public.”
She curled her hand around his neck, sighing softly as he deepened the kiss. “I just don’t want people judging me. They’ll say you gave me this job because I’m sleeping with you.”
“They’re not as judgmental as you think.” He brushed the hair from her face, his fingers lingering on her jaw. “You’re not your mom, Van.”
“That’s not how they’d see it.” She closed her eyes as he leaned in to kiss her neck, his mouth sending tingles down her spine. “Like mother like daughter. The town sluts.”
“Anybody calls you that, I’ll make sure they can’t speak again.” His voice was low.
She laughed at his words. “You’re my hero, you know that?”
“I’ll be whatever you want me to be,” he told her. “But I need you to know this is serious. I want you in my life and in my bed, Van. No messing about, no mixed messages. This is it for me.”
His gaze was deadly serious. Her breath caught at his intensity. “I feel the same. Just give me some time to get used to it.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “Agreed.”
“And in the meantime, we can sneak around like teenagers,” she said, grinning. “And make out in cars.” She cupped his jaw with her hands, brushing her lips against his. He kissed her back, hot and hard until they were both breathless.
“Sounds good to me.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Van! Hey!” Maddie Clark walked out of the diner kitchen, waving at Van as she leaned on the counter. “How are you? And your sister? Is she okay?” She walked along the counter and picked up the coffee carafe. “You want some?” she asked. “It’s decaf, I’m afraid. Murphy messed up the real stuff.”
“Sure.” Van watched, amused, as Maddie filled up two mugs with the bitter liquid, then put them on the counter along with a few containers of creamer and a container of sugar. Then she walked around and sat on the stool next to Van’s.
“Maddie Clark, how many times have I told you not to help yourself to my coffee,” Murphy, the diner’s owner, grumbled as he shook his head at her cup. “You don’t work here anymore, remember?”
“I was saving you the hassle. I hear Cora Jean’s not feeling well.” Maddie shrugged. “And I did say hello.”
“Well unless you want to put an apron on and run a shift, I suggest you stay on that side of the counter.”
Maddie blew him a kiss. “I miss you like crazy, Murph, but I’m never working for you again. You’re too bad humored.”
“Humph.” He shook his head and walked back into the kitchen, the door swinging shut behind him.
“He loves me really,” Maddie told Van. “Even if he doesn’t show it.”
“I didn’t know you used to work here,” Van said, taking a sip of coffee.
“Yeah, before Gray and I met.” Maddie grinned. “Well after, I guess, since we met when I was a kid. But this was where we met for the second time.”
“Right.” Van didn’t try to hide her confu
sion.
Maddie laughed. “Sorry, I’m talking too much. Gray’s been in the studio all week and I’ve had nobody to talk to. That’s why I came to see Murphy, but then I remembered that he doesn’t talk much.” She shook her head and put her hand on Van’s wrist. “Am I holding you up? Do you have somewhere to be?”
“Only the drive-in. But I can stay and drink this coffee. It’s good, by the way.”
“I forgot you were working with Tanner.” Maddie lowered her voice. “How’s that going? If he’s anything like Gray, he’s making you work all the hours god sends.”
“I’m enjoying it,” Van admitted, smiling at the petite brunette. “I’m busier than I’ve ever been, but it’s really starting to come together.” And yeah, she was enjoying being with Tanner, too. Even though when they were at the drive-in he kept his promise and was all about business.
When he climbed through her window at night, though, he was anything but.
“I can’t wait to see it when it’s done.” Maddie clapped her hands together. “I’m so excited about making out with Gray at the movies. It’ll be like I’m a teenager again.”
Van laughed. “A lot of people have said that to me. It’s making everybody around here nostalgic. How about you? And how’s Gray?”
“I love him to death, but he’s such a damn perfectionist. He’s been recording the same song for a week, and keeps asking me to listen to the latest version so I can hear the difference.” Maddie leaned forward. “And I have to lie and say I do, because it’s exactly the same.”
“Is this a new album?”
Maddie nodded. “Yeah. And I think the pressure’s got to him. He said the last one wrote itself, but this one…” She sighed and shook her head.
“Wasn’t the last one about you?”
“Apparently.” Maddie grinned. “Anyway, I was wondering if you’re free on Sunday? We’re having everybody over to watch the documentary about Cam’s team. You and Zoe are invited, and your mom if she’s free.” She glanced at Van from the corner of her eye. “And Tanner will be there, of course.”
