by E. J. Noyes
“Something fancier, newer. More like a Lamborghini or an Aston Martin or something, but you’ve still got your first car.” She turned to me and her expression turned soft, like she knew something I didn’t. “I think I’m starting to get it now.”
“Get what?”
“You.”
My heart started racing and didn’t let up its ridiculous fluttering the whole way to City Hall. My brain kept up a loop of she gets you, she gets you, making my words clumsy and slow. I wrestled with telling her that Mama knew about us. In the end, I settled for a not-lying but not-quite truthful account. “Mama wanted me to ask you if you’d like to come to dinner again.”
“She did?” Audrey’s tone was neutral.
Mine was not. It was hopeful tinged with fearful. “Mhmm. Says you’re welcome to stay the night again too.”
“I see. And what about the hotel? It wouldn’t have been used. Seems a waste.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said quietly. In that moment there were few things that could matter less than an unused hotel booking.
She twisted on the supple black leather seat to face me. “What do you want me to do, Isabelle?”
I didn’t even need to think about it. “I want you to stay.”
Audrey nodded thoughtfully. “If that’s what you want, then I will. I’d like to.”
“Well, all right then.” I slowed down as we approached the courthouse. “Shall I give you the Grand Tour?”
“Please do.”
I nodded toward the back of the building. “That’s where I had my first kiss, in the parking lot. Krista, my best friend at the time, well…she had to go to court for stealin’ a bunch of road signs. I went with her for moral support and when we came out, she dragged me around to the hidden side of the building and kissed me. Then ran off and never said a word about it again. Still don’t know why.”
“Must have been a really shitty kiss.”
I grinned. “Undoubtedly. And just up there, that’s where I reversed into Maggie Anderson’s new car. Only had my license a week and dinged Mama’s car too. Worked all summer to pay for repairs.”
I pointed at the back corner of the supermarket parking lot. “That’s where I saw my first real girlfriend kissing someone else, a guy, and coincidentally where I threw my drink in her face.”
Audrey laughed, throaty and appealing. “Seems like you had some great memories here. Why’d you leave?”
I glanced over at her quickly then back to the road. “Wanted something bigger ‘n’ better, I guess.”
“Did you find it?”
I smiled to myself. “Yeah, think I did.”
Chapter Fifteen
We met Mama at the markets near the tea stand, then lost her somewhere between a barbeque stall and the guy doing sketches for five dollars. I needed to regroup with an ice cream and start the search. She could have been anywhere but my guess was the Coopers’ blown glass display or one of the food stalls.
I tugged Audrey toward Maureen Barton’s ice cream stand. It’d been a fixture at the markets for as long as I remembered and she sold one thing and one thing only—vanilla ice cream she made herself with milk from her own cows. A few years back, she put the price up from eighty cents to eighty-five and it’d caused a huge fuss. She was reluctant but she said it was, “About time to account for inflation.”
Maureen leaned over the edge of the wooden counter. “Is-a-belle. How are you, honey? Haven’t seen you for a bit.”
“Howdy, Maureen. I’m just fine. You’re lookin’ well. Hello, Hank.” I nodded to her husband who sat silently and unresponsively in back, reading his paper the way he always did.
Maureen shrugged. “Can’t complain. What can I get you?”
“Two cones, thank you.” I dug in my pocket but Audrey placed a hand on my wrist to stop me. She pulled a couple of notes from her wallet and passed them to Maureen, along with the sweetest smile. A weird sensation snaked under my skin. It took a moment for me to connect the dots. Audrey and I shared. We both bought meals when we ate together, and now she was buying me an ice cream. I tucked the feeling out of the way to be examined later. While Maureen was sorting change in her quiet methodical way, I asked if she’d seen Mama.
Maureen reached over to drop coins in Audrey’s outstretched hand. “Believe I saw her over near Pete Windham’s plant stall ’bout ten minutes ago.” Audrey tilted her palm to empty the coins into the tip jar.
I added all the loose change from my pocket as well. “Great, thanks. Good to see y’all.”
“You too, honey.”
Audrey waited until we were a few feet away before launching her attack. “Y’all.” The delight in her teasing was clear as day.
I groaned. “I know, it just happens. I can’t help it.”
“I like it.” Her tongue made a lap around the bottom of her ice cream, the slow and deliberate movement making me think of her tongue making laps around other things.
I blinked the thought away. “Please don’t.”
“I meant the ice cream.” Her eyes twinkled. She had her lips clamped together, watching me. “I’m sorry, Iz.”
“Why d’you tease?” Ice cream trickled against my fingers. I raised my hand to lick it off.
“Because you’re so adorable when you blush that I just can’t help myself. And that little crease near your lips drives me crazy.” She stepped closer and I thought she was going to kiss me, right there in the open. I found myself leaning closer, wanting it.
Audrey smiled down at me, eyes drifting to my lips. “Come on, let’s go find your mom.”
After five minutes, we found Mama buying scarves and feigning surprised forgetfulness at having lost us. She was sneaky, I had to give her that. I endured ten minutes of having scarves held against my chest, with Audrey and my mother engaging in a serious back and forth about which ones suited me best. I bought the two Audrey seemed to like the most then we wandered for another half hour, until Mama declared she’d had enough and was going to fetch something for dinner. She hugged both of us and promised to see us back at home. “No later than five, hear me?”
Yep, I was twelve all over again. Audrey and I kept wandering and I thanked every deity—and added in the universe for good measure—that she’d finally given up ribbing me about the uninvited guest that was my renewed southern drawl. We passed by a food stand run by Mr. Gardener, my eleventh grade math teacher. Mr. G had retired last year and now spent some of his free time hawking barbeque at the markets. I waved.
Mr. G beckoned me over. “Isabelle Rhodes, how’re you?”
“Just fine, sir. How ’bout yourself?”
“Kickin’ along.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
He rested his forearms on the counter. “Glad I caught you. Mind if I talk to you quick about my four oh one?”
“Course not. What about it?” I lifted a hand to shield my eyes against the sun.
“Well, I just don’t think it’s doin’ as well as it could.” He chuckled. “And I sure as heck don’t trust the guy who’s takin’ care of it.”
I grinned. “You know what they say. If you wanna get the best, you gotta have the best.”
He tsk’d me, smiling. “Well, I can’t afford the best. Just thought you might know someone.”
“I do. You’re lookin’ at her.” I tugged a card out of my purse. “You know I’ll take care of you.”
“Oh, that’s real kind but it’s just a little fund. Hardly worth your time.”
“Nonsense.” I shook the card until he took it. “You give me a call next week and we’ll work something out.”
“Well, all right then. Thank you. Now, you ladies hungry?”
I glanced at Audrey, who nodded. “Sure.”
Mr. G—I still couldn’t bring myself to call him Lem—started compiling two of his lunch specials for us. “Ten percent off for my best kids.” His weathered face lit up. “Math quiz time. How much does that come down to?”
Beside me, Audrey barely m
anaged to contain her laughter. I nudged her, glancing at his prices. “I’m still pretty sure I’ll never get anything under an A minus, Mr. G. Six eighty-four.” I handed him ten and answered before he could ask how much change I was owed. “And I’ll take three ‘n’ sixteen back.”
He winked. “Knew there was a reason you were my star student.”
I laughed and dropped the change into his tip jar. “You take care and I’ll talk to you next week.” I held my plate aloft. “Thanks for lunch.”
We settled at the weather-worn plastic furniture under the even more worn awning outside Mr. G’s stall. Audrey stared at her lunch plate. “I could live here just for the food.”
I nodded, distributing disposable cutlery. “It’s one of the things I miss most. Plus, you know, Mama.”
We were silent for a few minutes as we ate. I tried not to watch her but found my gaze constantly drawn back to her. She had a habit, I’d discovered last night, of compiling forkfuls that had a little bit of everything on her plate. I hadn’t noticed it before, probably because we never sat opposite, always side-by-side. I wondered what other things she did that I still didn’t know about.
Audrey wiped her mouth. “Do you always do that?”
I looked up. “What?” Maybe I wasn’t being as sneaky with my watching as I’d thought.
“Help like that.” Discreetly, she indicated Mr. G.
“Oh.” I lowered my voice. “Some of ’em don’t have much. It’s not right to take more than bare minimum. It doesn’t hurt me, so why not?”
She studied me inscrutably. I tilted my head, eyebrows lifted and waited for her to tell me what she was thinking, but saying nothing more she picked up her knife and fork again. I forked up slaw, unable to come up with any way to enquire without sounding intrusive.
As it turned out, I didn’t need to ask. Audrey pushed mashed potato into a neat pile. “Just when I think I’ve got you figured out…”
I swallowed my mouthful. “What d’you mean?”
This time, she didn’t answer me, just smiled and shook her head as though it was a secret she wanted to hold on to for now.
After lunch, we wandered for another half hour—her buying a few more things, me being waylaid by townsfolk to chat. Near two p.m. on our way out, Audrey pointed to one of the stalls near the exit. “I’m going to grab a drink—you want one?”
“No thanks.”
Audrey came back with a clear cup of tea, condensation dripping down the sides. She took a sip and ran her tongue along her lower lip, making a small sound of delight.
I tried not to think of the way the moisture reminded me of sweat sliding down her stomach. “How’s your sweet tea?”
She smiled around the straw clamped between her teeth. “Good.” She let the straw drop and offered me the cup. “You want some?”
I glanced at the straw, thought briefly that it’d been in her mouth—lucky thing—and leaned over to take a sip.
“Say sweet tea again,” she said in that low, sensual voice I loved. I shook my head and held eye contact with her as I drank again. Audrey smiled at my resistance, handed me the drink and went back to buy another for herself.
Walking back to the car under the beautiful sky with a beautiful woman by my side I had an uncontrollable urge to take her hand. I stuffed my free hand into my pocket to stop myself. “Did you want to look ’round some more?”
“Sure.”
This time, I took Audrey for a slower sightseeing tour. As we drove back past the hall on our way home, she turned sideways to face me. “Would you take me somewhere meaningful?”
“Meaningful?”
“Yeah, you know, somewhere you used to hang out.”
Without a word, I did a sharp U-turn and started toward the old forest clearing. Slowing the Mustang to a crawl to accommodate the rough dirt road, I drove us toward my old hang out spot. The road was much as I remembered, though it was a little overgrown.
“Should I be worried that you’re taking me into a forest?” Audrey glanced at her phone. “A forest that appears to have zero reception.”
I laughed. “What are you concerned about?”
“Oh, you know. The usual sinister things one thinks about when being driven into a secluded area.”
“Really? The only thing I ever thought about when I used to come here was making out with girls.”
“Well in that case, drive on.” Her hand came over to rest on my thigh as I negotiated the track. After a few minutes I came to the large, almost circular clearing and parked parallel to the forest. As teenagers we’d come here to make out, drink and listen to music. It looked a lot different during the day.
We sat quietly for a while, listening to the radio, in one of those moments where it feels awkward to ruin the moment with talking. Audrey fussed a little, and eventually murmured, “Today was really nice.”
“Yeah, it was. I liked being out with you in public.” I turned the ignition, leaving the radio on low volume. One of the questions Dr. Baker had asked pinged around my head. “Does…it bother you that we don’t go out more?”
If she was surprised, she didn’t show it. “Sometimes, yes. But at the same time, we kind of agreed that we wouldn’t be doing that.”
“Yes. We did agree on that.” It would be so easy to say something, to hint that maybe we could change the rules again, but I was too much of a coward to verbalize what I felt.
“So I guess I’m okay with it then, keeping things secret,” she said carefully. The wording was odd, like she was resigned to what we’d agreed upon rather than happy about it. Before I could respond, Audrey wound down the window, leaning out to look around. “So this is your old make out spot?”
“Mhmm.”
“And why would you bring me here, Isabelle?” she asked coyly, settling back in her seat.
I unbuckled my seatbelt. “Wanted to see if it was as good as I remembered.” I almost lost my virginity in this spot and in the passenger seat of this car. Tamara Hewson came home from college and taught me a few things she’d learned while she’d been away.
Audrey’s eyes moved from mine, to my lips, my breasts and then back up again. “I see. Maybe we should test it out again, see if it still feels the same. For science.”
I bit my lip. “Maybe.”
“I do love a good experiment. Top prize at the science fair three years straight.” She grinned, and reached over to fiddle with the radio until she found a classic nineties station. “Better make sure all the parameters are the same.”
I leaned closer, my lips a whisper away from hers. “You’re such a nerd.”
“I think you like it,” she said, and closed the distance between us. Our kiss was surprisingly gentle, almost tentative. Completely unlike our usual heated kisses, it didn’t feel awkward or wrong but rather, like one of the sweetest moments we’d shared so far.
This wasn’t like our usual foreplay, more like we were kissing for the sake of kissing, which has its own joy. Audrey’s hands came to my face, fingers against my neck and her thumb rubbing lightly along my jaw. Despite the curl of pleasure in my belly, I didn’t deepen the kiss and neither did she.
Needing to take a breath, I pulled away first but not out of her reach. Audrey’s hands stayed on my face and she stared at me so intently that I felt as though I’d been stripped naked. Embarrassed by the emotion that was surely evident on my face, I leaned in and kissed her again. I was distantly aware of the song changing from Coolio to TLC, but nothing else registered. It was just her and me and kissing.
Insistent tapping on the window behind me startled me into breaking the kiss. Twisting around, I saw a familiar amused face and a uniform. Perfect. The female police officer sounded like she was about to laugh. “Excuse me, but I’m going to have to ask you both to exit the vehicle.”
“Yes, officer. Just a moment, please.”
Audrey smothered her laugh, voice high with mirth. “I heard a car, thought it was just another couple.”
Less than amused,
I checked my appearance in the mirror, and satisfied I looked somewhat presentable, I exited the car. “Officer. Ma’am.” Just the right amount of respect for my childhood pal, Mary.
Mary nodded to Audrey, who was standing behind the Mustang, then turned to me. “Isabelle Rhodes. Thought I recognized your car turnin’ onto the track. Well, some things just never change, do they? Couldn’t even wait ’til it got dark?” she drawled.
I couldn’t help grinning. “Apparently not. How’re you doin’, Mary?”
“Just fine. You?” She hooked her thumbs in her duty belt, rocking back on her heels. It seemed to me she was enjoying herself just a little too much.
“I’m well.” I cleared my throat. “How’s Scott?” The irony of this small talk with my best friend from kindergarten was not lost on me. All I’d been doing was having a sweet and very vanilla make out session, whereas Mary had done a whole lot more right here with my ninth grade dance date, Scott Devery. If memory served, they were still together and had three kids.
“He’s doin’ well. Building business is really takin’ off.”
The back of my neck was uncomfortably hot. “I’m glad to hear it.”
“Mmm. Well I’m ’fraid I’m gonna have to ask y’all to move on. Consider this a warnin’. Maybe next time wait ’til dark so nobody’ll see you, or use a bed seeing as you’re not seventeen anymore.”
“Absolutely. Thank you. Uh, tell Scott I said hi.”
She flicked the brim of her hat, smiling widely. “I’ll be sure to do that.”
I turned back to the car and rested my head against the edge of the roof, burning myself on the hot metal almost right away. I straightened and looked over at Audrey, who’d given in to her mirth now that the cop car was leaving. In this tiny insular town I’d be headline news by tomorrow morning. Mama would never let me live it down.
Audrey was shaking with laughter. “That was fucking magnificent.”
“It was fucking mortifying is what it was.”
“Come on, Iz. It’s hysterical. Of course we’d get caught. Of course.” She wiped her eyes. Despite my embarrassment, her enjoyment was contagious and by the time I’d started the car, I was laughing with her.
