One by one, April went around the table, introducing the curious faces, some sizing me up, others genuinely smiling. I struggled to remember the names April rattled off.
“So you’re staying with Rose and Phin?” a blonde girl asked me.
“Yeah, they’re my cousins,” I smiled with the enthusiasm of a cheerleader, desperate for these girls to like me.
“And you work at Ennishlough with Lucas?” another girl asked. I wondered for a moment if she was one of the friends who had kissed Lucas.
“Yeah.” I brushed an errant piece of hair, checking my eagerness a bit.
“And Dayne,” a dark haired girl beside me said without bothering to look at anyone. I looked closely at her and recognized April’s friend as the girl I’d seen the first night in the tavern, the waitress who was so obviously in love with Dayne when she brought him a beer. She fiddled with her hair, feeling to be sure every piece was in place. She fidgeted with her outfit, adjusting the top to be sure it looked just right.
“Tara, not everyone at this table is obsessed with him,” April rolled her eyes for effect before turning back to the girls to catch up on the gossip of the night.
“Because you know he’s mine,” she hissed absently under her breath for no one’s benefit but her own. My head spun toward her so quickly it nearly twisted off my neck, but I realized her insane claim was more of a self-affirmation than anything else when she didn’t even notice my gawking stare.
I only caught bits and pieces of the conversation at our table. I was too busy watching Tara from the corner of my eye. She squirmed in her seat, turning this way and that, surveying the room, looking for something and never seeing what she wanted. She stood up and straightened her skirt, brushing out any wrinkles that might have gathered. Rummaging in her purse, she pulled out a mirror to inspect her make up and be sure it was still perfectly in place. Tara was so beautiful and so immaculately dressed for the night, I couldn’t imagine what could possibly make a girl like her so self-conscious.
I wanted to hate her, knowing she would obviously be the one Dayne would choose to twirl around the moonlit dance floor if he came. There wasn’t a man there who wouldn’t; she was that pretty.
“Tara, are you going to hang out with us or throw yourself at him all night?” A girl from the end of the table teased nastily. Even I knew who him was.
Tara didn’t seem to hear the comment, or if she had she ignored it.
Her body froze and she smiled. The mirror clicked shut and went back in her purse.
“How do I look, girls?” She interrupted the chatter that had resumed as she stood up from the table.
The girls turned to her with a chorus of mumbled admirations tumbling from them like trained parrots vying for a cracker.
An electric smile spread over her face, and she tured in a bouncy way, tossing her hair behind her shoulder with an exaggerated flourish. As she walked away, it was clear her bee-line ended right at Dayne’s feet.
“This should be good,” April said at my shoulder. The entire table was watching Tara’s approach.
“Well, hey there, Dayne, I had no idea you would be here tonight,” one of our tablemates said, imitating the high-pitched softness of a girl’s voice.
“Oh, hey, Tina,” a girl at the end of the table answered in a low-pitched man’s voice. Everyone giggled.
“It’s Tara,” the other girl answered.
“Oh, right. Say could you get me a beer?” The gruff voice at the end of the table asked.
“Sure, anything for you, Dayne!” Another girl sitting across from me answered, and the whole table roared with laughter.
I thought they were being overly cruel until I looked up and saw Tara walking away from Dayne with an empty beer mug. Unbelievable. Tara could have any guy in the place. How could she be happy fetching beer for him? I looked from her back to Dayne in amazement. His eyes flickered to mine like I had called his name.
For the first time, I was not carried away by the rush of my crush beating the heart right out of my chest. His hair hung loosely around his face. It made him look younger, a little more boyish, innocent almost. His eyes didn’t sparkle or burn with the intensity they normally did. Instead, they were dull and sad, pained in some inexplicable way as he held my gaze across the crowded tent, moving slightly to hold my eyes when a tall man obstructed his view. He was alone, leaning against the wall with a foot propped behind him. I knew right then that April had been completely wrong about him.
His eyes glanced around like he was looking for a friend, but found none in the crowd celebrating around him. I saw myself as I looked at him and I suddenly felt very sorry for the man Clonlea loved to hate. I knew what it was like to spend your life holding up the walls while you watched life dance by.
He looked at Tara when she returned to his side. I didn’t blame her for loving Dayne. Some guys just trigger a girl’s need to nurture, and there is no way to control that most basic of instincts.
“I’m Christine,” a soft voice spoke to me from the chair Tara had emptied.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Faye.” I did a double take when I turned to look at her. She had the sweetest smile, and I recognized her as the daughter of Rose’s best friend. The crazy lady who had wrapped me up in hug before we’d been introduced my first night in town. “Wait, aren’t you Mary’s daughter?” Christine and I hadn’t spoken that night, both to shy to start a conversation, but I had certainly felt she was a kindred spirit when her cheeks flamed the same color as mine.
“Yeah, I didn’t know if you’d remember me.” Her sweet smile grew even bigger and she blushed just slightly. “Don’t pay any attention to them. They love to pick on people.”
“Yeah, I picked up on that.” I laughed and rolled my eyes.
“So, you’re visiting for the summer? That’s exciting. Do you have a boyfriend you had to leave back home?” She asked in her sugary sweet voice. I loved to hear her talk.
I shook my head and blushed. To my amazement, she blushed, too.
“I’m sorry. That wasn’t any of my business,” she said.
“No, it’s fine. I just have a blushing problem,” I tried to dismiss my red face.
“Me, too,” she giggled.
“What Christine really means is that she has a boy problem, too,” one girl said, interrupting our private conversation. “She is obsessed with everyone else’s boyfriends because she is too shy to talk to a boy herself.”
“Alana, that’s not very nice.” Christine looked down at the table as her blush went from cotton candy to crimson in a matter of seconds. Clearly, she was embarrassed by her innocence.
“Do you have a boyfriend?’ I asked Alana, trying to defend Christine.
“No, but at least I’ve kissed a boy! That’s more than she can say.” Alana proclaimed as she laughed at Christine.
“You’ve kissed Lucas. Who hasn’t kissed Lucas?” The girl from the end of the table corrected her.
“Christine!” another girl answered and began laughing. Christine jumped up and ran from the table. The girls cackled even louder at her as she ran away. I was sitting with the Mean Girls of Clonlea.
“Come on, Norah, that really wasn’t necessary,” April scolded like a schoolteacher. Norah shrugged her shoulders at April and exchanged smiles with Alana.
“Hey April, want to go look at the booths?” I asked, wanting to get away from the girls.
“Sure.” We were well out of earshot when April turned to me. “Don’t mind them. Those girls are always trying to impress Tara and show her they can be just as cruel as she is. Poor Christine makes a easy target because they know she’s too sweet to stick up for herself.”
“Should we go find her?” I was worried about Christine. She was probably locked in a bathroom stall crying her eyes out.
“Nah. She’ll be fine. Trust me, we’re all used to it.” She rolled her eyes and looped her arm through mine, dragging me into the last tent of booths leading out into the games out back.
&n
bsp; We slowly made our way around the collection of folding tables where the local shopkeeper’s displayed their goods and tried to coax as much money as possible from the unsuspecting tourists. The scent of freshly cut grass, French fries frying, homemade confections baking and nuts roasting mixed the salty sweetness of the sea breeze into a delicious smell that made me hungry despite the food I’d just stuffed in my mouth. Traditional Gaelic music drifted through the air from the band up front, making everyone tap or move something with its infectious rhythm. Townspeople smiled and waved to April as we passed, everyone enjoying the excuse to spend a Friday night outside of the town tavern.
The tourists were easy to spot as they reached in their wallets to buy a trinket to remember the over-hyped, and totally untrue, fairy myths that surrounded Clonlea. The locals took their money, but it was very obvious they had little use for the interlopers when they didn’t try to chat them up with normal Irish hospitality. We had just pushed our way past two very annoying tourists who were haggling over the price of an item when April dug her elbow deep into my ribs and turned her head to hide a devious smile.
“There’s Lucas,” April gushed as she looked at a group of guys gathered around some game. “No! Don’t look! He’s watching you!” She exclaimed under her breath as she quickly grabbed my arm and turned me back around. Sure enough, Lucas was staring right at me and I was amazed at how cute he looked when he wasn’t caked in mud and who knows what else from the barn.
I blushed immediately and was really glad April had spun me around. If not, I would have ended up staring at the freshly cut grass at my feet while I turned every shade of crimson and looked like a total nerd. So far Lucas thought I was pretty cool. I didn’t want to do anything to mess that up.
April dragged me to a nearby vendor’s table where we pretended to look at all the cheesy Irish postcards. April picked up a postcard picture of Ennishlough and pretended to study it while she leaned over and whispered to me.
“Remember what I said about Lucas?” she said. I nodded my head as I took the postcard she handed me. I put it back down on the table as she picked up another one.
“I bet if we walk over there he’ll ask you to dance.” I could tell she loved the idea of playing matchmaker. And honestly, I liked the idea, too. But my excitement quickly faded when I thought about dancing.
“April, I don’t know how to dance like that. I haven’t been to a dance since middle school,” I said, shaking my head at her master plan.
“What? What about prom? Isn’t that like a big deal for you Americans?” she shrugged her shoulders and looked at me with a scrunched brow.
“For some people, but not for me.”
“You never went?” she asked, and I shook my head. “Too busy with your horses?”
I shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t want to lie to my only friend, but if I told her the truth—that I had never been asked—it would only lead to more questions I didn’t want to answer.
“I swear, Faye. I’m going to teach you how to have fun if it’s the last thing I do,” she said, taking my hand and leading me to a secluded spot behind the row of vendors. “It’s simple. All the girl has to do is put her hands on the guy’s shoulders and move back and forth.” She put my hands on her shoulders and her hands went to my hips. We swayed back and forth in a little circle and then erupted into a fit a giggles when April gawked and groped at me like an awkward, hormone charged boy dancing with a pretty girl.
“Remember, act like you couldn’t care less. It drives the boys crazy!” April said as she gave me her best Hollywood movie star pout and walked back into the roar of the festivities as if she had never left. I scratched an imaginary itch on my cheek to hide my smile and followed her into the festival, more than a little bit nervous about what I was about to do.
We slowly made our way around the edge of the crowd and I copied April’s every move as we tried to look casual. When we were about two tables away from Lucas he called out my name.
“Be cool,” April whispered under her breath as a satisfied smile played on her face. She put the trinket she had been holding back onto the table and we turned around together.
“Oh, hey, Lucas,” I said in what I hoped was a casual voice.
“Where’d you go? I saw you earlier and you just disappeared.” He closed the space between us and for a moment my nerve failed me and I stared blankly at him.
“Girl stuff. You’d be bored,” April answered, distracting Lucas with a smile as she kicked me in the back of the calf to get my attention.
“You look really nice tonight,” Lucas said. His attention focused back on me.
“Thanks.” I managed to get a word out. April stared at me with an imploring look on her face. “I…I guess we both look better when we haven’t been working at the barn all day,” I could tell every guy in Lucas’ group was staring at us. I wanted to talk to him, but the thought of all those boys watching us made me so nervous I couldn’t think of anything to say. I began to pull at my fingernails, just like I always did when I got nervous. Lucas’s eyes fell to the braid running over my shoulder.
“I like your hair like that.”
“Thanks, April did it,” I said, running my hand down the length of my blonde braid.
“Is that your new girlfriend, Lucas?” A younger boy taunted from the group.
“Leave it to Lucas to hook up with the new girl,” another one teased.
“Are you going to ask her to dance?” A voice shouted out, all mockingly sarcastic, his hands coming up to air-dance with a pretend girl.
“Why don’t you just kiss her Lucas?!?” A few chorused together, laughing at themselves in the way boys do.
The hot sting of a full-on, blood-red blush crept across my face, and I stared at my shoes to try to hide it. Sweat prickled my neck like a spotlight was shinning down on me, exposing all my insecurities to the world. The group of boys began to laugh and I didn’t know what to do. So I turned to April, grabbed her arm, and practically ran away.
“She’s not my girlfriend!” Lucas said defiantly as he punched at the arm of one of the more annoying guys.
I didn’t stop until I couldn’t hear their insults anymore.
“I’m really sorry about that Faye. Those guys are totally immature. Don’t bother with them,” April said as she shook her head and rolled her eyes. I looked back at the group once more.
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t really care anyway.” But it was a lie. I did care. I did want Lucas to ask me to dance. I wanted anyone to ask me to dance. I didn’t want to feel like the untouchable girl holding up the wall forever. I was ready to be somebody else. Anybody else.
I chanced a glance over my shoulder, back at Lucas’ group, as we made our way back to the food tent. April rambled on about how immature boys her age were. I wasn’t paying attention where I was going and ran smack into somebody.
“Whoa! What’s the rush?” He asked as soon as we had both steadied ourselves.
“I am so sorry!” I gushed instantly before I even had a chance to see who I was apologizing to.
My jaw dropped open and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked up. He certainly wasn’t one of the immature Clonlea boys April was talking about. He had to be a tourist, because I would have noticed someone so handsome in Clonlea if I had seen him before.
He was gorgeous. He was Dayne gorgeous, but with black curly hair and dancing blue eyes. An amused smirk twisted along his beautiful lips as he reached out to my shoulders and steadied me when I almost fell over again.
I took my eyes away from the depths of his baby blue gaze for a second to look at April. She was shaking her head in open-mouthed wonder as well. I quickly looked back to the man in front of me. He wore a navy shirt, just tight enough to reveal the bulge of muscles around his neck and running over his shoulders. He smelled heavenly, like the summer lavender growing wild in the fields around Clonlea.
My brain was suddenly incapable of processing anything but him. True to form, his good loo
ks and penetrating gaze left me dumbstruck, and all I could do was stare at him with my mouth hanging open.
“Well, I’ll forgive you…” his voice trailed off as he stared down at me with a wicked grin. “ … if you dance with me.” He finished and I continued to stare at him as if he had said nothing.
His eyebrows arched into an amused question mark and my head nodded in agreement all by itself. As I gazed longingly into his eyes, every thought that had been swimming around in my head vanished. The boisterous festival all but disappeared, and a weird sensation radiated up my arm when he took my hand and led me to the dance floor by the sea.
I was vaguely aware April called my name and grabbed my arm to stop me as we walked away, but for some reason I couldn’t turn to answer her. It didn’t register how odd that was. So I stumbled along behind him, like a little puppy dog at his master’s heels.
He easily cut through the crowd that had become a noiseless blur to me, and we were on the dance floor in a matter of seconds. He spun me around effortlessly and held out his hand for mine in the soft glow from the paper lanterns. I raised my hand to meet his, but before I could take it another hand came into the tunnel like vision that had taken over my eyes.
It didn’t bother me that I was no longer in control of my body. A blissful, tingling sensation snaked up my arms, disconnecting me from the stranger’s hand that had been gripped tightly around my own, pulling me away from him. Breaking his grip on me.
Slowly my senses returned. The new hand stayed clasped around my own, and a third body occupied the space between us, pushing me even further away from the stranger.
“She’s dancing with me.” It was a familiar voice, but lower and more threatening than I had ever heard it before. Fear pricked my insides, and I realized the hand that had pulled me away from the stranger was Dayne’s. The ocean breeze caught in his hair and sent the perfumed scent of Dayne wafting over me, even more intoxicating than the stranger had been. If it hadn’t been for Dayne’s hand squeezing mine so tightly I could have sworn it was all a dream.
Heir of Earth (Forgotten Gods) Page 12
