Chapter 39
CHAPTER
THIRTY-NINE
REBEL
“What’s got you smiling?” May asks, wiggling her eyebrows. She sings, “Is it your boyfriend? ”
“Mm-hm,” I answer frankly, pocketing my phone and taking a sip of my strawberry smoothie.
May grins from ear to ear while April looks like she’s about to fall out of her chair.
Delia stirs her straw around her drink, brown eyes drooping with boredom.
We’re sitting at the food court after April all but begged us for a break from shopping. It’s so loud that I can barely hear myself think. The crowds have thickened since we first arrived. It’s mostly young couples on dates and teenagers traveling in packs to the arcade on the second floor.
May points to Delia. “Does she know?”
Delia awakens from her stupor.
“About you and Gunner?” May adds with an eyebrow wiggle.
“May!” April hisses, giving her sister a warning look.
“I didn’t mean anything else!” May raises two hands up as if to say ‘ I wasn’t trying to spill your fake dating secret’.
“It’s okay.” I calm May with a smile. “No, I don’t think Delia knows.”
It hasn’t been long since Delia started at The Pink Garage and she’s kept mostly to herself.
I doubt it’s because she’s shy. Delia rides a tricked-out Harley, dresses in leather, and is strikingly beautiful in a ‘sultry assassin’ kind of way. The woman is no wallflower and doesn’t seem like the type who’d be intimidated by a conversation.
Instead, I get the sense that Delia doesn’t want to ask us any personal questions because then we’d have the license to ask her personal questions in return. She’s dodged every attempt at getting to know her better.
April and I haven’t pressed. Delia does her work spectacularly and is pleasant to us and the customers.
It’s not like we can force her to be friends.
Although we’ve tried and failed multiple times.
It’s a miracle she’s at the mall with us tonight. Turns out, May’s bubbly insistence is a force that not even a leather-clad, motorcycle-riding mechanic can resist.
“May is asking if you’ve met my boyfriend,” I explain to Delia… and to April, who breathes out in relief.
“Yeah.” May grins a little harder. “Delia wasn’t in town when they got together.”
“I’ve seen him.” Delia shrugs.
May looks intrigued. “Where?”
“At the garage. Today. I got an eyeful.”
May leans forward. “An eyeful of what?”
Delia stiffens as if she hadn’t meant to say those words out loud.
“An eyeful of what? ” May insists.
Delia points at me. “Them kissing.”
I choke on my fruit punch.
April guffaws.
“Okay, now you have to tell me everything,” May says, snickering. “Were they going at it thinking no one was around?”
I cover my face. “Delia, don’t say another word.”
Delia makes a zipping motion over her face.
“ Come on,” May whines. “You can’t stop there.”
“She’s the boss,” Delia says.
“I’m the other boss and you have my permission to keep going,” April says with a mischievous grin.
I shoot my best friend an angry scowl for betraying me.
April scrunches her nose, unrepentant.
Delia’s expression remains passive, but I can see a little sparkle in her eyes like she’s enjoying this. “She ran up, jumped on him, and basically attacked his mouth. It was very dramatic.”
My eyes widen.
May barks out a laugh.
April hides her giggle behind her smoothie.
“I did not ‘attack him’.” I glare at Delia. “Is that what it looked like?”
Delia shrugs. “Yeah, it looked kind of painful.”
“I’ll admit, I… wasn’t gentle. But it’s not like I meant to hurt him.”
“I’m sure I saw bruises,” Delia says in that dry tone.
I kind of miss when she was keeping her distance from us.
“Rebel, you’re blushing,” April says, awestruck.
I fan my face and explain myself. “I was excited. He’s been gone for a long time.”
“I didn’t say anything.” Delia stirs her drink again.
“You’ve got a way with words, newbie,” I sputter, embarrassment sweeping through my chest. To cool down, I gulp the rest of my drink and crunch on the ice cubes.
April observes me with her eyes narrowing.
“I’ve never seen Rebel so flustered before,” May points out, still laughing at my reaction.
“Me either,” April agrees studiously. “What’s going on?”
“Gunner and I…”
April leans forward. “You what?”
“We’re going steady.”
“You and Gunner?” April balks.
“Yes.”
A heavy silence falls on our table.
“You’re dating -dating?” May says at last.
“For real?” April stares at me with shocked eyes.
I nod.
May screeches so loudly that the entire mall comes to a standstill. “I knew it! I know chemistry when I see it. I saw this coming a mile away.”
Delia glances between us. “I’m confused. Aren’t they dating already?”
“We’re just really happy for her,” April beams and gives me a quiet arm squeeze that conveys her approval. “I’ve seen how well Gunner takes care of you. He’s very earnest.” Then she pauses. “Does this mean you’ve figured things out with his mother?”
“Uh, no. She still hates me.”
“What about the feud between your shop and Stewart Kinsey’s?” May spits out Stewart’s name.
“Uh, yeah, that’s still happening.”
The celebratory energy around the table dies like a balloon losing air.
“Are you guys dating without figuring those things out?” April asks, gnawing on her bottom lip.
I shrug and nod.
April scrubs a finger over an eyebrow, her concern expanding so far it threatens to snowball the entire building.
“You know,” May stabs her drink with a straw, attempting to lighten the mood, “I’m so curious about how Gunner is as a boyfriend. He’s so quiet and he looks angry all the time. I’d be scared to even talk to him.”
“I’m used to dating guys who love hearing themselves talk, so being with someone quiet is a nice change of pace. Gunner’s really sweet once you get to know him.” I stroke my pink gemstone necklace, remembering how his hands had trembled as he put it on for me.
“ Gunner? ” May’s mouth opens in surprise. “ Sweet ?”
I bob my head unable to stop grinning.
“Are we talking about the hockey player? The giant one with the black hair and the dark eyes who grunts like a caveman in after-game interviews? That guy?” At my insistent nod, May shakes her head slowly. “I can’t imagine it.”
I pop another ice cube into my mouth. “He’s not sweet to everyone only to me, but that’s what I like about him.”
April and May look eager to ask me more questions, but I notice Delia checking her watch and tapping her nails on the table. Rather than let the conversation drag on, I suggest we call it a night.
On the way to the escalator, a little boy streaks past us.
“Mommy!” the child says, crying big, desperate tears. “Mommy!”
Immediately, my head swivels around.
As one, May, April and I head right over.
April kneels in front of the little boy while I pluck out my pack of pink tissues. She accepts them from me and wipes the child’s ruddy face.
“Don’t cry, sweetie,” May says in a gentle voice.
The little boy cries harder.
“ Phillip! ” A woman’s harried voice bounces around the mall and, a second later, she bursts into sight.
The moment the little boy sees her, his tears dry up. “Mommy!”
“Oh, sweetheart. I told you not to take off like that.” The woman scoops him into her arms and looks at us with a harried smile. “Thank you so much. I took my eyes off him for one second and he got lost in the crowd.”
“It’s okay.” May gives her a reassuring nod.
“We’re glad that he got back to you safe and sound,” I tell her.
“Phillip, say goodbye to the nice ladies,” the mother says.
Phillip waves with tears still dangling from his lashes and is carted off happily in his mother’s arms.
“What a cutie,” I say, grinning.
April glances around. “Where’s Delia?”
“She was right behind…” May’s voice drifts off. “Hey, where’d she go?”
I search the crowd until I find Delia hiding behind a nearby column.
“Delia?” Confusion laces my tone.
Delia adjusts her motorcycle jacket and approaches us with a strong, confident stride. If not for the sheepish tilt of her chin, I wouldn’t believe she’d been hiding.
“What happened? Why were you all the way over there?” April asks.
“I… had to answer a phone call.”
I study her keenly. Something about her answer doesn’t ring true, but May starts chatting and I let the matter go.
“Oh, I can’t wait until you two get married and start having kids,” May chirps, dreamily clasping her hands and pressing them under her cheek. “I want to be an aunt so badly.”
“Hold your horses, squirt. I’m not in a rush for marriage or a baby,” April says.
“Me either.” I agree.
“But don’t you want your own adorable, little Phillip?” May makes a squishy-squishy gesture with her fingers. “Did you see those chunky cheeks?”
“Right now, the garage is my Phillip,” April says.
I point at May, “That means you’re already a proud aunt. Congratulations.”
April laughs.
May sticks out her tongue in disgust. “You guys are no fun. Hey, Delia?”
“Hm?” The mechanic turns around, her black bob swishing with the movement.
“Do you like kids?”
“Kids?” She looks off to the side. “Er…”
May’s smile drops. “I guess you don’t.”
“It’s not that I hate kids,” Delia says, stepping off the escalator. “But they’re so small and fragile. They make me nervous.”
“That’s fair,” May says. “I once babysat for the Elmers and their one-year-old pushed her finger into an electric socket the moment I looked away. I almost had a heart attack.”
Delia forces a smile, looking uncomfortable.
I watch her, trying to figure her out. I’m getting very curious about our new hire. What did she do before this? What drove her to a town as small as Lucky Falls? What exactly is she running from?
“I’ll see you guys later,” Delia says, hurrying away from us in the parking lot as if we’ve got a contagious disease.
“Did I say something offensive?” May wonders. “I hope she doesn’t think I’m judging her over not liking kids. I really meant it when I said I understood.”
April rubs her sister’s shoulder, ever the voice of reason. “It’s okay, May. Delia will open up when she’s ready. But what I really want to know…” My best friend turns her eyes on me, “is what happened between Rebel and Gunner after they left the garage this morning.”
“Ooh, yes! I want all the juicy details! How did he ask you out?”
I shake my head. “I’ll tell you next time. I need to head home too.”
“Why?” April asks.
“My boyfriend has an early practice and he won’t sleep until he hears I got home safely.”
“Blegh.” May pretends to throw up.
April looks squeamish. “Is this how I am with Chance? Please tell me it’s not!”
I bark out a laugh. “Goodnight, ladies!”
I throw a backward wave and sashay to my car, hearing the scrape of April’s jaw hit the concrete.