Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
“He did not!”
“He did too! He absolutely tested me to see if I had my head screwed on straight.” I leaned forward so that my sister Maddie could refill my glass of sangria.
“Subtle he is not,” Angelica said as she allowed Maddie to fill her glass as well. All three of us sat back in our chairs on my deck and took sips of our drinks and tried not to giggle.
We failed.
“Please say you were lying when you said you were going to test his fucking abilities,” Maddie pleaded after she was done giggling.
“My Gawd, Maddie, how can you and Zoe be sisters, and you not know that she wouldn’t have said that? Of course she said that.”
“But I was subtle. At least give me points for that.” I smirked.
“Yeah, real smooth, Avery.”
I wasn’t about to tell them about the soft kiss hegave me in the Jeep, one I wished had led to more, but instead, he’d stopped and walked me inside instead.
“Did I hear knocking?” Maddie asked.
“It’s okay, they’ll let themselves in eventually.”
“It better not have been Drake. The last time he found out one of our doors was unlocked there was holy hell to pay.”
“That is just plain stupid to leave your doors unlocked!” Angelica sounded pissed, but I ignored her.
“Hello! Tommy dropped me off on the way to taking the kids to the drive-in. I brought more wine!”
“Carrie, dump it into the second pitcher of sangria we have going in the fridge,” Maddie called out. “Then come out to the deck. We have all the food groups covered out here on the deck. Salt and sugar.”
“Do we get to talk about Adam, Beau, Tommy, or Rick?” Carrie asked as she plopped herself down in one of the three remaining deck chairs.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Rick is not a real guy in my life,” Angelica protested. “He’s tabloid fodder my agent has made up.”
“He’s damn good-looking tabloid fodder.”
“He was wearing a speedo! That is not good-looking, I don’t care if it looked like he stuffed it with a sock. No guy looks good in a speedo,” I said. “Your agent is an idiot, fire him.”
“I can’t. He gets me the best deals.”
“Rick wore a speedo. Not in Europe. He wore the speedo on a beach in California. You need to publicly dump him,” Carrie said as she placed two chocolate chip cookies and a handful of potato chips on a plate.
“I think it’s my turn to be dumped. I have to look at the spreadsheet. It’s February, right?”
“It’s March.”
“Oh good. I get to dump him. I’ll do that next week when I go back to LA for my audition.”
Maddie bit down on her cookie and thoughtfully chewed. “Are you serious about the spreadsheet?”
“It’s not quite that bad, but kind of. There’s a group of us who just got sick of all the people digging into our personal lives and making our lives a living hell.
We couldn’t go to the bathroom without paparazzi trying to get our picture.
After Kit won the Oscar and Code saw just how bad it was for me and some of the others, he got an idea. ”
“What was the idea?” Carrie asked.
“We would pretend to date, do, hook-up with, anything that would keep the paparazzi intrigued so that we could go and have our real lives.”
“So, this month is Rick?”
“Yep. Meanwhile, Rick is dating a really great barista down in San Diego named Tabitha. She’s the one who dared him to wear the speedo. I don’t know what he won when he did it, but it must have been major, because he’s been one happy musician ever since that day on the beach.”
“He must have screwed up big, if she forced him to wear a banana hammock,” Carrie said as she went back for some bean dip and tortillas and another couple of chocolate chip cookies.
“Uhm, Carrie?”
“Yeah?”
“Should you be drinking?” I asked.
She finished her sip of sangria and then looked at me. “Yeah, why?”
“It’s just that chocolate chip cookies, potato chips, and bean dip seems like pregnancy cravings to me.”
“You’re the one who put out this spread.”
“I’m just clearing out my cupboards from the before times.”
“Well, I’m not pregnant. Five times is enough. And don’t try to deflect. We need to start talking about Adam. You were seen together at the Down Home Diner. And I heard that you’re going to the sisters’ house tomorrow for an early dinner.”
Angelica and Maddie both turned to me. “You didn’t tell me,” Angelica squawked.
“You’re going to Little Grandma and Miss Gladiola’s with Adam?” Maddie’s eyes were wide.
“And his son,” Carrie cooed. “It’s going to be all Sweet Home Tennessee.”
“Thanks for not sharing,” Maddie pouted.
“I was going to get there. First I needed to explain about him being an ass.”
“All men are asses, it’s in the handbook,” Carrie scoffed. “Are you excited?”
“Too excited. I haven’t been this excited about a date in years, and it pisses me off. I really shouldn’t care this much. I don’t like the idea of anyone mattering this much.”
“Join the club, little sister. I was in hell when Beau moved back to town.”
“At least you knew who you were getting involved with. Adam is a crapshoot.”
Carrie sat forward in her seat, putting down her plate of food. “Not according to my brother. Ford’s known him for two years. Adam’s the real deal. According to Ford, Adam is a solid guy, who’s even been a shoulder for his in-laws since he lost his wife.”
“For real? Did Ford know his wife?”
“No, she’d passed about six months before Ford met Adam. But even then, he’d been pretty put together according to Ford. Ford figured it was because of James. Then as time went on, he figured it was just who the man was.”
I wondered.
I wondered who Adam had in his life who he leaned on if he was busy being there for his in-laws. Seemed like I might be doing some psychoanalyzing of my own in the near future.
Adam knocked on my door at two-forty-five on the dot.
"It's open!" I shouted from my bedroom. It had taken me far too long to come up with just the right pair of shoes to go with this dress. I knew I’d had them, but since I’d only worn them once before, they’d decided to hide themselves where they belonged, in their actual shoe box on the top shelf of my closet.
Little bastards. But they were cute as hell.
He knocked again.
I shoved my right foot into the pretty pink heel and ran as fast as I could, which wasn’t that fast, down the hallway to the door.
“Didn’t you hear me say it was open?” I asked as I looked at Adam standing on my porch with his hands in his coat pockets and his jaw set in a way that told me I was about to receive an opinion I hadn't asked for.
"I heard you." His voice was level. Careful. "Your door shouldn't be unlocked."
"Adam." I leaned against the doorframe. "It's Jasper Creek."
"That doesn't mean—"
"Little Grandma's door smells like lavender and is never locked until eight o'clock at night. Pearl Bannister leaves her back door open from May through September so her cat can come and go." I smiled at him. "Welcome to small-town Tennessee."
He looked like he had more thoughts about this, and he was keeping them behind his teeth by sheer force of will. I appreciated that.
"Miss Zoeeeeee!"
The small, ecstatic voice came from behind him, and then James Beckett was barreling up my porch steps like his feet were on fire. He was wearing a dinosaur sweatshirt and a backpack that was almost as big as he was. It was shaped like a stegosaurus with a cheerful green tail.
I dropped into a crouch and caught him. He smelled like little boy shampoo and apple juice and peanut butter.
"Hey, kiddo, this is the best day ever."
"I have all my dinosaurs," he informed me, pulling back to look at me with enormous blue eyes.
His father's eyes. "Dad said I could bring my whole backpack.
I have the T-Rex and the Brachiosaurus and the ter-duck-tail and the Spinosaurus because he's actually bigger than the T-Rex. Did you know that?"
"I actually did not know that."
James looked both gratified and genuinely concerned for my education. "He is. By a lot."
"We'll have to talk about that." I stood up and reached for my coat. "Are you ready to go see Little Grandma and Miss Gladiola?"
James grabbed my hand and tugged. "Is baby Olivia going to be there?"
Oh.
I hadn't seen that one coming, and it hit me straight in my heart. I kept my face gentle. "No, sweetheart. Olivia lives with her mom and dad. She's with them today."
"Oh." He digested this. "Can we see her some other time?"
"Absolutely, some other time."
"Okey-doke.”
I glanced up at Adam as we headed down my porch steps.
Something had moved across his face while James and I were talking, thoughtfulness, understanding, caring.
He caught me looking and held my gaze for just a moment.
Then, without saying a word, he reached over and squeezed my hand, once, brief and sure, then let go.
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
Thank you, I thought.
"Alright, let's go," I said.
Adam had parked his truck at the curb, the big old Ford that had featured in what I could only describe as the most dramatic evening of my life. James climbed into his car seat in the back and easily buckled himself in. Adam checked it out, making sure everything was secure.
“Dad! I did it right.”
“Always got to check, Buddy. It’s my job.”
I liked that.
Then Adam opened the passenger door.
I climbed up into the front seat, arranged myself, and looked out through the windshield.
"Well," I said. "The view from up here is considerably better than last time in the back seat."
In the back, James giggled, apparently deciding this was hilarious without knowing why.
Adam walked around to the driver's side, got in, and gave me a look, doing his level best not to appear amused. It wasn't working.
"Seat belt?" he asked.
"Of course. Were you an Eagle Scout?"
“No, I was a Spec-4.”
“Is that better or worse than being an Eagle Scout?”
“Depends on the day.”
I shrugged. Just another thing I was going to have to dig out of him. “Head to Main Street all the way through town and turn right at the old hardware store. Then it's about four blocks down Elm."
"Elm Street."