Twenty-Two
They found a place near the performance zone on a hill overlooking the stage. It was dark, but the spotlights illuminated the surrounding area enough to see. Nico tested the ground for damp as the crowd below cheered on a juggler dressed like the joker in a card deck.
“Have you ever used a scythe?” asked Valerie, bending down to nestle the mead tankards (actually recyclable takeaway cups) into the high grass before she sat down. Her skirts took up a wide radius and she tucked them close to her body.
“No, have you?”
“Never. It looks easy but I imagine I’d slice my leg off in seconds.” She made a face. “That would be messy. Speaking of chopped legs and messiness…” She brandished the smoked turkey leg. “How should we eat this?”
Nico pulled out the wad of napkins he’d grabbed after witnessing a fellow fairgoer attack his leg Henry the Eighth style. “We dig in.”
The turkey was somehow both too dry and extremely messy, and they resorted to wiping their fingers in the grass before they were done passing it back and forth.
He made sure to leave the best parts, such as they were, for her.
Valerie sipped her mead with a thoughtful expression.
“It’s like melted Popsicles but with a bit of a sour aftertaste. Gets better, though.”
She drained the cup and dabbed her lips with a dainty gesture before stretching. Nico stared unashamedly as she lifted her arms. He didn’t have any complaints about what she usually wore, but that corset was doing things to him.
He wondered what she’d look like wearing it and nothing else.
Valerie lay down in the grass and closed her eyes.
Nico let her rest, the sounds of a lute drifting up from the stage and a welcome change from the Gregorian chants of earlier.
It was rare that he simply sat and let his thoughts drift, but as he did, he found them coalescing around a single subject, like a dust cloud swirling to form a star.
Valerie.
The fight in the car had been hard. He’d cycled through a lot of emotions, which had left him with the lingering feeling that he wasn’t the kind of open, adventurous, expressive guy she’d go for. The entire mess had been capped off by the dejection of not finding Yvette.
However, this was counterbalanced by the buzz of Valerie telling him she wanted to sleep with him—technically, in the sense that they would be sleeping in the same room—and the promise of the shared tent.
When she’d come out in that outfit, in a corset, for God’s sake, he’d been stunned into silence. It wasn’t only how beautiful she looked, but how happy she was to be having this adventure. She was always lively, and this made her almost electric.
There were daisies growing in a patch beside him, and he wove a crown as he watched Valerie lying in the grass.
He was fairly certain she wasn’t wearing anything under that chemise.
Like 99.9 to infinity percent sure. When he was showing her how to use the bow, her chest rose and fell with her breath and he wanted to pull her in tighter to see if that neckline would dip just the little bit lower he needed.
Then she pressed her hips back and he nearly fell over.
At first he wasn’t sure if it was an accident, but then he’d caught sight of her wicked smile.
He wasn’t totally sure what to do with that.
Valerie liked to flirt, but surely that kind of deliberate action meant something real?
“Well, the investigator’s lead was a bust, so we’re back to where we were before.” Valerie’s drowsy voice rose from the grass to interrupt his thoughts. She reached her hand up to count on her fingers. “We have David who has money problems.”
“We have Penny possibly lying about knowing Yvette, based on a bracelet and a photo,” he countered.
“We still might be able to get some information from Tracey Jefferies, if we can find her. I heard Penny mention she’d gone back to the city for a few days.”
“I asked Roger about his friends at the time, and he said his best friend hadn’t come up that summer because he went to Banff, so he mostly hung around alone or with Penny before Yvette.” He handed her the finished flower crown.
“What’s this?” she asked, taking it with curious hands.
“You said you’d have daisies on your family crest because they were your favorite flower,” he said. “I thought a crown of them would match your outfit.”
“Nico, I love it. Put it on me.” She handed it back and bent her head. Goddammit, that neckline drooped as low as he’d previously wished but he couldn’t make out anything but shadows. Unfair. Life was so cruel.
He placed it on her smooth head, and she peeked up. In the faint light from the stage, her face appeared as a line drawing, her features sketched in to show their subtle outline. She was the most dazzling, sparkling woman he’d ever met.
He wanted to kiss her. He had to kiss her. He was dying to feel those lips, and after he kissed her, he wanted to trace them with his finger.
He could have sworn that she wanted the same thing.
But if he was wrong, then they had a very awkward night in a tent together, and a long car ride tomorrow, and then the rest of the summer.
He couldn’t risk it. He had to be certain that she wanted this, and it wasn’t simply Valerie playing for the sake of it.
It had to be real.
“It’s getting late,” he said.
Was it his imagination or did she droop a bit? “Right,” she said. “Let me see my flowers first.” She pulled out her phone and checked her appearance. “It’s gorgeous,” she said softly. “Thank you. How did you learn to do crowns?”
“Stefanie showed me the summer I was ten. I made them for everyone and she wore hers until the petals fell off.”
They started back down the hill. “It sounds like the distance wasn’t always there between you,” she said. She slipped slightly and he reached out to steady her. Her skin was so smooth that he worried about catching it on his fingertips, like a silky fabric.
“No.” He frowned as the lute turned into something more rhythmic and disparate cheers rose raggedly from the crowd.
This was apparently a fan favorite. The faire was dying down now, with mead-drunk people dancing or wandering through the tents.
“I don’t think so, anyway. It kept piling on as we got older. ”
They left the faire and the road back to the campground was quiet. He knew Valerie would ask more questions, and didn’t have to wait long. “Do you want to make up with her?”
Nico didn’t say anything at first, then he sighed. “I don’t like the problems it’s causing in the family, but I’m also tired of how she treats me.” He didn’t normally talk to people about his feelings like this, but Valerie made it less difficult.
“Have you told her how you feel?”
“Kind of.”
She waited, and said nothing, and finally he filled in the empty space. “We had a fight, so it might not have come out the best way.”
“Because you let it build until it was too much?”
He wanted to laugh. “Yeah, and now we’re not talking.”
“You could,” she pointed out. “It sounds like you’re thinking about this a lot and would be happier if you fixed it. Or tried to. You could just see what happened if you reached out.”
Nico looked at the big dark sky. What was it like to live in Valerie’s head and have her unwavering faith that things would work out? That this was something he could fix? And there it was again. Just see. See what happens. Don’t worry about certainty.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked when he didn’t answer.
“Whether you’re naive or I’m cynical.” He winced. “God, that sounded terrible. Sorry.”
“It’s interesting that you seem to think believing the best of people is inferior to believing the worst of them.”
He opened his mouth and shut it. She was right. Why did he equate negativity with rationality, and rationality as superior? It took bravery and courage to be optimistic.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s cool,” she said. He relaxed, feeling it really was, not like earlier today.
They brushed their teeth over a garbage can with a bottle of water, then took turns changing into their regular clothes before settling down in the tent. It was somehow less romantic than he’d expected.
Valerie whispered his name. “Is it me or does it smell in here?”
That’s what was bothering him. It was old socks and vinyl and sweat, and the whole thing was overlaid with an odor he recognized from the time Kimmy only wore clothes thrifted from vintage markets. Once he noticed it, it was impossible to ignore.
Valerie sat up straight. “I don’t think I can stop smelling it.” She crawled to the front and zipped open the flap, breathing in dramatically. “Sweet, sweet air.”
Nico wanted to tease her, but he had to admit she was right. Compared to the thick atmosphere inside the tent, the breeze coming in was fresh and cool.
Valerie knelt with her head outside and waved her arm back at him. “Come look at the sky.”
The awe in her voice gave Nico an inspiration. He gathered up the sleeping bags and set them out with the tops outside. “Want to sleep looking at the stars?”
“With no coyotes to eat me?” She was already climbing in. “You’re a genius. Do I say that enough?”
“I could hear it more.” He slid in beside her and they stared up. “Do you know any of the constellations?”
“Orion, because of his belt. My dad showed me that. The Big Dipper with the North Star. How about you?”
“Same.” He pointed to the left and took a chance. “Those five stars look like a cat face.”
“I see it! Over to the right is a fish.”
They traded a few more, but Nico’s mind wasn’t on finding the celestial shrimp or the interstellar pizza.
Valerie was so close, and while the hurdy-gurdy playing mournfully in the distance wasn’t the most romantic soundtrack in the world, he didn’t care.
It could be bagpipes doing a funereal version of “Amazing Grace” and his mind would be filled with her.
“That one looks like a mouth,” she said. It could have been him, but her voice sounded husky. “Ready for a kiss.”
As hints went, this one was pretty obvious, which is why Nico was finally able to let go of all the second-guessing. He was about to do what he’d been dreaming of for weeks when Valerie leaned over and kissed him. It was soft and tentative, like she was giving him a chance to say no. “Is this—”
“Yes.” He slid a hand around the back of her neck and pulled her close. “Absolutely, yes.”
Her lips felt exactly the way he thought they would, firm and perfect.
He pulled her on top to protect her from the ground and she bent her head to press lingering kisses on his mouth.
Tiny ones that fluttered teasingly on his skin until he couldn’t help holding her still to kiss her the way he’d been dreaming about every night.
The differences between his fantasy and the reality made it more exciting.
Her rose scent had faded apart from a small spot on her throat, and the sound she made when he ran his lips along it, then bit down gently, was enough to make his hands shake.
He pulled Valerie back into the tent, away from any curious eyes, and zipped it shut behind them.
“Hey,” she said, slightly breathless. She straddled him, with a hand sliding up his shirt. He didn’t know what sensation to focus on and closed his eyes for a moment to let himself feel. “Just FYI here, I wasn’t expecting to get it on in a tent at a Ren faire, so I don’t have anything.”
He opened his eyes. “I do.”
She burst out laughing and the way it made her wriggle on him made him shudder. “I should have known you’d be prepared.” She kissed him again, by the side of his mouth. “Is this a thing you do regularly, or did you have high hopes for tonight?”
“I was a Boy Scout when I was young. To be prepared is part of the motto.” He put his hands on her lower back to steady the slow rocking that was making it hard to think.
Her heat made his mind spin as he traced his fingers down her curves.
“Or maybe it was a rule. I can’t remember.
That being said, the condom has been in my wallet for a while, and I don’t trust it. ”
“I want a bed.” She paused. “With a firm pillow.”
That she was telling him exactly what she wanted was more of a turn-on than he thought it would be, given that it was being set in the future and not the next few minutes. “Anything you want.”
“Good. You can put that fine organizational mind behind our first time, which will be in comfort.” The hurdy-gurdy made a plaintive noise. “With better music,” she added.
“Okay.” He’d promise anything, although that was a reasonable request.
“Right now, though, I’m willing to make do.”
Then, to the rousing sound of people singing “Greensleeves,” he kissed her again.