Count on Me (Bayview Heights Trilogy) (26 page)

“She nice?”

“Very.”

“Did you see them this weekend?”

Zoe sighed. “Erica, I don’t really—”

“—want to talk about this. I know. Hey, I gotta pee. I’m going to the bathroom.”

As Erica trotted away, Zoe had a fleeting sense of foreboding, and it shook her. Preoccupied with the feeling, she set out course descriptions and thought about Erica’s behavior over the past couple of months. Which was why she didn’t see Kurt approach her table.

“Hi.” The low baritone of his voice curled through her. She loved how it sounded in the morning—a little hoarse, a lot sexy. “Hi.”

“This is great” He waved an arm to encompass the gym.

“Yeah.”

He nodded to the TV. “Down to Earth?” Up close, his eyes were bloodshot.

“Uh-huh. Franz videotapes it for us every year.”

Kurt moved in front of the set. He stared at it as he sipped his coffee. They were as awkward as two strangers forced to share the same space on a train. She hated this wall between them, but didn’t seem able to scale it.

He shook his head. “Oh, Lord, is that what I looked like?”

Zoe turned to the TV. On the screen was Kurt dangling from the harness. Her breath caught in her throat, just as it had that day.

“Better not let Bosco see that,” he joked.

Zoe didn’t respond.

“Zoe?”

She faced him, knowing the color had drained out of her cheeks.

“Sweetheart, I was okay.”

“It makes my stomach flop whenever I see that.”

He reached out and squeezed her arm.

“Hi, guys.” Erica returned, looking bright-eyed.

“Hello, Erica.” Kurt’s tone was friendly.

“You all right?” Zoe asked.

“Yeah.” The girl frowned at Kurt’s hand on her arm. “I’m going to check out the kiddie area, okay?”

“Sure, I can handle this.”

“So I see.” Giving Kurt a long look, she stalked off.

“Something’s wrong with her,” Zoe said.

“I know.”

“More than just us.”

“Is there an ‘us,’ Zoe?”

“What?”

“Never mind. This isn’t the place. I think you should try to get Erica to see Louise for some counseling.”

“I told her exactly that last night.”

“Well, we always were on the same wavelength.”

He scanned the gym. “I’m going to go get Camille from Mitch so he can help Cassie at the casino.”

She swallowed hard. “Will you be here all day?”

He shrugged. “That depends.”

Jerry Bosco approached from behind Kurt. “Hi, Jerry,” Zoe said stiffly. “Are you enjoying the festival?”

He carried a spiral notepad in his hand. “Some of it.” He underlined whatever he’d written. “Those tarot cards are inappropriate. So is the casino ring.”

“It’s all for a good cause, Jerry. We’ve used both at our senior bash,” she said, referring to the drug-and alcohol-free activity the school put on after the senior ball. “For fifteen years now.” Not that he’d ever helped or even bothered to attend.

“Harrumph.” He studied the two of them, then turned and left.

“I’ll see you later,” Kurt told her, and headed out after Jerry.

She nodded and watched him walk away, a sense of loss engulfing her.

o0o

“I GOTTA SAY, Ms. Jacobs, I’m disappointed to see there’s no kissing booth.” John Battaglia’s eyes twinkled as he watched Shondra paint a dragon on Alexandra’s face. Since the little girl insisted on sitting on his lap, Shondra was inches away from John; she’d never been this close to him before. He smelled like a man.

“Shush.” Her hand trembled a bit.

“People kiss lots in our house,” Alexandra proclaimed.

John rolled his eyes in silent communication with Shondra. Off to the side, Joe Taylor chuckled.

“Mommy and Daddy.”

Shondra laughed.

“Yeah, they’re regular lovebirds,” John said.

“And Aunt Zoe and Uncle Kurt, too. They were kissing on Camille’s bed.”

“Oh, jeez, kid,” Joe said, sputtering. “You don’t have to broadcast that piece of news.”

Shondra turned to see Erica approaching the children’s area. She hoped Erica hadn’t heard Alexandra telling tales. All the other Caufield’s Chicks had decided Erica had done some serious flipping out about Ms. C and Dr. Lansing. And none of them agreed with her attitude. Besides, she was acting weird about everything. Julia was particularly worried about her, though Shondra didn’t know why.

Erica stuck her hands in her pockets. “Hi, guys.”

“Hi.”

“Lookin’ good?” Shondra asked her.

“Huh?”

“The dragon, silly.”

Erica studied Alexandra’s face. “A little grown-up for her, isn’t it?”

“Alexandra wanted it, didn’t you, baby?”

“Nothing wrong with that.” John kissed the top of Alexandra’s head.

Dan Caruso came over from the sand-art side. “Shondra, I’m takin’ a break.” He nodded to Joe and John, then said hello to Erica, who gave him a disgusted look.

“Sure.” Shondra poked Erica in the ribs. “Be nice,” she whispered to her friend.

As Dan walked away, Erica said, “Look, he’s heading right for her.”

“Who?” John asked.

“Julia.”

But he wasn’t, Shondra noticed. Instead, he made a beeline for Vivian’s craft booth and stood talking to her for a few minutes. He appeared to be flirting with her.

Shondra’s eyes darted to Julia. Her face crumpled as Dan leaned over and whispered something in Vivian’s ear, then headed for the refreshment stand catercorner to Julia’s booth.

Julia watched Dan saunter up in the loose-limbed way he had of walking, buy a soft drink and lean against the wall next to the food booth. He was only ten feet away. She couldn’t tear her eyes off him. Discarding his usual black for the T-shirt he’d designed, his face glowed with health and...masculinity. It made her heart rattle.

“What you starin’ at, Sabrina?”

Smiling at the name, she nodded at his handiwork. “Your shirt. It looks great.”

She thought he mumbled, “Looks better on you,” but she wasn’t sure.

“What?”

“Nothin’.” He drained the cup, crumpled it and pushed away from the wall.

Oh, God, he was leaving. Julia had been miserable since last week at Hecate’s. And when Erica had flipped about the bug thing, Julia had desperately wanted to talk to Dan about it, but Erica had sworn her to secrecy. So she hadn’t contacted him. And she was blowing her chance to talk to him now. “Dan, wait,” she called when he was several feet away.

He pivoted. “Nope, I’m not waitin’. No more.”

“Please don’t say that. Let me read your cards.” Smiling in the most flirtatious way she knew, she slipped a ticket out of her pocket and stuffed it in the box. “My treat.”

His chocolate-brown eyes flared with anger and...interest.

He glanced over his shoulder at the kiddie area. “I only got a few minutes.”

“I’ll do a short reading.” She shuffled the cards fast and divided them into three piles. “I’m all set up.” When he still stood there, she said, “Please?”

His shoulders sagged and he sauntered over. Dropping into the chair, he said a little sulkily, “Go ahead.”

She turned over a card. “Well, look at that. It’s the Hermit.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s the past card. It means you’ve been alone for most of your life.”

He grunted.

She flipped over the Death card. “Ah, this one says you want some changes. Something different.”

He eyed her warily.

Quickly she turned the Empress face up. “Oh, some good woman’s going to be a big part of your life.”

“She is?”

“Yeah. She has blond hair.” Julia smiled at him. “And blue eyes.”

Dan folded his arms over his chest.

Staring back down at the cards, Julia whispered, “And she’s sorry for being such a jerk about things.”

He leaned over and grasped her chin. “Jules?” She looked up at him. “I been tellin’ you, you don’t need roles to get me.” He nodded at the table. “You don’t need tricks.”

The moment of truth. She asked, “What do I need? To get you?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Just be honest.”

She held his gaze, then glanced over at Rachel, who was busying herself so she didn’t eavesdrop. Julia looked at Shondra and Ashley and Erica, then Shelley. Finally she faced Dan again. “We’re all going over to the Spaghetti Warehouse tonight after the festival. Wanna come with us?”

“Who’s goin’?”

“Caufield’s Chicks. And Shondra was gonna ask John Battaglia.”

“I don’t know.”

“Come. With me, Dan.” She cocked her head. “There are some things I need to talk to you about, but mostly I just want to be with you.”

Like a little boy just discovering girls, he shook his head. “You get to me, you know?”

“I do?”

“Yeah,” he said, standing, “and I don’t know why. But I’ll come.”

As he turned to leave, Ashley plowed right into him. “Oh, sorry,” she said.

He steadied her. Julia guessed Ashley didn’t know Dan had been at the hospital the day of her miscarriage, and to spare her more embarrassment, no one had told her.

Ashley said, “Hi, Dan.” Her gaze swung to Rachel. “Rach, I need to talk to you.”

Dan Caruso walked away, murmuring to Julia, “See you later.”

Despite her agitated state, Ashley smiled at her friend. “See you later?”

“Yeah. I invited him to the Spaghetti Warehouse with us.”

“Cool,” Ashley said.

“What’s wrong?” Rachel asked, coming up to them.

Ashley nodded to the doorway. In it stood Evan Michaels. Wrapped around him was a cute dark-haired sophomore named Tiffany. For a minute Ashley thought her heart was going to pound right out of her chest.

“Isn’t he working today at the festival?” Julia asked.

“No.” Ashley watched the only boy she’d ever been with hug the pretty cheerleader.

“He dropped Ms. Caufield’s class before vacation, too,” Ashley said.

Shelley, who’d jogged over to them, put in, “Dropped it? This late in the semester?” She scowled. “He’s even stupider than I thought.”

That brought a smile to Ashley’s face.

“You wanna split for a while, Ash?” Rachel asked.

Evan noticed her. She could tell by the smirk on his face as he grasped Tiffany’s hand. Then he started toward Julia’s booth.

Ashley squared her shoulders. “No. I’m not running away.”

When Evan reached them, he slid his arm around his date’s waist. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Caufield’s Chicks. All lined up in a row, as usual.”

Ashley could smell beer on him. “You been drinking, Evan?”

“He isn’t driving,” Tiffany bubbled. “I just got my license and my dad gave me his Lexus for today.”

“How nice.” This from Rachel.

Evan shot Ashley a see-what-a-good-catch-I-am look and faced Julia. “I wanna have my fortune read.”

“I’m not a fortune-teller. Tarot-reading is an ancient art going back to—”

“Whatever.” He plunked down onto the chair and pulled Tiffany close. From the corner of her eye, Ashley saw him nuzzle his nose in her stomach for a second.

The sight of such an intimate gesture hurt, and she remembered their first time together.
It’s just you and me, babe
. How complimentary he always was.
Oh, God, Ash, you drive me wild
. But then she remembered other things.
How could you be so stupid? Get rid of it now!

Signaling Rachel to come around the table, Ashley started to leave. But she turned back. “Have your cards read, Evan, but you don’t really need to. Anybody can see you’re heading nowhere. Thank God I’m not in the equation anymore.”

As she walked away, she heard Evan say, “Bitch.”

And Tiffany added, “She’s just jealous.”

Then the shuffle of a deck, accompanied by Julia’s lilting voice, “Oh, gee, look at this card.”

“What is it?” Evan asked.

As somber as a judge, Julia said, “It’s the Fool.”

o0o

ERICA PICKED AT her pizza, ripped off a small piece of crust and munched on it. Its garlicky taste made her stomach queasy. She squirmed in her seat, feeling her skin itch beneath the T-shirt and jeans she wore, trying to concentrate on the conversation around her.

“And then he said, ‘All right, Mr. Battaglia, let’s see if you can manage this time without turning green.’”

Even though John was kind of cute in his dark T-shirt and black denims, Erica thought Shondra was behaving like some medical groupie; all night long she’d been smiling at him adoringly.

“Did you, like, really hurl?” Shondra asked.

Joe Taylor, sitting between Julia and Ashley, very preppy in his blue oxford shirt and crew-neck sweater, grinned. “Yeah, he did. I was there to see it.”

“I can’t wait to go to college.” Shelley stuffed a huge bite of pizza into her mouth.

“Where you going?” John asked. Erica noticed he paid equal attention to all of them.

“I’m still holding out for Penn State. But the scholarship money’s got to come through.”

“You guys live in a dorm?” Dan asked Joe. He sat with his arm loosely draped on Julia’s chair.

 Who cares?
Erica thought as Joe and John described their apartment in the city near Columbia. This conversation was making Erica edgy. As was the pretty brown-haired girl sitting across from her.

Lauren Lansing. Erica had heard John ask Shondra if he could bring along his two friends, Joe Taylor and Dr. Lansing’s daughter, Lauren. Erica had tried to beg off after hearing that, saying she had a paper to write. But Rachel had thrown a fit, insisting Ashley needed them all there, though Ashley was flirting big time with Joe. Lauren sat quietly listening, cutting her pizza into small pieces with a knife and eating it with a fork.

When she looked up and caught Erica staring at her, she smiled weakly.

Feeling she had to say something to break the awkward moment, Erica asked, “Having a good time?”

“Yeah.” Lauren smiled more genuinely at the opening. “Do you like working with my dad?”

“Um, yeah, sure.”

“He said you’re really smart.”

“Did he?”

“Yeah, and you’re going to Georgetown.”

“Maybe.” Erica sipped her soft drink. “Last time my father checked, they were still undecided. I should hear soon, though.” She studied the other girl. “Did you come out here to spend Thanksgiving with your father?”