Curtis (3 page)

Lorrie Jameson didn’t know how to answer Curtis’s question because she honestly didn’t know why Daddy had wanted her to come over. Rather than repeat herself, she shrugged her shoulders again. Although she’d asked him, Daddy hadn’t explained his reason for wanting her to go visit the Walkers, but ever since Mr. Walker had died, he’d been insisting that she talk to Curtis. Why Curtis and not Joseph or David or even Daphne, she couldn’t figure out. The only thing he’d said was that it wouldn’t hurt for her to get to know him.

The thing was, Lorrie didn’t want to get to know Curtis. Or any of the Walkers, in fact.

But when Daddy had threatened to get his belt (far more drastic an action than she’d been expecting), she’d known he was serious, so she’d promised him that she would go talk to him when she could.

And here she was, in an attempt to get this out of the way so she could move on with her life.

“Well, if you ain’t got nothin’ to say, I’m goin’ inside,” Curtis drawled, exhaling smoke as he spoke, his deep voice laced with irritation as he pushed off the rail.

“Fine. Go inside then.” Lorrie turned to head down the steps, but Curtis stopped her with a hand on her arm.

“Hold on, girl,” he grumbled, as though he hadn’t expected her to hightail it out of there so fast.

“What?”

“You really don’t know why you’re here?” His gravelly voice was a little softer, his blue-gray eyes studying her face.

He really did have dreamy eyes. All the girls said so. Lorrie hadn’t ever paid much attention, but his irises were a rich, smoky blue, and his eyes were ringed with long, dark lashes. His skin was smooth and tan from being out in the sun, but she couldn’t see his hair because of the cowboy hat he wore all the time.

Finding herself unable to speak, Lorrie shook her head.

“But your old man wanted you to?”

“My daddy said I
had
to,” she clarified. “Said if I didn’t, I’d get a whoopin’.”

“Well, that’s just stupid,” Curtis argued, then nodded toward the porch. “Sit down.”

Confused, Lorrie plopped down on the top step. When Curtis sat down beside her, she moved over so that he wasn’t too close. He took another drag on his cigarette, then flicked the butt into the dirt.

For some reason, she couldn’t stop looking at him as he propped his elbows on his knees and stared out into the yard. She wasn’t sure she’d ever been this close to him before. Sure, she’d seen him at school and she’d seen him at church, but never had she spoken to him.

“Why aren’t you here to talk to Joseph? He’s in your class, right?”

Lorrie didn’t like Joseph Walker. Ever since the third grade, when he’d put bubble gum in her hair, she hadn’t liked that boy.

“Yes,” she answered. “He’s in my class.”

“So it makes more sense for you to come see him.”

“No, it doesn’t,” she disputed, though yes, she had to agree, it kind of did.

“Yeah, it does.”

“Curtis Walker, quit arguin’ with me.”

“If you don’t want me to swear, and you don’t want me to argue, then tell me why you’re here,” he insisted crudely, his gaze slamming into hers.

Without a second thought, Lorrie hopped to her feet and skipped down the stairs, furious that her daddy had said she had to come over here. Curtis Walker was impossible, which made the idea of talking to him stupid. Especially since she didn’t know what she was supposed to say or do, and it was obvious he couldn’t have an intelligent conversation.

“Hey! Don’t go.” Curtis’s deep voice rumbled from somewhere behind her.

Lorrie waved over her head, refusing to turn around. She made it all the way to the end of his gravel drive before she realized he was following her.

“Leave me alone,” she hollered.

“No way. You came over here to see me. I wanna know what about.”

When Curtis’s big hand touched her shoulder, she spun around to face him. “I told you. My daddy said I had to,” she snapped.

“But he didn’t say why?”

“No.”
Why was this boy so dense?

“So what’re you gonna do now?” he asked, glaring down at her, his big body shielding the sun from her eyes.

As she stood there staring up at the boy who had infuriated her so, she noticed several things about him. One, he was tall.
Really
tall. Taller than his brothers. The top of her head didn’t even reach his shoulder. He was big, but he was also skinny. Too skinny. Like he didn’t eat enough food or something.

But still, he was cute with his dark hair and dreamy eyes. She even liked his nose, which was a little crooked on the bridge. Then, of course, there was a dimple that winked every now and then in his cheek.

“I’m gonna go home,” she told him simply.

“What’ll you tell your old man?”

“That I came over to your house and talked to you.”

“What’ll he say?”

Lorrie shrugged. “That all depends on why he wanted me to come over.”

“Does your momma know you’re over here?”

“Yes.” Her mother had encouraged her to come over, as well. Said it wouldn’t hurt for Lorrie to get to know the Walkers. But her mother
always
reinforced whatever her daddy said to do.

“She ain’t worried about your virtue?” Curtis’s grin was devilish.

Goose bumps broke out along her arms as she thought about the implications of his words. The kind that made her want to take a step closer to Curtis, although she remained right where she was. “Are
you
worried about my virtue?”

Curtis’s full lips tilted into a smirk and Lorrie knew that look. It was the same way a lot of the boys at school had started to look at her once she’d started developing. Until now, she hadn’t liked it when they looked at her like that. But for some reason, she didn’t mind when Curtis did.

“Maybe.” His voice was low, the reverberation racing across her skin.

Curtis Walker had a reputation. Everyone knew he was rough and rowdy, always had been. There were rumors about him. Lots of them. About how he liked all the girls and all the girls liked him. And he especially liked to go necking in his daddy’s old farm truck down by the lake.

Lorrie didn’t know whether any of that was true. But she knew he was cute and funny—apparently not all the time, though—and according to Helen Jenkins, he was a good kisser.

She didn’t want to think about Curtis kissing Helen.

“Why don’t we take a walk down to the creek,” Curtis suggested.

“Why?”

“To talk,” he said, still smirking.

“About what?”

“Hell if I know, girl. We’ll figure it out as we go.”

She stared blankly up at him, a battle brewing in her head. She should go home and get as far away from Curtis Walker as possible. She should tell Daddy that Curtis was mean to her, but that would be a lie. He was a little rough around the edges, sure, but he hadn’t exactly been mean.

For some weird reason, her desire to leave was no longer as strong as it had been moments ago. Spending a little time with this boy wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, her daddy had urged her to.

Maybe they could talk. About what, though? They didn’t really have much in common. They were from opposites sides of the railroad tracks. Literally. As it was, his family owned land in Granite Creek, and the Walker’s ranch was definitely the biggest around. Her parents lived in a small house with barely enough rooms to put all the kids, which meant Lorrie had to share a room with two of her sisters. Their yard was small, and her daddy owned an old, beat-up truck that didn’t start half the time. Complete opposites they were.

For some reason, that didn’t put her off the way it seemed to put off her parents. She didn’t care about Curtis’s money, or the fancy cherry-red Chevy truck in the drive, or that he didn’t have to wear clothes that his mother made for him, or even whether or not he had nice things in his house. None of that had ever mattered to her.

Still, there was something about him … something Lorrie hadn’t really noticed before. Perhaps it was the devilish twinkle in his eye or that smirk that made her insides quiver. When he was near, there was a strange flutter in her belly, and when he’d put his hand on her shoulder, a million little sparks had entered her body and flowed straight down to her toes. It was both exciting and scary.

The exciting part was now winning the battle over whether or not she should stay or go.

“Okay,” she finally said.

“Okay, what?” Curtis frowned.

“Okay, I’ll go down to the creek with you. To talk.”

Curtis’s devious smirk set loose a billion butterflies in her belly, but Lorrie ignored them—or tried to—as she started toward the creek, not waiting for him.

“Wha’d’ya wanna talk about?” he asked, falling into step beside her.

“I don’t know.” He’d been the one to suggest they talk.

“Fine. Tell me why you don’t like my brother.”

“Which one?” she asked, knowing good and well which brother, but not wanting to answer the question.

Curtis chuckled. “How many of ’em do you not like?”

Lorrie shrugged.

“Girl, you ain’t makin’ this easy.”

“Maybe you’re just not askin’ the right questions,” she countered.

He chuckled again, and Lorrie found she liked the sound of his laughter. She wasn’t sure she’d ever heard him laugh before, not up close, anyway.

“Joseph,” he said. “Why don’t you like Joseph?”

“I like him just fine,” she lied. Curtis growled, and she was the one now laughing. “Okay. I don’t like him. He’s not very nice.”

“What’d he do? Maybe if it’s bad enough, I’ll take him out back and beat him up for it.”

“That’s not necessary,” she told him, not sure if he was making fun of her or stating a fact. “And it was a long time ago.”

“So, you
do
like him?”

“No,” she answered quickly.

“But you like me?”

“I didn’t say that, either.” Lorrie focused her attention on the ground, keeping an eye out for snakes and such that slithered through the tall, dry grass.

“What’d I do to you?” he inquired.

“I don’t know you,” she admitted.

“But you want to?”

Lorrie looked up at him, meeting those smoky blue eyes. “Maybe.”

Curtis nodded, his grin growing wider, but didn’t say anything more as they trekked down to the creek.

As they neared the water, Lorrie spotted a coyote standing by the stream, its head cocked as it watched them. There was another up on the ridge behind it. She stopped for a moment, taking in the sight, admiring them. She’d seen plenty of coyotes in and around Granite Creek, but most of them were scraggly and small. These two were beautiful.

“I shoulda brought my shotgun,” Curtis grumbled.

Lorrie put her hand on Curtis’s arm when he went to move forward. “No, don’t scare them away.”

“You like coyotes?”

“I do.” She wasn’t sure what it was about them. Something majestic and beautiful that had fascinated her since she was little. “I think they should’ve named the town Coyote Ridge. Makes more sense than Granite Creek.”

“You’re a weird girl, you know that?”

Feeling a tad defensive, Lorrie turned to face him. “I am not.”

Curtis was grinning again. “You’ve got a fire in you. I like that.”

For some reason, that made her blush, her face heating as she stared up at this boy who she didn’t like, but did. The same boy she knew so little about, but got the sense she shouldn’t be around him any more than she had to. He was, after all, a Walker.

The only problem now was that she suddenly didn’t want to be anywhere else.

chapter TWO

MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1962

If you woulda told me that Curtis Walker would carry my books to school, I woulda thought you were crazy. And if you woulda told me that I might actually like Curtis Walker, I woulda thought you needed to go to the loony bin for sure.

Today, both of those things happened. Curtis walked me to school, carrying my books (I still can’t believe he carried my books!), and at the end of the day, he walked me home. At some point, I think I started to like him, even though I’m not sure I should. He’s cute and he’s fun to be around, and he has the dreamiest eyes. But besides that, he makes me feel like I always have a song playing inside me. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I feel lighter when I’m with him.

Now, I just want to go to bed so I can wake up and see him again.

Pacing back and forth across the dirt path, kicking rocks as he did, Curtis forced himself to wait a little while longer. School would be starting in a bit, but he knew Lorrie would be coming this way because Joseph had told him that she walked to school.

He remembered the conversation he’d had with Joseph last night, the one that had resulted in Joseph punching him, then Curtis punching him back. It was true, Joseph hadn’t been at all pleased that Curtis had asked about Lorrie, but that didn’t matter to him.

“Hey, you can’t like Lorrie,” Joseph spat.

“Why the hell not?”

“’Cause I like her.”

“Why ain’t you with her then?”

Joseph glared at him.

“She came over here to see me today. Not you.”

“That ain’t true,” Joseph argued. “You just answered the door.”

“Wrong. She told me so. Now tell me how she gets to school or I’ll punch you again.”

Joseph had finally caved. As far as Curtis was concerned, if his brother had really liked Lorrie, he would’ve staked his claim on her already.

Only then did it occur to him that Joseph could’ve been lying about her walking to school. Maybe Joseph was yanking his chain, sending him out here to look like an idiot. Squinting in the direction he expected Lorrie to come from, he contemplated his next move. If Joseph had been messing with him, Curtis was going to pay him back. With his fists.

Ever since yesterday, when Curtis had walked her home after they’d spent an hour down at the creek talking about nothing, really, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. Every single thought that flittered through his head was about her. Her pretty blue eyes. Her silky blond hair. Her smart-aleck mouth … all of it. She was invading his brain. To the point he knew he had to see her again, and he couldn’t wait until this afternoon.

Stopping, Curtis glanced in the direction of the school, then back toward where he expected Lorrie to appear. His breath hitched because there she was, walking his way, her head down as though she was lost in thought.

She looked pretty, even if her dress was not at all appealing. It was longer than the one from yesterday, and her arms were covered completely. Once again, he tried to imagine what she would look like in a bathing suit.

He watched her as she came closer, her eyes still focused on the ground in front of her.

Was she thinking about him? Had she thought about him at all since yesterday?

“Hey,” he greeted when she neared.

Lorrie jumped, letting out a surprised shriek, her schoolbooks scattering on the dirt and grass around her. He rushed over, snatching them up one by one as she attempted to do the same.

“You scared me, Curtis Walker.”

“Sorry,” he said with a chuckle. “I thought you saw me.”

“What’re you doin’ here?” Her tone was hesitant as she looked around, almost as though she feared someone might see them together.

“I wanted to walk you to school.”

“I don’t need help gettin’ to school. I know the way.”

That made him smile. “Didn’t say you didn’t.”

Once they’d gathered all her things, Curtis stood. But when Lorrie tried to take the books from his hands, he held them out of her reach. “I’ll give ’em to ya when we get to school.”

“I can carry my own books,” she insisted.

“I know you can.” But he still didn’t hand them to her.

Rather than let her continue to glare at him, Curtis started walking slowly, looking back at her until she started to follow. Finally, she inched her way forward, then fell in step with him.

“I don’t know why you’re here,” Lorrie announced, her cheeks pink, as though she was embarrassed.

Curtis chuckled. “Then I guess we’re even. I don’t know why you were at my house yesterday.”

“I don’t, either.”

“Did you ask your old man why he sent you over?”

“No.”

“Are you gonna?”

“No.”

Curtis couldn’t stop grinning like a fool even though Lorrie was making this conversation as difficult as possible. That seemed to be a trend with her. He wanted to ask her a million questions, but he didn’t even know where to start and doubted he would get any answers anyway. He decided to start simple.

“Do you always walk to school by yourself?”

Lorrie shook her head. “I usually walk with Kathy, but she’s not feelin’ good today.”

Lucky him.

Unfortunately, their attempt at conversation was cut short when they arrived at the school a few minutes later. Before they stepped inside, Curtis handed Lorrie her books. “Can I walk you home this afternoon?”

Lorrie glanced around once again before meeting his eyes. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Curtis frowned, not understanding.

Rather than argue, because he’d already learned with Lorrie it would get him nowhere, he simply nodded his head and stepped out of her way.

And made the decision that he would be waiting for her after school whether she wanted him to or not.

Lorrie wasn’t sure how she made it through the school day. She’d been in a daze ever since Curtis had scared her that morning. Not only had she not seen him, she hadn’t
expected
to see him, but it had been a nice surprise.

Except Lorrie wasn’t the type to enjoy surprises. Usually.

And rightfully so.

Nothing good ever came from a surprise. At least not in her experience.

Because of who her father was and the fact that they didn’t have any money, the kids made fun of her and her sisters. Her brothers, especially Mitch, didn’t have to endure the comments and the pointing fingers because most of the kids were scared of him, but she hadn’t been that lucky. It wasn’t that they didn’t like her, but they liked to pick on her about her clothes mostly. Sometimes they played pranks on her, too.

In fact, for most of the day, she’d been fighting her anxiety, fully expecting someone to tell her that this was all a joke. That Curtis Walker couldn’t possibly want to walk her to school or carry her books or even talk to her. At one point, she’d even imagined the teacher telling her as much.

She’d never actually liked a boy before, but she’d seen some of the girls get teased when someone found out they liked one. She did not want to be that girl.

Hurrying out of the school, wondering if Curtis would be waiting for her even though she’d told him he shouldn’t, Lorrie kept her head down as she always did. She rushed down the steps, then across the lawn, heading for the path that led to her house.

“Hey, Lorrie!”

Crap. She knew that voice, and she wished she could pretend she hadn’t heard it, but it was too late. She’d been surprised enough to stop walking. Turning slowly, Lorrie found the source. Helen Jenkins, with her long brown hair flowing over her shoulders, was strutting toward her, hands on her curvy hips, the devil in her eye.

Maybe Helen was going to be the one to tell her all this was a big, elaborate joke. It wouldn’t shock her if she did.

Lorrie had never liked Helen Jenkins. Not because she was the prettiest girl in school but because she
knew
she was and wanted to make sure everyone else knew it, too.

“Someone told me that you went to Curtis Walker’s house yesterday,” Helen said with a frown, tossing her hair over her shoulder and cocking her hip.

Rather than confirm or deny, Lorrie stared at Helen, keeping her expression neutral, waiting to hear what she had to say.

“So it’s true?” Helen didn’t appear happy with that answer, though she’d come to that conclusion on her own.

Again, Lorrie kept her mouth shut, hugging her books to her chest as she contemplated walking away.

“Well,” Helen began with a huff, lowering her voice, “I should hope you know that Curtis is gonna be my boyfriend soon. Sandra heard him say that he was gonna ask me to go steady.”

Lorrie didn’t believe that for a minute, but she wasn’t sure what made her doubt those words, so she didn’t bother to argue. It wasn’t in her nature to argue.

“And I’d appreciate if you wouldn’t go to my future boyfriend’s house. If you do it again, I’ll…”

“You’ll do what?”

The deep voice came from behind Helen, and when Helen spun around, Lorrie noticed that Curtis was standing there, staring back at her. She had no idea how long he’d been there, or how she hadn’t seen him, but she assumed it was long enough to hear what Helen had said.

“Curtis,” Helen whispered breathlessly. “Hey.”

Curtis briefly glanced at Helen while Lorrie stood there like an idiot.

Please, please, please don’t let them make fun of me.

Helen took a step closer, then put her hand on Curtis’s arm. Lorrie wanted to smack her right upside the head.

Where did that come from?

“I was hopin’ to find you,” Helen said sweetly. “I thought maybe you’d wanna walk me home.”

Funny. Helen didn’t sound nearly as confident as when she’d been talking to Lorrie.

Curtis shrugged Helen’s hand off. “I’m walkin’ Lorrie home,” he said frankly, as though it was the truth.

Lorrie was tempted to run the other way, and she wasn’t even sure what she was running from. Curtis or Helen. Or both. Or neither.

“Come on, Lorrie,” Curtis said, reaching out and taking her books from her hands before she even realized what he was doing. “Lemme walk you home.”

Swallowing past the lump that had formed in her throat, Lorrie quickly glanced at Helen, noticing she was fuming. Lorrie was tempted to tell Curtis that she could walk home just fine without him, but she didn’t want him anywhere near Helen Jenkins, so she kept the remark to herself. Then she did something she’d never done before, she flashed Helen an evil grin. It felt good, too.

A few minutes later, once they’d gotten far enough away that no one else could hear them, Lorrie glanced over at Curtis. “Is it true?”

“Is
what
true?” His eyes met hers.

“Are you gonna ask Helen Jenkins to go steady?”

He chuckled but didn’t answer as he pulled his cigarettes out of his pocket.

“Why is that funny?” she snapped.

“Would I be walkin’ you home if I wanted to go steady with Helen?”

No, she guessed not. “Well, she said Sandra told her that you were gonna ask her.”

Curtis’s grin tilted, a cigarette now dangling from between his lips, and she found she couldn’t look away. “Don’t believe everything you hear.”