Kiss Me Hard Before You Go (16 page)

The mention of Finch’s name made her feel warm inside, and she fought a blush from forming.

Doris opened her package of Twinkies and offered Evie one.

Evie hated Twinkies and tried not to crinkle her nose in disgust. “No, thanks.”

“How is your truck working?” Mouse asked her.

“Fine,” she said. “It’s just old and needs new parts.”

“Like us.” Doris pointed to herself, Mouse and Friedrich.

“Speak for yourself woman. I am fit as a twenty-year-old man,” Friedrich said, and Doris guffawed.

“Well, you do have a nice bod, but don’t let it get to that big old head of yours,” she said to him.

“They’re like this all the time,” Mouse whispered to Evie.

“Oh,” she said. “Are they married?”

“Might as well be,” he answered and placed his hand under his chin, letting out a soft sigh.

“So, tell us about yourself. We only get snippets from Finch. He ain’t the sharing type,” Doris said.

She felt their eyes burning into hers, and the situation felt awkward, like she was on trial. “Well, I don’t know what you want to know,” she said with uncertainty.

“Don’t matter. We’re just trying to know you is all,” she said. “Tell you what, you can ask us something and then we’ll do the same. Go on,” she encouraged, and Evie felt the pressure to come up with something quick.

“Why is your name Mouse?” she asked.

They all three laughed, and Mouse took off his hat and rubbed the top of his head. “I came from a big family. There were nine of us, and I was the smallest. Mama used to get on to me because I was so quiet. She’d say, ‘Hugo, you move around like a mouse. I almost stepped on you!’ The name just stuck, and everyone has called me by it since,” he said.

“We all got names for each other,” Doris said. “I call him Sexy,” she said, pointing to Friedrich and waggling her brows. “And sometimes I call Finch ‘Piss-ant’ but he doesn’t respond when I do. He’s fixing one of the rides if you’re wondering where he is,” she said.

“I don’t care...” Evie began.

“Sure you don’t. If I were an eighteen-year-old girl, my hormones would be going crazy for ‘Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome,’” she said, and Friedrich frowned. “Don’t you worry, Honey Lamb, he ain’t gonna steal me away from you,” she said to him and turned her gaze back to Evie. “As it is, I’m old enough to be his mama, and the more I get to know him, the more I can see what a little piss-ant he can be.”

“That’s for damn sure,” Evie agreed with Doris about the “piss-ant” part, well, and the “tall, dark, and handsome” part too. Any fool would agree that Finch was easy on the eyes.

“Still, even piss-ants have their finer points, and he has the heart of a lion just like his mama did.” Mouse and Friedrich nodded in agreement. “I’d bet if you opened him up, you’d find half of his inside was his heart,” she said it with resounding confidence. “You wait around long enough, Honey Lamb, he’s bound to come in here.”

The last thing she was going to do was hang around like a swoony idiot hoping for a few minutes of Finch’s time. “It was nice seeing you again,” she said, getting up.

“That was fast. Guess we scared you off, didn’t we?” Doris said.

“No,” Evie lied. “I should be going.”

“Bye, Honey Lamb. I’ll be sure to tell Finch we saw you,” Doris taunted.

Evie wandered through the carnival, hearing screams of excitement as people were twisted and jolted on the rides. She was tempted to try her hand at the ring toss but figured it’d be a waste of money, and what was she going to do with a stuffed bear anyway. She’d never really made time to stop and look around, to see all that the carnival offered. And from what she could see, it offered enough to keep people coming.

Time passed, and throngs of people passed her by. It was a mass exodus. Every single person was leaving at the same exact time, and Evie was stuck right in the thick of it. Trying to walk against traffic was pointless. She decided to wait it out until the crowds disappeared, and then she’d make her journey to Katie. The music had stopped, and the noise from the rides had silenced. Now the sounds of nature were more prevalent. Carnies talked amongst themselves uttering phrases Evie knew her dad would definitely charge a dollar for. She tried to commit a few to memory thinking that some of them would be useful in the future.

The crowds were finally gone, and Evie started to her childhood home. She felt silly for even trying to see some guy she barely knew, who, when she thought about it, wasn’t much of a charmer anyway. Well, neither was she for that matter. They were two of a kind, and that scared the bejesus out of her.

***

The place was spotless. Katie had been cleaning all day, and when Evie arrived, she was fast asleep on the sheet covered sofa. It, along with a table and two chairs, were all that was left in the home.

Katie yawned and fought to keep her eyes open. “Did my dad come by?” She was drenched in sweat.

“Yeah,” Evie answered. “I think he believed me.”

“Good.” She breathed a sigh of relief. “He’ll come back.”

“I know, but don’t worry,” Evie said. She held the fan up and said, “I brought you a fan.” She plugged it in, and it hummed as it circulated air.

“Thanks, Evie.” She yawned as she said it, and then her eyes started to close.

“Go on to sleep. I’ll check on you tomorrow,” Evie whispered.

Katie lay back down and fell fast asleep.

***

She made her way back to Gray’s truck. Gray had insisted that she drive to the carnival even though she told him she was perfectly fine walking. “You don’t need to be walking around in the dark by yourself,” he said. She was glad he persuaded her to drive. Trekking from one end of the property to the other made her feet sore, and wearing platform shoes wasn’t the most prudent choice for the evening.

Gray’s truck was one of the few vehicles left in the make-shift parking space. It was a quiet night, and all she could hear were the voices of carnies.

“I heard you were looking for me,” he called at her.

It was dark out, and she was surprised he could see her. He moved out of the shadows, and she was able to get a better look at him.

“No,” she said, the keys jingled in her hands.

“That’s not what Doris said.”

He stood a little closer to her and smiled.

“I was just checking on things at the carnival,” she said.

“And what’d you find out?” He was teasing her, and Evie was getting more flustered by the minute.

“That I still hate the smell of funnel cakes.”

He laughed. “I’ll let you in on a little secret.” He moved closer to her. “I do, too.”

She bit on her lip and fidgeted.

“Where were you coming from?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well... I would’ve seen you at the carnival, and I saw you walking up to your truck from there.” He pointed north.

“I was checking on the property, and anyway, why are you watching me?” she griped.

“You’re hard to miss,” he kidded. “Why are you checking the property in the dark?”

“I was just making sure the gates were locked.”

“Have you had more problems?” he asked with concern.

“No. But it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“True,” he agreed and paused for a moment. “Did you ride the Super Slide again?”

“No,” she said with annoyance.

“Too much fun for you?” He laughed.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

“You’re on my turf, remember?” He widened his arms, pointing at everything.

“But who owns the land?” she said in a haughty tone.

“Your father,” he said.

She lowered her head in defeat.

“I saw
Smokey and The Bandit
was playing at the theatre downtown,” he said with his hands in his pockets. “I’d like to go see it.”

“So go see it.”

He shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m planning to. I was thinking maybe you’d want to see it with me.”

“Oh,” she said, feeling like an idiot for missing the painfully obvious. “When?”

“I get off early tomorrow night. I could pick you up at seven.”

“Um...I have something to take care of.”

“Oh,” he said with disappointment.

“No, I mean you can’t pick me up, but I can meet you at the theatre” she said.

“Oh, okay,” he said, and she could see he looked relieved. “Are you sure you want me meeting you there? It seems wrong somehow.” Finch may have had experience with women, but going on dates wasn’t something he was skilled at. He only knew what his mother, Friedrich, Doris, and Mouse told him, and what he’d seen in the movies. And one of the things he always saw a guy do was pick a girl up at her house the night of the date.

“Yeah. It’s fine,” she answered. “I’ll see you out front of the theatre tomorrow at seven.” She reached for her door handle, and Finch placed his hand on top of hers and opened the door for her. “Thanks.”

“See you tomorrow,” he said and shut the door.

Chapter 16

“Let me curl your hair just like Farrah Fawcet,” Katie said. “Pretty please.” She clasped her hands together and made an exaggerated begging face.

“It’s not a big deal. Really. We’re just meeting at the movies,” Evie said but even she had put in a little extra effort and washed her hair with the special Short and Sassy Shampoo that Katie always bragged about. Although her hair wasn’t short and in the Dorothy Hamill style like Katie’s, she swore she noticed some new sass from the effects of the shampoo.

“It’s a date, you dope,” Katie said. “And from your description, he sounds dreamy.”

Evie blushed.

“I knew it!” she squealed. “He is, isn’t he?”

“Calm your horses,” Evie said.

“Just let me live vicariously through you. I probably won’t ever go on another date again, unless there’s a man out there who likes an unemployed woman with a fatherless kid,” she said with a resounding sigh.

“You’ll find someone,” Evie said.

“Maybe. Maybe not. I just gotta focus on this little guy from here on.” She looked down at her stomach and then back up at Evie. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t help my best friend look even more gorgeous than she already is. I brought my make-up case. Lord knows why. I won’t need it anymore.” Katie picked up a compact blue suitcase and unlatched it. Eyeshadow, lipstick, blush, eyeliner, and mascara filled it. She sifted through it and pulled out blue eye shadow and pink lipgloss. She squinted her eyes and placed her palm on Evie’s face. “We’re gonna do the natural look on you. Sit down,” she ordered.

Evie sat down on one of the wooden chairs and remembered the times she sat there as a child, eating meals that her mother had made.

“Are you going stir crazy in here?” Evie asked.

“Not yet. I’m reading those books and magazines you brought. So that’s keeping me busy. He likes to kick,” she said.

“You keep calling him a he. What if he’s a she?”

“Then she’ll have a complex when she’s born,” Katie joked. “I really don’t care as long as he’s healthy and doesn’t act anything like Todd.”

“He’ll act like you,” Evie said with confidence.

“Curling iron’s hot,” Katie said and grabbed a handful of Evie’s fine blond hair. She wrapped her hair around the hot iron and held it in that position for a few seconds. She then repeated the process over and over again until Evie’s hair met with her satisfaction.

“Close your eyes,” Katie said. She applied blue eyeshadow to Evie’s eyelids and handed her the tube of pink lipstick. “You can put this on.” Evie applied the lipstick and blotted her lips on a napkin.

Katie opened her compact. “Here, see how beautiful you look.”

Evie saw the hair surrounding her face was feather back, and the make-up showed off her blue eyes. She smiled and said, “I like it!”

“Like or love?” Katie questioned.

“Love.” Evie said with a smile.

“Good. He should too.” She gestured for Evie to stand up. “Let’s get a good look at you.” Katie appraised her and shook her head, muttering to herself, “Why does red look better on blonds?”

Evie looked down at her red tube top and then back at Katie. “Think I should wear another shirt?” She yanked on her top, pulling it up.

“You pull that thing up any further, and it’ll cover your neck. Don’t worry, your boobs aren’t flopping in the wind,” Katie said.

Evie crossed her arms over her chest.

“Quit being so insecure. You look great!”

“Thanks.”

“You have to come here after the date. I want to hear all about Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome’s kissable lips.”

Evie widened her eyes. “Katie. I’m not going to kiss him on the first date.”

“Why not?”

“Because...”

“It’s a kiss. You can’t get pregnant from a kiss. Trust me, I know.” She pointed to her stomach. “Well, if he kisses good enough, you could end up pregnant.” She twitched her brows and grinned.

Evie’s face turned red.

“You’ve kissed a guy before, right?”

“Yeah,” Evie said with a lilt in her voice.

“You haven’t? How have I not known this? I’m your best friend.”

“You never asked, and when would I? I’ve never had a real boyfriend,” Evie said with a pout.

“I just assumed you kissed Nick Tate that one time.”

Nick Tate and Evie spent seven minutes in a closet together at Wendy Jenson’s house during her sixteenth birthday party. While the other kids heckled them, snickered and shouted encouraging phrases like, “Slip her the tongue, Nate,” and “Slide into second base,” Evie and Nick spent their time standing awkwardly in the dark cramped space wondering what to do with their hands and their mouths. Nick wasn’t a skilled casanova, and Evie was just as much of a novice when it came to the opposite sex. Their seven minutes ended with a quick sloppy peck on Evie’s lips from Nate, lasting all of a millisecond, which in Evie’s mind didn’t count as a real kiss. She wanted a
From Here to Eternity
Kiss, passionate and intoxicating, the kind where you hate to come up from air.