by R. T. Wolfe
"Look, Candi dear." Andy was sure the blonde was speaking up to make sure he heard. "He brought his other girlfriend."
Crushing the handles of her poms, Candi flipped her hair before turning to glare at her. She stood confidently with her long legs and thick brown hair tied with a large bow on the top of her head. He could tell she leashed her anger and hoped it wasn't only for his sake.
"Just kidding, dear," her friend chided. "Can you believe that girl? Her and her Chuck Taylors? And oh lookie, she gave up the doo-rag for a Little House on the Prairie braid. I can almost tell she's a girl."
Not-so-subtly, Candi dipped her head, adjusted her cleavage and then turned to him, acting like he couldn't have possibly heard.
She ran toward him like she hadn't just seen him earlier that afternoon. Didn't even bother to pull him aside before grabbing the collar of his shirt and pressing her mouth to his, along with the rest of her curves. Her tongue nearly reached his throat before he could take her by the shoulders and nudge her away.
"What the fuck?" she said. Candi looked around. "Everyone's watching us."
"Exactly," he answered, more than a little pissed off. Trying not to make any more of a scene, he patted her on the shoulder as he noticed her gaze slither up in Rose's direction. He couldn't help but follow her glare and watched as a tall blond dude slithered into the seat next to Rose. His seat. Andy stood and stared at them, feeling a sharp pang of something he decided must be overprotectiveness.
First, Rose had her typical look of, "Excuse me?" Then, it changed to recognition.
The whistle blew. He heard Candi's voice. He knew she would have to get back to the squad, but he couldn't peel his eyes away from Rose long enough to find out what she was saying.
With the game starting, he walked out of the way of the spectators and toward concessions just as Rose turned to face the blond straight on. Could she not see what the guy was up to? How could she fall for the frigging handshake? Andy needed to help her, warn her. Shaking his head, he looked at the floor as he walked. Lightly stained wooden slats, he said to himself. Pay attention to the wooden slats on the floor.
She had been talking, he thought as he ordered a popcorn and two bottles of water. She hardly ever talked to anyone. She had been smiling and talking.
So, what's the big deal? She'll be eighteen soon. She can't talk to a guy? When he came back out to the gym, the dude was still there. Not for long, though. Andy stopped on the stairs just as both of them turned to him. Andy sighed heavily as the feelings he assumed were overprotective anger turned to guilt. Blond boy got up and side-stepped over the row of knees to the opposite side of bleachers.
Andy returned and sat without speaking. He handed Rose one of the bottles of water.
"Problem?" she asked.
"Huh? Nope." Folding his hands, he rested them on top of his head.
"Candi looks mad. I'm sorry if you're fighting."
He felt her lean on him. She smelled like peaches.
"Beginning of the first quarter. We're winning," she yelled in his ear. Damn it, that was funny. Sure it was loud, but he wasn't deaf. He couldn't help but smile.
"You're trying to distract me." He lifted an eyebrow as he looked down at her. "It's working." Taking a deep breath, he confessed, "I'm gonna have to give her a ride home." He tried his best pleading look.
"Not." Rose lifted her hands in self-defense, palms facing outward. "I'll catch a ride with your folks."
"You sure?"
"Of course." She patted his thigh three times, then tucked her hands deep underneath her arms.
The game was a good one. Close. He gave her a play-by-play. They cheered at the great shots from their team and the air balls from the opposing team. They spoke of summer plans and fell right back into their groove of give and take. He was glad he brought her. Rose made everything easier.
Offering her one last shot at a ride home, Rose shook her head. "Two words. No and way. See you tomorrow." She rose to her toes, kissed him on the cheek and walked away with those quick, efficient steps she used when trying to look independent. Cute.
There were no signs separating student parking from adults, but there were rules. Everyone knew the rules. Rose headed toward the lot meant for the adults to hook up with his folks, and he waited at the exit on the student side, dangling his keys in his hand.
He felt better and came to grips with his overreaction. That's all it was. Rose would surely start dating in college. She's smart, and she's a black belt now.
He stood up on the concrete stoop next to the door so Candi could spot him more easily through the crowd. Except, it made it easier for him to see through the crowd.
His eyes zeroed in. His heart sped to double time and he went instantly back to anger. Rose was talking to the same dude who moved in on her at the game. That's right, buzz off, he thought as Rose waved her hand dismissively in front of him. The guy glanced behind him and nodded his friends off.
A handful of the cheerleaders broke through the door at that time, cheering the win. Candi led the group.
Andy balled his fingers into tight fists as the boy put his hands on Rose's shoulders and turned her around. She laughed and hit the palm of her hand to her head as he led her toward the student parking lot.
Candi took hold of one of Andy's arms. Her cold fingers brought his focus to her.
"Hey, hun. Are you driving the Mustang?"
What else he have to drive, he thought.
Another one of the girls took his other arm and they pulled him along toward his car.
* * *
Amanda stood in her warm yellow kitchen nervously spooning rich batter into a rectangular pan. Determined to be a supportive mother, she kept busy and away from her purse.
"What's all this?" A hand ran up her back.
"You wouldn't understand," she answered lightly, turning her head into Dave's arm. She was all hormones when he did that. She couldn't possibly concentrate on measuring and hormones at the same time.
"Try me." He leaned forward over the smell of chocolaty batter.
"Rose is growing up."
"She goes to New York University in a few months. Are you just figuring that out now?" Dave tilted his head back playfully.
"Did you notice how she was before she went to the game tonight?"
"With Andy," he said flatly.
"Okay. Point taken. It's just that she hasn't been to a school function since he graduated. She feels out of place, which is the reason for making the worry-about-our-daughter brownies." She set down her bowl and spatula and turned to wrap her arms around him, sinking her face into his chest.
He pulled her away gently, enough to look at her. Running his thumbs along the dark circles she knew were under her eyes, Dave sighed. "You need some rest. Why don't you let me wait up for her?"
"Don't start, please. I love you." Working up a smile, she lifted to her toes and gave him a soft, lingering kiss before smacking his butt and turning back to her baking.
She hadn't as much as lifted the bowl to scrape the remaining mix into the pan before she heard car doors. She and Dave looked to each other with puzzled expressions.
"No rumble from the Mustang," Dave said.
They stepped out onto the small, concrete porch even though she knew they ought not to.
In the dark, Rose dug her keys out of her front pocket. She barely noticed Tyler lose his footing, then catch himself as he looked toward the house.
He stepped close to her. "Is that your stepdad? Did you forget to tell me that you had a giant for a stepdad?"
Dave showed no teeth as he squinted and smiled at them. "You're home. Who's your friend?"
On the porch? Rose cringed. Are you kidding? "Dad, Mom, this is Tyler. Andy had drama. I was going to catch a ride with his folks, but Tyler offered." Uncomfortable silence. More uncomfortable silence. "We have math together. You know how I hate calculus. He's going to help me out sometime."
Even though Tyler remained speechless, she judged tha
t Dave was satisfied. Without, fortunately, demanding a strip search, he and her mom went back inside. They left the porch light on.
As soon as the door clicked shut, she let out a relieved breath, blowing loose strands of her hair from her face.
Tyler took her hand, without linking fingers, and walked her up the steps.
"See you at school, then?" She smiled awkwardly at him. She'd never had a boy on her doorstep before. Pathetic. Andy didn't count.
She shut the door as he left and smelled chocolate. "Oh, great," she mumbled. Knowing her mom only baked brownies when something was up, Rose asked, "Problem?" Then, she dropped her unused house key on the kitchen counter.
"No, no. How was the game?" Her mom looked through the fridge for nothing.
"We won the game. Andy and Candi are fighting. I have a date for prom." Rose looked forward to their reaction. She wasn't disappointed.
Her mom turned her head quickly with eyes opened wide before leaning back against the kitchen counter and folding her arms. "Smart guy."
Rose shrugged and smiled.
Dave made vows to do a background check and that strip search before the dance, kissed them one at a time on their foreheads and slinked upstairs.
Biting her nails, Rose rolled out a summary of the evening. "It's the weirdest thing. I'm just sitting there, and we were talking about studying together sometime. Then, he was telling his buddies to get lost. Then, he was asking me to prom. I said, 'Yes.' Go figure. And you know what? I'm excited. I hate those kinds of things. I'm even looking forward to the dress."
Chapter 4
Andy walked painfully slow through the Seneca Zoo with Candi on his arm. Groups of crocuses willed the cold away as they bloomed among the leftover winter brown.
"I tried to tell you to wear comfortable shoes." He nodded toward her ice-pick boots.
Candi tilted her head and batted her eyelashes. "Why? They're not at all uncomfortable."
Spotting Rose in the petting zoo, the corners of his mouth lifted. She stood on sandy gravel with a broom in one hand and a long-handled dust pan in the other. He could see her scan the area with a motherly eye. The female goat must be pregnant. Very pregnant. The males looked for something to eat. A pot belly pig had found a patch of sunlight as a couple of young girls scratched his belly into oblivion.
He noticed Rose's brows press together as she watched two junior volunteers who were more interested in each other than in scooping goat poop. She rolled her eyes and walked over to give them what looked like a short lecture before they got back to work.
He glanced around at the other exhibits as he approached the gated area, remembering when she was a junior staffer and doing little more than scooping poop. Now she was the supervisor and, being a good example, scooped some droppings along with the juniors. The pregnant goat tasted the shirt of one of the little girls. The kid squealed in delight as Rose shooed the hungry, waddling female over to her feed.
By the time he reached her, Rose was sharing what must have been animal facts with the mesmerized girls. This would be her last summer here. The slam of the door as he entered the enclosure caused her to turn her eyes to him. He loved the way she lit up when she saw him.
"Happy birthday." He gave her an a-frame hug, leaving one arm behind his back.
"Andy! Now my birthday is complete. You shouldn't have come all the way up here."
"It was cool enough that Candi wanted to come." He nodded his head toward the outside of the fence toward her.
"Sure she did." Rose looked down with an impish grin.
He gave her a playful push on her shoulder. "Don't start."
"I just don't think anyone who wants to be called Candi would want to visit a zoo. I feel sorry for her. That's all."
"No you don't." He raised one side of his mouth. "I brought you a present." He pulled the arm from around his back that held a small package.
"You shouldn't have." She took it from him without hesitating. "I didn't get you anything for your birthday."
"Yes, you did," he whispered. "You got me out of going to that damned couples soup thing."
"Tastefully Simple party," she corrected.
"Open it."
The set of male goats wandered over when they heard the rip of paper. Rose glanced around Andy's shoulder toward the junior staffers, then turned her glance to Candi, who was dramatically rolling her eyes and pacing impatiently in her heels.
"Come on in, Candi," Rose practically sang as she tore the papers. "They won't bite."
Candi didn't answer, just made a junior high-type sarcastic look at Rose and went back to pacing.
Excitement bubbling through her, Rose peeked at the exposed corner of the gift. "Stationary. You got me stationary. With birds of prey! How did you ever find this? It's perfect." She looked up at him. Surprised at the proximity, she blinked several times before noticing he wasn't smiling this time but was looking intently in her eyes.
"Uncle Chase agreed to let me come and stay with him this summer. Sort of an internship. He's working on a resort and conference center in the city. Write me this time."
An instant sting burned her eyes. She dropped her head and tried to focus on the gift. She couldn't explain her degree of disappointment to him and wished he'd have told her over the phone or given her some kind of warning so she had time to gather her response. "Of course I will." She made herself look up and grin.
"Andrew, dear?" Candi called.
Andy lifted his head in polite recognition.
"I'm getting cold. Can we run along now?" Candi asked as sweet as apple pie.
"Yes, Andrew dear," Rose mocked. "You must be running along now." She adjusted the bandana that covered her mass of untamable hair and tucked her gift into her apron pocket. "And thank you. You're the best."
"I might not be the best. Wait 'til you get home."
A wrinkle formed between her eyes, then she turned to analyze his expression. "Tell me."
"No way." He lifted one brow and smirked as he walked away.
"You can't drop that on me and then leave."
He turned with just enough time to wink. "Watch me."
* * *
Eighteen years old with birds of prey stationary, a twenty dollar tip from the insistent father of the two curious girls and driving home from her favorite job. Okay, well her favorite volunteer job, but in her shiny pickup anyway. Keeping the windows down despite the chill in the air, she smelled spring. Fresh, wet and floral.
If she looked at the big picture, Andy's decision to spend the summer away was just as natural as her leaving for NYU in the fall. Wouldn't she have made the same choice if an opportunity like that had been presented to her? Then why did it cut so deeply?
Curiosity made her foot a little heavier. Wait 'til you get home. That was just playing dirty.
The combination of Andy's news and her coming of age must have turned on a philosophical tune for her. And what was she coming of age to anyway? The right to buy cigarettes? Vote? Rent porn? Right. Still, she couldn't help but look at her neighborhood in a different light on her way home.
She drove past Andy's towering home. The mass of trees attempted miserably to conceal it from view. Her heart softened as next her tires bumped over the short Black Creek bridge. It held years of memories over and around it. Her house was on the next street with its elderly weeping willow and lifelong feeling of family and warmth.
Before this place, she and her mother spent the first few years of Rose's life on the road, traveling from country to country and managing disaster sites, first for FEMA and then the Red Cross. Rose had no memories of those days. She only had stories from around the dinner table and a few fleeting words from the Spanish language she once spoke fluently.
Except, this time when she walked through the worn front door, there was no warmth. Both Dave and her sister were out. Her mom stood in the kitchen visibly shaken with a bright red ring around her upper arm and one at the side of her throat.
Rose dropped her pac
k and hurried to her, trying to stay calm. "Are you okay? What happened? Are you all right?"
"Yes, of course. Happy birthday, honey. We have presents. Oh, we should wait for Dave and Jessica." She was speaking too fast. Her mom darted her eyes back and forth between the front and back doors.
Rose stood in front of her, hands dangling at her sides. "Your arm."
"Oh that." Her mom waved her hand in the air. "Someone grabbed me at the shelter today. Are you hungry?" Picking up a long-armed grill lighter, her mom turned toward the deck.
"You went to the shelter on a Saturday?" Rose felt the wrinkle between her brows return.
"Sure. I was called in. I'm making your favorite dinner."
"Stop." Rose reached for her arm. "Stop talking about my birthday."
Her mom took one, long breath. "You're absolutely right. I am shook up about it, but I want this to be a nice day for you. Let me let this be a nice day for you."
"Okay. All right." Rose didn't move. "Does dad know?"
Looking away, her mom answered, "No. No, I'll tell him tonight. I'll just go change my shirt so we don't have to deal with it in the middle of birthday bratwursts and corn on the cob."
Rose followed her up the stairs.
She walked in her room, deep in thought. Reaching behind, she absently pulled the string to loosen her zoo apron. As she took the contents from the pockets, the wrinkles in her forehead softened at the feel of the twenty-dollar tip. The endless questions from the quizzical girls ran through her mind as she lifted the lid to her money box. When she tossed in the bill, the wrinkles instantly returned. She leaned down for a closer look.
At that moment, her mom came back wearing a three-quarter-length sleeved blouse and asked if she had any extra eighteen-year-old dinner requests before she got started with the brats.
Rose stood with her zoo apron dangling loosely from her neck, staring intently into her money box. She estimated the amount with her eyes.
"Oh, honey, I misplaced my credit card. I borrowed some for your birthday presents. I'll pay you back on Monday when the bank opens, all right?" Her mom turned in a half circle and gestured with her arm. "How do you like your room?"