B0075M2D1U EBOK

by Julie Cassar

  “Aha! Here it is!” She swung around holding a turquoise blue, straight cotton tank dress with a scoop neck. Very simple. Very plain. Very me. “Hey,” I carefully answered, “I actually kinda like that.”

  Anya smiled knowingly, “I knew you would. The color brings out the blue in your eyes too. Here, try it on.” She shoved the dress at me.

  I slipped the dress over my head and looked in the mirror. It was perfect! Not too dressy, but not too sloppy either. It was just snug enough to show off my curves (or, what little curves I had) and it was just a few inches above my knees, so I didn’t feel too slutty. Anya had styled my dishwater straight, blonde hair to curl just slightly under so it bounced on my shoulders. It was nothing too fancy and still pretty straight, but much nicer than it usually looked. I don’t wear much makeup, but mascara and lip gloss were a must. After all, this was Nick Martino, Mr. Hotness himself, who I had a date with.

  “Here,” Anya held out the pair of silver flip flops she had on earlier today. “Put these on with it.” I slipped my feet into the shoes and gave her a little twirl. The shoes matched my nail polish perfectly. I must admit, I really did feel like I looked pretty good. She clapped her hands and giggled. “You look stunning!” she said. I was ready. I think. It was already almost 6:30 and the boys would be here soon.

  Now, if only I could do something about the butterflies in my stomach.

  Chapter 6

  Jeremy pulled his car into the parking lot at Martino’s Pizza at exactly 6:55. I climbed out of the backseat and tried to cheerily wave at my friends. “Have a great time!” Anya shouted. “We’ll be back around eight to check in on you!”

  “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Jeremy yelled.

  “That’s not saying much,” Brennan added with a chuckle. I nervously nodded and took a big gulp. Nick was working tonight, so it’s not like we could have much privacy. But he did invite me to eat pizza with him during his break…I was hoping he’d ask me to hang around until his shift was done, then he could drive me home. Gulp. Maybe I didn’t want that. What the heck was I supposed to do if he did offer to drive me home? Oh crap. I’m a mess. I haven’t even been able to speak since I climbed into Jeremy’s car. How the heck was I supposed to have a conversation with Nick? I better find my voice in a hurry.

  My feet crunched on the gravel parking lot as I slowly walked up to the door. My heart pounded in my chest, and the butterflies in my stomach flew around at top speed. Talk about nerves. I blew out a deep breath as I pulled open the glass door to the restaurant and was hit with a blast of cold air from the air-conditioning.

  I walked into the semi-dark restaurant and waited for my eyes to adjust as I peered around the room looking for Nick. Martino’s Pizza wasn’t a fancy place or anything, but it was definitely a step above a fast-food joint or a diner. It was authentic Italian cooking too, because Nick’s grandmother was from Italy and his dad was often heard shouting in Italian behind the counter at the restaurant. They offered the basics: pizza, pasta, sandwiches and a couple of other entrees. It had dark wood-paneled walls (probably from the seventies) and dark wood booths with red vinyl benches that lined the perimeter of the restaurant. There were about ten tables in the center of the floor, all covered in red and white checked tablecloths. The long take-out counter filled the back wall, and the prep area and ovens were just behind it, visible to the customers, so you could watch them toss your pie in the air. I spotted Nick at the back of the restaurant behind the long counter, wearing a navy blue t-shirt and white apron, spotted with flour and pizza sauce. He was wearing a navy blue baseball hat backwards and his long locks were pulled back with a rubber band at the nape of his neck. He smiled when he saw me and waved. I waved back and walked to greet him. I dreamily watched as he wiped his hands on the front of his apron, then pulled it off over his head and came out from behind the counter as his dad yelled something to him that I didn’t quite catch. Nick turned to look at him and nodded. Nick’s dad was always at the restaurant. He was the same height as Nick, but had thick, dark hair and thick black eyebrows, and he always had a smile on his face for all of his customers. “Perfect timing!” Nick said as he walked up to me. I smiled in return, “I try.”

  “You look great,” he said. “So c’mon, have a seat,” Nick directed me to a booth against the wall. I slid over in the booth across from him and stared at Mr. Hotness across the table from me. How could he be so cute, even looking as grungy as he did right now? “So,” Nick continued, “What kinda pizza do you like?” I sat there, smiling dumbly at him and then realized I looked like a doof, so I glanced down at my hands on the table. “Oh, whatever,” I shyly looked up and smiled again, “Bacon’s good.” Nick returned the smile. “Excellent. Me too. Okay, how about bacon and tomato then? I’ll go put the order in. You want a pop?”

  “Definitely,” I nodded.

  I watched as he got up from the booth and sauntered over to the kitchen. He leaned across the counter and put our order in to the waitress who was working at the register. Man, did his butt look fine in those jeans. They were tight in all the right places. And worn out just right too. You could tell he had those jeans forever. He didn’t buy them all distressed and faded like that. Nope, those fit perfectly and were nicely worn around that perfect butt. I continued to stare at Mr. Hotness as he moseyed over to the soda machine and filled two glasses for us. He came back towards the table, smiling at me, and I quickly looked down at my hands again, heat rising in my cheeks. Oh my gosh. He is soooo cute! I have got to think of something to talk about it. Think, Ruby. Think.

  Nick placed the icy glasses of coke on the table and slid into the booth across from me again. “Thank you,” I said. Oh, that’s just brilliant, Ruby. How about more than two words now? So far, everything I’ve managed to squeak out has been two words or less. He’s going to think I have a learning disability or something. “Soooo,” I quickly continued, “How’s your summer going? Do you have any plans? Have you been to the beach much? Do you have to work a lot? Are they making you do deliveries this summer?” Oh crap. Word vomit. That all came out way too fast. First, I can’t say more than two words, now I can’t seem to shut up. I sound like such a moron!

  Nick just laughed at my stream of babble and answered, “Well, summer’s been good so far, but it’s just started. No, I don’t have any plans, and no, I haven’t been to the beach too much yet…and yes, I’m working a lot.” He smiled that gorgeous smile again, “Let’s see…did I answer all of your questions?”

  I laughed. “Actually, you forgot to tell me if they are making you run pizza deliveries this summer,” I grinned. I was glad he didn’t think I was too much of a dork for firing out all those questions in one breath. His laughter and easy-going attitude made me more comfortable, and I began to feel a little more like myself. I took a sip of the ice-cold coke, propped my chin on my hand and looked dreamily across the table at his emerald green eyes.

  “Yeah, I’ll be doing some of the delivery runs this summer, but we’ve got a guy – Joe – who usually does it. I just fill in when they need me. Mostly, I’ll be behind the counter doin’ the pies, or cleaning. How ‘bout you? You workin’ this summer?”

  I nodded and reached to take another sip of my coke, “Yep, I’m down at the craft and hobby store over on Fourth and Main. The money isn’t that great, but it’s close enough for me to walk or ride my bike. I’m trying to save up for a car this summer.”

  “Really? Cool. What kinda car you gettin’?” Nick asked.

  I shrugged, “Not sure yet. Whatever I can afford, I guess.”

  Just then, the sound of loud screaming sirens grabbed our attention as we both snapped our heads to look out the window just in time to see two huge fire trucks roaring past. The windows rattled as the huge trucks thundered down the road with horns blaring. Nick shook his head, “Stupid campers. That’s the third time this week.” Because our town is very popular for camping, there was always the occasional camp fire incident. Sometimes a fire gets out
of hand, or someone gets burned. Any time that happened, the local fire department was usually called. In the summer, there’s usually one every few weeks. “Wow,” I commented, “Three already this week? There must be some crazies out in the woods.” Nick nodded and just then I noticed his dad sauntering over to our table (he had the same walk as his son) holding our steaming hot pizza high over his head on the palm of his hand and carried two small, white plates in the other. He had dark hair graying at the temples and thick black eyebrows over his kind, twinkling hazel eyes. He was smiling brightly as he set the pizza down in front of us, “Ahhhhh. Nico! This is your girl?” He looked at me with a twinkle in his eyes. “Uh. Yeah, Dad. This is Ruby.” Nick shifted in his seat and looked a little uncomfortable. Mr. Martino clapped his hands and laughed, “Rubino! A Sparkling Gem! Buon divertimento! Enjoy!” he said as he pinched my smiling cheek then waved his hands at us as he turned to head back to the kitchen. Nick shook his head in embarrassment as his dad hurried away from us. I guess all parents like to embarrass their kids. I looked down at the cheesy, gooey, yummy pizza. It smelled absolutely delicious. I didn’t realize how hungry I was. I guess one bowl of chocolate cereal and an ice cream lunch isn’t exactly enough food to keep a girl’s stomach from grumbling.

  Nick grabbed the spatula, slid a piece onto a plate and handed it to me across the table, “Ladies first,” he smiled. The butterflies in my stomach danced around again. Oh God. He is gorgeous. I smiled, “Thank you.” There we go again...I seemed to be back to two-word answers. Geesh, one smile from the guy and I was a blubbering mess. I have got to get it together. We dug into our pizza with zest. I couldn’t help it, I was starving. Nick didn’t seem to care that I was keeping pace with him. We chatted about the kind of car I should get and what junkers we’ve seen with “for sale” signs parked around town. Then we moved onto our favorite music. As he swallowed down the last bite of his slice and was reaching for the last piece, he said, “So, how about splittin’ a strawberry sundae for dessert?” I nodded enthusiastically, “I love ice cream!” I didn’t bother to tell him that I would’ve preferred hot fudge, that I’d rather not share it, and that I would have been perfectly happy eating an entire sundae myself, but I didn’t want to seem too demanding or piggish. Besides, I have a feeling most girls he went out with barely ate a salad and sipped on water during their dates. I don’t know why girls feel embarrassed to eat in front of a guy. Now, talking in front of a guy is a whole other story. But I’ve got no problem with shoveling food into my mouth. Just a few moments later, the huge strawberry sundae was placed on the table between us with two spoons. I let out a sigh as I reached for it and thought that this night just couldn’t get any better. How romantic was this? Me, sitting across the table from Mr. Hotness, sharing a strawberry sundae. Yum. Okay, so hot fudge would have been better. But still, it was pretty awesome.

  We were only a few bites into our sundae when Joe, the twenty-something lanky delivery guy, came rushing into the restaurant causing a commotion. Everyone in the restaurant turned to look as he rushed through the dining room.

  “The Frederick’s tree farm caught fire!” he was yelling as he was rushing towards the back counter. Gasps and worried phrases were uttered by all of the patrons in the dining room. “What?” Nick exclaimed, “How’d it happen? Did someone start it?” Everyone started firing questions at Joe, who looked absolutely shocked and disheveled. “I don’t know, I don’t know,” he shook his head and answered. “I was making a delivery next door and saw the black smoke coming from their lot. I drove by to see what was going on and there were all kinds of fire trucks and people standing around. Thankfully, they managed to get the fire out before it destroyed the whole crop of trees. From what I could hear, there’s no sign of foul-play, but the Fire Marshall is gonna call in an arson investigator.”

  “Who would do such a thing?” I said to Nick. “This is a small town. That farm is the Fredericks’ livelihood. What are they gonna do?” He just shook his head. Our little town didn’t see very many fires of this magnitude. Someone’s tree farm going up in flames was quite a tragedy. That wasn’t just a campfire out of control, or a small fire in the woods from the drought. The trees couldn’t have caught fire from being too dry. It was still early in the summer and there was plenty of moisture in the ground and in the trees. We’d even had some rain lately and another storm was coming. There hadn’t been any lightning either. Unless it was an arsonist, I couldn’t imagine how the fire had started. Who would do such an awful thing? After all the talk about the fire, our ice cream had pretty much melted, and Nick had to get back to work. I was bummed that our evening had come to an end, but all in all, it was a pretty good first date. Just as Nick and I were getting up from the table, Anya, Brennan and Jeremy walked into the restaurant. Nick saw them enter, and gave me a quick hug. “This was really cool Ruby. Do you wanna do it again sometime?”

  “Sure,” I answered, still shaking from the fact that Nick Martino had actually wrapped his arms around me in an embrace for two whole seconds. I don’t think I’ll ever shower again. Okay, that’s being a bit dramatic. But I couldn’t believe it! Mr. Hotness just touched me!

  “Cool. How about Wednesday?”

  I shook my head in apology, “I can’t, I have to work, but I’m free on Thursday night. In fact, I told Jeremy and Anya that I’d go with them to that adventure golf place in Cadillac. Do you wanna go? We can pick you up.”

  “Sounds good. Just pick me up at the restaurant. I have to work during the day, but I’ll be done by six,” he said as he was walking backwards towards the kitchen.

  “’Kay, we’ll pick you up around 6:30 then. See ya,” I waved as I turned towards my friends who were quickly approaching.

  Brennan had a puzzled look on his face as he asked, “What’s everyone talking about? It seems like everyone is all riled up. I can sense the tension in the air.”

  I told them about the Frederick’s tree farm catching fire as we walked back across the gravel parking lot to Jeremy’s mom’s car. Again, everyone was shocked at the news. Being as curious as we were, we decided to drive past the Frederick’s tree farm to get a first-hand look at what had happened.

  We could smell it before we could see it.

  It was the overpowering smell of burnt pine and wet, charred bark. It hung heavy in the hot summer air, kind of like when you pour water over your campfire to extinguish the last burning embers, except this also had the sickening strong smell of the burning pine needles. It smelled like a Christmas Day nightmare. As we pulled over on the gravel shoulder of the road near the scene of the fire, we could still see black smoke and a kind of grayish cloud that seemed to be hovering around the Frederick’s house. Half of the town was there, milling around, talking, whispering, and shaking their heads. We stepped out of the car and we couldn’t believe our eyes. About half of their Christmas trees were burned. Rows and rows of young trees, now black, burnt, withering dead things. Completely gone. I looked over and saw a tear in Anya’s eye. Brennan’s brow was furrowed and his mouth was pressed together as if he was suppressing some deep emotion. I suppose the fairies, who were so connected to the energy of the earth and trees, would be pretty upset. Jeremy was very still too. The only movement from his usually jumpy body was the slight, disappointing shake of his head. We stood there in silence for a moment, taking in the awful sight. I saw Mr. Frederick, who was a retired Major from the military, just standing there. He stood with his arm around Mrs. Frederick, holding her close as she cried on his shoulder. I shook my head. It was just so sad.

  “I’m going to go see if they have any more information on how it got started,” Jeremy said, glancing over at the group of firefighters standing in their gear, covered in soot. “Okay,” I answered, “But remember, you’re not here to hit on any of them! They’re working!” I hissed. He just shook his head at me and snickered, “Hey, a boy can look, can’t he?” He winked and jogged over to the closest fire truck where there seemed to be a convergence of firefighte
rs standing around. Leave it to Jeremy to use a tragedy to meet a hot guy. Talk about a horny teenager.

  “Who could do such a horrible thing? Nick said this was the third fire this week,” I said.

  Anya’s eyes got big as she sharply looked over at me. “The third fire?” she asked, with such seriousness it scared me.

  “Yeah,” I slowly answered, “Apparently, there have been a couple of fires in the woods from campers this week too.”

  “Hmmm,” was all Anya said as she pressed her lips together with a look of contemplation on her face.

  “Campers. Sure,” Brennan repeated, mirroring his sister’s grim expression. Anya and Brennan exchanged a worried look. Brennan shook his head at her and looked straight ahead at the black cloud hovering over the rows of burnt trees. I looked back and forth between them and asked, “What’s wrong guys?” Something more was obviously bothering them. “It’s probably nothing,” Anya said, shaking her head.

  “What’s probably nothing?” I asked. It wasn’t like the two of them to be so close-mouthed and serious like this. They didn’t answer. Whatever it was must have been bad though. Because they couldn’t lie to cover it up, they simply kept their mouths shut. Darn their fairy stubbornness! They stood there looking out at the scene before us, with ghostly, blank stares. Even though it was a warm night, I felt a chill run up my spine.

  Chapter 7

  I woke up way too early the next morning. But trust me, it wasn’t intentional. By the time we left the circus at the Frederick’s tree farm, (and Jeremy got his fill of flirting with the firemen) it was quite late. Then I tossed and turned half of the night because I just couldn’t shake those ghostly, blank stares from Anya and Brennan. Other than a few meaningful looks at each other, they had been mostly silent the entire way home. It was very unlike them to be so somber, especially pain-in-the-ass Brennan. I finally fell asleep at some wee-hour of the morning, only to be awakened by my annoying brother jumping on the end of my bed. I thrust my pillow over my head and sank deeper under the covers, “What the hell are you doing LEOTARD? I’m tryin’ to sleep here!” I yelled from under my pillow. Leo kept up with the jumping, and now that I was hiding from him deep under my covers, he began singing, very loudly, “Scooby Scooby Dooooo, where are youuuu? We have some fun for you now!”