Bayview Heights Trilogy (87 page)

“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?”

“Yes.”

“How come you’re not with him tonight?”

Lauren shrugged. “Family togetherness wears
thin after a while, know what I mean?”

No, I don’t
. Erica and her father
had gone to his partner’s open house for Thanksgiving two days ago.
She would have loved to spend the holiday just with her dad; she’d
even offered to cook. “Yeah, sure.”

John, who was playing big brother to Lauren,
smiled at her. “Since you ditched him, your father’s probably
working at the clinic right now.”

“Maybe,” Lauren said. “I was kinda hoping
he’d have another date with Zoe.”

“Another date?” Erica asked.

Lauren shrugged, totally unaware that
everybody at the table had stopped talking. “Yeah, she spent
Thanksgiving with us at Uncle Mitch’s.”