Joyride (20 page)

“Sunday?” she asks inevitably.

“Actually, Carly works a lot,” Arden says. “I'm lucky I could steal her away for today.”

He is lucky. I took the night off at the Breeze to come with him this afternoon. I can't do that every time his friends want to get together though. And I especially can't miss my weekend shifts at the Uppity Rooster.

Not to mention I don't
want
to spend my time with these people. Eve seems nice enough, but there's the whole problem with getting to know someone too well. They'll eventually ask questions about why I work so much. They'll ask questions about my parents, like Arden did at first. But unlike Arden, they might not drop the subject when I want them to.

Coming here was not a good idea.

“I'm sure we can make it work some other time,” Braden says, giving me an encouraging smile. I could probably learn to like Braden. To like Eve. But that's a dangerous thing to contemplate.

“Hopefully,” I say a little too late. I feel Arden staring at me. But this is partly his fault. I told him I wasn't good in social situations.

“Alright, man,” Braden says, looking back at Arden. “We'll catch you later.”

After they're gone, Arden pulls me behind one of the trucks. “How's it going?” he says, brushing the back of his hand along my cheek. “Everything okay?”

I push it away, feeling like a brat as I do it. “I don't think this is going to work out, Arden.”

He visibly stiffens in front of me. “What do you mean?” There's a bit of raw panic in his voice.

“I mean us. Together. It will never work.”

“It already
is
working.”

“Arden.” I cross my arms and move away from him when he reaches for me again. “Arden, I've already cut all the shifts I can cut. How can you have a girlfriend who isn't around to actually
be
your girlfriend? I can't go to the movies every Friday night and to the beach every weekend.”

“I think you're getting things confused,” he says. “You're
my
girlfriend. Not
their
girlfriend. What do I care if you can't hang out with
them
?” He takes a cautious step toward me and I let him.

“But don't you want to be a normal couple? Do normal couple things?”

“Carly, you pulled a gun on me the first time I met you. I don't think ‘normal' is in the cards for us.” This time I let him pull me to him. He tucks my head under his chin. I can't help but notice the contented sigh he lets out.

“What did you do with your other girlfriends? I mean, besides, you know…”

He laughs into my hair. “I haven't called anyone my girlfriend since, like, the third grade. And even then, it was sketchy.”

I giggle into his chest. “I just don't want you to have any regrets with me. I don't want to hold you back.”

He lifts my chin with the crook of his finger. “You've filled a hole I didn't know I had in me, Carly. What is there to regret?”

His mouth covers mine.

 

Twenty

Arden pulls up to the front steps of Uncle Cletus's house and honks the horn. Cletus opens the door immediately, as if he's been watching for Arden's truck. He probably has been.

The morning is beautiful and fresh, with tendrils of sunlight shining down through the oak trees in the front lawn. When Cletus gets in the truck, he comments on as much. “Good day to go out,” he grumbles, as if he'd said the opposite.

But Arden knows he's excited to be going to breakfast with him. Because he's excited to be seeing Carly. “You already know what you're going to order?”

Cletus scoffs. “I haven't been to the Uppity Rooster in decades, boy. Probably changed the menu twenty times since then.”

“They have coffee. Looks like you could use a pot of that.”

“You know what that place is full of?”

“What?”

“Cocks.”

Arden swerves slightly in the driveway. “Come again?”

Pure glee shines in Cletus's eyes. “Cocks, boy. Roosters. Miss May was obsessed with 'em, if you know what I mean.”

“Nice, old man. Nice.”

The drive is a short, talkative one. Cletus remarks again on how nice the weather is, how much moonshine he just purchased, and how horrible but potent it is.

“Tastes like sweaty butt crack,” Cletus insists. “But it gets the job done.”

They pull into the Uppity Rooster Café and Arden revs the truck engine to let Carly know they've arrived. This earns a disapproving look from Uncle Cletus. “Is that supposed to be some sort of mating call, boy?”

The hostess seats them in Carly's section. She waves to them from behind the drink station, and signals that she'll be with them in a minute. Arden acknowledges with what he knows is a cheesy grin.

“Oh no,” Cletus says. “You're dating her, aren't you, boy.”

Arden didn't plan on having this conversation with his uncle just yet. That is to say, he had planned on having it in a different way—a way in which he started and finished it. “So what if I am?”
Nice way to begin maturely
.

“Just in case you're unaware, son, she's too good for you.”

“She doesn't seem to think so.”

Cletus waves his hand in dismissal. “Psh. They never realize it.”

“You're the one who's always talking about how smart she is. Can't be that smart if she's dating me.”
Wait, what?

“Smart people make stupid mistakes.”

Carly arrives then. Her hair is swept back in a messy bun and her cheeks are an alluring pink. Arden's not sure she could be unattractive if she tried. “Sorry about that. I have a party table in the back. What can I get y'all to drink?”

Arden loves it when she says “y'all.” It means he's rubbing off on her. “I'll have my usual.”

“Sweet tea it is. Uncle Cletus?”

Cletus seems enchanted that she's calling him Uncle Cletus instead of Mr. Shackleford now. “I'll have a Bloody Mary. More Mary than Bloody, if you know what I mean.”

“Gross. But okay.”

She disappears again, and Cletus wastes no time in resuming the conversation. “End it, Arden. For God's sake. What would your father say?”

“You know I don't care what he thinks.”

“You know I don't care what that S-O-B thinks either. You know what I'm talking about. Does he know?” There has never been any love lost between Cletus and Sheriff Moss. Cletus was against his niece marrying Arden's father from day one; even back then, he knew Dwayne Moss was a punk.

And Cletus knows the depths of the sheriff's racism. That's why he retired from the county when he did. Arden's father was already developing his platform to run for sheriff. And Cletus would be damned if he sat by and watched it happen on his shift.

“Unfortunately, he does,” Arden says. He feels his jaw locking, remembering what happened that night. “He's already expressed his disapproval.”

Cletus balls his fists. “What did he say? No, don't tell me. That nitwit. Does Carly know how he feels?”

Arden feels the blood draining from his face. “She was there when he expressed his sentiments.”

“You took her to your house, didn't you? Are you stupid, boy?”

“Yes.”

Cletus nods, satisfied. “Maybe you're not a lost cause after all. If he would have hurt her—”

“I wouldn't have let that happen.”

“But if he had? I would put my fist through his skull. That's what I would do. And I trust you to do the same.”

“He won't lay a hand on her.”

“And what about you? You thinking about putting your grubby hands on her like you do all the rest of them senseless girls?”

“I'm in love with her.” Now the blood rushes back into his cheeks. It's the first time he's said it out loud. He feels relieved and burdened at the same time.

A slow grin crawls over Cletus's face. “You are, aren't you.”

“Bad. Really bad.”

Carly comes back then, and sets the drinks down in front of them. “Do you guys know what you want? If you hurry, I can get your order in before the big party. It's a bridal shower, so they're sipping on mimosas right now.” She leans down then and whispers to Arden, “Huge money, hopefully.”

Cletus has a gleam in his eye as he says, “I don't know what the fancy name for it is, but I'll have scrambled eggs and bacon and some biscuits and gravy.”

This takes Arden off guard. He didn't expect Cletus to be ready to order yet. Or to be so … alert. “I'll have pancakes.”

“Bananas Foster?” Carly says.

“Sure.”
Whatever that means.

“You have no idea what that is, do you.”

“Nope.”

“Plain pancakes then?”

“Yep.”

She smiles. “Will do.” She grabs the menus and saunters away, as if she knows what he's just admitted to.

“Please. Don't,” Arden says quietly.

Cletus chuckles. “You don't think she's got you figured out?”

“No. You think?”

“Well, look at you. Giving her a ride to work on the weekends. I'll bet you check on her every night at that dumpy convenience store, don't you?”

“Nothing that you didn't used to do.” And, if it weren't for Arden scaring the life out of him, he would still be doing it.

Cletus ignores the jab. “Spending every waking minute with her. And when you're not, you're at my house keeping busy, until you can spend your next waking minutes with her.”

It's obvious. So obvious. But does she really know? And what if she does? “Should I just come out and tell her?”
And what's with asking an old man for love advice?

Cletus moves the giant celery stalk out of the way before taking a big swallow of his Bloody Mary. He contemplates. “I don't think so. I think you should just show her. That's always the best route.”

“But don't girls like it when you say it?” He wouldn't know. He's never told a girl he loved her before. He's never had to. He's never wanted to. Girls have always been easy creatures to decipher, up until this point. Compliment them on their hair or lip gloss, spend a little money on them—and when all else fails, kiss them senseless.

But Carly is a whole different species of girl. She's the bloodhound of false compliments, she hates wasting money, and the only thing he's sure of is that
she's
the one who kisses
him
senseless.

As far as being a guy goes, he's completely failing.

Cletus must perceive his desperation. “Boy, get it together. I may not know much about what a woman of today's world wants or needs. But I do know women in general don't like a groveling mess, that's for dang sure.”

Arden sits up straighter. “I'm not a mess.”

“You need a mirror then?”

“You started this conversation.”

“Shut up, son. Here she comes.”

Carly motions for Arden to scoot over so she can sit next to him in the booth. After the conversation he just had with his uncle, it feels like he's sitting next to an open flame. “I got your order in before our lovely bridesmaids,” she brags. “Their bill is easily going to be five hundred bucks. You think I should auto-gratuity them, or take my chances?”

“With a smile like that?” Cletus says. “I think you've got a clean thirty percent off 'em. I say take your chances.”

Graciousness radiates from her. “I think I will.”

Arden clears his throat. “You having a good day?”

She nods. “Great one. I had a family in earlier who was vacationing from Argentina. We spoke Spanish the whole time. It was nice.” She gives him a wistful look. Like someone homesick.

He wants her to look like that when she thinks of him.

“Well, I've got to check on my tables,” she says, sliding back out of the booth. “I'm sorry. I didn't expect to be this busy when you came.”

“Don't apologize,” Arden says hurriedly. “It's a good thing.”

“Yeah,” Carly agrees.

After they eat, Arden and Cletus wait around for Carly to clean up her tables. Cletus proved right about the bridal shower; they ended up leaving her forty percent of the bill after everything was said and done. Carly practically glowed while she vacuumed her section of the restaurant; she made more today than she ever had.

After rolling her silverware, Carly is ready to go. She walks out with Cletus and Arden.

“I think I'm going to take a cab,” Cletus announces.

“What?” Carly says. “No. We're going to the pier, remember?”

Cletus gives Arden a knowing look. “It's been a while since I've been out of the house. And I've got some errands to run and a lot on my mind. You two go ahead without me.”

It's as good a blessing as Arden is going to get from his uncle.

And he'll take it.

 

Twenty-One

I'm more than a little startled to find Julio sitting on the couch waiting for me when I get home. I'm pretty sure he should be at work tonight. And I'm pretty sure I'm busted. “Where have you been?” he asks, a frown tugging at his mouth. Julio would be handsome, I think, if he wasn't so serious all the time. He's got a strong jawline and big brown eyes. He's clean shaven. He's everything he should be. Including angry that I'm late getting home.

My stomach drops. Did he hear Arden's truck when he dropped me off? “I was at work?”

“All day?”

I shake my head. “No. I walked around Destin Commons for a little while to clear my head.” Complete and total lie. I spent the day fishing with Arden off Okaloosa Pier. We caught a baby shark and set it free. Then I buried him in the sand underneath the pier.

Julio purses his lips. “You shouldn't walk around alone. It's dangerous.”