"Am I not supposed to be here?" he asked, surprising Emma with the bitterness in his voice. "Is this place only for uppity former cheer captains? Because I can go."
Arden drew herself up, threw her shoulders back and glared up at him, one brow raised. Emma took a step back and tried not to grin. "Travis, I know you're hurt and that's why I won't stoop to name calling even though you're acting like a jerk."
He laughed sharply and then stared hard at her and suddenly there was electricity and Arden seemed to shrink. Her eyes were wide and round and uncertain. Travis's expression was hard and unyielding. And then it softened. Emma watched in amazement as Travis slowly, sadly smiled.
"I actually have a fireplace in my house," he said to Arden. "And you know I don't drink, but you can have all the wine you want. I'll buy a big-ass box of it. Red or white. Your choice. Real classy shit. And I've never in my life listened to anything that had a cello in it, but I'd sure as hell be willing to give it a try."
Arden's eyes brimmed with tears and she was smiling bigger than Emma had ever seen her smile. "You sure know how to sweet talk a girl," she said. Emma thought she was going for sarcastic, but the joy radiating from her was too sincere.
Travis suddenly looked slightly tense, which was out of character for him. He opened his mouth to speak.
Arden shook her head. "Don't do it," she said.
He slammed his mouth shut and looked away.
"I want to be friends," she said, touching his arm.
He nodded, still not looking at her.
"But you can't use that to try to get me to leave Nick."
Travis scoffed and looked down at his feet. Then he looked up at Arden and Emma caught her breath at the raw emotion on his face. "Whatever you want," he said softly. "Anything. Just tell me the rules and I'll follow them. I just want to be near you."
Arden smiled, clearly pleased with herself. She reached up and kissed him on the cheek and then told him goodbye. Travis left, then, and Arden forcibly schooled her features. Alice, Shannon and Emma exchanged excited looks, clearly anticipating a good, post-luncheon debrief of Arden's five snowbound days with Travis. Arden avoided meeting anyone's eyes and soon a half-dozen ladies from church trickled in and they sat around the table and broke into various conversations.
It was a lovely tea as usual, but Emma was glad when the last of the guests left around one. She hustled clearing the table and noticed Shannon and Alice doing the same. They reached the kitchen, their arms full of dishes. Emma emptied hers into the sink and turned to pounce on Arden, but Alice beat her to it.
"I demand to know what went on with Travis Lanier. Spill it," said Alice, short, blond and antagonistic. She stumbled back onto a stool, orange juice sloshing out of her cup. Her voice was louder than it needed to be.
Emma grinned at Shannon. The nearly empty vodka bottle sat on a shelf under the sink and Shannon nudged it further back with the toe of her shoe.
Arden leaned against the butcher block work table and daintily pulled off a bite of cinnamon roll. "Honestly, Alice, nothing went on, okay? The last thing I need is people speculating and ruining my relationship with Nick."
Too late for that
, thought Emma,
after that little display earlier.
"Okay, Arden," Emma said, lowering her voice conspiratorially, "We completely understand. But we would never spread this around. So just tell us what happened." She stepped forward, closing up their little circle.
Arden gaped at her. "Nothing happened! Why are we assuming that something happened?"
They all laughed. "You've turned him into a love sick puppy," Emma said. "In five days time. That's gotta be a record or something."
"Yeah," Alice said loudly. "So what was that conversation about?" She punctuated her question with a hiccup.
"Just an argument we had yesterday. It was nothing."
"Well then if nothing happened, make something up," Alice said. "I'm dying to hear a good story." She hiccuped again and looked confused.
Emma rolled her eyes and shook her head. Alice was abrasive in the best of situations and not generally well-liked around town. For that reason, Emma knew that Alice valued her friendships.
"Why don't you tell us a story, Alice," Arden said, still peeling off bites of her cinnamon roll and looking bored.
"Okay," Alice said. "So last night Vince came home drunk. Again. Usually Russell brings him home, but it wasn't Russell's car. I didn't recognize it, or the woman driving. When I asked Vince who the whore was who drove him home he said, 'Nobody,' and he refused to answer. Instead, he acted like he didn't know where the coffee was so I would get up and fix it for him. Which I did. Next time I won't though. I'm done fixing coffee for him. So there. Now don't you wish you'd told me a good story, Arden?"
Emma looked away. Alice's marriage had been on a slow crumble for two years now and she ached with compassion for both Alice and Vince.
Shannon, who was Alice's best friend, was less patient. "You're sabotaging your marriage, Alice, so don't expect us to feel sorry for you."
"Why can't you be supportive for once?" Alice asked. "My husband is cheating on me and you blame me for it."
"Vince isn't cheating on you. At worst, he's a little boy acting out for attention. He would never sleep with another woman."
"It doesn't matter. I don't care anymore. I'm just not fixing any more coffee, that's all."
"You know," said Emma, "there's a good marriage seminar coming up in January. You and Vince should come."
Alice laughed and then hiccuped. She patted herself on the chest and looked confused for a moment.
Shannon turned to hide a smile.
"Vince would never go for something like that," Alice said. "He doesn't care enough about me to actually work at our marriage."
Emma sighed. "Well, it's there if you want it. And Arden," she turned to her other friend, "you and Nick would benefit from it as well."
Arden nodded. "We're already planning on going."
"Are you sure, though, that it's Nick you'll be bringing?" Shannon asked with a mischievous grin.
Arden rolled her eyes and licked the sticky cinnamon bun frosting off her fingers.
"I'm just saying," Shannon said, "Travis is one fine looking man. Seems like either you or Emma need to snag him."
"Well it will have to be Emma, because I'm spoken for. Travis and I are perfect for each other." She turned red and glanced at her friends who were all grinning at her. "Nick," she said. "Nick and I are perfect for each other. Stop looking at me like that. It was a slip of the tongue."
"Sure there were no 'slips of the tongue' during those long, cold nights with Travis?" Shannon asked.
"If I had Travis all to myself," Alice said, "I'm sure the nights would be far from cold."
"Stop it, both of you," Arden said. "Nothing happened. Not for me, anyway."
Shannon turned her smile on Emma. "What about it? Are you interested in him?"
Emma felt herself blush. She wished she didn't do that. "Actually, I'm sort of waiting for Dustin to ask me out."
Shannon's jaw dropped. "When did this happen?"
"I've had a crush on him forever. But he's so shy. And you know me, I refuse to ask a guy out. If he doesn't have the guts to do it himself, then he's not worth my time."
"Then why wait on him?"
"I haven't been. I've dated other guys, as you well know. But nobody has managed to get Dustin off my mind. He's so cute with that John Wayne strong and silent thing he has going. I don't know if he'll ever get up the courage, though."
Alice stood, wobbled and then sat back down. "Well I'll say a prayer for you, Emma. That the Lord will endow Dustin 'John Wayne' Lanier with a set of balls big enough to ask you out. But if you want my advice, run the other way. You'll get over him. I got me one of those strong and silent guys and he's been nothing but heartache."
"Any woman would be happy to have Vince," Shannon said. "You'd best realize that soon before it's too late. Now, Emma, you can't go condemning him for being shy. I admire your conviction not to ask him out, but you know good and well that it's being shy that's stopping you, not your principles. You don't have to ask him on a date, but you're probably going to have to be more overt in your flirtation with him. Otherwise, he's never going to make a move."
Emma shrugged. "I'm not good at flirting. I talk to him every chance I get. I don't see why that's not enough.
"Because you talk to him the same as you talk to everyone. You're super nice and sweet to everyone. You have to single him out and let him know he's something special." Shannon looked to her friends for support.
Alice was staring into her third glass of orange juice, eyeing it suspiciously.
Arden nodded agreement. "I got a shy guy to ask me out once in high school. I had to really lay it on thick before he would man up and do it. But it can be done."
Emma laughed. "It just seems wrong, talking strategy like this. Love should just happen. It shouldn't require this much thought and planning."
Shannon and Arden both nodded. But Emma figured there was no use complaining about it. That was just the facts of life. Maybe she would flirt with Dustin a little at church on Sunday.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The next day was the annual Christmas parade. Pretty much the whole town turned out, no matter how cold or wet. Arden couldn't wait. When she was a kid she went either because she was in one of the floats or wanted to stand on the side of the street and catch candy. As an adult, the nostalgia of those days drew her out. She enjoyed watching the next generation of kids participating in the hundred year tradition.
Arden bundled up in jeans and a red sweater. She wore her Christmas socks, shoved her arms into her black, wool coat and wrapped a red scarf around her neck. Then she ran out to meet Nick who was climbing out of his car. She jogged to his side and took his arm and they walked the mile to Main Street.
People were gathered on either side of the street waiting for the parade. There were kids sitting on tail gates. Grandparents sitting in lawn chairs. Teenagers gathered in little groups. Everyone was wrapped in triple layers of clothing and the air was punctuated with hundreds of fading puffs of breath.
Arden felt Nick pulling her toward Lacey and Steven Wilder a few yards away. Steven was Nick's best friend from high school. Arden liked the couple okay, but they were his friends more than hers. Nick, Steven and Lacey immediately broke into conversation, leaving Arden silent on the sidelines as usual. She looked around, her eyes searching for some familiar faces. At last she saw her friends gathered in a small group outside of Sweet Nothings.
She gave Nick's arm a squeeze to let him know she'd be right back. He waved her off and she took off up the street. She got halfway to the group when she saw that Travis was standing there, talking to the husbands. Alice's husband Vince, stood two inches taller than Travis, his expression stoic as always, his hands hanging at his sides. Russell, Shannon's husband, stood with his arms crossed over his chest. His long, sandy-blond hair hung in his face and he occasionally darted glances around him. Arden had always thought he looked like a criminal. Maybe he was and maybe that's why he always looked so uncomfortable. Travis stood with them, real easy-like, his thumbs hooked in his pockets.
Arden bit her bottom lip. The husbands stood a few yards away from the women, so maybe it would be okay to go over there. But she didn't want Travis getting the idea that she was going to see him. She started to turn around, but then Shannon saw her and waved her over.
"Arden!" Shannon shouted over the crowd. "Come stand with us!" She shoved a strand of her long, curly red hair back up into her stocking cap.
Arden took a breath and then squeezed through the crowds to her friends. She got hugs from Emma and Alice and then the sound of drumsticks marking time indicated the beginning of the parade.
It came down the street from City Hall and would end down by the river. Russell and Vince moved behind their wives and Emma and Arden so the shorter women could see. There was a float from the church, the high school marching band, and some local businesses. And then the Miss Merry Christmas contestants rolled through, each in a skimpy prom gown, each riding on the hood of a car or truck driven by a high school football player.
Arden remembered riding on the hood of Allen Jessop's Mustang her senior year. She'd had on a strapless, pale pink gown and the smile of a girl who knew without doubt that she would win any pageant she wanted to just because it was what she was born into. Now she looked at these girls and thought how ridiculous they all looked freezing their asses off in those inappropriate dresses.
Suddenly Arden felt a pair of strong hands grip her upper arms. She knew it was Travis even before she felt his breath on her ear. "That one's mine," he said. "Isn't she gorgeous?" He pointed to a teen princess dressed in a pink, strapless gown that strongly resembled the one she had worn only five years earlier. The girl rode on the hood of some kind of muscle car. Arden didn't know what it was. She'd never been terribly interested in cars.
She turned to face Travis, feeling completely disgusted. "She's sixteen, Travis!"
"Not her. The car. The kid next door, Kyle Sanders, asked if he could drive it in the parade. Isn't she a beauty?"
Arden felt a rush of relief and a mild wave of nausea at the passing of what might have been jealousy if she cared at all about Travis. "Yes," she said. "She is indeed a beauty."
Travis beamed proudly as his '69 Mercury Cyclone rolled slowly past. He kept his arm draped over Arden's shoulders. She felt immediately warmer with him pressed up against her. He had on a flannel lined denim coat and a stocking cap pulled down over his ears. He'd shaved his beard and now sported a day's worth of stubble and Arden thought he looked terribly handsome. She applauded herself for her self-discipline when she forced herself to not slip her arm around his waist and bury her face in his chest. That would have been inappropriate, of course. In fact, she should probably make him take his arm off her shoulders, but she couldn't quite bring herself to go that far.