Smart Girls Think Twice (7 page)

Emma quickly jerked back to reality and the fact that she’d missed much of what Skye had been saying. “I’m sorry, I got distracted for a moment there.”

“You were thinking about sex.”

Emma could feel her cheeks turning cherry red. She’d heard that Skye read auras. Was hers somehow X-rated or something? Was there a neon sign over her head flashing S-E-X in big letters like the displays she’d seen in the red-light district of Amsterdam? Not that she’d actually been there, but she’d seen a special on PBS about it. Or was it the Discovery Channel? She was so flustered she couldn’t think straight. Apparently that was also evident to Skye.

“Don’t panic,” Skye said. “Sex is a good thing to think about. But I bet you’re like Leena in that you don’t talk about it. Sue Ellen is different.”

“Yes.” Sue Ellen had always been different. Definitely not the type of person to fit into a category or to draw inside the lines. “She’s, uh . . . flamboyant.”

“Now there’s a word you don’t hear much anymore.”

Skye’s comment reminded her of Sue Ellen’s accusation that Emma used big words to prove how smart she was. Not that she considered
flamboyant
to be that big.

She needed to regain control of the conversation. “How would you describe the differences in Rock Creek since you opened the theater?”

“Well, I got married, for one thing. Something I never thought I’d do. I’m not exactly the conservative type, as you may have heard.”

“I did ascertain . . .” Big words, big words. “Uh, yes, I heard.”

“That’s why Sue Ellen and I get along so well. We both have our own way of doing things.”

Emma just nodded.

“As for the town, well it has a new Thai restaurant, which I’m thrilled about,” Skye continued.

“Their spring rolls are awesome,” Emma agreed. “And their pad thai is also great.”

“We’ve got several new businesses all along Barwell Street. When I first opened the theater, there were a lot of vacant storefronts in town. Lots of FOR RENT signs. But you already know that. I mean, this is your hometown after all.”

“I haven’t had a chance to come home much for the past few years. Not since my parents moved down to Florida. I visited them down there for holidays.”

“So what do you hope to prove with this study of yours?”

“I don’t know that I’ll prove anything. I want to try and discover what triggered the rejuvenation here. See if it’s unique to this town or if it could be utilized in other towns facing similar challenges.” Emma went on to talk with Skye some more about Rock Creek before wrapping things up.

“Who else are you interviewing?” Skye asked.

“The mayor of Rock Creek and the mayor of Serenity Falls.”

“The Serenity Falls mayor? Why do you want to interview him? I thought your study was about Rock Creek.”

“It is but I can’t ignore the fact that the town right next door was selected as one of America’s Best Small Towns, yet that good fortune didn’t spread here.”

“Have you met Walt Whitman?”

“When I was a teenager.” Emma had won second place in an essay contest the town had held for Memorial Day and the mayor had given her a certificate.

“Then you should know how obsessive he is. He’s not that thrilled with what’s going on here.”

“Why not? I would think he’d like the improvements.”

“He doesn’t consider them to be improvements. He’s not that fond of change for one thing.

Or of creativity. He’s definitely a by-the-book kind of guy.”

“I heard your husband, the sheriff, was a by-the-book kind of guy.”

“
Was
being the operative word there. I’ve wooed Nathan over to the dark side of chaos and creativity. Not that he’d admit that. You know how men are.”

Not really. Sure Emma had studied male and female behavior in various classes she’d taken.

And yes, she had some personal observations from her life at the university. But observations were different than experience. She definitely lacked experience. She had some, but it was limited to nerdy guys who were a subspecies all on their own.

She had no experience with a man like Jake. Someone who got to her on some basic “wham”

kind of level. Not exactly a scientific description of her reaction to him and his Cheeto-laced kiss.

Maybe it was just the junk food that had done it to her. And him licking and nibbling on her lips afterward had nothing to do with it.

Yeah, right.

“Mommy!” A little girl came skipping into the theater, wearing a pink GO GREEN top, shorts, and red cowboy boots. “Guess what we did in class today? We drew dragons.”

“This is my daughter Toni,” Skye said.

Looking at the cute little girl, Emma wondered what her niece or nephew would look like at six.

Wow, in a few months she was going to be an aunt. She still had a hard time digesting that fact.

“Hi.”

“I have a cat named Gravity.”

“I, uh, that’s nice.” Emma’s experience with little kids was somewhat limited. Which is why she fell back on that old standard question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“Korean.”

Emma blinked. She wasn’t expecting that response. But then she hadn’t expected most of what had happened to her since she’d returned home.

“Toni’s best friend in kindergarten is Korean,” Skye explained.

“Who are you?” Toni asked Emma.

“I’m Emma.”

“What do
you
want to be when you grow up?”

“Smarter than I am now,” Emma said. “About a lot of things.” Especially men who drove her crazy with just one kiss.

“Why are we meeting at the Dairy Queen to discuss your wedding plans?” Emma asked Sue Ellen later that afternoon.

“It’s a favorite hangout of mine. And I didn’t want Mom interrupting us every two minutes.

I know she’s not trying to drive me crazy, but she is.”

“You could have come to my place.”

“What do you have against the Dairy Queen?”

“Nothing. I was just saying . . .”
The wrong thing
, she silently continued. She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately where her sisters were concerned. And it left her feeling like an awkward dork.

“What did you want to talk about?”

“You know the bridal shower is tomorrow afternoon, right?”

“Right. Saturday afternoon. For you and Leena both.”

“We might have to change that.”

“What?! Why?”

“Because we have totally different views on what the shower should look like.”

“I thought you guys had this all settled.”

“So did I. We’re having it catered in the lobby of the Tivoli Theater.”

“And there’s a problem with that? I just came from speaking with Skye, and she didn’t mention any trouble for the event tomorrow.”

“The location isn’t the issue. It’s the decorations.”

“What decorations?”

“Leena is using her engagement photos to put on the walls by her gift table.”

“And?”

“She’s a former model. It’s hard to get a bad photo of her. Hard but not impossible. There was one shot a year ago for the Regency Mobile Home Sales that she hated, but that’s another story. I don’t have engagement photos to put over my table. I didn’t like the way they turned out.”

“Then put something else there. Flowers or bows or something.”

“It won’t look as good as Leena’s table.” Sue Ellen sniffed back tears.

“Look at me.” Emma grabbed her sister’s hands and made her focus instead of melting down in the middle of the Dairy Queen. “You’re the one who has the interior decorating certificate on her wall. Remember, the one you got from the Internet?”

“Yeah, so?”

“So you know how to decorate. You can put your own stamp on things.”

“My own stamp . . .” Sue Ellen thought a moment. “I know! My naked firemen calendars. I could put those up. They are very tastefully done. Nothing flapping in the wind, you know?

Yes, I’ll do that! Thanks, sis. You’re brilliant.” Sue Ellen tugged Emma to her feet and gave her a hug that nearly cut off her air supply. “Gotta run!”

Emma sank back onto her chair. She was so not looking forward to the shower this weekend, or Sue Ellen’s wedding the following weekend. What kind of sister did that make her? Guilt nibbled at her. She should be so excited for her sisters. Instead she just wanted the madness over with. She had this tendency to want to make everything calm and controlled, and those two adjectives just didn’t apply to Sue Ellen or Leena. Well, Leena was ultra-organized so that was a good thing. But not the same as controlled.

Emma also had this need to smooth things out whenever there was trouble. Both her sisters lived by their emotions. Emma preferred logic. She relied on logic. Required it.

“Dr Pepper again?” Jake slid into the seat Sue Ellen had recently vacated. “Are we looking at an addiction problem here?”

No, she was looking at another kind of yummy addiction. Jake. His effect on her was entirely too intense. Especially given the fact that she hadn’t known him that long. As in two days. That wasn’t logical at all.

Her fingers tightened on her drink.

Jake noticed. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t going to take your Dr Pepper away from you.”

No, he was just taking her peace of mind away from her. Was he doing it deliberately? Was he trying to mess with her? Why would he bother?

No, Jake wasn’t trying to gaslight her. This was an example of her hormones at work. A classic case of the science of attraction. In fact, she’d recently read a study in
Evolutionary
Psychology
regarding the ways heterosexual men and women view first kisses. More than half of both men and women surveyed said they had been attracted to someone only to discover that, after kissing for the first time, they were no longer interested. Which seemed to suggest that there were unconscious mechanisms that had evolved to identify genetic incompatibility.

The study went on to point out that women were less likely to agree to have sex with a bad kisser than men, who were willing to have sex with just about anyone of the opposite sex.

Men were opportunistic breeders—ready, willing, and eager to spread their DNA.

“Why are you looking at me that way?” Jake said.

“What way?”

“Like I’m a bug under a microscope.”

She shrugged and looked down, nervously bouncing the straw up and down in her soda.

“Occupational hazard, I guess.”

“Sociologists see people as bugs?”

“No, although there are certain group dynamics in the insect world from which one could draw parallels.”
Shut up, Em. You sound like such a nerd.

He raised one dark eyebrow. “One could, huh?”

“Never mind,” she muttered.

“Do I make you nervous?”

“No.” Which was a lie, of course. Funny how she never used to lie until she met him. “I’ve got to go. I’ve got a lot of work to do at home.”

“I’ll walk you there.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to.”

He held the door open for her and even held her backpack, making her feel like she was back in high school. Not that any guy had done either of those things for her in those days.

She was always the brainy, geeky girl. She still was.

If she was so smart, she shouldn’t be wondering if Jake thought she was a good kisser. The fact that he seemed ready to have sex with her on her fire escape didn’t mean much according to
Evolutionary Psychology
.

When they reached her apartment, she mumbled, “Thanks. Bye.” She grabbed her backpack and raced up the stairs as if the devil himself were chasing her. The indoor stairway ended in a shadowy hall on top. When a figure stepped out of the shadows Emma didn’t think, she screamed.

Chapter Five

“
Holy
crap!” Emma’s father bellowed from the shadows. “You scared the hell out of me!”

Emma stood there shaking.
You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay.
She silently recited the words as a mantra of reassurance to herself. The man was her father, not a mugger.

The sound of footsteps racing up the steps behind her had Emma turning, ready to face the next threat. When her father came up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders, she jumped a foot.

“Get your hands off her,” Jake growled.

“Who the hell are you to be telling me what to do with my daughter?” her dad growled right back.

“Your daughter?” Jake repeated.

“That’s right. I’m Emma’s father. And you are?”

“Jake Slayter. I heard her scream and I thought she was in trouble.”

“She is in trouble for nearly causing her father to have a heart attack. Since when are you so jumpy, Sweet Pea?”

Her dad’s gentle squeeze of her shoulders and use of her childhood nickname had Emma blinking away sudden tears. She was bombarded with the swirl of conflicting memories.

The reassurance of her dad telling her a bedtime story about an Irish fairy named Sweet Pea.

And the terror of hiding in the corner with Leena when her dad got drunk.

That terror was compounded by a more recent memory: not long ago, she’d been attacked in Boston. Maybe the residual fear from being mugged had drudged up that solitary image of fear from her childhood. She didn’t remember much about her dad’s drinking. She’d been only six or seven at the most. A huge majority of her childhood memories were good ones.

She wasn’t afraid of her father. She was just afraid in general, and she hated feeling so vulnerable.

First she’d leveled Roy in the bar, and now she was screaming like a ninny. She felt like a total idiot.

“Are you okay?” Jake asked her. His voice was unusually gentle.

She nodded, still too unnerved and embarrassed to speak. “Sorry,” she croaked. She had to clear her throat before continuing. “I . . . um . . . I wasn’t expecting to see anyone and my dad just startled me, that’s all. I didn’t realize he was in town yet.”

“Arrived this morning. That was some scream,” her dad said. “You’ve got a good set of pipes on you, Sweet Pea.” He then turned his attention to Jake. “So are you a friend of my daughter’s?”

“I’m her date for the upcoming weddings.”