Unforgiven (21 page)

“You, come with me, right now.” Tarkenton grabbed Cam by the collar during lunch, when he was hoping to slink off to Rattlesnake Creek. He'd managed to swipe a cool black satin guitar strap at a music shop yesterday, and he wanted to leave it as a gift for Lilith on the antique desk.

“What am I being charged with?” Cam asked as Tarkenton dragged him back inside the cafeteria.

“Failure to fulfill your duties as a member of the prom court. Miss King informs me that you've skipped five of the meetings already, and you're not skipping another on my watch.”

Cam groaned. “Isn't there some waiver I can sign to opt out? There's gotta be some other kid who actually wants my spot.”

Tarkenton steered Cam to a table in the center of the cafeteria, where Chloe King was sitting with the other girls in her band and three guys Cam had thus far successfully avoided knowing. They were sharing a pizza, all leaning in together and whispering. Everyone stopped talking as soon as they saw Cam.

“Sit down,” Tarkenton ordered, “shape up, and start brainstorming colors for the balloon banner like a normal teenager.” The principal motioned Cam toward the last empty seat.

“If I sit, will you go away?” Cam muttered as Tarkenton finally disappeared. Immediately, Chloe slid the box of pizza to the center of the table, out of Cam's reach.

“Don't give me that look,” she said. “I'm
helping.
I'm sure you want to shed some pre-prom pounds. Trust me, you don't need this pizza.”

“Don't be mean, Chloe,” joked a square-headed boy named Dean. “Let the fatty have his fix.”

The whole table started laughing. Cam couldn't care less what these kids thought of him. He only cared about the time they were sucking from him. He should have been either with Lilith or doing something special for her.

Just then, a folded piece of paper dropped onto the table in front of him. Cam looked up and saw Lilith passing by, carrying her lunch tray. She nodded at the note. Cam's name was written on the outside in black. He unfolded it.

HANG IN THERE….ONLY THREE HOURS TILL OUR FIELD TRIP.

Buoyed with happiness, he turned back to watch Lilith. She had taken a seat at the far end of the cafeteria, next to Jean and Luis. She was eating a bright red apple and laughing. She seemed to feel Cam's gaze on her and looked over, all the way across the cafeteria, to offer him a dazzling, sympathetic smile.

Chloe could take that pizza and shove it. Lilith's smile was all the nourishment Cam needed.

After school, Jean's Honda squealed into the Salvation Army parking lot and shuddered to a stop, straddling two spaces. Cam's fingers touched Lilith's as he pulled himself out of the back. When he looked up, she was smiling. It was the same smile she'd given him in the cafeteria, the smile that had helped Cam survive the thirty-five minutes of the prom planning meeting.

Cam had no opinion on where the photo booth should be placed at prom, or whether the DJ should wear a tux or something more casual, or if they needed flowers to decorate the table where the memory books would be signed.

But he did have a strong opinion on getting Lilith to be his date.

Things were going well today, and there was no new sign of Luc meddling, so Cam was feeling optimistic. But he still had work to do. He needed this trip to the Salvation Army to feel as romantic as a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

“Divide and conquer,” Jean said, beckoning them into the thrift store. The place smelled like mothballs spritzed with cat urine, mixed with a whiff of stale vanilla perfume. “Experiment. Have fun.”

“But remember,” Luis added, holding the door open for Lilith, “we're looking for costumes that elevate our stage presence.”

Cam glanced at the freshman and laughed. “Whoa. What got into you?”

“I got a prom date,” Luis said, doing a little dance. “No biggie.”

“You finally asked her?” Jean asked, then grinned at Cam. “He's been drooling over Karen Walker all semester.”

“Way to go, Luis,” Lilith said, and high-fived the drummer, but as she started down an aisle overflowing with hats, Cam wondered if he'd heard a hint of envy in her voice. Even Luis had a prom date now.

Cam followed Lilith to a high wall of lime-green shelves, impressed that she'd sought out the most interesting section of the store so quickly. Cam had shopped at, donated to, and even worked in at least a hundred vintage stores over the years. He could step inside any one and know where the shoes and light fixtures were and how to find the really cool old suits.

Lilith seemed to have the same gift. She rose onto her toes to slide a three-piece navy pin-striped suit down from the shelf. She held the pants up to Cam, nodding approval. “Thoughts?”

“Dynamite.” He took the suit, then picked through the rest, pausing at a glen-plaid one that was smaller than the others and looked spotless. Cam knew the jacket would plunge enticingly on Lilith, and that the pants would hug her just right.

“Oh, I
love
this,” she said as he handed it to her. “Do you think I can pull it off?”

“I don't know if this town can handle how good you will look in that suit,” he said.

“Really?” She examined it, looking for stains. “I'll try it on.”

Cam flagged a tall lady wearing a name tag. “Would you mind showing us to your changing rooms?”

“In the back,” the woman said, leading Cam and Lilith to a corner sectioned off by a yellow flannel curtain.

“In you go, kid,” Cam said.

The dressing room was a mess, with old frocks and ponchos and fedoras and pajamas sharing hangers and wall pegs. It looked like anything that had been tried on and discarded in the past decade had just been left there in a heap.

“Come on in,” Lilith said, and tugged the curtain closed behind them both.

Inside, the light was different; the incandescent bulbs mellowed to a softer, almost romantic glow through their dusty shades.

“Turn around while I put this on,” she said.

“You don't want me to wait outside?” Cam asked.

“I told you what I want,” Lilith said. “Turn around.”

Cam followed her instructions. He listened to the sounds she made when she moved, the soft breaths she took, the plunk of her backpack dropping to the floor, the snap of the elastic band when she threw her hair up in a ponytail. Something brushed his shoulder, and he realized Lilith was undressing. With all the clothes heaped back here, there wasn't much space to move in the dressing room, so as Lilith shimmied out of her jeans, her bare hip bumped against Cam. His wings burned with the urge to let loose.

“You gonna try on your clothes, or what?” Lilith said.

It was a thrilling feeling, knowing there was something dangerously sexy going on behind him but not being able to see any of it, any of her. Cam felt like he and Lilith had a secret, a moment that was just theirs.

“Right.” He pulled off his jacket.

Soon, they were standing bare back to bare back. The touch of Lilith's skin in the quiet curtained space was transporting. They could have been right back at the Jordan River. His body could recognize each curve of hers unseen.

Did Lilith recognize his, too? Thanks to Lucifer, Cam's body was nothing like it had been in Canaan, but still, he longed to know if being close like this jogged her memories.

“Yo!” Jean called from outside. “Opinions are required.”

“Just a minute,” Lilith called as she and Cam hurried into their outfits.

Cam zipped up the pin-striped pants, and a moment later, felt her fingertips on his shoulders, swiveling him to face her.

Only Lilith wasn't wearing the glen-plaid suit. Instead, she'd slipped into a light blue dress, with clean, simple lines. The neck was low but not plunging. Its hemline danced against the middle of her thigh. She must have just found it in the dressing-room pile, but it looked as if it had been sewn especially for her.

“You look beautiful,” he said.

“Thanks,” Lilith said. She eyed his suit, which felt like it had been made for the old Cam—not his current body. “It looked promising on the rack,” she said politely. “But it's kind of giving you a used-car-salesman vibe.”

“That's perfect,” he said, “because you look like a sexpot fifties housewife in the market for a secondhand Cadillac.”

“Ew,” Lilith shrieked, but she was laughing. “Take that off immediately before its seediness rubs off on you permanently.”

“What should I put on instead?” Cam asked, laughing too.

“Anything else!” Lilith grabbed a gray wool poncho with yellow and orange flowers from a peg on the wall at the back of the dressing room. It looked like it had once belonged to a Mexican desperado. “Here!”

Cam reached behind a voluminous green bathrobe and pulled out a pink, satiny Hawaiian hula dress. “Only if you try this on.”

“I accept your challenge,” Lilith said playfully and took the dress. She motioned with her pointer finger for Cam to turn around.

They were back-to-back again, Cam standing very still whenever he felt Lilith's bare skin brush his. He closed his eyes and imagined the Hawaiian dress sliding down the curve of her hips.

When she turned around, Cam was delighted to find that she'd plucked a white silk orchid blossom from a selection of fake plants in the corner of the dressing room. It was tucked behind her ear. “Aloha,” she said, batting her lashes.

“Aloha yourself,” Cam said.

“Boy knows how to work a poncho,” she said, looking him up and down, approving.

Cam put on his cleanest Mexico City accent and took Lilith by the hand. “I know we come from different worlds, señorita, but now that I have laid eyes on you, I
must
take you back to my rancho.”

“But my father will never allow it,” Lilith said, pulling out an impressively convincing Hawaiian-priestess voice. “He'll kill you before he lets you take me away!”

Cam kissed her hand. “For you, I would risk anything, even the eternal flames of Hell.”

“Hello!?” Luis shouted from outside the curtain. “What's going on in there? Have you guys found your look yet?”

Lilith giggled and pulled back the curtain, doing a little hula dance.

They found Jean wearing a black fedora and a tan trench coat. Meanwhile, Luis had found a football uniform, complete with pads, and somehow pulled it on over his clothes. “Mess with me now, jerks!” he shouted to the ceiling.

“Great.” Jean glanced at each of them and shook his head. “We're going to look like the Village People.”

“We aren't done, man,” Luis said. “We just got here!”

“Well, so far, we look pathetic,” Jean said. “Except for you, Lilith. Now, come on, let's try a little harder.”

“Says the guy who picked a
fedora,
” Luis said as they both disappeared into an ocean of corduroy.

“What now?” Cam said as he and Lilith returned to the dressing room. “We might get in trouble with Jean if we keep fooling around.”

“Sounds dangerous,” Lilith teased. She glanced around the dressing room, sifting through the hangers. “Let's surprise each other.”

Again, they turned back-to-back. Again, Cam felt the dress slide over Lilith's head and fall to the floor at his feet. Again, he shivered with barely checked desire.

He eyed the clothing rack in front of him, reaching at last for a long, beige Indian caftan. He pulled it over his head and tied it at the neck.

“What do you think of this one?” Lilith asked a few moments later.

He turned to face her.

Lilith was wearing a gauzy white floor-length gown embroidered with deep-green leaves. “I couldn't help noticing you at the village well the other day…,” she said in a slow, husky voice.

She was still playing, but Cam could hardly breathe. He hadn't seen that dress since…

“Where did you find that?”