Forget You (20 page)

Mom minded because the wind messed up her hair, but she put up with it. I was driving her back to her apartment after an hour of house-hunting and an early dinner at the Grilled Mermaid. Soon I'd pick up Doug for the football game, and afterward we were going out with Lila, Mike, Keke, and Keke's football player boyfriend she met at the beach--the one who had been so curious about our pants. It was a beautiful, warm October afternoon without a hurricane in sight, and so much weight had lifted from me lately that I felt a little giddy. I couldn't
wait
for tonight. I was just turning onto the highway north toward town when blue lights flashed behind us.

"Did you run a stop sign?" Mom asked. "I mean, did you run
the
stop sign?"

I watched my rearview mirror until I recognized the policeman. "It's Cody. He's pulling me over to screw with me."

"Zoey!" Mom said in mock horror. "Can the language! Act sane or he'll drag us both back to the mental hospital. Good afternoon, Officer!" she sang past me through the opening that would be called a "window" in a normal car.

He nodded at her. "Counselor. I have orders from the chief to take you to the station. He needs to see you right away about that case. And Zoey, Doug wants you to meet him at the junkyard." He turned and sauntered toward his car.

"Oh,
that
case." Mom leaned over to kiss my forehead, then opened the passenger "door" and dropped to the ground in her wicked pumps we'd bought at the Destin mall last weekend. "Are you up for more house-hunting tomorrow afternoon?" she called back to me through the "window."

"Theoretically, but you'll have to drive. I'll bet this whole setup with Cody is an elaborate ploy for me to meet Doug and see him with his cast off. He was supposed to get it off this afternoon, depending on what the X-rays showed. And that means I'll give his Jeep back to him."

"Okay, then. I'll give you a call in the morning," she said without concern, as if she herself were part of the ploy. She walked along the shoulder, climbed into the passenger side of the police car, and applied more lipstick in Cody's rearview mirror. Yeah, I'd begun to have suspicions about her and the police chief. I would grill her about this tomorrow.

The country highway I'd driven down a million times looked like a postcard today with the trees turning yellow and red. In the flimsy Jeep I smelled asphalt and hay just as if I'd been walking along the shoulder. I negotiated the courthouse square in the center of town, turned off on another highway, and finally arrived at the junkyard. The Porsche had been moved in front of the office and released from its tarp to reveal the gaudy red sparkle paint in all its glory. As I parked, Doug got out of it and limped toward me across the sandy driveway with a big grin, without crutches.

"Look at you!" I exclaimed, springing from the Jeep to hug him.

He held out his bare leg for me to examine. "Look at me!"

"Does it walk okay?"

"It walks fine."

"More important, does it swim okay?"

"Coach is meeting me at the pool tomorrow morning to get me started."

"Wow, Coach is getting out of bed on Saturday morning? He must think a lot of your chances at a scholarship after all."

Doug gave me a smile and a small nod. Not like a diva. Like an athlete with confidence in his body.

"I want to come tomorrow morning," I said.

"I would love for you to come. You want to swim?"

"Yeah, I'll swim." Doug had been encouraging me to train harder and try out for the FSU swim team with him. He'd worked with me the last few weeks, and I'd actually qualified to compete at State. I wasn't doomed to come in sixth after all. Who knew?

"You brought me here to hand over the Jeep," I guessed, tossing the keys up in the air and catching them. "Why here? Is there a ceremony for taking your cast off and getting to drive again? Is it like being saved from the junkyard?"

"No ceremony, but I do have something for you." He caught the keys the next time I tossed them, then gestured to the tacky Porsche. "Ta-da!"

"Ta-da," I echoed, not sure what he meant. "It's a car."

"It's
your
car," he said. "If you want it."

"
My
car? It's ugly."

"On a good day, with a recent wash and wax, your Bug looked like it had been partially digested."

"It's just . . ." I folded my arms. "I thought I would pick out my own car."

He nodded. "I thought you would too. When were you going to do that?"

I shrugged. "It just seems hopeless. There's still the whole thing I told you about. My dad won't let me buy anything I can afford."

"Yeah, but old Zoey would have fought a lot harder about that. Old Zoey would have a car by now." He raised one eyebrow at me.

I stared back at him. Why
didn't
I have a car by now? I couldn't see a way to solve the problem, so I'd pretended the problem wasn't there. Again.

"Truthfully?" he said. "Since your mom got out of the hospital, you've seemed manic on the surface, flatlining underneath." He passed his hand through the air, a flat horizon dividing sky and sea. Then he reached out to rub the back of my neck. "Are you tired?"

Was I? I was
so
glad my mom was back at work and in my life. I looked forward to moving back in with her. And with her support, I'd sat down with my dad while Ashley wasn't home and told him I did not want him insulting my mom in front of me anymore, I did not want to be watched by cameras, and I wanted an appointment with a shrink. Just to talk. I would see her for the first time next week.

Things were looking up, but it all took a lot of energy. When Doug pulled me toward him, I leaned my head against his chest. "Yeah, I'm tired."

His low voice vibrated through his chest and warmed me. "This thing with your mom. It's so much better now, but it's going to take a while for both of you to get over it. Do you want to talk about it?"

I took a deep breath and sighed. "I love you," I said into his chest.

"I love you too." He stroked one hand from the roots of my hair all the way to the ends. My scalp tingled.

"Can we talk about it later tonight?" I asked. "It's such a beautiful day." I couldn't see the beautiful day with my head against Doug's chest. I meant how the day felt, the sun warm on my shoulders.

"So accept this favor from me," Doug said. "I found a car for you. It's been sitting here since the junkyard owner's son went to college, like, a decade ago. It just needed one little repair, an air . . . something."

I looked up at him. "Air intake?"

"Or something that pushed air out. It had something to do with air. Or water. Anyway, my brother's friend fixed it for you and checked all the hoses or whatever. The car's within your price range. And it has an air bag."

"Doug, that is so sweet." I squeezed his waist. "But you're doing the controlling thing again."

He held me away from him. "What's controlling about this?"

"For starters, you asked your brother to pull me over just now."

"Hm." He laughed. "Well, you don't have to buy this car. If you do buy it, you don't have to keep it forever. Just until you're not tired anymore and you feel like looking for another." He opened the driver's side door, ushered me in, and closed the door behind me.

As he rounded the car I took a few big whiffs, but I couldn't smell cigarette or pot or BO or a dead body in the trunk. Doug was right. I had a lot going on in my life, and he'd done me a favor. There was no reason for me not to buy this car, except that I hadn't been in command of every step in the process. I took another deep breath and exhaled slowly, letting go.

Doug crammed his tall frame into the passenger seat sooner than I expected. It would take a while for me to get used to him walking without crutches. The car filled with the scent of him, the scent of water. "I promise not to be controlling anymore, okay?" he asked. "Except I'll probably surprise you on your birthday. And maybe one other time per year, when you need a little boost." He nodded toward the key in the ignition. "Want to see how it drives?" He was so pleased with himself. His green eyes crinkled at the corners.

I grinned at him. "I want to see how it parks."

My heart raced as we watched each other from our separate sides of the car for one, two, three seconds.

Then we met in the middle.