NorthangerAlibiInterior (10 page)

“And surprisingly, until recently—very recently—he has been opposed to the idea altogether. In fact, he’s actually had the audacity to rebuke me for kissing my boyfriends.”

“Ah, man! That’s because you couldn’t care less about them!” he nearly shouted behind me. “Besides, you know what I said, anyway. I said I’d never kiss a girl I didn’t feel—uh . . .” He stopped.

“Feel what, Tony? What were you going to say? I’m sure Claire would love to know.”

Oh my gosh.

“Feel like I—uh, knew that well,” he finished lamely.

Nora snickered. “Don’t buy it, Claire. He’s always said he’d never kiss a girl he didn’t feel he could love.” Then she added, “Which is why I had to stop you. There’s no way you know Claire enough to decide you could love her. Trust me. You’ll thank me for this someday.” He mumbled under his breath again as Nora sighed. “Don’t worry about us. Tony and I argue all the time,” she explained to me. “I just rarely have the upper hand. So in case you think I’m being extra mean, just ask him—he’ll tell you he totally deserves it. Don’t you, Tony?”

He grunted. “Hmm . . . probably.”

Nora was all smiles as she pulled into a parking lot and cried out in a taunting, sing-song voice, “Oh, look! We’re here.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, and I think Tony did too.

It was awkward when he helped me get out of the car, but he was pretty big about it. I mean, he seemed less embarrassed than I did.

He grinned ruefully. “Hey, sorry about Nora. You okay?”

“Me? Yeah, I’m fine. Are you?”

“Wow. That’s refreshing.” His light brown eyes sparkled into mine.

“What is?” I couldn’t help but smile.

“Are you always this nice?”

“Nice? I don’t know. Isn’t everyone?”

“Ha!” He shut the car door behind me. “You
are
nice if you think that.”

“I am?” For some reason, the thought of Tony thinking I was nice wasn’t weird at all.

“Yeah.” He glanced down at me, then out toward the park. “And to answer your question, yes, I’m fine. I’m actually kind of relieved. Nora could’ve done a lot worse, had she wanted to.”

“She could?” I couldn’t imagine anything more embarrassing than what he’d just gone through.

His eyes caught mine again. “Oh yeah. She’s got a lot more ammunition to use. I’ve given her a ton of grief over the years.” He sighed. “I guess its payback time. But something tells me you’ll be worth it.”

“Oh.” My heart melted. In fact, my whole insides resembled something just short of jelly.

“Will you two knock it off and get over here?” Nora hollered from behind me.

“That’d be our cue.” I smiled.

“Is it? Do we have to go?”

How cute is he?
“I’m thinking so. If not, she may start whippin’ out the big guns.”

“Big guns?” He chuckled. “Is that something they say down in New Mexico?” He held out his hand and took mine. I didn’t resist.

His hand was a bit colder than mine, but warmer than marble. “My ancestors were gunslingers.”

“Really? Like outlaws?”

“Some of them.” His hand was warming up really fast. I brought it up to see it properly.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your hand.” I turned it over. I never noticed before, but with my fingers interlaced with his, I could see he was about as tan as I was.

“What about it?”

“It’s warm.”

“Yeah? It usually is in the summer.”

“And it’s darker than I expected.”

“Really? You had expectations about my hand?”

What?

“Does this mean you’ve been thinking about holding it?”

Ugh! How do I get myself in these situations?
“Um . . .” I felt my face go as red as a tomato.

Tony laughed and tugged me forward. “Now, come on, before Nora throws something at us.”

So I was surprised again—completely surprised—when we passed the baseball diamond and headed toward the playground equipment.

“We’re going to the swings?” I asked.

“Nope.” Tony chuckled. “You’ll see.”

I raised my eyebrows as we passed the playground equipment altogether.
Where are we going?
We stopped in front of a huge drinking fountain that looked like a bear. I was a bit concerned. “We came here to get a drink?”

“No, silly.” Nora laughed. “We came here to play on
that!”

I looked over to where she was pointing. Beyond the drinking fountain and to the left a bit was a ginormous zip line. “Wow! Are you kidding me?”

“Do you guys have these in New Mexico?”

“I think they were banned like twenty years ago. I’ve always wanted to try one, though!” I had already begun walking toward it, Tony easily keeping pace.

“Well, this is your lucky day!” Nora exclaimed as she jogged to catch up to us.

“How do they work?” The zip line seemed longer the closer I came to it.

“It’s easy,” Tony said. “You’ll catch the hang of it right away.”

“Yeah, and I bet Tony won’t mind helping you at all,” Nora teased.

There was a little girl climbing onto the zip line with the help of her father as we approached. I watched her sit on the circular seat and wrap her legs around the chain that attached it to the line. Her dad pulled her slowly to the top of the little hill and then counted to three. With a
swoosh
and a squeal, she zipped past us in a flash and then slowed once the line made it to the other side and started climbing that hill. In no time at all, the swing had lost its momentum, and the girl started to glide back toward the center of the line. Her father met her there, and when she begged him to let her go again, he announced, “No, you’ve had your turn. These people want to play, too.” He pointed at us, and the little girl glanced over. “See? It’s their turn now. Besides, it’s time for us to head home.”

I could see she wanted to argue more, but with an audience, she kept quiet.

“Thanks.” I smiled and waved, hoping she would feel better.

I think it worked. She smiled and waved back as they walked past us. “Hold on real tight, ’kay?” she said to me.

“I will,” I promised with a chuckle. I glanced at my friends. Both of them were staring at me. “What?”

“You like kids, too, don’t you?” Nora asked.

“Uh, sure. Doesn’t everybody?”

Tony smiled a huge smile, and Nora groaned. “Would you have one flaw, please? Please?” she said. “You’re making me feel like an ogre.”

“An ogre? Why?”

“Don’t mind her.” Tony gave my hand a squeeze. “Kids drive Nora crazy.”

“Oh. Do they bug you, too?” I asked him.

Nora huffed. “Tony? Mr. Youth Club Volunteer Extraordinaire? I wish. That’s why you haven’t seen him this last week, by the way. He’s been out volunteering the past few days. He would’ve been gone today, but they didn’t need him.”

He shook his head. “Come on, stop boring her. Let’s get moving or Claire won’t have time to try it out.” He turned to me. “Do you want to go first?”

“Me?” I squeaked. “Uh, why don’t I watch you guys, and then I’ll try it.”

“Wahoo! I’m first!” Nora shouted as she ran to the swing.

She was a natural. I could tell she’d been playing on the zip line for years. She and Tony made it look easy. By the time it was my turn, I was positive it was the simplest thing I’d ever do.

That was until I tried to balance myself on the little disk they called a seat. I actually fell off three times just getting on—to the delight and laughter of the Russo twins—before I was able to gain my balance enough to head up the hill.

Nora and Tony pushed me up to the top, and we were all laughing.

“How did you guys make this look so easy?” I gasped as I felt the jolt of the glider hit the top of the zip line.

“It’s because it
is
easy.” Tony chuckled. “It’s just that you Southwesterners have to do everything the hard way.”

“Hey. I’m not as tall as you guys,” I protested. “There was no way I could get on up here, and you know it. My only chance was getting on below and having you guys push me up.”

“Excuses, excuses,” Nora said with a grin. “Now, are you ready?”

No.
I squealed and hung on to the chain with all my might, my eyes closed and everything. “Okay.”

“One,” Tony said near my ear. “Two, threeee—”

They let go, and I flew down to the bottom of the zip line and back up the other side—screeching like a banshee the whole way. The metal clinked against the top, and I jolted to a stop and then was slowly dragged down to the middle again.

Nora and Tony raced down the hill to meet me. “How was it?” he asked. “You want to go again?”

“Are you kidding me?” I gasped as I opened my eyes for the first time. “That was awesome! I never want to get off!”

Honestly, this is way better than watching someone else play baseball, even if they are vampires and can run at the speed of light. It’s much more fun to swing at the speed of light than to watch someone else do it, right?

Overruled

“You know, you might actually get your text messages if you took
your
phone with you and not mine,” Cassidy announced as I walked through the front door. She was sitting on the couch in the little living room, waiting for me.

“What?” I took my purse off my shoulder and tossed it onto the end table next to her, then pulled my phone out of my back pocket. “I’ve got it right here.”

“Really? Open it up.”

I did. Cassidy’s background picture flashed on the screen.
Oh, no.
I looked up. She was holding my phone out in front of her, dangling it between two fingers.

“Of course, I’m awfully curious to find out who this ‘J’ is who’s been texting you all night.”

“Shut up! Are you serious? Jaden’s been texting me?” I threw her phone at her and dove for mine. She was quicker than me, keeping it just beyond my reach. “Hey! Give me that.”

“You know, he’s been the most interesting thing to happen to me all day. Well, that and finally finishing your book.”

“Cass, hand me the phone. You’re not funny.”

“I will, once you tell me about this kiss he’s been going on about.”

“You’ve been reading the texts?”

She giggled and scrambled to her feet as I lunged toward her again. “And writing back to him.”

“What?”
Ugh.
“That is seriously not cool. What have you been saying to him, anyway? Give me that!” With one final lunge, I yanked my phone out of her hands.

“See for yourself.” She was still giggling. “He sounds pretty hot.”

As quick as I could, I pulled up my messages. “Did you tell him you were my sister?”

“Nope. He thought I was you the whole time.” She smirked evilly as she plopped back on the couch. “Serves you right—taking my phone so I couldn’t talk to any of my friends.”

In disgust, I wandered over to the matching chair and plunked down. As far as I could tell, they’d had quite a huge conversation. Jaden alone had sent at least ten texts.

I can’t believe my sister is such a loser.

“You’re so rude,” I grumbled as I scrolled to the beginning and started reading.

hey, wantd 2 say srry agn. miss u already. cant wait 2 touch ur lips agn.

J

Aw. How romantic is that?
I grinned and then read Cassidy’s answer.