One Black Rose (6 page)

Nick just scowled.

After Samuel and his cousins left, we headed home as well. It was late in the afternoon; we were planning on making dinner and watching a movie later that night. I was happy with that plan, because I didn’t want to think about Samuel Cheshire and wonder what his problem with me was. Carley was voting for
50 First Dates
, Nick wanted
Inside Man
. I had said I’d be happy with either, mostly because their bickering was funny.

Carley and I both wanted to nap after our day in the sun, so Nick went back to his house to shower and get ready before dinner. Despite the heat and the excitement of meeting Samuel, I managed to sleep for almost two hours. When I got up I went downstairs to the kitchen looking for Carley. She was already at work on dinner (pasta with alfredo sauce and a salad), and once that was ready we headed out to the porch with glasses of lemonade to wait for Nick. Carley sat in a blue rocking chair by the door while I lounged in a rainbow-colored hammock.

It was still hot outside, but it was late enough in the day and there was enough of a breeze so that the heat felt more pleasant than crushing. Once we’d settled in, the subject of Samuel came up almost instantly.

“I have no idea how that happened,” Carley repeated, as if the whole episode still shocked her. “He just…appeared. And liked us. At least the girls did!”

“Why’s it so surprising?” I asked, stretching out in the hammock.

“Well, because the Cheshires don’t talk to us. I’ve been coming here,” she paused and scrunched up her face to think, “since I was a baby…and never once has any Cheshire come and talked to me. Let alone Samuel. He’s usually hanging out with the Roths or his family or something.” Again she totally glossed over the fact that he hated us. Or me.

“So, he’s good friends with the Roths?” I asked. It smelled sweet outside, like tall grass and flowers with just a hint of ocean, and I enjoyed breathing it in.

“Yeah, I mean I think so. I always see him with the Roths, mostly Holt and Holt’s cousin Susan, sometimes one of Holt’s little brothers. I see Holt with the Cheshire girls a lot, especially at the Solstice Party.”

“Tell me more about that,” I encouraged. I felt like a complete outsider, but luckily Carley didn’t seem to mind talking about the stuff that she had taken for granted for years.

“Ohh, it’s the best,” she said, clasping her hands together in glee. “It’s literally the best part of the summer. People from everywhere want to go, but the Roths only invite Castleton residents. Seriously, I think some people have bought houses in this town just to get an invite.”

I didn’t really believe that. My parents would never do something like that, but I wasn’t going to say that to Carley. Instead I kept my mouth shut and kept listening.

“So, the Solstice Party is a party at the Roths’ house. Their whole house is open. Well, I guess not their upstairs and stuff, but their first floor is wide open, and of course their garden. They get tons of lights and food and music. Some of their lights are even in the shape of flowers. People play games in the street out front. And the best part of all is the clothes. Autumn, seriously, the dresses are amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. The only dress code requirement is that the women’s clothes have sequins or sparkles somewhere. So, last year, Holt’s mom wore this costume that looked like it was from the Victorian Period, full skirt and a bodice and everything, and it was all different shades of greens and blues, and just covered in sequins. Then to top it off she had this amazing necklace in the shape of a white rose pendant. I loved it. She looked so amazing. Even her hair had glitter in it. Definitely not something my mom would be caught dead in, but she could pull it off.” Carley was forced to pause and take a breath.

“Yeah, my mom won’t even put on a dress. She’s too busy arguing with my dad,” I said gloomily as I continued to rock gently back and forth. If she were here my mom probably wouldn’t even want to go. She’d be too busy working or whatever.

Trying to forget about my parents’ troubles I said, “So, what would we wear?” I was already worried. I’d had bad experiences with dresses and dances. When I was eleven I’d had to go to my aunt’s wedding and my mom hadn’t had time to take me dress shopping, so she’d just picked something up for me to wear. It had scarred me for life. She’d ended up choosing some taffeta disaster complete with frills that would have looked more at home on a pink stuffed animal horse. I shuddered. At least my mom wasn’t there to tell me what I couldn’t wear.

“We’ll have to go shopping,” said Carley happily. “I’m sure Nick will drive us unless we find something in town. We’ll figure out a time to do that soon, because I don’t have anything to wear,” Carley said. She picked up her empty cup and filled it with more lemonade from the pitcher. “The party is in two weeks. Did you bring anything? I guess I forgot to tell you about it.”

“I brought a couple of cotton summer dresses, but that’s it,” I said. I was trying to enjoy the conversation, but Holt and Samuel both kept popping up in my head. “Are you sure they’ll let me go? I don’t technically live in town.”

“I think so,” said Carley. “I think…. Hey, who’s that?” asked Carley, setting her glass down and leaning forward. She was staring past me down the driveway.

I craned my neck around to see what she was looking at, but I could already hear what had caught her attention. Coming up the dirt driveway was an absurdly nice silver car. It looked familiar. The windows were tinted, so I couldn’t see who was driving, but that didn’t stop me from guessing.

“Maybe Nick got an upgrade,” I joked.

“Psh. Yeah right,” said Carley. “I doubt it.”

The car rolled to a halt in front of the house, right next to Carley’s dad’s old beat up Ford pickup, used for hauling trash to the recycle center, Carley had explained apologetically.

As the door opened I remembered that my brain needed air for me to stay conscious. Just as I was taking a deep breath (my face going into that unfortunate O-look-of-surprise that you get when taking deep breaths) Holt Roth’s head popped up over the open car door.

“Hey,” he said, smiling at the both of us.

All the air I’d just sucked in went out in one shocked exhale. Carley was no better, but instead of being surprised she jumped to her feet so fast her blue rocking chair was flung backwards. She was forced to grab hold of it while trying not to spill the drink in her other hand.

Once she’d steadied the chair she went dashing down her front steps to meet Holt. He closed his car door and came towards us. Before he’d even reached the steps Carley was saying, “Hi, how are you? Can we help you with something?” Her face was literally glowing.

I still sat motionless on the porch. After a speedy assessment of my feelings about seeing Holt Roth drive up to the front door, I realized that I was surprised more than anything. He’d been nice the night before to lead me out of his garden and not be angry at me for upsetting his watchdog. Not to mention the whole saving my life thing. Maybe his showing up at my friend’s house had nothing to do with me. Maybe I was born a redhead.

By the time I’d thought all this through, Holt and Carley had come onto the porch and Carley was offering Holt lemonade. It took me a breath to realize that he hadn’t answered her. He wasn’t responding because he was staring at me.

Finally he said, “No thanks.”

Not wanting to sit there like a mute and hoping like hell I sounded casual I said, “Hi, how are you?” He gave me a very warm smile, but kept his distance from me. It instantly reminded me of the night before when he hadn’t shaken my hand. He had shaken Carley’s! What did he think I had, some terrible skin disease?

“I’m good. Just wanted to make sure you got home alright,” he said, tucking his hands into his pockets. He was dressed more casually today in a white t-shirt and green swim trunks.

“I did, thanks,” I said. “Sorry again.” I awkwardly tried to sit up in the hammock so that I wouldn’t be looking at him sideways.

“No problem,” he replied. He looked up at the house. “It’s nice to be back here again so soon.”

“Want to sit down?” asked Carley, sitting back in her own seat like he needed a demonstration.

I started to protest that he probably had other things to do than just sit around with us and wait for Nick, but he grinned and said, “Of course. Thanks.” He had such a nice smile.

“So, um, sorry, but I thought we were together last night,” said Carley, glaring at me as she finally caught on that Holt had said he’d seen me. “What’s he talking about?”

I explained to her what had happened when I went back to the house to get my wallet. When I had finished telling her the gist of the story she looked like she was ready to faint. Holt had taken a seat in a white wicker chair next to Carley, facing me, with his legs stretched out in front of him.

She might have said, “You got lost in his backyard? That’s awful and what an inconvenience for you. You must have been so frustrated,” but she didn’t say any of that to me, nor did she say, “You must have been scared getting lost in a town you’d never been in before,” or “My fault for showing you the short cut in the first place.”

No, she was looking at Holt apologetically. He’d sat quietly as I told the story, but now he said, “Not at all. I’m glad I was there to help.”

Out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw something twitch, so I turned my head slightly to get a better look. Was it just my imagination, or were the garden plants in the front yard and in the hanging baskets along the porch straining in our direction? I inhaled deeply and realized just how incredibly fragrant summer was here. But I wondered. Had it smelled this good a few minutes ago? It must have. I dismissed my concerns and returned to listening to the conversation. I didn’t notice Holt giving me a weird look.

“See, he says it’s fine,” I told Carley, glaring back at her. She sounded like my mother.

“What are you two up to for the rest of the night?” Holt asked, politely changing the subject.

“We were going to watch
50 First Dates
with Nick,” said Carley, instantly forgetting all about my being rude to the Roths. “But he has to get here first.”

“Oh, is Nick your boyfriend?” he asked me.

I was so surprised by the question at first that I stammered over the answer. “No, he’s a friend of Carley’s.” Most guys don’t come right out and ask a direct question like that. I was impressed that he had the guts to do it.

“I see,” his smile got wider. Somehow I think he’d been expecting that answer. Also, somehow I felt like he liked making me blush.

Carley was giving me the oddest look, but I ignored it.

A noise to my left made me look at the driveway. Sure enough, Nick was pulling up in his beat up old car. He had to maneuver so that he didn’t block Holt’s car in, but eventually he managed to park and walk up to the porch.

He’d changed into a dark blue t-shirt and clay-colored khakis, and his pale skin had that freshly scrubbed look you have right when you get out of the shower. His red hair was damp on the top of his head.

“Nick,” said Carley, “this is Holt Roth.” Nick offered Holt his hand and Holt took it and shook. It made me even more puzzled about why he wouldn’t touch me.

I moved over a bit so that Nick could sit down on the hammock next to me. As he got himself comfortable I heard him mutter, “Why are the two most popular guys in Castleton suddenly hanging around Carley? This summer is starting to suck.” Trying to comfort him I gave him a pat on the back.

“Holt, do you want to watch that movie with us?” Carley asked.

Nick, looking at the floor, nodded to himself as if his worst fears in the world had just been confirmed. He looked like his favorite dog had just died. Carley didn’t seem to notice, but Holt did. He gave me a small smile.

“Actually, I was hoping Autumn would go for a walk with me.” Turning to me he said, “I thought you might like to know a few more people around here and I could show you the town. We can talk about food more. Plus, it’s a great night.” It
was
a great night. It hadn’t gotten too cold and there still wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

Nick’s head snapped up. “I think that’s a great idea. Autumn definitely needs friends…. Wait, that sounds wrong. I mean you could use more friends.” Nick faltered again. With her hands Carley did the motion of a shovel digging an ever deeper hole for him to climb out of. “Wait, no, still wrong. No one can ever have too many friends. Sorry,” he finished lamely.

I tried to keep from laughing but broke out into a fit of giggles when Carley said, “Nice, Nick. That hole’s so deep you could see China.”

Nick knew she was kidding, but he still blushed and said, “Sorry, Autumn.”

I pretended to think about it. I had already seen
50 First Dates
, but I didn’t want to admit that I had liked Holt from the instant I’d seen him, much less that it felt like meeting an old friend. “It might be nice to see more of Castleton,” I said. Holt beamed.

“Tonight? We had plans,” Carley whined.

“I’ve seen
50 First Dates
before,” I pointed out. “A bunch of times. And Adam Sandler doesn’t really try very hard in that movie.”

“Who’s Adam Sandler?” Holt asked.

I gaped at him. Literally gaped. All three of us did.