Small Town Girl (28 page)

"No. I think you're just an accident."

"Oh, that's flattering."

"You know what I mean."

"Well, it's nice not to be lumped with the groupies."

"In Nashville we call them germs." She pronounced it with a hard G.

"Germs?"

"Comes from groupies and germs. But, believe me, you're not one of them."

The burgers were juicy and delicious and they gave up flirting to sink their teeth in, dipping their french fries in ketchup and munching pickles. She couldn't finish hers, and when she laid it down he asked, "You all done?"

"Yes. You want it?"

He laid claim to her burger and while he was polishing it off she wiped her mouth on a paper napkin and glanced at the blue pickup. "Oh-oh," she said, "I think I've been spotted." Three faces with bad skin were smiling her way and gaping. "You all done?" Kenny jammed the rest of her burger in his mouth and she said, "Let's go."

He tapped on the horn and the carhop came out to collect their tray.

The rain began as they backed out of their parking spot. They rolled up their windows and he switched on the wipers and turned left onto Main Street. They cruised its deserted length at fifteen miles an hour, neither of them anxious to get home. The town had one traffic light. Luckily, it was red, which gave them more time. They stared at the rain streaming down the windshield, looking like fruit juice in the reflected glow of the traffic light. On the car roof it began pattering louder as they waited for the light to change and resisted every bodily instinct that had been badgering them all afternoon. She looked at Kenny. He looked at her. The light turned green and they moved on.

Tess said, "Faith is probably going to find out you were with me."

"You know, I get a little tired of you bringing up Faith all the time."

"Sorry," she said meekly, and looked out her side window. After that he got silent as a sphinx, the way he'd been in the alley this morning before church.

They drove around the town square, then headed north on Sycamore. The rain began pounding down even harder and he increased the tempo of the wipers. The air felt clammy and tense as home got closer and closer. When they were approaching the south end of their alley she said, "Thought you said you weren't going to do that anymore."

"Do what?"

"Ice up on me."

It was his turn to be meek. "Sorry."

He turned into the alley and the trees formed churning blurs in the wind-whipped storm. The headlights rocked against wet garage walls that pressed close on both sides.

He reached his own garage and pulled up before it, activated the door and would have driven inside, but she said, "Leave it out here. I like the storm."

With only a glance at her he complied, killing the lights, wipers and engine. They sat with the rain battering the roof, sealed inside the humid, dark car. Thunder and lightning created havoc around them.

"Well, here we are," he said.

Tess peered at the lights in her mother's kitchen window. "Renee is probably ready to kill me for being gone so long."'

"You gonna run through this?" he said.

"No, I'll wait a minute."

He glanced at the dark windows of his house. "The kids probably got caught in this on their way to Poplar Bluff."

"They'll be okay."

More rain, more lightning, more thunder, and the two of them unable to think of more to say. The windows began fogging over from their breath and their clothes seemed to cling to their skin. Though it was only six P.M. the world was murky and obscure beneath the roiling clouds. Nobody in the house could see a thing that was going on out here, and both people in the car knew it. Suddenly Tess's frustration boiled over.

"Look, Kenny, this is ridiculous! I'm a full-grown adult and I'm playing games with you like a kid. Just don't tell Faith I did this, all right?"

She reared up on one knee, dropped sideways, braced a hand on the driver's door, and kissed him. Angled beneath his straw hat, she found his mouth with her own and stayed a while, forcing the issue they'd both been sidestepping since… since when? Hard to remember when the compulsion first arrived. Sometime between the night of her arrival when he'd snubbed her and the night of choir practice when he'd ridden in her car. She'd caught him so off guard that he'd actually pulled back. She used it to her advantage and took a fair bit of time having her way with him while he was still wondering what his sense of honor would allow him to do. It was a good kiss, and honest, a two-way exchange, and when it ended he had both hands around her ribs under the lopped-off T-shirt to keep her from falling completely against him.

She drew back a mere inch. His breath came fast and his lips were open in surprise. She smiled in the dark, and told him, "That's for the time I teased you on the school bus." Her pose was awkward, his hands on her rib cage warm and spanning two-thirds of her girth. "Consider this completely my doing," she added. "I absolve you from all guilt, my dear Saint Kenny. Thanks for a wonderful day."

She kissed him again, quickly, got out and ran through the cold, driving rain to the house.

Inside the house Mary and Renee were watching
60 Minutes
. Tess came charging in the back door, dripping. "Hey, will somebody bring me a towel, please?"

Renee showed up a moment later and tossed her one.

"About time you got here. We were getting worried."

"Sorry. I should have called." She threw off her cap, mopped the ends of her wet hair and sponged her soaked T-shirt.

"You weren't out riding all this time. Not in the thunder and lightning."

"No. I went to the Sonic Drive-in with Kenny."

"With Kenny. Well." Tess sat on a step and pulled off her boots while Renee studied the top of her red hair. "I thought you went riding with Casey. I didn't know he was going along."

Tess stood up, damp but no longer dripping, and set her boots against the wall. "Hey, listen, are you in a hurry to get home or could I talk to you for a minute?"

"I can stay awhile longer."

Tess led the way across the kitchen and said quietly, so Mary couldn't hear, "Come upstairs with me." In the liv-ing room Mary said, "You're back, did you have a good time?" and returned to her show.

"Sure did."

Upstairs Tess stripped off her wet clothes while Renee sat cross-legged on her old bed. "Just like when we were girls," she said. "So what's going on?"

Tess threw on a cotton pullover, pulled the rubber band out of her hair and sat at the vanity table, facing Renee, combing her wet bangs straight back, flat to her head. "It's bizarre," she told Renee. "You aren't going to believe it."

"Something with you and Kenny, obviously."

Tess looked down at the comb in her hands and said, "Talk some sense into me, will you?"

"Maybe you'd better tell me what's going on first."

"I kissed him about five minutes ago in his car. He wouldn't kiss me so I finally kissed him. Pretty stupid, huh?"

"That's all. Just a kiss?"

"Yes. But, Renee, something has happened to me in these couple weeks I've been home. I'm bumping into him all the time and he turns out to be about the nicest guy I've met in years, and all of you treat him like he's your brother, and he treats Momma like he's her son, and then Casey gets into the picture and I'm just crazy about that girl, and I see what a good father he is, and the next thing you know we're going to choir practice together, and this afternoon he shows up at Dexter Hickey's and I start acting like a lovesick teenager. Renee, that's not like me."

Renee digested this for a moment. "Is he the reason you're taking Casey to Nashville?"

"No! Renee, what do you take me for?"

"You're sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. The thing with Casey started before I even said two words to Kenny."

Renee took stock of her sister, weighing the situation for some time before speaking again.

"What about Faith?"

"He won't tell me anything about their relationship."

Renee's face looked as if she'd given this plenty of thought on her own. "They're intimate, I'm sure. They just don't flaunt it, so people around here accept it.'" Tess stared at her sister, unhappy to have her suspicion corroborated. "You've got to be careful, Tess. You can't toy with people's feelings."

"I'm not toying."

"Aren't you?"

"No!"

"Then what's going to come of it? You'll head back to Nashville and leave him behind, and if you've spoiled what's between him and Faith, he'll end up the loser. Maybe you've lost sight of just how big a star you are, and just how impressed a man could be with your attention."

"I haven't. I've thought about that."

"And Kenny had a crush on you in high school. He's got no defenses against you, Tess."

Tess stared at her comb while the curls around her face began drying and coiling free. She thought about the perfect day she'd had with Kenny, starting with church this morning until they sat in the sexually charged atmosphere of his car in the rain. Any other woman would simply be able to do what she had done and not require confession afterward.

"You know what, Renee? Sometimes it can be mighty lonely being Tess McPhail."

"I'm sure it can, but pick on someone else besides Kenny."

"Who? The germs who hang around by the stage door? The guys in the music industry who are probably after me to further their own careers? Some other big star who'll be out on the road the few times when I'm not? The guys in the band?" She laughed ruefully. "Good way to lose a good band member."

"You chose it, Tess, I didn't."

Tess sighed, half swiveled and threw her comb on the vanity.

Renee studied her and caught a hint of defensiveness. "What about this guy from this other band that Momma said you're dating? She says he's called you a couple times since you've been here."

"Burt. Yeah, he's called. I made a date with him to get together in Nashville as soon as we both get back. I thought if I had that to look forward to it might distract me from Kenny."

"But it hasn't. So you made a play for him tonight."

"I didn't make—" Tess stopped herself, realizing how false she sounded. She jumped up from the stool and crossed the room to the rough railing around the stairwell. Leaning against it she could see out the window through the driving rain to the blurred lights from Kenny's house. His bedroom lights came on.

Behind her Renee said, "You wanted me to talk some sense into you, well, here it is. For the rest of the time you're home, stay away from Kenny. Leave him to Faith and you'll thank yourself later." She rose from the bed and approached her sister, placing her hands on Tess's shoulders. "Okay?" she asked.

Tess nodded glumly.

"Hey… come here." Renee turned her around and hugged her. "You mad at me now for saying what I think?"

"No." They rocked for a while, clenched together, and Tess began crying. "Oh, why did I have to come back home and get my priorities all screwed up? I love what I do! And most of the time I never even think about what I've given up!"

"But sometimes that big old S word rears its head and starts making demands, huh?"