“I eat school lunches,” I tell him. “I got this.”
We find an empty tailgate and manage to hoist ourselves up on it without spilling the contents of our Styrofoam plates. Everyone who walks by greets Arden—a few people even know my name, at which I’m impressed.
“The new will wear off soon,” Arden says quietly. “Just give them some time.”
“How many of these girls have you been with?” Yep, I just said that out loud.
He pauses before taking a bite of his second hot dog. He gives me a quizzical look. “Not everything you hear about me is true.”
I nod. “How many?”
“Not as many as you think.”
We’re quiet for a while, and I try to decipher his answer into actual numbers. I watch the girls in the bikinis watch Arden, and the general consensus seems to be Why is he here with her? That, or I’m letting my imagination run rampant and free.
Either way, I’m in a pretty terrible mood by the time we’re done eating.
“You want to go watch the trucks climb out of the pit?” He motions toward a hill ahead of us, behind which all sorts of trucks come and go. We’ll have to walk halfway around the “pond” to get there.
“Sure.”
He hops off the back of the truck, and his hands are at my waist, ready to lift me down, when Braden walks up, a pretty blond girl wrapped around him piggyback style. He sets her on the ground. “Hi,” she says to me. “Carly, right? I’m Eve.” She holds out her hand and we have an awkward shake.
Eve looks at Arden. “We should all get together sometime. How about a movie on Friday?”
He looks at me. I can’t tell what it is he wants me to say. His expression is expectant though, so he definitely thinks I should say something. “I actually have to work Friday,” I tell her.
“Oh,” she says. “Well, how about we go to the beach Saturday?”
“I work Saturday too.” I try to sound apologetic. I don’t think Eve has to work to get the money for her highlights or her perfect French manicure.
“Sunday?” she asks inevitably.
“Actually, Carly works a lot,” Arden says. “I’m lucky I could steal her away for today.”
He is lucky. I took the night off at the Breeze to come with him this afternoon. I can’t do that every time his friends want to get together though. And I especially can’t miss my weekend shifts at the Uppity Rooster.
Not to mention I don’t want to spend my time with these people. Eve seems nice enough, but there’s the whole problem with getting to know someone too well. They’ll eventually ask questions about why I work so much. They’ll ask questions about my parents, like Arden did at first. But unlike Arden, they might not drop the subject when I want them to.
Coming here was not a good idea.
“I’m sure we can make it work some other time,” Braden says, giving me an encouraging smile. I could probably learn to like Braden. To like Eve. But that’s a dangerous thing to contemplate.
“Hopefully,” I say a little too late. I feel Arden staring at me. But this is partly his fault. I told him I wasn’t good in social situations.
“Alright, man,” Braden says, looking back at Arden. “We’ll catch you later.”
After they’re gone, Arden pulls me behind one of the trucks. “How’s it going?” he says, brushing the back of his hand along my cheek. “Everything okay?”
I push it away, feeling like a brat as I do it. “I don’t think this is going to work out, Arden.”
He visibly stiffens in front of me. “What do you mean?” There’s a bit of raw panic in his voice.
“I mean us. Together. It will never work.”
“It already is working.”
“Arden.” I cross my arms and move away from him when he reaches for me again. “Arden, I’ve already cut all the shifts I can cut. How can you have a girlfriend who isn’t around to actually be your girlfriend? I can’t go to the movies every Friday night and to the beach every weekend.”
“I think you’re getting things confused,” he says. “You’re my girlfriend. Not their girlfriend. What do I care if you can’t hang out with them?” He takes a cautious step toward me and I let him.
“But don’t you want to be a normal couple? Do normal couple things?”
“Carly, you pulled a gun on me the first time I met you. I don’t think ‘normal’ is in the cards for us.” This time I let him pull me to him. He tucks my head under his chin. I can’t help but notice the contented sigh he lets out.
“What did you do with your other girlfriends? I mean, besides, you know…”
He laughs into my hair. “I haven’t called anyone my girlfriend since, like, the third grade. And even then, it was sketchy.”
I giggle into his chest. “I just don’t want you to have any regrets with me. I don’t want to hold you back.”
He lifts my chin with the crook of his finger. “You’ve filled a hole I didn’t know I had in me, Carly. What is there to regret?”
His mouth covers mine.
Twenty
Arden pulls up to the front steps of Uncle Cletus’s house and honks the horn. Cletus opens the door immediately, as if he’s been watching for Arden’s truck. He probably has been.
The morning is beautiful and fresh, with tendrils of sunlight shining down through the oak trees in the front lawn. When Cletus gets in the truck, he comments on as much. “Good day to go out,” he grumbles, as if he’d said the opposite.