Hale Maree (15 page)

“
Like what?”

“
She was always going out
with her friends. I didn’t mind a few girls’ nights, but even our
time together was always a group event. I got tired of it never
being just the two of us. Then, I found out that all the girls’
nights were always at a nightclub. The main reason I have for going
to a nightclub is to find a girl. She didn’t see it as a problem if
she danced with other men, as long as she ended up at my house at
the end of the night. But I had a big problem with it.”

Faithful, loyal. That’s the problem that he
means. I’m beginning to feel like I know him better than Sophia
ever did.

“
Didn’t you ask her not to
go?”

“
Sure,” he says. “She
insisted she was never doing anything, but I thought it was
disrespectful that she went at all.”

“
That’s why the thing with
Rick Tatum...”

“
It made perfect sense,”
Oscar finishes for me, “but when she came up here, and I spoke to
her, she didn’t seem to have a clue as to what I was talking about.
I don’t know that she could’ve faked it that well. All her calling
seems a little psycho, but Sophia isn’t nuts. I think she was as
shocked to find out about you, as I was to hear about Tatum, but
now I really don’t think she had a clue who he was.”

“
Then who sent the guy?” I
ask.

My stomach turns to lead. I’m scared to
death that he’s going to say he suspects my father. Ever since I
overheard him wondering to Sophia, I’ve wondered too, if my father
could be capable of doing something so devious, just to get some
money out of an old friend. It seems impossible, but so does the
idea that my father would make a deal and just hand me over like
livestock, to marry his friend’s son. The part that still confuses
me is how my father could just accept it all; how easily he
accepted the truck and the tractor service, how easy it was to give
me away to marry a stranger.

And, if Oscar suspects my father, he will
suspect me too. I don’t know what that will mean, if I am married
to him. I don’t know what it will mean, if I’ve fallen in love with
him. I am hardly breathing when Oscar says, “I don’t know yet. But
don’t worry. I’m going to find out.”

“
Do you think it’s anyone
you know?”

“
Yes, I think it might be,”
he says, turning his sharp gaze to me. “But I’m not going to
falsely accuse anyone, Hale, so that’s all I’m saying for
now.”

“
Okay,” I squeak. When he’s
stripped down to his boxers, it’s not like I don’t notice every
inch of him, but I’m just too worried now. What if it was my
father? I want to ask, to know if that’s what he’s thinking, but
I’m scared of what the answer might be.

Oscar slips under the sheet, folding his
arms under his head. He’s watching me now, the sharpness in his
gaze replaced by an almost sensual look of observation. I’m still
standing in the middle of the room, just standing there, like a
dumb ass.

“
You going to call your
friend?” he asks.

“
Uh, yeah,” I say, and turn
my back to him, as I walk to the mitt-shaped chair. I fall into it,
curl up my legs, and dial Sher. She picks up on the second
ring.

“
You have to call me MORE
THAN ONCE A DAY!” she hollers. She’s not upset though. She’s just
being Sher. I laugh.

“
Sorry,” I tell her. “I’ll
try.”

“
So what have you been
doing?” she asks. I really can’t tell her everything I want to, not
with Oscar watching me. But, typical Sher, she doesn’t give me much
time to answer. “What’s going on with Oscar? DON’T TELL ME YOU’VE
HAD AN OSCAR MEYER YET? OH MY GOD!! I’m going to be the last virg
on EARTH!”

I twist in the chair, so I can put as much
of my back to him as possible, and whisper into the phone, “No.
Shut up, okay? That didn’t happen.”

“
But it’s going to!” Sher
squeals.

“
Stop. Seriously,” I say.
Sher lets out a long
oooooooh.

“
Oh man—he’s there right
now, isn’t he?” she whispers back.

“
Mmm hmm.”

“
Just say yes or no, then.
Have you
tasted
the Oscar Meyer yet?”

“
Ugh,” I hide my eyes
beneath one hand. “No!”

“
Alright, alright. Have you
even seen it?”

I chew on my thumbnail. “No.”

“
Has he seen your
poof?”

“
No!”

“
Don’t be touchy. He’s had
you a few days, and I need to know if you’re going to come back
damaged.”

“
Stop. Again.”

“
Well, you know you are. You
can’t go get married and not break your hymen.”

“
I will hang up this phone
right now if you don’t stop talking.”

“
Fine. Okay. So, has he
squeezed the melon? Felt around the first floor? Nuggled with a
hobbit?”

I laugh at that one. “What did you just
say?”

“
You know what I mean. Did
he?” she asks. I chew my thumbnail again.

“
Yes.”

“
Oh my GOD!” she shrieks and
I have to pull the phone away from my ear so she doesn’t shatter my
eardrum. Oscar chuckles from the bed, and I try to fan my hair over
that side of my face to hide the blush.

“
Last chance to shut up,” I
tell her.

“
Was he good at it? Can he
kiss, or is he all...” she makes noises in the phone that sound
like she’s been coated in peanut butter and is being mulled by a
basset hound.

“
Yeah, it’s what you
said.”

“
Good? Did I say good, or do
you mean bad?”

“
No,” I blush, even with my
face pointed toward the wall. “Good.”

“
YAY!” Sher
hoots.

“
Okay, I’ve got to go,” I
tell her. I want to keep talking, but I can’t keep doing it with
Oscar behind me. Not when he might be able to hear every fool thing
that comes out of Sher’s mouth.

“
No! I miss you,” she
shrieks. “Don’t go. There’s nothing to do, and nobody to talk to
anymore!”

“
I miss you something
horrible too,” I tell her. “But I won’t be gone
forever.”

“
When will you be
back?”

I realize I have no idea. “Soon,” I lie.
“We’ve got to go dress shopping, right?”

“
I’ve been ripping out
magazine photos for ideas. What color do you want to go with for
the bridesmaid dresses?”

“
I don’t know. Whatever you
want, I guess. You’re the only one.”

“
I get to pick? But it’s a
big decision, Hale! It’s huge!”

“
And I want you to pick,” I
say.

“
Ok, ok, ok,” Sher says. I
bet she’s waving her hands in a panic. “Purple. It’s your favorite
color. Let’s do purple.”

“
Whatever you want, Sher.
You’d look really nice in red. You sure you don’t want
red?”

“
That’s whorey. You can’t do
whorey for a wedding.”

“
This one you could,” I
laugh, and she laughs too, but I can hear how she doesn’t want
to.

“
Purple,” she says. “I want
purple, okay? It’ll be gorgeous.”

“
Whatever you want is fine
with me.”

“
I want you to be
happy...and looking at a purple-covered bridesmaid. I’ve been
babysitting Mrs. Carlson’s kids to put some money away for
it.”

“
Cool,” I say. “We can go to
Salvation Army when I get back.”

“
The thrift shop?” Oscar
shouts from the bed. “You two aren’t going to the thrift store for
dresses. Tell Sher that I’m paying. Tell her not to worry about
it.”

“
Oh my God, was that Oscar?”
she says.

“
Yeah,” I tell her. “He says
he wants to pay.”

“
He’s so awesome, Hale. I
think he really is.”

“
Maybe,” I whisper into the
phone with a tiny grin. I wind some hair around my finger.
“Maybe.”

CHAPTER TEN

I SLEEP ON TOP OF THE covers to prove a
point. But when I wake up, I’m under the covers, sweating, with
Oscar’s heavy arm slung over my waist. As I try to slide away, he
tightens his grip and pulls me against him.

“
Don’t go,” he mumbles into
my hair.

“
We’ve got to get up. What
time is it anyway? Amy’s probably waiting to go
shopping.”

“
If Landon’s butt is
cooperating,” Oscar says. I wiggle out from under his
arm.

“
We won’t know if it is,
until we go down there,” I say. Oscar rolls onto his back,
watching, as I grab my bag. I pull out fresh clothes and my shoddy
make-up case.

“
What did you want to get
today?” he asks. I shrug. I don’t have any money, so I guess I
don’t really want anything.

“
Nothing,” I say, like it
doesn’t matter.

“
I’ve never known a girl to
go shopping and come back with nothing.”

“
Oh? How many girls have you
shopped with?” I ask, trying to derail him from the fact that I
don’t have a penny to my name.

“
A few,” he says, his voice
thoughtful, as I sweep up my hair and tie it in a messy
ponytail.

“
I’m going to go grab a
shower. I’ll be back,” I say, as I escape downstairs before he can
ask me anything else.

#

Landon, pounding on the door, cuts my shower
short. I turn off the water and pull back the curtain, just in time
to hear Landon’s panicked voice begging me to get out of the
bathroom quick. I wrap myself in a towel, grab my clothes, and
squeeze past Landon, as he bustles into the bathroom, mumbling
apologies before slamming the door shut.

“
He was doing so good,” Amy
says. “He still thinks he wants to go, but we should probably wait
until he comes out for our final answer, okay?”

“
Sure,” I say. I don’t want
to have a conversation with Amy, while I’m making a puddle on the
floor, so I scramble up the stairs. But once I’m at the top, I
realize I’m in an even worse position now. Oscar is dressed and
fastening his watch when I walk in.

“
You’re wet,” he
says.

“
Don’t try to impress me
with your genius abilities,” I joke. He smiles, but he doesn’t
leave the room, so I say, “Landon might need somebody to roll the
bottle of Pepto under the door. He’s in the bathroom again. Don’t
you want to go downstairs, and take care of your
friend?”

“
Want to? No,” he says,
taking a seat on the mitt-chair. He drops his voice to a whisper.
“Especially when there’s a wet woman in my bedroom and, even less
so, if I have to be down there with Amy, all by myself.”

“
She’s not the big bad
wolf,”

“
You don’t know her very
well,” he laughs. “Besides, I don’t want to miss what’s happening
up here.”

“
I’m not changing in front
of you,” I say. He lifts a brow quizzically. A
challenge.

“
I’m not,” I repeat. I look
away, out the bedroom window, so his gaze won’t make me coward-out
on what I want to say. “You told me that if I wanted to slow down,
we could. You said that you wouldn’t push me, but you are. What
you’re doing right now is pushing me.”

Oscar gets to his feet.

“
I guess you’re right,” he
says. “Absolutely right. But I was hoping you’d trust me. I was
hoping you’d want me to see you.”

“
I don’t,” I say.

“
Okay,” he replies. “I said
I could wait, and I meant it. I’ll be downstairs with the big bad
wolf.”

As he starts down the steps, I dress
quickly, worrying that he might change his mind and come back up
the stairs. And worrying about the part of me that wants him
to.

#

“
You’re a warrior, buddy,”
Oscar tells Landon. “Just don’t shit in my car.”

“
Very funny,” Landon says.
“It was better this morning. I drank another bottle of the pink
stuff, so I should be good to go.”

“
Great,” Oscar says, as we
pile into the car. We drive for an hour, stopping twice, once at a
gas station and once at a creepy diner, so Landon doesn’t explode.
Each time, Oscar tries to convince Landon to go back, but Landon
insists we soldier on to the mall.

When we get there, Landon disappears for
fifteen minutes while we stand at the entrance of the huge outdoor
mall. We stand at the very tip of the cobblestone walkway, with
shops stretching along either side, and with statues and trees
rooted on manicured patches of grass in the middle. The
cobblestones meander off to more shops to the left and right, and
Amy’s already gushing that the mall seems like it’s a mile long. I
can’t imagine what kind of hell this must look like to Landon
today.

He joins us again, a few minutes later, and
says, “How about we go find some more Pepto while the girls go
shop?”

“
It’s a plan,” Oscar says.
Amy kisses Landon, and Oscar wraps his arms around me in a tight
hug. There’s a tug on my pocket and I try to twist away, but Oscar
doesn’t let go.

“
There’s some money in your
pocket for shopping,” he whispers in my ear. “Have fun with
it.”