One Black Rose (7 page)

“Don’t you watch movies? TV?” Nick asked, before Carley had a chance to engage him in conversation again.

Holt gave an easy shrug. “Not really. I spend most of my time outside.”

“And where exactly is that? Where do you spend your time? Outside?” I asked. Maybe on a different day he’d be more open to questions, but he wasn’t.

“Here and there,” he said, grinning. “Here in the summer, and California and Arizona for most of the winter. I like to be in warm places. Everyone in my family does.”

“Maybe all four of us should go for a walk,” Carley cut in. “As you said, it’s such a nice night and all.”

“Carley, you and I know our way around Castleton. That’s what happens when we come here every summer for sixteen years. Let’s just watch the movie,” said Nick. Carley didn’t look thrilled, but after a moment of hesitation she agreed.

“Okay, you two have fun,” I said, standing up. I felt a little bad about ditching them, but I was spending the whole summer with Carley. It wouldn’t be good if we never did anything separately. Plus, I liked Holt. He was nice and had instantly understood how Nick felt about Carley and tried to make it clear that he wasn’t interested in her. What he was interested in, though, was a complete mystery to me. You’d think if he liked me he would have found excuses to touch me by this point, instead of touching other people and avoiding me.

Before I walked off the porch Carley grabbed my arm and whispered to me, “You’re leaving me alone with Nick? I’ll need glue remover to get rid of him after this.”

I grinned and said, “There are worse things.” Then I followed Holt down the steps and Nick held the front door open for Carley. With a huff of frustration she went inside, with Nick following.

Once Holt and I were safely away from the house I turned to him and asked, “So, how’d you know that Nick liked her?”

Holt laughed. “It’s pretty clear, isn’t it? But she doesn’t have a clue?”

He was right. I’d seen it instantly too. “Nope,” I said, grinning. “She just thinks they’re good friends and he always wants to hang out because he’s bored. And she talks a lot about how annoying he is, but I know that’s just talk. She really cares about him. They’ve been good friends for years.”

“He might be bored, but he definitely likes her,” said Holt. Switching subjects he asked, “Where do you want to walk to?”

“I’m not sure. I guess I’d like to see more of the town,” I said. Really, I had no idea what there was to see.

“Let’s head towards your coffee shop then,” he replied smiling.

“What do you mean ‘my’ coffee shop?” I asked.

“You work there, don’t you?” he asked, seeming surprised.

“Starting tomorrow, but how’d you know?” How did Holt know all this stuff?

“It’s a small town. Word gets around,” he answered casually.

“But your family keeps to itself,” I blurted out without thinking. Luckily, instead of being offended, Holt threw his head back and laughed. “Something like that, yeah.”

As we walked down the street, every person we passed stopped to say hello to Holt. Many had wide smiles on their faces and they all seemed irrepressibly happy to see him. He chatted with every one of them and he definitely didn’t look like he kept to himself. It looked like he knew everyone in town and all of their visiting relatives, too.

Finally, after what felt like the millionth person greeted him that way, I said sarcastically, “I had no idea you were so popular around here.”

He looked at me like he was surprised, but only said, “Yes, I know you didn’t.”

I had no idea what that meant. Other than I knew that I hadn’t been all over him the first, or the second, time I had seen him.

“Why are they all so happy to see you?” I prodded. I was thinking about the girls at the airport. They had reacted the exact same way.

“You don’t believe it’s because of my wit and charm?” he asked, grinning.

“No one’s that happy to see anyone,” I muttered.

“Of course they are. When your parents see you, aren’t they really happy?”

I thought about my parents. They were probably having a screaming match even as we spoke. I shook my head. “I don’t know. I know they’d be happy to see me.” I just wasn’t so sure they were happy to see each other.

Holt could see that talking about my parents made me sad. Without a word he reached into a flower bed at the side of one of the buildings. He plucked out a gorgeous blue flower and gently stroked the petals before he handed it to me. Even without putting it to my nose I could smell its wonderful fragrance. The flower instantly cheered me up a bit and I thanked him for it.

The two of us continued to walk for most of the evening, even after it got completely dark and the street and shop lights came on. At one point we stopped and got ice cream “From the best darn ice cream shop in Maine,” according to the sign. But once it was getting dark, Holt led me home.

We had talked the whole time. Mostly about random stuff, but I realized that I had enjoyed it and it had distracted me from everything going on in my life. It wasn’t like the time had flown by without my noticing, but I knew that I could spend countless nights like that and still be really happy.

Holt might like hanging out with me, but it was pretty clear he just wanted to be friends. The one thing that had nagged at me earlier came back at the end of the evening. I couldn’t help but notice that, when we got back to Carley’s house and Holt’s car, he still hadn’t touched me. Not even a brush against the arm. I told myself it was fine because I didn’t like him that way either. No big deal.

“Can I see you again?” he asked, as I stood on the porch.

“You’re the one that said it was a small town. I’m sure we’ll see each other,” I replied. He just waited. I realized that hadn’t sounded friendly at all. Leave it to me to be so awkward that I push someone I like away. “Sure, hanging out again would be great,” I said. This time he smiled.

I waited on the porch until after his taillights were out of sight down the road. When I turned to go inside I noticed all of Carley’s mom’s flowers surrounding the house. Somehow they all seemed to be glowing.

When I got in I checked on Carley and Nick. They were watching another movie, so I decided to shower and go to bed. I fell asleep with lots of questions about flowers running through my head.

In the morning Carley and I had our first shift of work at UP UP and Away. I couldn’t say I was excited, but since it was cloudy and looked like it might rain, staying inside was probably a good idea.

Once we got to the coffee shop, Carley ran me through a quick review of everything I needed to know. Mostly I would just be at the cash register (we wouldn’t even be working much, said Mrs. Fritters; only a couple of times a week), but I still needed to know where everything was. By early afternoon I had the hang of it enough so that I started ringing people up. Luckily it had been a quiet morning, with most people probably relaxing at home and not wanting to get caught outside for fear it would start pouring.

I hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to Carley yet, but I knew she would ask about all the details of my evening with Holt as soon as she got the chance. For some reason I was dreading it. Carley clearly had a crush on him, which was why Nick had been so mad when he got to the house last night, but he had chosen to hang out with me. I knew she wouldn’t like it.

Suddenly, during a lull in customers, Carley, who was running the barista station, said, “How do you get two gorgeous guys talking to you within twenty-four hours? While I get stuck with good old friend Nick.... Not fair. Speaking of which....” she said as she looked towards the door Nick was just walking through.

“Miss me?” he asked.

“Yeah,” said Carley, “but my aim is improving daily,” she said, hefting a ceramic mug like she was a quarterback ready to throw.

I moved to the cash register. “Hi, Nick, how can I help you?” I asked, grinning at the shocked look on his face.

“You can get him a helmet,” Carley muttered.

“I love you too,” he said jokingly, putting his hands over his heart.

Carley called out to Mrs. Fritters, “Can I take my break now?” When she heard Mrs. Fritters agree, she tossed off her apron and went to join Nick on the other side of the counter.

“She didn’t sleep well,” I said apologetically. Carley grinned at me. “I was only kidding.”

Nick took his iced coffee and went over with Carley to sit at the same table he’d been at when I’d met him a couple of nights ago. I started to organize stuff behind the counter (Carley had already told me that Mrs. Fritters hated it when we just stood around) when I heard the bell on the door ding softly. Instead of spinning right around I continued to organize the sugars, to give the person a minute to look at the menu.

“Excuse me?”

I stuck the last sugar on the shelf and turned around. Leslie Cheshire, the one with long hair, was waiting for me. To my dismay, Samuel was with her. She was wearing a short summer dress and all I could think was that she must be having a hard time walking in those heels.

Trying to be friendly, I smiled at Samuel. A look of surprise briefly crossed his face, but then it settled back into his usual scowl. He didn’t smile back. Today he was dressed in a black t-shirt and khaki shorts, and his hands were once again resting in his pockets.

“I heard you worked here,” said Leslie, smiling at me. “Nice to know the gossip mill is still going strong.”

Samuel stared hard at the menu.

“You remember Samuel,” said Leslie, not seeming to notice that Samuel was very unhappy she was talking to me.

“Hi again,” I said politely.

He merely nodded and went back to memorizing the board.

“We’d like two iced coffees to go, please,” Leslie said to me.

Turning to Samuel, she asked, “We don’t need to rush out of here, do we?”

Then, turning back to me, she said, “Still, you can put them in to-go cups if that’s easier.”

“Fine,” Samuel muttered. “Just as long as she doesn’t touch it.”

I had no idea what that meant, but Samuel looked uncomfortable. Leslie looked angry.

“I brought Nick something,” Samuel said, waving the white and blue Frisbee he held in his left hand. “So that he never has to borrow one or use the beach’s if he wants to play again.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” I said. “He’s over there.” I pointed toward Nick, who waved to Samuel and his cousin, motioning for them to join him. Leslie made a noise that I would have said was a groan if it had come from someone who looked less stuck up, but I’m sure Leslie would never stoop to groaning in public. Leslie had just been so nice to me that I wondered at her reaction to Nick.

“Alright, alright,” she said to Samuel, “only because…you know.” As she reached over to pick up her drink I noticed a strange design on the inside of her arm. I say it was a design instead of a tattoo because it was light-colored, almost so faint as not even to be there. It was gone in a flash. After she’d grabbed up her drink she went over to sit with Nick, while Samuel waited for his coffee to be ready.

I couldn’t imagine a more awkward situation. He clearly didn’t want to be there, but Leslie had ditched him and I was pretty sure it was intentional, which again left me wondering what was going on.

As soon as his drink was ready, I quickly tried to hand it to him. He just stared at it until I set it down on the counter, then he picked it up and walked away.

It might just have been my imagination, but I could have sworn that after he left the area around the counter, the air got warmer. Maybe a draft was coming through one of the windows and the wind had just shifted; it was probably just a coincidence, I decided. Shrugging, I got back to organizing the shelves and ignored my new friends at their table.

The rest of the morning went on like that. Carley came back from her break and we helped a steady flow of customers. There weren’t a lot of places in Castleton to get coffees, so UP UP and Away was pretty popular. Plus, it was right in the center of town.

It got to the point that when I heard customers come in and I was performing some little chore behind the counter, I finished up what I was doing before I helped them, because otherwise I’d never get everything done.

I was performing one of these tasks (putting to-go bags under the register), when I heard a customer come in. It was Holt. He was wearing a blue shirt and light khakis. He also wore a black bracelet, something that Nick would have been teased for if he had worn it. Somehow, it managed to make Holt look even more attractive. It was the first time I had seen him with other people along, two girls, both of whom looked like they were nearer my age than his, maybe even a little younger. One girl’s hair was the color of oranges in the sun and I vaguely wondered if it was natural. The other girl’s was a deep blond, kind of like Holt’s.

The three were met with a chorus of hellos from the other customers in UP UP and Away. They greeted everyone back, taking several minutes to actually come to where I was at the register.

As soon as I saw Holt I realized that in the surprise of having him show up at Carley’s house the night before, I’d forgotten to ask how his dog was doing.