There's Blood on the Moon Tonight (51 page)

             
Bud looked down at Rusty in the crook of his arm, and made a gesture at the doorway.

             
“Hey, Opie! Wait up!” Rusty caught up with Tubby at the door, and then looked back at Josie. “I’ll drop off that book later today. Okay, Joe?”

             
“What book?” Josie said, before remembering. “Oh! Yeah! Thanks, love.”

             
“What book is that?” Bud asked, noticing the deep blush on Josie’s face. Big Red just smiled mysteriously.

             
                            *******

Josie looked in on her brother while Bud went to his apartment to take a much-needed shower. The boy smelled like the inside of a dirty towel hamper. She wanted to wash the sweat and stink off, too, but Bud had insisted she stay until his dad returned from Beaufort. That way he could drive her and Joel home. In the past she would have simply showered in Bud’s bathroom, and then worn some of his clothes until later—but those days were gone. The sexual tension kept ratcheting up with every passing moment between them now. Especially heavy and humid whenever they were alone. Josie was all too aware of Bud’s eyes; how they crept along her chest, ran lightning quick up and down her legs. And for once it didn’t bother her at all. Truth was she liked it when Bud looked at her
That Way.

             
Even if it frightened her at the same time.

             
She was relieved to find Joel asleep on the sofa. No troublesome questions that way. And knowing her brother, with his one-minute-attention-span, he would forget all about that little scene in the lobby if she didn’t bring it up again. The TV screen was full of hissing snow. Joel lay curled up with her jacket on top of him like a blanket.

             
Josie checked her watch. So much had happened that day, and yet it was only 3:45!

             
She yawned and stretched out alongside the little squirt. The white noise was actually quite lulling. She put her head beside Joel’s and was soon fast asleep.

             
                            *******

Bud took a shower and then ran back to the lobby to remove the
Back in a Jiffy!
sign from the front door. It was hardly necessary. No one was waiting to come in. He thought about running up to the roof, to check on Josie, but he’d spent enough time away from the family business that day. Besides, she was probably napping. No need to disturb her. He checked the clock over the door and silently urged his father to hurry home.  There was so much to discuss…

             
                            *******

After his father got back, the two of them had quite the chat. Bud told his dad what had transpired the past two days—minus the fire they’d set. No way would the old man understand that bit of nonsense—and just as he’d suspected, Bill was mightily intrigued to learn of the Center’s involvement, along with the sheriff and Bidwell’s. Not that he was as shocked as Bud had been. After all his years on the force, nothing surprised him anymore. He assured his son that he’d go along with their alibi.

              “I want you to leave this alone,” Bill told his son, sternly. “I need to digest this for a day or two. Maybe talk it over with some of my old buddies on the force. I think it was a good idea, you telling your friends to stay out of the Pines. Don’t get any more involved, you hear me, Bud?”

             
He got no argument from his son.

             
                            *******

Bud took the stairs, three at a time up to the roof. The heavy load he’d been carrying was now on his old man’s back. Bilbo would know what to do with it, too. Hell, maybe now he could concentrate on his newfound relationship with Josie O’Hara.

Joe and Joel were a-snooze on the sofa. Bud’s hand paused above her shoulder. She looked so beautiful. So peaceful. He hated to disturb her. It was almost six-o’clock, though, and he knew she’d want to go home, to get ready for their date.
Their date!
Wow! Was he really going out on a date with Josie O’Hara? It seemed so inconceivable…and yet so inevitable.
Yeah. Like so much of my life. Inevitable.

He bent over her and kissed the side of her mouth. Josie blinked and smiled up at him. “What a perfectly lovely way to wake someone up,” she purred. She rolled her head back and returned Bud’s kiss, only deeper.

Bud broke it off, in fear Joel might awake to such a shocking sight. Josie looked disappointed.

She licked her lips and whispered,
“Are you sure you’ve never done that before? Because you kiss very, very well. Has anyone ever told you that before, tiger?”

Before Bud could take the bait, Joel woke up.

“Joe? What time is it?” Joel asked his sister. Josie and Bud split apart like a pair of fighters going to their neutral corners. And breathing
just
as heavily, too.

             
              *******

By the time Bud drove the O’Hara’s to their front door in his father’s Jeep, Josie had told her brother that she and Bud were now dating. Joel surprised them both by saying, in a rather bored tone, “Haven’t you always?” He then skipped to the porch without waiting for a reply.

              He stopped at the front door and picked something off the stoop. “Hey, Joe! Rusty left a book for you!”

Josie ran over before her nosy little brother could snoop any further. The ramifications of such a disaster would be both humiliating and long lasting.

Blushing furiously, she snatched it out of his grubby hands. Thankfully Rusty had camouflaged it with a plain brown grocery bag, giving the salacious text the appearance of an ordinary schoolbook. A Post It note read:
Hope this helps you, Big Red. Get it back to me when you’re done.

Love Gnat.

P.S. You
so
nasty!

“Like I give a dookey what you’re studying in History,” Joel said. He rolled his eyes and hurried into the house, late for his afternoon cartoon fix.

Bud was frowning down at the book. “What’s—”

              “See you at…
say
…9:15?” she asked him, holding the book behind her back.

His eyes lifted up. “9:15? The first show starts at 9:30. Don’t you think I should pick you up earlier?”

Josie smiled coyly at him from behind the door. “I want to make sure we’re parked in a secluded spot.”

The door closed on Bud, leaving him alone on her front porch to think that one over.

                            *******

Josie rushed to her room and locked her door. The book:
Sexual Habits of the Modern Teenager in the 21
st
Century
, by Velma T. Larouche, was definitely
not
on the Moon River Academy’s curriculum. The book had very explicit pictures, showing the genitalia of both the male and female teenager (the book claimed all models were nineteen years old). She flipped through the pages at first, looking at the pictures with a growing sense of curiosity. She stopped on the page showing the actual intercourse of two individuals, though the faces—as with all the other photos—were purposely out of focus. Ms. Larouche had succeeded in creating a rather clinical study on sex. Seeing people “Doing It” in brutally honest, black-and-white photos, where even the pores on their skin seemed magnified, wasn’t the visual experience Josie had been expecting. Without a face to attach to the participants, the act of intercourse was little more than a bodily function. No sense of romance at all. She wondered if a boy would view these pictures so dispassionately. Somehow, she didn’t think so.

After staring at the stark photos of fully engorged male members (
Och! Does Bud’s penis really look like that?),
Josie turned to the chapter on masturbation.

After reading through the chapter for the second time (complete with pictorial instruction), Josie checked her watch. It was already 8:00! She’d ignored Shayna’s call to supper, choosing to study instead. Shayna had prepared her usual Saturday night repast. Grilled cheese and tomato soup, with a side of Saltines. Now she was impatient to catch the next ferry to the mainland. She yelled at Josie through the door to look after her brother for the evening.

Josie didn’t bother replying. She had learned a long time ago to tune out Shayna. Anyway, she knew her responsibilities better than her mother ever would.

Josie took a shower, shaved her legs and armpits, and wandered over to Shayna’s bedroom closet; the pickings in her own closet being much too spare. After much indecision, she settled on a pleated green skirt. To go with her eyes, her favorite feature. She zipped up and stood admiring herself in her mother’s full-length mirror; swinging her hips from side-to-side, so that the skirt twirled up her thighs. She liked the way it made her legs look. Sleek, strong, and sexy. Finding a top to go with the skirt was even more problematic. Eventually, she decided on a simple peasant blouse she had always admired on her mother. Despite its plunging neckline, the white blouse was modest by Shayna’s usual slutty standards—downright scandalous by Josie’s. Then again, that’s the look she was going for tonight. The bodice lifted and accentuated the fullness of her breasts, leaving much of the upper-half utterly exposed. She giggled. “
Udderly
exposed!”

She looked like one of those busty barmaids that Hammer Studios used to love to imperil, back in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. She’d spent so much time and energy covering up her recent assets that it felt weird doing the opposite now. She tugged at the neckline, trying to cover a bit more cleavage. “Och! It looks like a plumber’s butt crack!”

By the time she made up her mind to wear flip-flops, instead of her mother’s dressy white sandals, Bud was rapping on the front door. That in itself was weird. They had always freely entered each other’s homes (except for Rusty, who only came over when Shayna was out of the house). Bud hadn’t knocked since they were ten.

She made herself sit on the bed and take a deep breath. She held out her hand and watched it tremble.

Jaysus pleezus! I’m a flipping wreck! Is Bud feeling like this, too?
She heard Joel open the front door and say: “What’re you standing out there for? She’s in her room. Hey, nice haircut. Did you piss off the barber or what?”

Josie waited on the edge of her bed until she realized Bud wasn’t coming back for her. She’d been right about that. Her bedroom was now off limits to him, even if she’d said nothing to that effect. She got up and checked herself out in the cracked mirror over her dresser. She wasn’t the kind of girl who understood or even cared about her outer beauty. She did take some pleasure from her hair, however, and took the time to brush it again. She considered tying it back with one of Shayna’s pretty silk ribbons but dismissed the idea as too girly, preferring instead to let her hair drape down to her shoulders. She yanked up the neckline again, and then left her bedroom.

She barely recognized the tall boy standing by her front door. Bud was wearing brand new Levi’s and his favorite button-down shirt, neatly pressed. The blue shirt made his Paul Newman eyes stand out like dreamy pools of limpid light. Josie felt her heart do a strange little
skipitty-skip
in her chest. The flutter of love, she supposed. Completing Bud’s fresh ensemble were his best Timberlakes, the laces tied just so. He’d shaven the stray hairs from his chin, and this made her smile. It was really scratchy when they kissed. The most pleasant surprise, though, had to be the haircut, despite her brother’s opinion to the contrary. Stylishly trimmed, his bangs no longer made a mystery of his gorgeous eyes.

Bud had been a busy little boy since she’d last seen him! A splash of Old Spice finished off the presentation on just the right note. It was her daddy’s old scent.

The only thing missing from the picture was a heart-shaped box of candy and a fistful of flowers.

Bud looked uncomfortable under her direct gaze, and kept averting his eyes from hers. Josie couldn’t help but notice how they flickered to and from her breasts. Too respectful to linger; too hungry to stay away. He seemed completely flustered and out of sorts. Unlike Bud Brown in every way. The effect was altogether charming.

Suddenly self-conscious, Josie crossed her arms over her chest and
stared down at the floor, wondering if she should go put on another blouse. “Do you think I should change shirts?” she asked him rather timidly. 

Joel piped in from the living room, where he was watching his favorite cartoon,
Sponge Bob Squarepants.
“I can see your dirty pillows! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Carrie, go to your closet! Go to your closet, right now!”

Josie blushed and looked up at Bud, both of them grinning nervously.

Bud met her eyes, and the eyes—as Tubby knew so well—never lie. Bud’s blinking blue eyes were no exception. He shook his head and sighed. “Don’t change on my account, Josie. I for one
like
your dirty pillows.”

“Oh, pleassse,”
Joel gagged from the sofa.

             
“Me eyes are up here, tiger,” she said to Bud, who blushed on cue. She looked him up and down again, making him really squirm this time. “You look pretty awesome yourself. I really dig the haircut. I can see your eyes now. Gee, I never knew they were blue.”