Welcome To Hickville High (Hickville High Series Book 1), page 10
“May I help you?” Mrs. Hensen held an order pad in her hand. Austin looked at Kelsey, still reeling from the force of her smile. Mrs. Hensen rapped her knuckles on the counter. “Austin! You gonna order or are you gonna keep staring at that girl?”
He faced the counter and the portly woman standing behind it. “Two tall Grenadas.”
Kelsey bent beneath the counter to look at the pastries inside the display case.
He reached over and touched her shoulder. “You hungry?”
His touch surprised her and she jerked up and smacked her head on the counter. “Oww.”
Austin felt he should hug her or pat her head or something. Instead he just sort of held his hands out toward her and hoped he didn’t look too stupid. “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
She took a step back from him. “Yeah, fine.” She rummaged through her purse and mumbled, “I have some money in here somewhere.”
“Don’t worry about it. My treat. After all, I injured you.”
She looked up at him. “You didn’t throw a snake at me.”
Mrs. Hensen knocked on the counter again. “You gonna order anything else?”
Austin looked at Kelsey and waited for an answer.
“I’d like a slice of carrot cake.”
Mrs. Hensen nodded. “Is that all?”
“Yes ma’am.” Austin pulled his wallet from his back pocket and handed the woman a twenty.
While they waited for their order, Austin looked around the crowded coffee shop. “There’s a table next to Courtney and Britney.”
“Hmm. I think you promised to show me downtown. How about if we take our drinks to go?”
“What about your carrot cake?”
“I can eat and walk.”
Mrs. Hensen handed them their drinks and a slice of the cake. Kelsey slid the cake onto a napkin and followed Austin toward the exit.
As they approached the door and Courtney and Britney’s table, Austin placed his hand low on Kelsey’s back and ducked his head close to hers. “If I talk to you, we might get past them without being stopped.” When they got to the door, he heard Courtney call to him. But instead of stopping, he rushed through, pushing Kelsey ahead of him. When they were safely outside he said, “I didn’t hear anything, did you?”
“No, nothing.” They headed down the sidewalk. She took a sip from her frozen drink and closed her eyes briefly. “Okay, this is amazing. It’s like brown sugar and coffee. No, it’s more like chocolate chip cookie dough before the flour and chocolate chips—only better.”
“Wait until you taste Mrs. Hensen’s carrot cake.”
She balanced the slice of cake on the flat of her hand and bit off the corner. “Oh my God, this is amazing. Want some?”
“Yeah.” He tore off a piece. It was good, but the feeling of her so close to him made him think crazy things, like what her lips might taste like.
With the drink in her right hand and the cake perched on her left, she struggled to take the next bite without getting cream cheese frosting all over her face. “I’m going to be a mess by the time I finish this.”
“Hang on, follow me.” He led her across the street to the two-foot wall surrounding the grounds of the courthouse.
They sat with their drinks next to them. Kelsey balanced the slice of cake on the flat of her hand and said, “Have some more.” He pulled a bite from the cake, not because he wanted it, but because he liked the way he caught a whiff of her hair when he leaned close. She popped the last piece in her mouth and tried to wipe her hands. Bits of napkin stuck to her fingers and the more she wiped the worse it got.
She held her hands in front. “I feel like a little kid, I’m so sticky. Is there a bathroom where I can wash my hands?”
He was about to answer when her phone rang in her purse. “Will you get my phone?”
“Out of your purse?”
“Yes.”
“But, that’s like—no man’s land.”
“Come on, I can’t get it.”
She turned to give him access to the bag suspended from her shoulder. He gritted his teeth and reached into the purse until he felt the phone. He pulled it out and read aloud. “Call from your dad.”
“Can you hold it to my ear?”
He tapped Answer and held the phone so she could talk. “Hi, Dad. What’s up?” She sucked sugar off the tips of her fingers as she listened. “Austin is just showing me around town. Can we meet you in…” Kelsey looked at Austin. “…Thirty minutes?” Austin nodded. “Thanks, Dad, see you then.” She pulled her head away from the phone.
Austin tapped End, dropped it in her purse, and picked up her Granada. “Come on, there’s a fountain on the other side.”
They walked around the corner to the Fallen Hereo’s fountain centered in front of the west entrance of the courthouse. It was a simple design, a bronze representation of the American flag with the flags of the Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard surrounding it. Water sprayed from the perimeter of the fountain toward the flags in the middle.
Austin led Kelsey down a path of engraved stones leading to the fountain. “The fountain was built after nine-eleven. The stones honor fallen soldiers dating back to the Alamo.” They stopped in front of a granite stone next to the fountain. Austin read it aloud. “Edward Maccafferty. Defender of the Alamo. Died in battle March 6, 1836.”
“Wow, and you want me to rinse my hands in this sacred water?”
Austin sat on the wall of the fountain and patted the seat next to him. “Come on, your hands might rot off, but other than that, it’ll be fine.”
Kelsey stuck her hands in the spray of water. She tried to stretch them far enough in front to avoid getting splashed, but the water ricocheted and nailed her right in the forehead. She squealed and jumped back, laughing. “Great. Now, I’m dripping wet.” She dried her hands on her jeans and dabbed her face with the sleeve of her shirt.
Austin grinned. “I didn’t expect you to bathe in it.”
She stuck her hand in the spray, directing it toward him. A small stream hit him in the arm but most of it deflected onto her face again. Through giggles she said, “I can’t win.”
He grabbed her free hand and pulled her to sit next to him. “Cut it out before you drown yourself.”
She looked at him with water dripping from her bangs, down her cheeks, off her nose, and around her lips. “At least I’m not about to faint from heat exhaustion anymore.”
He tried to think of something sarcastic to say but he couldn’t drag his mind away from the way the water droplets sprinkled across her face made her look rejuvenated somehow, even with mascara smudged beneath her eyes. “Um, your eyes…”
Kelsey nodded. “I have raccoon eyes, don’t I?”
Great, Austin, insult the girl. Way to score points. “A little, but they’re not that bad.” Her bangs began to curl across her forehead and he got the sense the real Kelsey was hidden beneath the makeup and hair product. He definitely wanted to see more.
Kelsey wiped her eyes with her index finger. “I have an idea. Let’s go back to the Grind and see your friends—I can really impress them now.” Her tone was teasing but her voice was laced with insecurity.
He brushed a wayward curl from the corner of her eye. “You look great to me.”
She stood and looked up at the courthouse. “So tell me about this building. It seems so out of place.”
Crap, I shouldn’t have touched her. Austin stood next to her. “Think so?”
“Yeah, it’s so—gothic.”
“It’s pretty cool.” He pointed to the arched entrance on the corner of the building. “Do you see the faces carved in the stone?” See, we’re just friends having a boring conversation about architecture.
“The faces on top of the columns?” She grabbed her drink and walked to the steps leading to the entrance.
Austin followed. “Yes. As we walk around the courthouse, you’ll see them on all four entrances, but they change.”
“Change how?”
“I’ll show you. Here, Mabel, that’s the face, is pretty. Now follow me.” They walked to the next corner and stared up at the arched entrance. “See, Mabel is beginning to lose her good looks.”
Kelsey looked in the direction Austin pointed. “Her eyes have a kind of eerie deep-set look and her teeth are crooked.”
“Yeah. The story goes, when the courthouse was built, they brought in an Italian sculptor who apparently fell in love with the daughter of the boarding-house landlady.”
“Mabel.”
“Right. Anyway, she didn’t return his affection and as their relationship deteriorated, her likeness grew uglier and uglier.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, come on.” They headed down the sidewalk to the next corner.
Kelsey gazed at the stone building. “So as you walk around the building you see the fall of a relationship. Or is it that a beautiful woman is unmasked to reveal her real self?” They stopped and studied the next set of carvings. “Yikes, she’s morphing into a witch in these.”
“Just wait.”
They walked to the fourth corner of the building. Austin watched Kelsey study the carvings. Soft curls fell around her face and he noticed freckles dotting her nose that he hadn’t seen before. Her blue eyes were big and curious.
She looked closer. “Man, he must have really hated her. She’s monstrous.” Her gaze fell to him, and then jerked back to the building.
Damn. She’d caught him staring.
She stepped back from the entrance. “An immortal illustration of unrequited love. Harsh.”
He hoped she wasn’t making some weird veiled reference to him staring at her. She was cute, that was all. He moved next to her. “It depends on how you look at it.”
“Huh?”
“The whole unrequited love thing.” Austin led Kelsey back the direction they’d just come. “I always wonder if legend has it wrong. Maybe she became more beautiful as he got to know her. It’s all in how you look at it.”
“And the path you take.” Kelsey squinted at Austin. “I like that.”
He gave a shrug. “I like happy endings.”
Kelsey nodded. They were silent as they retraced their steps to the fountain, but as they walked, their arms brushed against each other. It was all Austin could do to keep from grabbing her hand. Instead, he looped a reminder in his brain that she had a boyfriend.
When they reached the fountain, her phone played a tune signaling a call. Her face lit up when she pulled it from her purse. “Drew! You called!”
She sat on the wall surrounding the fountain and Austin stepped away to give her privacy. He pretended to study the beautiful faces above the columns, but he had positioned himself to have a clear view of the sun kissed girl perched on the fountain wall.
But the girl pulled a mirror from her purse and, with her cell balanced between her shoulder and ear, was messing with her hair and makeup. She did a lot of smiling and nodding but it looked about as real as the faces on the courthouse. The conversation didn’t last long. She dropped the phone into her purse, pulled out a tube of lip-gloss, and smoothed it across her mouth.
Austin hated to kiss a girl with that stuff on her lips. But, he wasn’t going to kiss this girl. She was taken.
*
Kelsey took a deep breath and stood. “I guess we should go to the feed store.”
Austin wiped sweat from his forehead with his forearm. “Yeah, probably so.” They headed for his truck. “So, your boyfriend called. Is he still in Europe?”
“Yes. But he’s coming home early.” She tried to look happy, like it was a good thing.
Austin nudged her with his shoulder. “He couldn’t stay away, huh?”
“His parents have a lake house and are insisting they spend the rest of the summer together as a family. So—he won’t be coming to Texas anytime soon.” She shrugged like it didn’t matter, but it did. Drew was her tie to everything she wanted. He kept her focused on what mattered.
“That sucks.”
“Yeah, well, that’s pretty much my life, lately.”
“You do mention that a lot.”
Wow, she did mention it a lot. She was feeling sorry for herself and Austin was dealing with the dad from hell. “I do, don’t I. I’ve been kind of a jerk. I just need to find a job so I can go to Chicago.”
“No luck, huh?”
“Since I don’t have a car, I don’t have a way to get to town to look.” Please say you’ll take me, please say you’ll take me.
“I can take you.”
“Really? That would be so awesome.”
“Sure. If we get an early start tomorrow, we can go before we have to be at the feed store.”
“Thank, you!” She went in for a hug, but only made it half way to full body contact because crazy sparks zinged between them. She let her arms fall to her sides and stepped back. “We’d better get to the store.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to get you in trouble.”
Speaking of which… “Hey, Austin?”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t exactly have permission to look for a job. I want to surprise them.”
“Okay.” He clicked the Unlock on his key fob. “I can keep a secret.”
They were both quiet as they drove to the store. Normally, Kelsey would feel uncomfortable in the silence and try to fill the space with awkward conversation. She didn’t feel that way with Austin. What she did feel, scared the hell out of her. Crazy stuff swirled inside her. All sorts of sparks were flying. Kelsey wasn’t sure when she noticed the electricity. Maybe it was in the coffee house when he placed his hand on her back. Or maybe it was when she sprayed her face at the fountain, but whenever it started, she was fully into flirt mode before she realized it. And then, he walked so close to her, her arm hair stood on end. What was that all about? Drew was her boyfriend. He was everything she ever wanted in a guy. Drew gave her security and now Austin had come along and turned everything sideways.
11
In Port Arthur, Texas, obnoxious odors may not be emitted while in an elevator.
Austin parked in front of The Early Bird Café. Kelsey was half way out of the truck before he had a chance to turn off the engine. The plan was for Austin to wait for her in the coffee shop while she popped into one of the boutiques and landed a job. In her head, getting a job would be a breeze. Surely the stores would jump at the chance to hire a young, fashionable sales person.
In reality, not so much. She tried every old-lady store and a couple of junk shops posing as antique stores. The answer was pretty much the same everywhere. We don’t need any extra help, but if you want you can leave your name and number in case something changes. With twenty minutes left to get to the feed store, she’d run out of options.
The door to the café was propped open and the floor fans roared on high. Defeated and deflated, she crossed the threshold. Austin stood as soon as he saw her and said, “No luck, huh?”
“I tried pretty much every store on the square.”
“There’s always the diner.”
Waitress in a red neck café? Could she do it? What choice did she have? Besides, she only needed about six hundred dollars for the airline tickets. The gala was still a little over a month away. She’d probably only have to work a few shifts to earn that kind of money. “Do you think they’ll hire me?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Let’s find out.”
Kelsey watched Mrs. McCoy fill coffee cups at a table of old men. She wore the same Cowboy Up T-shirt she’d worn the first time Kelsey had seen her. Then she thought the woman looked like a trailer-trash waitress in a redneck café. Now, she was about to ask that woman for a job. This was her last option. If Mrs. McCoy turned her down, Kelsey could kiss Chicago goodbye.
After the last cup was topped off Austin spoke up. “Mom, do you have a minute? Kelsey needs to talk to you.”
“Sure, honey.” Mrs. McCoy set the coffee pot on an empty table and walked to where they stood.
Kelsey took a deep breath. “I—I need a job. Austin said you might need some help.”
Mrs. McCoy raised her brows. “I’ll have to talk to the boss, but we can usually use an extra hand around here. Can you work the lunch rush?”
“Absolutely. When is it?”
“Eleven to two.”
“That’s perfect.” I hope.
“Hang on, let me talk to T-bone.” She grabbed the pot and disappeared through the kitchen door.
T-bone? Seriously?
Kelsey looked around the café. It had only been a little more than a week since she’d been here with her family, but it was if she were seeing it for the first time. It was more than a bunch of tacky decorations. Hillside’s history was chronicled on the walls. She studied a yellowed newspaper declaring the war was over. “Reading this stuff is like a history lesson.”
Austin nodded. “Look at this one.”
She followed him to a black and white photo of three men standing at a bar. They looked like something from a western movie. They all had bushy mustaches, were dressed western, and had one boot resting on the rail around the base of the bar. “Who are they?”
“I don’t know. But the bar is what is now The Grind—the place we had the Grenada.”
“Oh, yeah. Wow, that’s so cool.”
“Sometimes when I go to The Grind, I try to imagine those men standing at the bar. I even gave them names. Billy, Sammy, and Tommy.”
“Why those names?”
“I don’t know? I was like five.”
About a foot away from the men was a color photograph of a football player holding a giant trophy. “That’s my dad.” It was weird seeing pictures of her dad plastered around town. It was like looking at a stranger. A longing to know the boy in the picture tugged at her.
“Yeah and that’s the state champion trophy. It’s crazy that he never told you about his football days.”
“He never talked about Hillside at all—except for Uncle Jack and Aunt Susan. The only cousins we have are on Mom’s side.” Why hadn’t he talked about his glory days? It had to have something to do with the girl Aunt Susan mentioned. She was sure unearthing the mystery of Cassidy Jones would expose the skeletons in her Dad’s past. Was she willing to do that? Oh yeah—more than willing.
