Love Starts with Elle(53)
Heath reached for his tea. “Yeah, I know the feeling.”
The server brought out their dinner, offering ground pepper and cheese toppings. “Can I get y’all anything else?”
Heath glanced at Elle. Good? “We’re fine, thanks.”
The conversation stalled as they ate the first few hot bites of dinner. Elle had been craving brick-oven pizza for a while. She closed her eyes as she chewed. “This was worth you yelling at me for a dead phone battery.”
Heath cut a bit of his meat. “Glad to oblige. Okay, so you were so shut down by this rude professor. What inspired you to paint again?”
Elle wiped her mouth with the edge of her napkin. “A few days ago I was praying at the chapel and”—she tried to pass it off casually with a flip of her wrist—“God kind of asked me what I wanted. The desire to paint came back, so I thought I’d try. Not that I’m going to go showing my work or anything, but I’m taking it one day at a time.”
“I believe God is wiser than Dr. Petit. How about you?”
Elle grinned, shook her head, and bit into her pizza. “Smart aleck.”
SEVENTEEN
A scratchy electric guitar lick-zapped the humid evening air as Heath walked a path of tiki lights to this Bodean guy’s party.
“He’s a friend of yours?” he asked Elle, spotting a circle of men, half of them wearing deputy uniforms, the other half in T-shirts and jeans. “Some party if the cops arrive before the fighting begins.”
Elle laughed, bumping into him as she walked. She could do that all night and he’d not complain. “Bo’s a deputy sheriff and so are most of his friends.”
“Ah-ha.” Way on the other side of the wide party lot, the band’s lead singer belted out Sarah Buxton’s “Stupid Boy.”
Heath walked with his hand lightly touching her back, fascinated by the lively, good-time atmosphere. It reminded him of his Yale frat days before the kegs were tapped and the men drank freely. So far, he’d been there two minutes and no one had run by him beer drenched and naked.
The path to the party split under two signs: This way to Mars. This way to Venus.
“Mars and Venus?” He glanced at Elle.
“It started as a joke one year when Bodean was on and off again with his wife, Marley. Now it’s party tradition.”
“Is there a neutral planet where we can hang out together?” He scanned the landscape.
“Sure. Switzerland.” Elle walked straight ahead, off the path, cutting across the grass and through the trees.
“Switzerland. Man, all this time I was thinking it was a country.”
On the edge of the planetary lights, Elle found a picnic table situated between two oak trees. Heath sat next to her, his feet flat on the bench, arms resting on his knees. Through another set of trees, between the tiki flames and the ground luminaries, he could see the bandstand, a plywood dance floor, and patches of white moonlight.
“You know these people your whole life?” Heath asked.
“Most of them. If I didn’t go to school with them, one of my sisters did. Or, shoot, see Edgar Forest over there?” Her bracelets tangoed when she raised her hand to point out Edgar. “Retired deputy. Went to school with Mama.”
Heath liked the music of her bracelets. Ava had embraced the fashion of a New York journalist. Little makeup, except when on air, and a mostly black wardrobe. If she ever owned bracelets, Heath had never seen them.
Elle fascinated him with her green eye shadow, Cleopatra eyeliner, and a wardrobe color that didn’t start with B and end with K. Ava wore pantsuits and pumps. Elle wore flowered skirts and shorts. Jeans and T-shirts. And Heath wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her wear the same pair of shoes.
“Elle, the prettiest girl in the county. Finally, my party has class.” A skinny man with cropped blond hair and wide shoulders strolled between the trees.
Elle slid off the table. “Bo, now I know you’ve said that to all the girls tonight.”
He pressed his finger to his lips. “Shh, but with you it’s true.” The man held his beer away as he leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Sorry about the whole wedding thing, Elle. The boys decided the man must be crazy for letting you go.”
Elle sat back next to Heath, dismissing Bo’s comment with a pfffbt. “Wasn’t meant to be.”
“Just so you know, we broke our No Girls rule at the Wednesday-afternoon club and voted you an honorary member. Anytime you want to come over, hang out, shoot pool, throw back a few beers, you’re welcome.”
“Bo,” Elle gasped, hand pressed to her chest, “I don’t know what to say. I’m honored.” She sniffled.
Heath grinned at Elle’s expression. He liked seeing this part of her, confident and comfortable among her friends, out from the dark shadow of rejection.
“Bodean, this is my friend and neighbor, Heath McCord.”
He shook Heath’s hand. “Welcome, welcome. Stop on by Mars; we got a good beanbag game going.”
“If I get bored here, I will.”
The comment caused Bo to shift his gaze to Elle. “Well then, see you around.” The man wandered off toward Venus and Heath heard, “Susanna, the prettiest girl in the county. Now my party has class.”
Heath nudged Elle. “He’s a piece of work.”