All the Ugly and Wonderful Things(22)

When I sat down at the desk, I saw what she was doing with the parts catalog. She’d gone through all my scribbly notes and filled out the order form. I drank up the rest of her pop while I checked it over. She didn’t get annoyed about that. Like she figured I was the boss so she needed to get my okay.

Leaning on the desk next to me, Wavy ran her finger across the blotter calendar and brought it to rest on the seventh. At some point, just doodling, I’d drawn a heart around the number.

“Yeah, today’s my ma’s birthday. That’s why I took the flowers out.” Wavy still had her finger on the day, so I knew she was waiting for more. I was afraid to say anything else for fear I’d get to crying, when I’d managed the whole day not to. “Her name was Adina. She died four years ago. In the winter, but she liked the summer better. That’s why I take her flowers for her birthday.”

I wiped my eyes quick and Wavy was polite enough not to look at me while I did it. She moved her finger down to the nineteenth and then brought it up to touch her chest.

“Is that your birthday? The nineteenth?”

Wavy nodded. That was rare, her telling me something I hadn’t even asked. She was usually more interested in finding things out, like with the tattoo. When I picked up a pen, she leaned forward on her elbows, waiting to see what I was gonna do. It needed to be big, to let her know I thought it was important. In big enough letters to fill the whole square, I wrote WAVY’S BIRTHDAY. She looked so happy I went back to the date and drew a heart around the nineteen.

When I laid the pen down, she put her hand on my arm, like she trusted me. Then she stepped between my knees and slid her hand up my arm to the back of my neck. She leaned in so close, her cheek almost touched mine. I kept real still, like you would if a little bird came and landed on your finger. For half a minute, I didn’t even breathe.

It wasn’t like me trying to hug her on the farmhouse porch. She’d done this herself.

She pressed her chin into my shoulder, and then damned if she didn’t sniff my hair. I knew I had to be rank, but she sniffed at me like I was fresh as daisies. Exhaled in my ear, and took another deep breath.

To leave her a way to escape, I only put one arm around her. She trembled so hard, I figured she was set to run away, so I loosened my arm to let her, but instead she put her other arm around my neck and pressed her bony little self against my belly. She was so small it kinda scared me.

“Hold on tight,” she said, so I put both my arms around her and squeezed.

I turned my head to sniff her hair the way she did mine. Honeysuckle and what I figured the ocean must smell like—sharp and salty. She giggled, and I had the weirdest feeling she was about to say something else, but someone in the shop called, “Is Kellen around?”

Liam.

I let go of Wavy, and as soon as I pushed my chair back, she got on her knees and scrambled under the desk. Barely made it before Liam opened the office door and started in about this party he was throwing out at the ranch. Before the party, he wanted me to go out drinking with him. He never was happy having just one thing going.

“There’s this girl I want you to meet out at the Rusted Bucket,” he said.

It was pretty much the last thing I wanted to do, but all I cared about was getting Liam out of there without seeing Wavy. Sometimes when I’d look at that scar on her lip, I thought about killing him. Right then, I thought about the big old Colt revolver Cutcheon kept in the desk drawer. Instead, I came around the desk toward the door, so Liam had to step back into the garage.

“Well, I need a shower first. I’m filthy,” I said, as I pulled the office door shut behind me.

“So go take a shower and meet me out there.”

“At the Bucket?”

“Yeah. We’ll have a few drinks and then take the girls out to the ranch.”

Girls. By the time I showed up at the bar, Liam had these two girls in a booth with him. A pretty blonde with stripper tits and this brunette with a snake tattoo running up her arm from her hand to her shoulder. That’s the one Liam wanted me to meet. I wasn’t stupid. I could figure the situation easy enough. Both girls were interested in Liam and he wanted to keep them both on the hook.

Two drinks later and Snake Girl was at least pretending to be interested in me. Her name was too confusing to remember: something like Marie-Elena or Maria-Lena.

“So, you’re a mechanic? Liam said you rebuilt his Harley,” she said.

“Yeah.”

“That’s cool. What kind of bike do you ride?”

“A ’56 Panhead.”

“You gonna take me out on it or what?” She smiled, but she was looking over my shoulder at Liam, watching him kiss the blond girl.

“Whenever you’re ready to go.”

I was long past ready to leave. I couldn’t hardly make small talk with a girl to save my life, but having Liam there was ten times worse. He made me nervous.

While we were on the bike, Snake Girl acted like she was happy enough to be with me. Kept her arms around me, put her head on my shoulder. Once we got to the ranch, though, she was back to staring at Liam. The trailer was packed and the stereo was up so loud it made the floor shake. I couldn’t hardly hear anything Snake Girl said.

I leaned down to her and said, “Let’s go outside where it’s not as crowded.”

She didn’t stop looking at Liam, but she nodded and followed me out through the living room to the porch.