Girl Squad Page 4

  “Hey, stranger,” she said, stepping toward me. She wore a top that clung to her figure and a skirt that was too short for church.

  Keep it together . “Hi.”

  “You look so cute!” she said, arms open, inviting me in for a hug.

  I stumbled and crashed right into her, almost falling at her feet.

  “Thanks,” I said, standing up straight and pushing my hair back out of my face. “So do you.”

  We stood there for a few seconds in silence. I wracked my brain, struggling for something, anything, to say.

  “The last time I saw you—”

  “Oh, I know. I should’ve sent you a postcard at least.”

  “No, I didn’t mean—”

  “My mom hijacked me. I didn’t know she’d signed me up for soccer camp. I think she wanted to get me out of town for a while.”

  “Why?”

  “We’ll talk about it later. But, hey, I heard you’re on the JV cheerleading squad.”

  “Well, yeah, I guess so. It was a surprise to me. How did you know?”

  “My brother’s on the team.” She smiled. “He and the other boys think you’re the best girl in the tenth grade.”

  I laughed at that. “Is that it? Well, I’m sure I won’t be able to hold on to that title for long.”

  “Your mom must be proud of you.”

  “Ah, well, I don’t know about that. She’s not the least bit excited about hauling me around to practices and games.”

  The organ sounded the beginning of the service.

  “Sit with me.” Jane motioned to go in.

  When she sat on the church pew, her skirt came up even further and I couldn’t help noticing her thighs, still tan and muscular from soccer. I felt a little ashamed about how much I admired them. With my heartbeat thundering in my ears, I didn’t hear a word of the sermon.

  After the service, Jane pulled me into the side chapel. “I was thinking about your problem with a ride to practice.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Why?”

  “I just got my license, and I think I could convince my dad to let me use the car.”

  “To drive me? No way.”

  “I’m really good. I’ve been driving for a year. My dad thinks you should know how to drive once you’re tall enough. He grew up on a farm and they were all driving tractors and trucks at fourteen.”

  “But why would you do it? The practices are twice a week, and, once school starts, we have games too.”

  “I’m sure I can’t do all of it, but at least it’s a chance for us to spend time together.”

  She wants to spend time together. But what if she disappears on me again? Like she did this summer. I don’t want to get my hopes up. Get my hopes up for what? Why does she have such a hold on me?

  “Hey, what do you think?” she asked impatiently.

  “Okay,” I said. “My mom won’t care, as long as she doesn’t have to be bothered with it.”

  I wasn’t convinced she would show up, but sure enough, on the first night of practice, Jane pulled up at my house in her mother’s Oldsmobile. I was waiting out front and ran to the car as she stopped at the curb.

  “I can’t believe your parents let you do this. Thank you.”

  “Hey, I told you I’d come through. And I get to watch you practice,” she said, touching my knee.

  “Oh my gosh.” My stomach flipped. “I didn’t think about that.”

  “Don’t be nervous. I’m your biggest fan.”

  I could have sworn she blushed. “That’s sweet,” I said, suddenly feeling bold with her.

  Jane sat in the bleachers with a few moms and a few boys who were watching practice. I felt self-conscious at first, but after a while I forgot she was there.

  “What do you think of those other girls?” Jane asked as we drove back to my house.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do you feel like you have much in common with them?”

  “Well…hmm. I never thought about that. I’ve known them my whole life.”

  “All they’re interested in is performing for the boys, making themselves up for the boys, dressing to get their attention. It’s all so tiresome.”

  As the car stopped at my curb, she leaned her head back on the seat and let out a sigh of exasperation.

  “I guess I never noticed,” I said. “But you’re right. So much eye shadow!”

  “Makes you want to line ’em up and hose ’em down!” Jane mimicked a firehose trained on a line of girls. We had a good laugh thinking about it.

  “You don’t wear all that makeup. Why not?”

  “I don’t know. I just never got interested. My mom tried to teach me last year, but she gave up when I wouldn’t put that mascara brush near my eyes.”

  “Well, you’re very pretty without it,” Jane said, smiling, her voice breaking a little.

  My face felt like it had caught on fire. I had the strangest sensation of weightlessness as my gaze locked on hers. I caught my breath and opened the car door. “I better go.”

  Hey,” Jane said as I got out of the car. “Do you want to sleep over on Saturday night? We can get pizza or something.”

  “Sure,” I said, still breathing a bit faster than normal.

  “Good.”

  “You’re gonna think this is weird,” I said, relaxing. “But I’ve never had pizza before.”

  “Hmm, I think there’s a lot I can teach you, young Cal.” She smiled and drove off.

  Chapter Seven

  Mom was in the kitchen when I walked inside the house. “Is that going to be a regular thing?” she asked.

  “What?” I said, thinking about the “date” with Jane and wondering whether that’s what she meant.

  “Her giving you a ride.”

  “Oh, I’m not sure.”

  “Sure would be nice,” she said.

  “I don’t know if she can always get the car, but I think she’ll help out when she can.”

  “She’s that new girl from the rich family.”

  I shrugged. “I guess so.”

  The phone rang. Mom dropped the pan she was fussing with and ran to her bedroom, almost pushing me out of the way as she went past. Why didn’t she just pick up the telephone in the kitchen? It was a foot away.

  I stared at the telephone hanging on the wall, thinking about Rachel’s idea to spy on my mom. I hesitated, then held down the cradle hook and picked up the receiver. I released the hook slowly, so as not to make any noise. I held my breath, afraid they would hear me.

  “I’ll be gone for a few nights,” a man said.

  This had to be him. The man who had driven by our house that night. The man she’d slipped into the car with that day we left for New Mexico.

  “Where this time?” Mom asked.

  “Tulsa,” he said.

  “I’ll miss you.”

  “Me too. We’ll do something nice when I get back.”

  “Is Mimi going with you?”

  “Nah, she’s got things to do.”

  “That’s good. I can’t stand the thought of her being in your bed.”

  “You don’t have anything to worry about there.”

  “Okay. Will you think about me?”

  “Every second,” he said. “Now let me go.”

  They said their goodbyes and hung up. My hand shook a little as I put the receiver back in the cradle. Why don’t I know about this guy? If she’s dating him, why wouldn’t she tell me? So many questions. Who is Mimi? What is Mom worried about? Hearing her talk to him was so strange. Her voice was different. Softer.

  When she came out of her room, she almost danced down the hall, humming and snapping her fingers. She called me to the dinner table. I looked at her for the first time, not as my mother, but as a woman. I couldn’t help envisioning her with the man on the telephone. The man I had seen in the parking lot that day.

  “What’s wrong, Cal? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  I tried to forget the image I had conjured of them in eac
h other’s arms. “Nothing. It’s just…nothing.”

  She glossed right over it. “I forgot to tell you, your grandmother is passing through on her way to Ruidosa Downs.”

  “When?”

  “Friday night. Too bad she can’t stay, but it’s better than nothing.”

  Good! Perfect timing. Grandma would want to hear my theory on the red-haired man. She loved a good mystery. And it was no secret that she and Mom didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things. I couldn’t wait to talk to her.

  She arrived on Friday while I was at the city pool. She greeted me at the door when I got home.

  “Your mother’s gone off for a few days,” she said, disapprovingly.

  “What? Where?”

  “Not sure,” Grandma said. “Something about a conference.”

  “Why wouldn’t she have told me?”

  “I don’t know, honey. Sometimes your mom is a very difficult woman to figure out.” She took the stance she used when something didn’t sit right with her—stiff, upright and with her arms crossed. “So, anyway, I’m here for the duration.”

  “Wait. I thought you were only passing through? What about Ruidosa?”

  “I canceled that. I didn’t think you should be here by yourself.”

  “You didn’t have to do that. I’m spending the night with a friend tomorrow night anyway.”

  “It’s okay. Lord knows I don’t need to do any gambling. I lost my shirt the last time I was there.”

  “Grandma, I think I might know something about why Mom is gone this weekend.”

  I told her about the conversation I had overheard. “I think maybe she’s with him.”

  “Very interesting indeed,” Grandma said. “So now you’re a detective?”

  “Are you mad?”

  “No. ’Course not. I don’t blame you. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out what she’s up to. I never thought she’d get divorced until she had something else lined up.”

  “What should we do?”

  “Nothin’ to do right now. Just keep your eye out, the way you have been. She’ll show her hand sooner or later. Now, let’s have some fun. I bought TV dinners.”

  “Grandma, you’re the best!”

  We ate sitting in front of the television, breaking the house rule. Grandma let Rachel come over and eat with us. She even baked an apple pie, my favorite. After dinner, Rachel and I sat outside in the backyard, watching for falling stars.

  “Rachel,” I said as I turned to her and leaned in.

  “Yeah?” Rachel leaned back toward me like a co-conspirator.

  “There’s something I want to tell you, but you have to swear not to say a word to your mom. Can you keep a secret from her?”

  “Does a bird fly?”

  “You know I’ve been wondering why on earth my mom would divorce my dad?”

  “Yeah.”

  I took a deep breath and stared out into the night. “Well, I think my mother might be seeing someone, kind of on the sly.”

  Rachel stayed quiet, waiting.

  “I don’t know anything for sure, but her being gone this weekend doesn’t make sense.”

  “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know. Grandma doesn’t even know.”

  “How do you know she’s seeing someone?”

  I told her about the telephone conversation. “And she runs to her room every time the phone rings. Sometimes she’s in there for half an hour.”

  “Well, couldn’t she just have a boyfriend? I mean, grownups do that, don’t they?”

  “Yeah, but there’s something sneaky about this.”

  “Don’t worry about your mom. I’m sure it’s fine. How much trouble could she get into in Dumas?”

  “I guess you’re right.”

  I went back inside where Grandma was putting away the dishes we’d all washed.

  “When can I come to the farm?”

  “You can catch the train in Amarillo any time you want. I’ll pick you up in Sweetwater.”

  “Can I bring a friend?” I asked, thinking of Jane.

  “Why not?” Grandma was always game for outside company. “The more the merrier.”

  “Remember that time Rachel came with me and she peed outside and got poison oak?”

  “Oh, lord, that girl was on fire!”

  We laughed, but poor Rachel had been miserable for a week.

  “Mom was so mad. She told us not to walk on that side of the creek.”

  “She wanted to tan your hide, but I wouldn’t let her. Let the girls explore, I told her.”

  “She hated me getting dirt under my fingernails.”

  “Well, she never did like you playing outside so much.”

  “Maybe it’s that she just doesn’t like me, Grandma.”

  She hesitated just a little too long before she said, “Don’t be silly. She’s your mother.” Then, changing the subject, “So you want to bring Rachel for another visit?”

  “I was actually thinking of inviting this new girl.” As I said it, my heart started to beat a little faster and I looked at Grandma, hoping I didn’t seem too excited.

  “That’s fine, honey. What’s her name?”

  “Jane,” I said, my voice betraying me with a squeak.

  “Somebody special, huh?”

  I turned away from her. “Oh, not really. Just…She said she’d love to see a Texas ranch.”

  “Ranch!” Grandma let out a huge belly laugh. “Well, sounds like you may have built it up a little more than it deserves.”

  “See, she’s from California, so she has this thing in her head about Texas, and you know…I just thought it would be fun to show her.”

  “Come here and give me a hug,” Grandma said, and she held me tight. “Anybody you like, I like.”

  Chapter Eight

  Jane’s house reminded me of something you would see on a TV show. It sat on ten acres of land at the edge of town. With a stone and concrete columned entry and a long, paved driveway up to the main house and outbuildings, it felt like a separate world. I rode up the drive slowly, half expecting a guard to stop me and ask why I was there. The trees that lined the drive formed an arch over my head. There aren’t a lot of trees in Dumas. It’s so dry and almost like the desert, so who knows what they had to do to keep them alive?

  I parked my bicycle near one of the four garage doors. As I walked across the drive, looking for a front door or some way to knock or ring a doorbell, Jane came around the corner. The minute I saw her, my legs went weak, my stomach started churning and I felt like running away. She wore a thin, white cotton dress that the wind pressed against her body in a way that outlined her bra and panties. Her hair tumbled past her shoulders in rich, brown waves. The now familiar rush of heat pushed through me. Why did I feel so weird around her?

  “There you are,” she said, hugging me tightly. “Sorry I couldn’t come pick you up.”

  She smells so good! I tried to relax. Don’t say anything stupid. “This place is…wow. I don’t even know what to say.”

  “This is what happens when you move from Houston to a small town. Our house there was half this size. Come on,” she said, reaching for my hand. “I’ll show you around.”

  Even half this size would be three times the size of my house. There were six bedrooms and eight bathrooms. It had a service kitchen (I didn’t know there was such a thing) with a huge butler’s pantry and a dumbwaiter.

  “My brother and I load this up with snacks and send it up to the third floor,” Jane said, winking and pointing to the dumbwaiter. “Our rooms are up there.”

  Jane’s bedroom suite had its own bathroom—as did all the bedrooms. It felt as big as our whole house. It was so spacious I could have done a few cartwheels across the floor.

  “Let’s go to the poolhouse. Did you bring your suit?”

  Jane dug in a drawer and produced hers. I pulled mine out of my backpack. “Here it is.”

  “We can change over there.”

  We walked to the
poolhouse and she showed me the private changing rooms and showers. The walls and floors were dark wood and there was a steam room and a sauna as well. The pool deck was made of the same stone as the house and had a rough finish so it didn’t feel slippery. Plants and flowers decorated the space and garden lights shone on the statues that lined the perimeter of the deck.

  “Watch this,” Jane said, flipping a switch somewhere.

  “Wow!” The pool came to life with strobes of different colors pulsing through the water. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s unreal.”

  “It’s a little over the top. My parents would never have built something like this, but since it was here, they thought they might as well fix it up and use it.”

  As I stepped out of the shadows and closer to the pool, Jane loudly whistled at me. “Wow! I had no idea you had such a great body.”

  “What are you talking about?” I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around me as fast as I could.

  “Cal, c’mon. Have you looked at yourself?”

  “Not really,” I said, throwing the towel onto a lounge chair and jumping into the water where she couldn’t see me so well.

  She dove in and swam toward me, remaining underwater. Like a shark. She came up next to me, smiling and pushing her hair away from her face, then floating on her back, eyes closed. I couldn’t help staring. She wore a skimpy two-piece yellow suit that stood out against her tan skin. The sun, slipping down the sky onto the horizon, hit the pool at just the right angle, so as she floated on the surface, her body shimmered in the last light of the day.

  “I see you looking at me,” she said, opening one eye in my direction.

  I didn’t stop looking. I looked even harder. She swam toward me, her head emerging from the water just inches away from me, beads of water glistening on her face. We stood, silent, in the shallow end of the pool, our bodies almost touching. I could feel her breath on my face. It smelled minty, like toothpaste. She touched my arm. I felt the most amazing throbbing between my legs and a lightness in my head. I waited, unsure for what, and unable to look away. She traced my lips with her finger. My whole body turned to goose flesh. She leaned forward and I thought she was going to kiss me.