Page 104 of Confessions

“There wasn’t much happening at the studio, so Rory gave me a few hours off.”

“Are you going home? You could start dinner....”

“I, uh, already have plans. I’m meeting some kids at the lake.” She noticed the lines of strain around her mother’s eyes and lifted a shoulder. “But I could swing by the house first.”

“Would you?”

“Sure.”

Thelma busied herself making milk shakes for a crowd of preteen boys. The shake machine whined loudly.

“What’s so special about Ben?” Rachelle asked.

“Everything.”

“Come on. You can be more specific.”

“I wish.” Carlie couldn’t even explain her fascination with him to herself. “I just saw him a couple of weeks ago and really noticed him. I’d seen him before, of course, but never really paid much attention.” She blushed a little. “You know I’ve never been shy—”

“Amen.”

“So...I came up with a way to meet him.” She gave a quick version of crashing the party by the lake and Rachelle’s good mood seemed to fade, as if she were reliving the night of the Fitzpatrick party.

“I thought you’d learned your lesson.”

Carlie grinned. “I guess not.”

“So your interest in Ben has nothing to do with the fact that he and Kevin are brothers?”

“Believe me, I wish they weren’t.”

Thelma placed dewy glasses of soda in front of them. “Fries will be up in a sec,” she said with a wink. Carlie fingered her straw until her mother was out of earshot again. “I know that being interested in Ben is...well, kind of strange.”

“Crazy is the word I’d choose.”

“But I can’t stop thinking about him.”

“You?” Rachelle smiled and Carlie knew what she was thinking.

While Rachelle had barely gone out, and had spent most of her time with her nose in a book, Carlie had dated most of the guys on the basketball and swim teams. Not seriously, of course. She’d never “gone” with any boy for over two months. That had been the problem with Kevin. He’d started talking about the future, their future, here in Gold Creek. When she’d mentioned her dreams of seeing some of the world, he’d pouted, told her that she was setting herself up for a fall, that she should get real and realize that the best she could expect was a small house in Gold Creek, a good husband who worked in the mill and a couple of kids.

No, thank you. She wasn’t ready to settle down yet. There were places to see, people to meet and then, someday, maybe, she’d come back. She had the rest of her life to get married and raise a family....

Carlie swirled her straw in her drink. Thelma dropped two plastic baskets of French fries onto the counter. “I’m not supposed to say this around here,” she said, “but these are a nutritional disaster.”

Grinning, Carlie plucked a hot fry from the basket and dipped it in a tiny cup of catsup. “That’s why they’re so delicious.”

Her mother winked at her. “Don’t forget dinner.”

“I won’t.”

She chatted with Rachelle and Carlie until the next wave of patrons came in. “Uh-oh, looks like duty calls.” With a friendly smile, she whipped out her order pad and offered coffee to a couple of men who looked as if they’d just got off the early shift at the mill.

Carlie knew why her dreams of leaving Gold Creek were so important to her. Her mother had told Carlie time and time again not to make the same mistakes that she had. “Not that I regret anything, mind you,” she’d told her daughter one night as she rubbed a crick from her lower back and reached in the medicine cabinet for the Bengay. Thelma Perkins had once had dreams of being a dancer, but she’d fallen in love with and married Weldon Surrett. She’d gotten pregnant with Carlie and put away her ballet shoes forever.

Rachelle munched on a fry. “Don’t you think it’s a big mistake getting involved with brothers?”

“First of all, I wasn’t ‘involved’ with Kevin and secondly...” Carlie plucked the cherry out of her drink and dropped it into her friend’s glass. “Well, it shouldn’t matter.”