Page 105 of Confessions

“It matters when you go out with a guy’s best friend. It has to be worse if they’re related.”

“So now you’re the authority.”

Rachelle smiled sadly. “I just know that I wouldn’t want to share anyone I cared about with Heather.”

“Heather’s not the type to share.”

“Neither am I,” Rachelle said and Carlie wondered if Rachelle was thinking of Jackson Moore, the only boy she’d ever cared for. “The way I see it, if they’ve both dated you, it’s got to cause some kind of friction between the two brothers.”

She did have a point, Carlie silently conceded, and truth to tell, she’d been concerned about the same thing, but she didn’t want to think about it. “I told Kevin it was over weeks ago.”

“Did he believe you?”

“Well, it took him a while, but, yeah, he got the message. He’s dating someone else now. Some girl from Coleville.”

“Ben tell you that?” Rachelle wiped her fingers on a paper napkin.

“No, I heard it from Brenda.”

“Ahh, the source of all truth,” Rachelle teased.

“Of all gossip,” Carlie corrected as they finished their drinks and French fries.

* * *

HOW SHE FELT for Ben didn’t have anything to do with his brother, she told herself later as she gathered her hair into a ponytail and made a face at her reflection. After washing her hands, she started on dinner as she’d promised her mother, but she had trouble concentrating.

Ever since being with Ben in the mountains, she’d thought of little else. She had never let another boy touch her—not that way—and she remembered each graze of his finger against her skin, his breath in her hair, the way he cradled her breasts.... “Oh, stop it!” she snapped, causing Shadow to look up from her nap on one of the kitchen chairs.

Carlie threw herself into the task at hand. The chicken was cooked and she was supposed to piece together a potato salad. Not too difficult.

She sliced the already-boiled eggs and added them to the bowl of chopped onions and diced potatoes before starting on the dressing.

Maybe she should just forget about Ben. After all, he hadn’t called. He probably wasn’t interested in a girl he considered his brother’s castoff. Besides, she really didn’t have time to get involved with a boy from Gold Creek.... But who was she kidding? She was already involved. Up to her eyeballs!

Muttering to herself, she added salt, pepper and paprika to her concoction of mayonnaise and cream. She tasted the dressing and wrinkled her nose. Not quite like Mom’s, but it would have to do. Snapping off plastic wrap, she covered the salad and shoved her efforts into the refrigerator before racing upstairs to change.

For Ben.

Not that he even wanted to see her.

However, Carlie was impulsive and she believed in going after something she wanted. Right now, be it right or wrong, she wanted Ben Powell. Despite everyone’s advice to the contrary, she knew she’d do whatever she could to make Ben notice her.

Knowing she was asking for trouble, she drove to the Bait and Fish, a small general store perched on the south side of the lake. Built in the 1920s, the store was flanked by a wooden porch and a covered extension that housed two old-fashioned gas pumps. Faded metal signs for Nehi soda and Camel cigarettes were tacked onto the exterior as was an outdoor thermometer.

So this was it. Do or die, she thought when she recognized Ben’s pickup parked in the gravel lot. Her fingers were suddenly sweaty on the steering wheel. She parked her car, wiped her hands on her shorts and reminded herself that there wasn’t a law against buying soda. She hadn’t been in the Bait and Fish for half a year. Pocketing the keys to the car, she walked up the front steps and shoved open the screen door.

A bell tinkled as she stepped inside. Three large rooms connected by archways wandered away from the central area near the cash register where Tina Sedgewick, a spry woman nearing sixty, was working.

Carlie saw Ben from the corner of her eyes. Balanced atop a ladder, he was fiddling with wires to an old paddle fan. He glanced her direction as the door opened and a half smile curved his lips. As if he’d been expecting her! She felt suddenly foolish, but there was no turning back.

“Well, hi, stranger,” Tina said, catching sight of Carlie. She’d been seated on a stool behind the register and working on a piece of needlepoint. With blue-tinged hair and a weathered complexion, Tina had worked at the Bait and Fish longer than she’d been married to the owner, Eli Sedgewick, which, according to Carlie’s mother, was close to forty years.

“How’re you, Mrs. Sedgewick?”

“Can’t complain, though, Lord knows, I’d like to.” She set her needlepoint aside and prattled on, asking about Carlie’s folks, her job in Coleville and her plans after the summer was over. Carlie tried to keep her concentration on the conversation but she could feel Ben’s gaze hot against the back of her neck.

“Don’t suppose your ma is with you.” Tina glanced out the window to check the parking lot, as if she expected Thelma to appear.