As I finished today’s downloads, Tommy Kinakis walked over.
“Hey, Tommy.”
He nodded and opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
“You picking up some pictures?” I prompted, trying to help him out. He looked flustered and kind of wet.
“Yeah, for my mom. Told her I’d get ’em after football practice.”
“Is that why you’re all sweaty?”
He huffed out a laugh and ran a hand through his hair, leaving it standing up in spikes. “Coach rode us pretty hard today. First game’s Friday night. You coming?”
Tommy and I had gone to school together since kindergarten, just like most Pine Valley kids. I’d known him when he was throwing rocks on the playground. I’d watched him give his country report on Germany in sixth grade, when he didn’t know anything about WWII and flushed like a Red Delicious in front of the whole class. By high school he’d grown bigger and taller than my dad and he didn’t talk much since his voice changed. He had dirty-blond hair and baby-blue eyes that darted around skittishly.
I pulled his mom’s pictures and rang him up. “I don’t think I can. They’ve got me scheduled to work on Friday.”
“Here?” He looked around like he wasn’t sure the place was real.
“Yeah, somebody’s got to keep an eye on the store.”
“Don’t know why. Everyone’s going to be at the game.” He pulled out a faded leather wallet and handed me a twenty.
“Right? That’s what I keep saying.” To no one. Ever.
Tommy nodded, all serious as he took his change. The subject of football seemed to loosen his tongue.
“You should come. We’re going to destroy Greenville. Wipe the field with those bastards.”
“I know we will.”
“They’re not going to lay one finger on Derek.” He pounded the counter with a fist. “We got the best QB in the region this year.”
I had zero responses for that, so I just tossed him a flirty smile. He softened immediately and ducked his head as he stuffed his wallet away.
“I’m sure your boss can find someone else to work.”
“That would be awesome.” I was never in a million years going to ask my manager about it.
He finally raised his eyes and took the pictures from me, blurting, “I’ll watch for you in the stands.”
Half a grin, a spin, and he hurried out of the store.
I was confused for the next half an hour. Tommy Kinakis? What had I ever done to interest Tommy Kinakis? He sure wouldn’t like me if I told him I had specifically asked to work Friday nights.
Football was just one more thing that separated me from everyone else in this town. I’d never gotten what was so great about smashing into a bunch of beefy guys and throwing a pointy ball around, but no one else in Pine Valley agreed with me. Every resident from age ten to a hundred and ten could tell you the names of the varsity roster, and they all showed up for each home game, screaming and cheering so loud I could hear the roar from in here. I liked working during games because the store was always completely dead; I could read books from the bestseller rack or paint my nails until the game was over and then everyone remembered some pictures or a card they had to pick up and mobbed the place. Before I knew it the shift was over, and all my coworkers loved that I let them have the night off.
After today’s shift, I punched out and drove home on the winding dirt road that I knew as well as my own face. Our farm was about six miles from town, surrounded by nothing except fields and wind turbines. We got some of the money for the electricity created by the ones on our land. Wedding money, my dad always chuckled when I asked him about it. Even though I didn’t think I was ever going to get married, I didn’t tell him that. I always said, “Holiday Inn wedding or Hyatt Regency wedding?” and he pretended to cuff me on the head and we laughed. With Greg gone in the war, he liked to think about me living one of those safe, normal lives—going to college, having a career, getting married, and giving him grandkids who would play tag around the hay bales and call him Pop-Pop.
When I pulled into the driveway I was surprised to see the kitchen light still on. Usually Mom and Dad had already settled into bed on the nights I worked. Dad sat up watching the bedroom TV and Mom would be reading whatever the library just got in, since she’d gone through everything else on their shelves. She never wanted to talk about her books though. She just swallowed those pages up and kept them tucked inside. Maybe that’s what made her so hard to read sometimes, all those books floating around in her.
The table was set when I walked in and Mom pulled a chicken hot dish out of the oven, serving up two plates while I took off my coat and shoes.
“Late supper?”
“I wanted to eat with you, hear about your first day of school. Dad couldn’t wait.”
“You don’t eat supper at nine forty-five at night!” he bellowed from the bedroom. “It’ll give you heartburn.”
“That’s what Tums are for!” I yelled back. He liked a good yell. Made him feel like the house was alive.
“Sit down, eat up. Did everybody like your new outfit?” Mom glanced at my clothes like I was still ten years old and playing dress-up with my cousins.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. I like the outfit.”
“You look . . . different. I suppose that’s what you wanted.”
“Yeah, that’s what all us rebellious teenagers want. Bucking the system with our pencil skirts and twinsets.”