She didn’t turn around to look at him again.
So he just said, “I’ll see you around, Avalon.”
She smiled faintly. “You very likely will.”
She’d noticed then that Eden was watching this little tableau from about twenty feet away at the picnic table, where everyone was busily making friendship bracelets. A shiny red orb glowed at each place setting. A tomato.
He’d been great with the kids, even though he’d once claimed to loathe them.
In all likelihood, what he didn’t like was being responsible for the feelings of another being.
She moved over to her sister. She actually kind of wanted to make a friendship bracelet, too.
Annelise was giving Eden a rapid-fire recap of the afternoon. “Mom! We totally caught tomato worms!” Annelise informed her.
“Oh no! You caught tomato worms! What are the symptoms? Do they make you... ticklish?”
Annelise doubled over with gales of laughter as her mom went in for a good tickle, then ran off to join her friend.
Eden pulled Avalon toward her by looping her arm through hers.
“If that guy looks as good from the front as he does from the back, then I have no idea what you’re doing hanging out with the Hummingbirds and me, Avalon.”
Avalon dodged that. “How’s the Sacramento scion? Was he sent off with appropriate flowers?”
“A wreath of gladiolas and ivy shaped like a dollar sign.”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“It’s ‘what he would have wanted.’” Eden made air quotes. “And I provided it. They were happy. At the very last minute. Which means I’m happy.”
“Good on ya.”
“So who’s the guy?” Eden gestured.
“That’s the groundskeeper.”
“Whoa. Are youkiddingme? Does he have a name?”
Avalon hesitated. “His name is Mac.”
Eden frowned faintly; the name was clearly tickling the memory banks.
And then she seized Avalon’s arm as if she were about to fall off a cliff. “SHUT. UP. MacColtrane?”
Avalon sighed. Then nodded, resignedly.
Eden was silent and frozen, clearly mulling the ramifications of this. She maintained a grip on Avalon’s arm.
“You were going to let him touch yourboob,” she finally said on a hush.
They both stifled an eruption of giggles.
She had indeed confided this to Eden one breathless summer night, and they had discussed it with all the seriousness of a peace treaty negotiation. Eden was all for it, though she’d rather superciliously admonished at the time, “You should be careful because you tend to get carried away, you know.”
That was funny. Eden could be such aprissback then.
When you store up all your wildness and don’t release it a little at a time, you are bound to accidentally let it all out at once the first time a truly hot guy comes around and get mysteriously knocked up.
