Nowhere but Home A Novel - By Liza Palmer Page 0,91

she’s just looking at my eyebrows.”

“Eyebrow,” I say, correcting him.

“You’re so mean. That’s so fucked up,” Hudson says, howling with laughter. I can’t catch my breath I’m laughing so hard.

“So yeah. I wax. I’m a waxer. I get waxed,” Hudson says, taking a bite of his coleslaw.

“That’s fantastic,” I say.

Hudson picks up his ribs and digs in. I let Delfina’s cooking comfort me as it always has. The sweet tang of that barbecue sauce was always a tonic for what ailed me. Seems it still is.

As the hours pass, we eat and laugh and in no time Hudson is walking me back to Merry Carole’s salon. The tension of earlier this evening is not forgotten, but the sting of it has lessened. As Hudson slows in front of his car, my stomach is in knots. I’m excited, but wary of him. I went from being his dinner guest to his test subject in three seconds flat and that makes me nervous. I also hate that he’s right. About it all. Of course I’ll never tell him that. The salon is dark and I know Merry Carole is waiting for me back at the house.

“Hey, Aunt Queenie,” Cal says, trotting back from his second football practice. I am so thankful we weren’t doing anything embarrassing.

“Oh hey, sweetie. Hudson, this is Cal, my nephew. Cal, this is Hudson Bishop,” I say, introducing the two.

“Nice to meet you, sir,” Cal says, easy and open.

“Nice to meet you,” Hudson says.

“I’d better be getting on,” Cal says. He makes his farewells and runs the rest of the way until he’s inside, looking back suspiciously only once.

“You’ve got a real football player in your midst,” Hudson says.

“We do. He’s such a good kid,” I say, unable to help myself.

“Yeah, definitely,” Hudson says. He’s not listening to me, I realize. He’s focusing on my face. My mouth. I watch those intense blue eyes fix on my lips.

“You make me nervous,” I say, my voice quavering. Damn.

“Do I?” Hudson says, stepping closer. He tilts his head just so, his eyes still fixated on my mouth.

“I don’t know if you’re being purposely obtuse or just—”

Hudson cuts me off. “Being a dick. Oh absolutely,” he says before leaning in for a kiss. He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me closer. I can’t help but smile. I feel him smiling. I let out a laugh as we break apart. The world comes speeding back into my consciousness as I hear a dog barking in the distance. I wrench my gaze away from Hudson for the smallest of seconds and see Everett idling at the stop sign in the center of town. Arrow’s barking out the window at some passersby, but my focus falls on the man driving. How long has he been sitting there? He is unreadable, and the moment that passes between us couldn’t have been more than a couple of seconds. Hudson is saying something. Saying something.

“What?” I ask, focusing back on him just as Everett drives off down the street and back to the Paragon Ranch.

“When can I see you again?” Hudson asks.

“Cal has a team barbecue on Saturday. It starts at three PM. You can come to that,” I say.

“Sure,” Hudson says, with a shrug. No big deal.

“I’ll see you on Saturday,” I say. One more kiss and he hops into his car and pulls away. Out of North Star.

I smooth my skirt again. I have to stop doing that. If ever there were a nervous tic, this skirt-smoothing thing would be it. I head back toward Merry Carole’s house, anxious to tell her about my night—Laurel, Hudson . . . all of it. I let the thought of me moving on bounce and ping around in my head like a pinball.

19

Coach Blanchard’s brisket, coleslaw, and not enough Shiner Bock

As the weekdays zoom past, and Tuesday looms, I find myself in a kind of limbo between understanding the new way of things and beginning to understand what this means for me going forward. I now have information I didn’t have before. Laurel was just as miserable as I was. Everyone knew about Everett and me. I played as much a part in my being cast as an ostracized, worthless loser as the town of North Star did. These are facts. The hard part is switching these facts for the myths and rumors that I’ve based my entire life upon. I was lied to by people I thought knew better. But I gathered my own