Updrift (7 page)

“How thoughtful!” Carmen gushed but she still wore a worried frown. “I’m afraid I have a houseful and won’t be able to chat for very long. Did you meet any of our guests?” She sounded like she hoped not.

“Unfortunately, yes she did,” Gabe cut in. “I got to her before they ate her, but only just.”

“Hmm. Yes, well maybe you could take her back to the library, Gabe? Is your mother still there, or did you drive over from Childress?”

“I came from the library,” Kate replied. “I told Mom I’d be back by three. And I thought you were at your aunt’s in Maine, Gabe.”

“I’m leaving today,” he informed her. “I’ve got time, though. We could even grab lunch at the Bait Shop.”

Kate checked her watch. It was one thirty, and she was hungry. “Let’s.”

“Gabe? Why don’t you take her out the back door,” Carmen advised.

“Good idea.”

Carmen hugged Kate. She and Gabe then went the long way to reach the rear of the house, neither of them anxious for a repeat encounter with the group holding court in the front rooms.

* * * *

At the restaurant, Kate quizzed Gabe over their sandwiches. “You have a lot of male cousins. Why are they in town? I can’t believe I’ve never met them.”

Gabe was slow to answer her. “My mom’s throwing a party tonight. It’s kind of a family reunion.”

Kate remembered a comment she’d overheard at Maya’s house from her older sister, Solange. “Oh yeah, I think I heard something about that from Solange Wilkes.” Then, remembering the Wilkes were not related to the Blakes and the party wasn’t entirely a family reunion, she felt horrible. She and her mother hadn’t been invited. “Oh,” and she dropped her gaze so Gabe wouldn’t see how hurt she was.

Gabe’s expression became pained. “You’re wondering why you and your mother weren’t invited, aren’t you.”

“Well, no,” she mumbled to her lap. “You’re free to invite whoever you like. It’s your party.”

“It is most definitely not my party,” Gabe snapped. “And we’re
not
free to invite everyone we like, and…and I really can’t think of a good excuse to give you as to why you were not.” He blew out a sigh and stared up at the ceiling as if for inspiration. Kate watched him, curious. “See, it’s really not going to be your mother’s kind of party, and as for you, well, you saw how my cousins were this afternoon. It’s just not a good idea. God only knows where you’d end up.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I mean, they’re not…doing anything criminal, are they?”

“No-no. They’re all decent guys, actually. It has to do with timing more than anything.” He chewed his thumbnail, examining Kate with a worried frown. “They’ve just got out of school and several of them are probably going to be kind of…drunk…and they can get a little rowdy. And we’re a little too young for that, according to my mother. That’s why she’s shipping me off to Maine.”

“Oh. Well, that makes me feel better then. Sorry. It was rude of me to bring it up.”

“No, I brought it up. You guys are close family friends. “
I’d
wonder if it were the other way around.” He let out a short laugh at this idea.

Kate examined Gabe more closely, realizing he’d grown since she’d last seen him. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the company they’d just left, she would have been surprised by his appearance. He looked great. His dark hair was thick and wavy, his face had become more angular and masculine, and he was filling out. She realized he would soon fit in very well with all of his cousins, and this bothered her. She didn’t want to think about how other girls, probably all of her classmates, would flirt with him if they saw him now. She also noticed he wasn’t wearing glasses for once. “Gabe, you look really good, by the way. Did you get rid of your specs?”

“Forgot to put them back on, I guess.” He slid his glasses out of his shirt pocket and started to place them over his nose but stopped. He smiled at her. She felt a thrill go through her, and she was utterly unable to stop the smile that came to her face in response. She felt the ground of their friendship shift underneath them.

“Do you realize this is our first unchaperoned outing together, ever?”

“Lunch at the Bait Shop,” Kate teased, reaching across the table to tap his hand with her straw. “We’re such troublemakers.”

He laughed and put his glasses on. “I can see getting into a little trouble with you.”

Kate pretended surprise. “What could be riskier than this?”

“One day, if you’re lucky, we’ll figure that out. Or maybe it’s if I’m lucky. You’re so pretty, Kate.” His expression was guileless and warm.

Kate flushed with pleasure and felt the last vestige of their easy childhood companionship float away. In its place was something more guarded and exciting. She felt a new twinge in her heart and slight nausea in her stomach. She also felt compelled to bolt out of there at a dead run. She looked at the clock, and the time decided for her.

“Yikes! My mother will be waiting. I’ve got about two minutes before she calls Carmen.”

“Now that’s a real risk.” Gabe laughed. “At least, it is if we want more unchaperoned lunches. Off we go.” They threw a wad of bills on the table and sped out the door.

“So, when are you back in town?” she asked when they reached the sidewalk. Usually, the families had plans to get together but Cara hadn’t mentioned anything coming up.

“I’ll be back in a few days, and then I’m around until the middle of August.”

Kate frowned. “What’s in the middle of August?” Her school didn’t start until early September.

“Well, in the reclusive and nutty style of education my family adheres to, I’m going away for school this year. For the next two years, in fact.”

Kate felt a crushing disappointment, which she suspected leaked through her voice when she responded, “Why? When did you decide to do that, and where are you going?”

He blushed and dug at a crack in the cement with his toe. “It’s certainly not my decision, and it’s kind of, well, a boarding school. All the kids in my family go. I mean, all the guys go,” he amended.

She felt numb. “Out of state, I assume?”

He glanced toward water. “East of here.”

Kate wracked her brain to think of a land mass between here and Europe. “So, is your school located on the rocky outcropping at the far side of the bay, or are you off to England?”

Gabe worried another crack with his shoe. “I’d really rather not talk about it, Kate. Look, I’d better run. I’ll catch up with you next week sometime.” He gave her a quick hug and loped toward the beach.

Kate stared after him for several seconds, trying to understand her anxiousness and wondering what she was going to do about it. She sprinted to the library to avoid being late.

* * * *

Kate drove home with her mother from Griffins Bay, her curiosity about the Blake party grossly impeding her ability to concentrate and make conversation. She bolted to the phone to call Maya as soon as they entered the house, attracting a suspicious stare from her mother.

“Maya, how’d you like to crash the Blake party with me?” Kate whispered into the receiver.

“Oooo, girl, I like how you think. I’ll be right over.”

When Maya knocked, Kate yelled to her mother they were going into town and would be back in an hour or so. She grabbed Maya’s arm, hurrying her away from the house so they could talk.

“I had lunch with Gabe today, and there’s something fishy going on at the Blakes’ tonight. I want to spy on them.” Maya furrowed her brow, perhaps, Kate thought, because she disapproved. “Do you think we shouldn’t go?”

“No, it’s not that. Yes, I want to go, I’m just trying to think of how we can both get away from our parents.” After a moment she looked cautiously hopeful and proffered a solution. “How about if you tell your mother you’re staying at my house, I tell mine I’m staying at your house, and then we meet at neither of our houses to drive to the Blakes’?”

It sounded like a workable plan. They stopped at the store for a juice before heading home. When it came time to part, they agreed to handle their parents individually and then meet at the drug store at seven. “I’ll switch the porch light on if I can’t swing it,” she told Maya.

“And I’ll give you a call if I can’t. Just call me, for crying out loud. This isn’t a James Bond movie.”

“Right. Okay. I’ll call if I can’t come.”

The ruse worked, and Maya was at the rendezvous just as Kate arrived. Maya had use of a car and had told her folks she wanted it to drive down to see a new litter of puppies at a classmate’s house outside of town. She and Maya killed a couple of hours at the municipal park, loaded into Maya’s car, and then the game was on.

Kate’s initial worries about sneaking up unnoticed on the Blake house were unfounded. Scads of people and their cars—easily three dozen—gave them cover as they approached. It was dark out too, so she and Maya blended seamlessly with the incoming crowd. When they got near enough, they ducked back toward the beach and hid in the bushes surrounding the fence by the pool. Kate was gratified they would have a perfect view of the action.

What she saw was fascinating. Just breathing gave her an adrenaline rush. She and Maya giggled with the intoxication they felt, as well as at avid manner in which the party guests checked each other out. Excitement crackled in the air like electricity.

Gabe’s cousins milled around the grounds, pausing to flirt with the women they came across—or more aptly, hunted down. All of them executed a comical sequence of activities once they’d engaged a girl in conversation, which they all did without difficulty. The progression was almost identical to what she’d experienced with Hoke earlier that day.

She watched several misfires take place where a woman would start to talk with whichever man cornered her; he would remove his glasses, look into her eyes, and smile. Then he took her hand exactly as Hoke had Kate’s, holding it near his chest while placing his other hand around her wrist. Often, the girl became unnerved and backed away toward her friends. The guy would grin sheepishly, and his cousins would murmur, “Loser,” or, “Denied!” or, “Man down.”

As the evening wore on, these interactions became more purposeful. Around ten o’clock, Maya’s sister, Solange, entered the fray. She was stunning; a vital presence as she crossed the yard to check in with Michael and Carmen. All of the men noticed her, and her eyes narrowed in quick acknowledgement of their romantic intentions. She ignored them until she’d greeted her hosts.

Luke Hokeman got to her first after Carmen and Michael moved away, and his approach was much less playful than it had been with the women before her. He did not reach for her hand right away, keeping an intimate but respectful distance as they talked. His formerly flirtatious manner was now focused and serious.

They spoke for about a half hour, Solange never once looking away, even when she was approached by two other hopefuls. “Get lost,” she told them without shifting her attention from Luke. “We’re talking.”

Maya and Kate acknowledged something significant was taking place but they could not completely hear Luke and Solange’s conversation. “This is a thousand times more interesting than anything you and I could have dreamed up doing,” Maya whispered. Kate agreed.

After another ten minutes, Solange flattened her hand against Luke’s chest, their gazes on each other intense and unwavering. And, as he had before with Kate, Luke clasped Solange’s hand in one of his and circled her wrist with his other hand. His eyelids drifted to a close and he started to bend toward her, as if to kiss her. Solange withdrew a couple of inches and discreetly shook her head. Then, twining his fingers with hers, she led him away.

At this point, Kate and Maya were startled by someone behind them. “Gotch-ya!” Gabe smirked as he wound an arm around each of the girls’ waists. They both stifled screams.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Kate snapped, scowling to hide her embarrassment at being discovered.

“I had the feeling you’d show up, and I didn’t want you getting sucked into this gig. You’ll thank me someday.”

“Yeah, well, my sister Solange was definitely just
sucked into this gig
and disappeared with some guy,” Maya commented. “Should I be worried?”

Gabe grinned. “Is she heterosexual and of age?”

Maya’s eyes widened. “She’s twenty-one and as far as I know, likes guys. She sure seemed to like the one she left with.”

“Then don’t worry about it. And you two really need to get out of here. Let’s go.” He started to pull them away. “Uh-oh.” All three of them ducked into the bushes when they saw his mother coming out of the house with a phone to her ear.

Carmen ambled to the end of the yard near their hiding spot, a concerned look on her face as she talked into her cell. “No, Cara,
please
don’t come over. I really haven’t seen them…” She looked blankly at the phone, swore, and then looked up. “Maya? Kate?” she called in the darkness. The kids froze. Carmen paced away from them, dialing another number.

“John? Ugh! I hate to bother you but we think Cara’s daughter and a friend snuck over tonight. I mean, we’re not sure the kids are here but they’re not where they said they’d be either, and I think Cara and Alicia are on their way over.” She paused to listen to a response. “I know, I know. I just thought I should give you a call and tell you. I mean, tonight of all nights!” Another pause. “Okay, then. We’ll see you in a bit.”

Kate stiffened with fear. Her mother was coming? Maya’s parents too? She didn’t know whether to run or hide or give herself up. Maya let out a low moan. “I’m in so much trouble. I should just go and throw myself into the ocean right now.” They all stayed crouched where they were, frozen with indecision.

Michael Blake surprised them from their contemplations. “All right. Inside, you three.” He stood behind them, glaring. Gabe swore under his breath, rose, tucked his hands in his pockets and hung his head. He passed his dad while carefully avoiding eye contact. Maya and Kate were slower but they also kept their heads down.

Michael didn’t wait to get in the house to start upbraiding them. “I’d better not hear you all planned this little stunt together. You of all people should know better, Gabe.”