“Not hidden,” I said. “Just, you know—in my pants. Exactly where you keep yours, by the way.”
“But you have women’s legs,” he explained.
“Yes.”
“And I don’t.”
“True.”
“I’m just saying, nobody wants to see my legs.”
“I’m suresomebodywants to see them. Case, maybe.”
The rookie grinned and made crinkles at the sides of his eyes. He started the ignition. Then he shook his head. “Hanwell has legs,” he said, marveling at the idea.
I smacked him on the shoulder.
Then we were off. We followed the coastline south, and I just let the view and the wind flow past me for a while.
“I won’t be drinking tonight, by the way,” I said, “so I can be your designated driver.”
“Want to keep your wits about you, huh?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, it’s fine if you change your mind. I never get drunk. I can drink all day and never feel it.”
I gave him a look, like,Please.“I could drink you under the table, pal.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
I leaned back against the headrest and let the wind flutter my hair. “Have you decided what you’re going to tell your parents about me?”
He nodded. “I thought of a perfect sentence, actually.”
“Hit me.”
“When they say, ‘Where’s Amy?’ I’ll say: ‘She couldn’t make it, but I brought a friend.’”
“That’s actually genius. It’s not even lying. Distract and redirect.”
“And then your job is to whisk me out onto the dance floor to avoid all further questions.”
“I’m not sure I can whisk anybody anywhere in these shoes,” I said, “but I’ll try.”
Seventeen
THE THING ABOUTthe rookie at the firehouse was: He was quiet. He smiled a lot, and he was helpful, and he’d do everything anybody asked of him and more—but he wasn’t what you’d call a big talker.
But take him to a family reunion with twinkle lights and a disco ball in a room full of Irish cousins and a DJ playing Top 40 hits from every decade?
He never shut up.
From the minute we walked in, folks were grabbing him, hugging him, smacking him, ruffling his hair—and he was doing it all back to everybody else. Pointing at his cousin Mikey, high-fiving his cousin Patrick, telling his aunt Aileen she looked like a million bucks.
He was the life of the party.
I was the quiet one. Standing there all braless in my flammable hankie dress and double-decker shoes and just trying not to fall over.
