Wanda wiped down the cash register with a spray bottle of Windex and a rag. She wore an oversize T-shirt and shorts with big pockets. The gray hair she parted down the middle was in dire need of a comb.
“Say, Wanda,” Charlie said, sidling up to the counter all casual-like. “I left my money at home. How’s about you let me drink a Coke now and pay for it later?”
“You’re fulla shit, Walker. I got no Cokes for beggars.”
Charlie huffed. “Come on! I’ll ride right back and pay you once I find some money at my house. Just this once, man. I’m thirsty.”
“Go home and drink something at your house then,” said Wanda, who was perpetually crabby. “I’m not giving nothing out for free.” She even drew back the “leave a penny, take a penny” saucer in case Charlie was inclined to avail herself of it.
“I’m sick of that nasty well water, I just want a Coke. Come on, Wanda.”
Wanda wasn’t having it. She folded her big arms on top of her stomach and set her bottom lip to show she would not budge. Charlie was too thirsty to keep pressing. She might as well ride home and drink the stinking well water. Maybe a miracle had happened and her mom had picked up a liter of Big Red or something.
“Bye, Wanda, I’ll remember your kindness next time you need a favor from me!” Charlie said as she walked out the door. Wanda flipped her off.
She was astride her bike and ready to head home, to face whatever shitstorm awaited her, when the handsome man came out after her.
“Hey, you’re Kit’s girl, right?” the man said, a few feet behind her. She turned to face him. He seemed taller now that he stood so close to her. Beautiful, if beautiful had been chewed up, spit out, and sun-dried. And his eyes, boy, did they shine. He unwrapped a lemon candy and popped it in his mouth.
“Yeah, you came by the other day,” she said. “I remember.”
“Manny,” he said, holding out a hand to shake. “I think I glimpsed you in the window. You’re the spitting image of your mother.”
She felt she owed it to him to be pleasant, but something about meeting a man she didn’t know outside a gas station gave her pause. He must have seen her hesitate because he withdrew his hand. Then he reached behind him and pulled a pair of Cokes out of his back pockets.
“Did you buy those?” she asked.
He shook his head no and smiled, with mischief on his eyebrows.
“Well, shit,” she said. “You really didn’t have to do that.”
“It was the principle of the thing,” he said. “She was being unreasonable.”
Charlie laughed. “You’ve got a funny set of principles.” She thought her comment was fair, but Manny withdrew his head and made a face as if snubbed. Did he really think he was doing the right thing by stealing?
She remembered her rasping thirst and felt she couldn’t get the drink down her throat quick enough. The sweet, cold liquid flooded her mouth, fizzing into her nostrils. She pinched her nose and scrunched her face, then drank again.
“You’re welcome,” he said.
“Shit, sorry, thanks,” she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her arm. “Nice of you.”
He flipped the top off his bottle and held it out to toast.
“To getting what you want,” he said.
She tipped her bottle toward him without touching. She was inclined to interview the guy and find out why Kit was so sore at him, why he’d shown up out of the blue.
“Say, none of my business, but aren’t you a little young to be riding around early morning by yourself?”
“Is thirteen too young?” she said, a little annoyed by his gall. “I’ve been getting around on my own since forever.”
Manny put up his hands, bowed his head. “Fair enough, I guess you country girls know how to look out for yourselves.”
“I gotta go,” she said. “Nice to meet you proper.”
“Tell your mama I said hi,” he said.
“I’d better not,” Charlie said, remembering the fight that had followed his arrival. “She seemed pretty pissed after you left.”
“You don’t say,” Manny said, frowning as if in thought. “In that case, you’re probably right. I don’t want to get either one of us in trouble.”
“Well, too late for me,” she said, walking her bike to the road. “But for your sake I won’t mention seeing you. You really don’t want to get on her bad side.”
Charlie pedaled toward home on a nice sugar high. Between hanging out with Dirk and meeting this mystery man, this was about the most excitement she had maybe ever had. If only she could run home to Kit, flop down in her lap, and tell her everything.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
As the girl biked away from him, Manny wanted to run after her and make her stay. He had so much to ask her, this girl who must certainly be his daughter. He puzzled through the pieces of what he knew: the girl was the right age to have been born within a year of the last time he and Kit had been together. But he had walked Kit to the abortion, and paid the doctor, and done everything but cut it out himself. She had bled all over two sets of sheets, an awful mess. But maybe, somehow, the doctor had botched the procedure. It would have to be a miracle, but this great swelling in his chest and the love he was feeling for the kid told him he was not wrong. This girl was his.
She was her mother in her toughness, the arrogant cheekbones, the dark-eyed squint. Blunt, too. But she had more charisma, more vitality. Confidence even. Kit was all fang, yet she lacked the sense to know when to let down her guard. But the overall look of the girl was Manny, through and through. And she’d gotten his long legs, too, thank God. There was no guile in Charlie that he could see, but that could be taught. He started to imagine the possibilities. He had come to Pecan Hollow for Kit, not knowing she was hiding something even better: his own flesh and blood.
He considered how to broach the topic of Charlie without sending Kit into a tizzy. He had given her a wide berth these past two weeks, but wondered about testing her, seeing if she’d become more malleable. He sensed Kit’s attraction to him was still there, he’d always been able to spot it. If she’d let him in, just a bit, he could make a case for spending more time with her, catching up, righting the wrongs they’d done to each other. How quickly would she fess up about having the baby? Had she meant to? Or when she realized she was still pregnant, simply run? He would have to appear indifferent about the girl though. Kit would be cautious if not hostile on that issue, he was sure.