Читать книгу Lead Me Not - James B. Johnson - Страница 11

CHAPTER SEVEN

HER

Carrying a suitcase, Aloha passed her father on the sidewalk. Rudd was standing inside the doorway looking not very romantic at all, as if he’d slept in his clothes. Aloha wondered what had happened between him and Amanda. If Rudd and the English professor had got laid, Aloha fervently hoped he’d been too drunk to remember it; Amanda sure looked like she’d be great in bed. But right now, Rudd certainly didn’t smell like he’d been with a woman. At least he was here and not at her place. Aloha decided not to mention Amanda. One because it might upset him and she wanted him in as good a mood as possible and, two, because sometimes if you don’t want to know the answer, don’t ask the question.

She stopped in front of him. “Denise here?”

He shook his head. “You going to tell me what’s going on?”

“I thought Denise would have said something,” Aloha said adroitly. Not that she’d told Denise anything—except the overseas part. Certainly not this part, the part about her staying in Tallahassee. If everything worked out according to her plan, nobody’d know she had conned everybody; not her folks, not Rudd, not Denise. And the way Aloha had worded her statement only implied she’d spoken to Denise with all the details.

“Denise didn’t tell me anything.”

“Oh. See my folks are going overseas and I want to stay in my class at Leon High. So I need a place to stay in Tallahassee.”

“Don’t you have any relatives somewhere, Aloha?”

“A stuffy old aunt in Kansas City. But I’d have to move there.” A not-so veiled threat. Either or. This made it his choice. If he chose in favor of her living with him, it signaled more than that choice. It obligated him to a form of commitment, one she so badly wanted.

And while he might be hung over and somewhat ragged this morning, he was no dummy and would figure most of this out. He could keep up with her and that was one of the things she loved about him. She was a very bright girl. No one noticed because of her body and looks; so she didn’t wave her intelligence about. She simply used it like she used her beauty.

Rudd cocked his head. Aloha gave him her most engaging smile. She wore jeans, FSU garnet and gold tee shirt, and her denim vest, same as yesterday at the airport, all calculated to evoke a positive response in him. But this time she wore a bra and her hair was pulled back into a pony tail, both to project the image of an all-American girl. The pony tail was designed to be quite fetching rather than accentuate her beauty.

“This is another one of your games,” Rudd said flatly.

“Nuh uh. The spring semester will be over in a couple of months and I’ll go away,” she said. Give him an easy out. Let him think she’d leave for the summer. That might make his decision easier. “Whatever you want, Rudd.”

“I don’t know what I want.” He looked down into the box of vests he was holding.

Likely it was unfair to crowd him in his obvious condition of a hangover and having just awakened, but Aloha determined that if she didn’t take charge and push, things wouldn’t happen according to plan. Had he and Amanda gotten drunk together? Aloha wondered. —Jealousy doesn’t become you. Bonnie again.

—Sure it does, sweetie, just like that streak of vanity.

—Anyway, that doesn’t seem Amanda’s style, no?

—Excellent point. Aloha cheered up.

She glanced behind her. Her father was coming back up the driveway with another load. She looked boldly at Rudd. “Time to shit or get off the pot, Rudd. What’s it to be?”