Girls in Pants - Ann Brashares [40]
A lovely girl with brown skin poked her head over the dollhouse. “This is Katherine,” he said.
Katherine headed straight for the dollhouse. “Hey. Can I see that thing?”
“If you don’t mess up the living room,” Maddie allowed. Maddie looked to be about four, enough older than Katherine to be totally seductive.
Win was sitting close to Carmen on the floor. She could feel the heat from his body. She could smell him. He smelled a little salty, like cashews, and a little sweet, like mango shampoo. She felt woozy.
“I’m surprised to see you here,” she said, feeling shy after all her bellowing and swaggering with the plastic animals.
“This is what I do.”
“I mean, I know you work here—” she started.
“No, this is specifically what I do. Nine to two I work in pediatrics, mostly here in the playroom. I play with kids when their parents need to talk to the doctors.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Really.”
“Yeah. And if you need work, I’d hire you in a split second. You got the place rocking with that penguin.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “Stop.”
“Only it doesn’t pay very well,” he said.
“How much?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
“That’s not so good.”
“It pays better than my job after two. Then I go up to geriatrics to amuse and entertain the old folks. They’re always goading me to buy them stuff out of the vending machine. I’m going into debt with that job.”
A nurse appeared at the door of the playroom. “Katherine Rollins?”
Carmen got up. “Hey, Katherine. It’s our turn.”
Win got up as well. “Your…sister?” he asked.
“No. I’m an only child,” Carmen said. She had no idea why she said that. It was true, yes, but true in such a narrow and ungenerous way it felt more like a lie.
“She’s…?”
“My friend Tibby’s little sister. She fell out a window a few weeks ago. She’s going to be fine, but she has to get checked out a lot to see how she’s healing. Tibby was supposed to bring her, but her job added on a shift today, and she’s trying to save money for—” Carmen looked up. “Why am I telling you all this?”
He shrugged, smiling. “I don’t know.”
“Come on, Katherine,” she called. Katherine was having trouble parting with Maddie and the dollhouse.
“You can tell me more, though,” he added. “I’ll listen to anything you want to tell me.”
She heard in his voice, in its particular hopeful tone, that he meant it. She knew he meant it in a real way and not just a charming or flirtatious way. He was sincerely curious about her; he was utterly observant. She could tell that he did want to know her. And on one level this made her as happy as anything she could possibly imagine.
And on another level it made her sad. Because the girl he wanted to know wasn’t her. He wasn’t seeing her for how she was. He was seeing her as a kind and selfless person who cared about the people around her. He was coming to all the wrong kinds of conclusions.
And worse than that, she was letting him.
Show me a girl with her feet planted firmly on the ground and I’ll show you a girl who can’t put her pants on.
—Annik Marchand
“Vreeland! For God’s sake, quit sunbathing and help me get some of these things in the water!”
Bridget opened one eye and sat up on the dock. She started laughing. Eric was trying to pull four kayaks into the lake at once, and he wasn’t looking so graceful.
“Dude,” she bellowed in a perfect imitation of her cabin-mate Katie’s low, sloppy drawl. “You’re late. I can’t keep covering for you like this.” Bridget lay back down, resting on her elbows, letting the Traveling Pants soak up some sunshine. She’d already set up all the rafts, oars, life preservers, water shoes, and both double kayaks. She was always early, he was always late. He was always pretending to be put out by the small amount of work she left for him to do.
“I see it’s the usual horde of campers,” he said.
It was another joke between them. Three weeks into camp and almost no one came for their activities. Rafting just wasn’t as sexy as extreme mountain biking, it would appear. Well, there was a small group of boys who