Naturally Naughty - Leslie Kelly [2]
Looking up as she approached, she saw a glow of light from within and the burning red tip of a cigarette.
Cassie. Kate paused. She simply could not tell her cousin what she’d witnessed in front of the house. Cassie and Kate had long ago accepted the truth about their mothers. Cassie’s mom, Flo, was the wild charmer who’d let them have makeup parties at age seven, and bought them their first six-pack. They loved her, no matter what the town thought of her outrageous clothes and numerous affairs. But Edie had been the real nurturing mother figure, the kind one who’d dried their tears and encouraged their dreams.
For Kate, Edie would never be the same. How could she destroy Cassie’s image of Edie, too? In spite of her outward toughness, Kate knew Cassie would be very hurt by this. As hurt as Kate had been. So no, she couldn’t tell her. Not now. Maybe not ever.
“Kitty Kate, you down there?”
Wiping away her tears, she climbed the rope ladder. Inside the tree house, Cassie’s golden hair was haloed by candlelight. “Hi.”
“Hey.” Cassie took another long drag of her cigarette.
“Got another one?” Kate sat next to her cousin, noting the way their dresses filled up nearly every inch of floor space in the tiny house. Hers a boring pink. Cassie’s a sultry black that screamed seduction and showcased her curvy figure.
“Last time you smoked you ralphed all over the bathroom.”
Feeling sick enough already, Kate didn’t risk smoking. “You okay? You skipped out on prom pretty early.”
“Yeah. I’m sure the gold-plated set missed me real bad.”
Kate ignored the sarcasm. “I missed you. What happened?”
Cassie gave a bitter laugh. “Biff said we were going to a party. Turns out he had a two-person, naked party in mind.”
“Perv.”
“Total perv. Then he gets pulled over for drunk driving.”
“You were drinking?” Kate raised a surprised brow, knowing Cassie thought alcohol made guys stupid and mean.
“No. He wanted to get beer, so we stopped at the store before the prom. He said I should buy it since I look older. Friggin’ moron. Like the clerk wouldn’t notice I was wearing a prom dress.”
“What’d you do?”
“I pretended I couldn’t. He found somebody else at the prom who gave him some.” Cassie squashed out her cigarette and leaned her head against the wall. “Look, Katey, I don’t want to talk about this. Why are you here? Shouldn’t you and Darling Darren be celebrating as king and queen of Pea-Ville High right now?”
Kate told her everything, leaving out what had happened when she got home. “Guess we both had disastrous prom nights.”
Cassie took Kate’s hand. “Did I say Darling Darren? I meant Dickless Darren. I hope you told him to eat shit and die.”
“I told him he deserved a girl like Angela, and took off.” Frankly, she liked Cassie’s comeback better. If she’d thought about it long enough, maybe she could have come up with it. But Kate was so used to being the sweeter of the Tremaine cousins, she generally refrained from mouthing off out loud, as she often did in her brain, or when alone with Cassie.
“Good for you.”
Cassie opened an old, dusty Arturo Fuente cigar box in which they hid the stashes of stuff they didn’t want the moms to find. It held candles, diaries, even a Playgirl they’d dug out of Flo’s trash can a few years ago. “I hate this stinking town.”
Remembering the way she’d felt as she watched Mayor Winfield and her mother, Kate completely understood. “Ditto.”
“I’d give anything to get outta here. Make it big, make lots of money, then come back and tell them all to stuff it.”
Kate had the same fantasy. Hours spent in the old Rialto Theater had introduced her to places she wanted to go, people she wanted to meet. Women she wanted to become. Far away from here. “Wouldn’t that be something? The trashy Tremaine cousins coming back and stirring up some serious trouble,” Kate said. “You know what I’d do? I’d open up a shop right next door to Mrs. McIntyre’s Tea Room. And I’d sell…dirty movies!”
Cassie snickered. “Go all out, triple-X porn, baby.”
“And sex toys. Darren’s mom could really use a vibrator.