Page 17 of No Kind of Hero
“Portland a big step up?”
“You could say so. Wild Horse is a big step up, even. You’ve got actual elevation change. Whoa, Nellie. Sportsman’s paradise, that’s what this is.”
“Yep,” Evan said. “Good fishing.” He set Gracie down on the stage at the front of the building. She was in one of her contented moods, right after her nap, which helped. “I’ve got you scheduled in here, top priority. I get that you’re in a hurry, but I hope you’re going to tell me you’ll wait until I finish painting to do the seats and floors and all. I’d have a hell of a time doing these ceilings without dripping some paint.”
Kristiansen turned and took in the old-fashioned one-plex in all its shabby glory. Dusty, faded red velvet seats, torn black curtain, ornate gold light fixtures near the top of the high ceilings, and all those Moorish arches and curlicues that had been carved into the wood trim back when craftsmanship had meant something.
“Yeah,” he said. “I see what you mean. And I know I said red and gold and black before, trying for a Devils tie-in, but now I see it again, I’m not so sure. Not sure about the whole thing, for that matter. I woke up in the middle of the night after I bought this monster and wondered what I’d been smoking. Decided I’d probably just wanted to give another generation the satisfaction of making out at the movies, because there’s nothing in the wide world like having that high-school girlfriend in the back row. That’s as good an explanation as anything else I can come up with, anyway.”
Evan said, “Yeah,” anddidn’tthink about meeting Beth here when she’d sneaked out to meet him the very first time. About sitting, not in the back, but all the way over to one side, where there was nobody around them. About the way she’d gripped his arm during the scary part, and how he’d put his hand over hers, and then held it, and how good that had felt. And how, afterwards, they’d taken a walk in the plowed path at the edge of the lake on a night as cold and clear as crystal. How they’d looked at the moon and at the clouds of their breath, and how soft her fluffy white hat had felt under his fingers when he’d finally held her at the back of her neck and kissed her, there under the stars, and the little noise she’d made when he’d done it. A sound of surprise and pleasure, so he’d had to kiss her again. Or how, when she’d left at the end of that week to finish her senior year of college, he’d tried to convince himself that she wouldn’t come back to him that spring, that summer, and had made his plans anyway like she would.
“Got any ideas?” Kristiansen asked.
Evan hesitated. Dakota had been the color sense of the partnership, but Dakota wasn’t here. And maybe he was tired of people’s assumptions. Maybe so.
“Go on and say it,” Kristiansen said. “I’m real good at only doing what I want.”
Evan could bet that was true. “I was thinking about it last week,” he said slowly, “and I thought about peacocks.” He’d gotten the idea when he’d been reading Gracie an animal book, but he wasn’t going to say that. “Jewel colors on all that woodwork,” he went on, taking another step out onto that uncertain ice, “blue and gold. Like peacock feathers. Deep blue seats. Blue velvet curtain. Over the top. Make it better than Netflix on the couch. Make it an occasion. High-end snacks, get a wine and beer license, put some seats in the lobby.”
Kristiansen scrutinized him, and Evan stared stolidly back at him. “You got an artistic side?” Kristiansen asked.
“No,” Evan said. “Just a thought I had. There’s not that much entertainment in Wild Horse. Lots of people head over to the Indian casinos. But here, you’d be right in town. Walk over from the Resort.”
“Peacock Theater, you think?”
“No. Kristiansen Theater. Might as well use your name, get the big spenders at the Resort excited about maybe bumping into you. But peacock logo. Have Dakota make you a big stained-glass piece for the lobby, light it from behind. Get her to give her opinion, if you want,” he forced himself to say, “on the colors. She’s good at that. But I’d say it’s right.”
Kristiansen laughed, and of course he had strong, straight white teeth. “Saying I’m a pretty boy?”
Evan let himself smile a little too. “Saying go with what’s working for you.”
“What I figured,” Kristiansen said. “I’m a peacock. I like it, though. I do. If I go down, I’ll go down in a blaze of glory.” He grinned. “Fluffing my tail feathers all the way.”
Evan was up on a ladder taking some measurements, multiplying quantities and estimating gallons in his head, when he heard the faint sound of a door closing.
Well, damn. It had been a nice dream, but Kristiansen had probably had second thoughts. Going with the safe option, the Devils angle. And if Evan didn’t want to paint Devils colors onto an entire auditorium, that was his own problem. He’d just have to get over it, because he had a family to support. He came down the ladder without rushing, ready to hear it.
He was halfway down when he heard the voice all the way across the room, muffled by an acre of carpeting and tattered velvet seats. “Don’t come down. I’ll wait.”
His hands and feet were frozen. Oh, yeah. He needed this. He made them move again, climbed down the rest of the way, and turned to face her.
Beth. Hair back in that French braid of hers, the one that said rich girl, honey and caramel and gold all mixed together and falling in a glossy plait over her shoulder. Wearing khaki shorts and a sleeveless blue blouse, looking not at all like the vixen of the night before. Back to conservative, buttoned up and closed down.
Gracie let out a squawk like if he was that close, he ought to pick her up. Evan stored the paint quantities into his memory bank, lifted her out of her seat, settled her in the crook of his arm, and asked, “What?”
Maybe that wasn’t nice enough. Too bad. He didn’t feel nice. It had taken him forever to fall asleep the night before, and there was nobody to blame but himself.Way to run back into the burning building, O’Donnell.And “burning” was the word.
How could she turn him on so much and still look so cool and reserved to everybody else? He didn’t understand it. He never had. It was like she was in 3-D, and he was the only one who had the glasses.
She walked around the front of the seats, looking around the old theater, at the arches and the elaborately embellished column tops—looking anywhere but at him. “The owner let me in. I asked if you were in there, and he opened the door for me and said, ‘Go on in.’ He’s casual, huh? I wanted to whisper ‘Liability issues’ at him and see if he jumped.”
Evan didn’t answer that, just kept looking at her. Gracie was pedaling her legs, so he swung her around and let her walk up his chest the way she liked until she was standing backward on his shoulders, and focused on keeping his cool.
“So,” Beth went on, wiping her hands on her shorts as she finally got closer. Notclose,but closer. “I came to apologize, because I think I presumed.”
“Oh,” he said, still holding his daughter over his head, “is that what you did.”
“I thought,” she went on doggedly, “that I was doing you a favor.”
