Page 26 of Shy Girl
Her lips twitched with a suppressed smile, but she didn’t look my way. “Y-you’re just remembering?”
I snorted. “No. I don’t remember you at all.”
She laughed. “I w-wasn’t exactly memorable. N-not compared to the Merry Idiots.”
I almost choked. There had been a small hope that shehadn'tknown me as a Merry Idiot, but that was a long shot anyway. Man, were we knuckleheads in high school if someone like Dagny knew about us. My thoughts traveled to our legendary C-tape with a little shudder. Once upon a time, I'd been exorbitantly proud of it. Now? The jury was still out.
Hopefully sheneversaw that.
“You couldn’t have been a senior with me,” I said as I dove deeper into my memories and tried to find her there. “I would remember that. I think.”
“F-f-freshman.” Her gaze drifted to mine for a second and then back. Whatever trouble had occluded her gaze from before had now cleared, like a storm blowing out of the sky. “You have no r-r-reason to remember me. G-grady remembered me, I im-magine?”
“Yeah.”
Even though she’d exonerated my name from not remembering her, I still felt sheepish. Our high school educated kids from both little Pineville and the slightly-bigger-but-not-that-much-bigger Jackson City. Mountain towns weren’t exactly population centers. Our school map covered so many miles it could take over an hour to drive to another kid’s house. Plus, I had a feeling Dagny had always lived quietly.
“Auto t-t-tech?” she asked. “D-did he remember me from a-auto?”
I nodded. She laughed and pushed a strand of hair away from her face. Whether it was the bright sunshine, the diamond-like sparkle of the water, or just the shedding of stress and life that came with vacation, she seemed like a whole new person here. Glowing, in fact.
Damn beautiful, too.
For a moment, I tried to picture her in the Diner and the Frolicking Moose, with her casual bun held up by pens and the jeans that dragged a little by her heels, as if she didn’t want to bother with cutting them. Such a relaxed picture, transposed against such rampant island beauty, still seemed just as honest.
In other words, Dagny could fit anywhere.
“Yeah,” I croaked. “Auto.”
She laughed harder. “One d-d-day, Grady smashed his f-fingers in the hood of a C-corvette.” Her words turned into a giggle, then a rolling laugh. “H-he squealed a-a-and another kid d-dropped an oil pan. Our teacher s-slipped on the oil and h-hit his head j-just as the principal walked in. W-would have b-been okay, except he said the F word in f-f-front of all of usandthe p-p-principal.”
Tears slipped out of the corner of her eyes as she kept laughing. The infectious sound caught me, and I chuckled with the thought of Grady’s high-pitched squeal. Same one he’d let out when we bought a crab from the grocery store deli and he let it bite his nipple on a dare.
“I know the exact squeal,” I said.
She wiped off the tears and her laugh slowed. “It w-was unf-f-forgettable.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I turned to lean my back against the railing. “All this time we’ve seen each other in Pineville and you never mentioned it.”
My pride was far too macho to admit it, but I felt a bit put-out that she’d keep such a detail quiet. Why didn't she mention it before? That kind of detail connected people, and maybe if I’dconnectedwith Dagny sooner, I wouldn’t feel so rummy over her now.
Dagny’s smile widened even as a hint of a blush rose to her cheeks.
“You n-never asked.”
At that, I laughed. “You’re right. I should have started a conversation with, ‘Hey, just want to clear up the off chance that we ever went to high school together?’”
Her laugh bubbled back up again, a clear song against the backdrop of waves. “Exactly. Th-this is all y-your fault.”
“I take full responsibility.”
Her amusement faded slightly. She leaned both hands on the railings, let out a long breath, and smiled at nothing. When the breeze stroked her cheeks, she closed her eyes and let her hair dance around her face.
I looked away and cleared my throat.
“So, what did you think of Helene?” I asked.
The muscles along the back of her neck tightened a little, but released when she let out a long breath. Her voice was bright. Perhaps a little too bright.
