Page 12 of Perfectly Imperfect Us
Ava shrugged and I wanted to hit the steering wheel. “Like I said: none of my business.” She looked out the window and I could feel my grand idea of spending time with her today going down the drain. She may be saying it wasn’t any of her business, but she sure seemed bothered by it. The carefree nature we both had that day at the forest was nowhere to be found.
I frowned, distracted as I navigated the four-way stop that led right into our picturesque downtown area. I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Is that a—a squirrel?”
There on the sidewalk, being walked to the carnival with a leash and miniature halter of some sort by an old lady was a long-tailed varmint. Ava burst out laughing, the contagious sound causing my own lips to turn up in a smile.
“No, silly! That’s one of the weasels that’ll be in the race later today.”
My jaw dropped. “A weasel?” As I drove by, my head turned, taking in the long slender body and tiny legs. “Since when did Nickel Bay start doing weasel races?”
Ava turned toward me as I found a place to park along the curb on the far south side of the city park. “About ten years ago a couple weasels meandered into the carnival and started making a ruckus. Dom Scoricelli, the guy who owns the pizza shop, managed to grab one, and decided to make it a pet. Jim Sully, not one to be left out of the fun, got one the next day as an emotional support pet.” Ava scoffed. “The only emotion that rat-like thing is supporting is disgust, but they caught on. And here we are as the only town in all of America with a weasel race at their yearly carnival.”
I shut the car off and faced her, hoping to carry on our conversation and not have to get out of the car at all. “That’s quite the claim to fame.”
She smiled, nodding ruefully. “Nickel Bay has always been a bit eclectic. You know that and now the whole world knows it. Thanks for the ride.”
Before I could think of something to say to keep her in the car, she was climbing out, a huge bag of makeup in her arms and a fast trot away from me. I had to hustle if I meant to keep up. Grabbing my camera and slamming the door, I ran after her, remembering to hit the lock button on my key remote right before I lost sight of the car in the crowd already gathered for the festivities.
“Can I take pictures of you getting the Poppy girls ready?” I asked the back of Ava’s head.
She flung me a look over her shoulder, but kept plowing ahead, darting around people left and right. “Sure! Just don’t distract them with your pretty boy face, ’kay?”
I grinned. Ava thought I had a pretty face.
I would have preferred handsome or rugged, but I could work with pretty.
She stepped into a white tent structure, disappearing without another word. I wanted to follow her in, but hesitated, wondering if any of the pageant girls would be in a state of undress. I was used to all kinds of states of undress at photo shoots, but this wasn’t high fashion in a big city. This was Nickel Bay, a small town that frowned upon grown men watching teenage girls get dressed and rightly so.
A tan arm attached to a hand sporting bright pink nails I recognized, snaked out of the tent flap and pulled me in with a hard tug. I stumbled, running into Ava and grabbing her waist to hold her steady. She was warm and soft beneath my palms.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
It was taking a minute for my eyes to adjust to the darkness in the tent, but if I had to guess, I’d say that whispered apology was on the breathless side of things. Almost like she’d lost the ability to breathe the minute my body pressed against hers. A feeling I could commiserate with. I could be imagining things, but there seemed to be a new tension between us. The delicious kind of tension that made me want to explore what else made her breathless.
“I’m ready for you, Miss Ava,” a voice called out.
Ava jumped away from me and rushed over to a girl in a tall chair seated before a lighted mirror. She proceeded to whip out container after container of makeup and apply them to the girl’s face, her hands working so quickly I thought this might be a Nickel Bay race too. Lifting my camera, I zoomed in and started shooting, getting all kinds of different angles of Ava working on the girl’s face. Ava’s pink tongue would dart out the side of her mouth, just a sliver of tongue held in place by her front teeth. It was an adorable look of concentration I caught on camera over and over again.
Another girl came up and switched out with the first girl, Ava seamlessly starting over on a new canvas. Her masterpieces were walking, talking teens who held their heads higher in their pretty dresses. The makeup wasn’t necessary for any of them to be beautiful, but their eyes held a sparkle after Ava got ahold of them, like they knew they looked their best.
By the time Ava was done with the last girl, I was exhausted just from watching her. I’d gotten hundreds of shots, many of which were sure to turn out like I wanted.
“What did you get?” Ava was looking over my shoulder at my camera screen, her hair brushing my arm. She smelled like coconut and sunscreen.
I thumbed through the photos, showing her as many as she wanted to see. I could count on one hand the number of people I’d let see my photographs, not feeling comfortable with anyone’s inevitable critiques just yet. Showing my photos to Ava wasn’t anything like that though. I knew she’d appreciate them and be encouraging instead of putting down the model who thought he could be behind the camera.
Ava whacked me in the arm and I looked at her agape. Guess I was wrong. “What?”
“Almost every single photo has me in it. I thought you were taking the photos of the girls.” She looked at me like I was crazy.
“I did get pictures of them. But I also got pictures of you. I want to show the behind-the-scenes view.” My face got suspiciously hot defending myself. There were quite a few that were only of Ava, as a matter of fact.
She stared at me, so close I wanted to push aside the stray lock of dark hair in danger of falling in her eye. “I love them, don’t get me wrong, but it just caught me by surprise to be in them.”
I frowned. “You should be in more photographs, Ava. You’re very beautiful.”
She blushed and looked away. “Well, thanks. We should, uh, get out there and meet up with everyone.”
I followed her out of the tent, not understanding why an honest compliment made her so edgy. Although, now that I thought about it, people told me the same thing all the time and it stopped holding any meaning a long time ago. Maybe it was the same for Ava.
