Page 31 of Things Good Girls Don't Do (Rock Canyon, Idaho 1)

Her voice sounded far away and he asked, “Mom, are you okay? You sound weird.”

“Yeah, I’m good. I just wanted to see if there was anything new and to hear your voice.”

The sound of a loud speaker and a voice announcing, “Code blue,” came from the background.

“Are you at the hospital? Did something happen?”

“Oh, Buzz and I just got into a little fender bender. We’re fine, though. Tell me about you. You seeing anyone?” she asked.

He shook his head. His mother and he had a weird relationship, but she was always worried about him meeting someone. Since marrying Buzz eleven years ago, her son’s lack of serious relationships seemed to be on her mind a lot.

But the one thing he wasn’t going to do was talk about Katie with his mother. “There’s one girl, but it’s too early to tell. Do you need anything?”

Her voice sounded almost disappointed as she responded, “No, baby.”

A conundrum, that’s what his mother was. She had ignored him for most of his childhood, giving him food, shelter, and everything he could need except her time and attention. Instead she’d worked double shifts and dated her men, while he’d sat with one babysitter after another. Buzz was the first man in his mother’s life that he’d actually gotten along with, and if she had only met Buzz when he was a kid, maybe his childhood would have been better. But he had been an adult and already out of the house when Buzz had come along, and Chase knew he was just indulging in wishful thinking. His mother hadn’t wanted to get close to him and he had no idea why.

Yet when she called, it was almost like she wished things weren’t so strained between them. Like she wanted there to be more.

She’s had thirty-three years to talk to you. You don’t owe her a thing.

“Hey, Mom, I’ve got to go. Closing up the shop and I can’t talk and ride, so . . .”

“Sure, I get it. I love you, Chase.”

“Yeah, me too.” He hung up and stared at the phone. She had sounded weird. It wasn’t abnormal for her to say she loved him, but it was the way she had said it. He thought about calling Buzz to see what was up, but shook off the idea.

His relationship with his mother was complicated and he doubted it was going to change anytime soon.

Chapter Six

* * *

THE FOURTH OF July kicked off with Katie having a slight hangover and being fifteen minutes late to help set up the craft fair tents. She was now on her third cup of coffee, and the dress she’d picked out for the Canyon Queen float still wasn’t looking better. She’d picked it up off the rack at an after-prom sale, and now that she had it on, she looked like one of those women who tried too hard to look young and wished she’d gone with something less juvenile. It was too late now. But the poufy strapless gown in an iridescent teal did make her eyes seem bluer, and made her purple streaks more noticeable, as they fell down around her shoulders in thick ringlets.

She’d brought a bag with a change of clothes and her makeup for later, and slipped on the cute, simple black heels she’d bought at Payless.

As she slid the tiara on top of her head, it took her back to her first Little Miss Magic Valley Pageant, when she’d been barely five. Her mother had loved to do her hair in stylish up-dos and bought the puffiest princess dresses for her, telling her the pageants would give her grace, poise, and confidence. She hadn’t minded really, although she had wanted to stop once she’d turned twenty-one, feeling too old to prance around singing Patsy Cline or answer ridiculous questions about where she saw herself in five years.

But she’d continued to do them for her mother’s sake until she was too sick to go with her, and when she’d died, Katie had assumed her pageant days were over. But Jimmy had bugged her and bugged her until finally last year she’d done the Canyon Queen Pageant one last time. When she’d won, he’d paraded her around afterward like a prized pig at auction and she’d felt like an idiot. Now here she was, about to get up on a float covered in cotton and streamers, in a huge, puffy taffeta skirt the color of fake seaweed. Every year the Canyon Queen gave her title to the next winner, and even though the pageant was for ages fifteen to thirty, most of the contestants weren’t over twenty-five. She’d be glad to never have to live through this sort of thing ever again, but the thought of standing up there and being compared to all the younger women competing . . . well, it just sucked getting old.

She walked out of the bathroom reluctantly and heard a wolf whistle from behind her.

“Whoo-ee, you clean up pretty.”

Turning, she found Chase leaning against the stone wall of the outbuilding, his smile neither teasing nor mean. She felt less awkward and picked up her skirt like a princess, curtsying. “So, you like?”

He pushed off the wall and walked toward her, inspecting her dress. “Oh yeah, I like. Reminds me of this fantasy I used to have about hooking up with the prom queen.”

She grabbed him and laughed. “Stop it. You’re going around me like a vulture over carrion.”

Wrapping his arms around her waist, he pretended to look hurt. “Now that isn’t very nice.”

Katie was suddenly aware of the people around them, talking quietly, and said, “We shouldn’t do this here.”

He dropped his arms and gave her a blank look. “Do what? Tease? Flirt?”

She felt like a jerk and said, “What about the rules? I’m sorry, I just thought we had decided casual. To me, casual means no public displays . . .”

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