im again, not a single one included her being anything other than cool, calm, and collected, showing him in every possible way what he’d missed out on. None of them included him cluing in to her discomfort and cornering her into talking about it.
To put the discussion off, she peered at the menu and asked, “What’s good here?”
“Everything. They’re particularly famous for their ribs.”
Gemma looked down at her white blouse. “I think no. What else?”
“Catfish. Burgers. And a seriously heart-stopping sausage po’boy.”
As the least drippy option listed, she went with the catfish, blackened, and added a glass of Chardonnay. Aaron picked the po’boy and a beer.
She waited until the waitress returned with their drinks to speak again. Because of the music, she had to lean into his space, close enough to see the dark flecks in his blue eyes. “The music is great!”
“This group is a particular favorite of mine. Old school covers. They favor Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and, of course, B.B. And they mix it up a bit with original stuff too. You a blues fan?”
“I don’t know it well, but I like it.” Gemma took a breath and braced herself. “Look, I want to apologize again for being bitchy earlier. You were trying to help, and it was rude of me to take out my frustration on you.”
“Is that your way of trying to welch on our discussion?”
“No. It just bears saying. I can admit when I’ve behaved badly.”
Aaron smiled at that and her pulse gave a hard stutter. “There’s the direct and forthright girl I remember.”
She grimaced. “That’s gotten me into more trouble over the years.”
“I appreciate a woman who says what she means. Takes the complication and guesswork out of things. You never played games.”
“I suck at it. And I’m not going to start now. I promised we could talk about that summer and clear the air.” Because I’ve lost my mind.
“Maybe I should start,” he said.
“No. No, this is on me. I need to get it out before I lose my nerve.” She took a bracing swallow of wine, winced a little at the burn. “I guess for this to make sense, I have to give you some context. You didn’t know me outside of what you saw at the lake.”
“You didn’t strike me as the kind of girl who tried on personalities like outfits.”
“No, I wasn’t. I’m not. But people are different in different settings. I was easier at the lake. More comfortable and free to be myself. Back home, in school, well, that was a whole other story. High school was hell for me. I mean, sure, it was fine academically. I excelled at that. You already know I come from a bright family, and I didn’t fall far from the tree. But everything that made me a success as a student made me a freak to most of my peers.”
“You were not a freak.”
His ready defense made her smile a little. “High school boys thought I was. I was smart and didn’t see the need to hide it. I wasn’t properly demure and self-effacing like other girls. So they were afraid of me.”
“The ego of a teenage boy is a fragile thing. I can see how you might’ve intimidated them a bit.”
Gemma shrugged, sipped at her wine. “Teenage girls aren’t any better. Anyway, on the heels of the latest rejection on that front, I went to the lake that summer, and Rick brought you. You were different.”
She stroked a thumb along the stem of her wineglass and thought back to the first time she’d seen Aaron. It’d been like looking on Apollo with that smile. He’d dazzled her. He could still dazzle her.
“I was older.”
“Yeah.” Gemma nodded in acknowledgment. “Yeah, you were. I guess that was the point at which I really understood exactly how true that whole thing is about girls maturing faster than boys. Being around you was so refreshing. You didn’t look at me like I had a second head when I expressed an opinion. You listened and respected what I said. A lot of other guys would’ve automatically relegated me into annoying kid sister status, but you didn’t.”
“You didn’t act like a kid, and I’m pretty sure that big brain of yours had a good ten years on the rest of us. That was only annoying the fifth or sixth time you whipped my ass at Trivial Pursuit.”
She chuckled. “You were easy prey. Everybody else in the family knew never to play me at trivia games.”
“I enjoyed your company.”
“I know. It showed. I guess under the circumstances, it was inevitable that I’d fall for you.” Gemma couldn’t look at him, couldn’t bear to see any expression of pity or discomfort. But she’d push through the rest of it. “I was turning sixteen in August and I didn’t want to be a cliche, so I decided to do something about it.”