Moonlight Masquerade (Edilean 8)

“No! Those.”

“The yellow ones?”

“No, the—” She stopped when she realized that part of her chest was against his side.

Carter gave a shrug of such innocence that Sophie did smile.

They’d stayed in the grocery for an hour and a half. Carter asked questions about products he couldn’t have cared less about. All he really wanted was to be near Sophie, to hear her soft voice, to look at her pretty face and body. It seemed that it had been a lifetime since he’d heard of anything except business.

It was at the frozen foods section that he got a jolt. He started to get some, but Sophie told him which ones were good and which were bad. She said that some of the “bad” ones could be fixed by using intricate cooking methods—which the packages didn’t explain. But there were others that tasted so horrible she wanted nothing to do with them.

“Anyway, I prefer fresh,” she said and kept walking.

Carter looked through the glass doors at the cartons and memorized what Sophie had said.

“How do you know so much about . . . the products?” He’d almost said “our” products.

“Everyone who works for your family knows.”

“So why don’t we know?” He said it lightly, as though it were a joke. They paid a fortune for market research for people to cook the products and taste them.

“You don’t hire locals for positions where anyone will listen to them. Remember?” She pushed the cart down the dairy aisle.

He drove her home and wanted to carry the groceries inside, but she refused. When he tried to arrange a second date, she brushed him off by saying that she had a lot of work to do and didn’t have time for going out. She stepped inside without so much as a good night kiss.

When Carter got home he called his father’s chauffeur, woke him up, and told him to take care of filling Sophie’s car with gas. “It needs to be done by five a.m.”

“Yes, sir,” the man said.

/> Carter hung up, then typed out all that Sophie had told him about the frozen foods. In the morning he called a meeting of the department heads, said he’d been researching Treeborne Foods for months, and this is what he’d found out. He tossed papers on the table and told them to fix the problems. Carter then turned and left the conference room.

Without exception everyone looked at him in open-mouthed astonishment. Carter had never before taken the initiative on anything.

For the rest of the week, Carter was waiting for Sophie every day after work.

At first she ignored him, got into her own falling-apart car, and drove away. For days he tried the usual things of flowers, candy, even a gold charm bracelet, but she turned them all down. It was on the eighth night, when he showed up with no gift, that she talked with him. Or rather, she listened.

Just hours before Carter had had a fight with his father. An argument with Lewis Treeborne consisted of his yelling and his victim standing there in submission. “Rather like in a wolf pack,” one employee said.

That day Lewis had taken the rage that festered inside him out on his son. There didn’t seem to be any reason, just that Carter had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Lewis, like all abusive people, felt better after he’d spewed out his venom, but his victim, Carter, was devastated.

He’d driven into town and parked in the lot out of what had become almost habit. When Sophie came out he’d barely noticed her. Usually, he had planned out a speech of why she should go out with him, but that night he couldn’t think of anything to say.

Sophie had said good night to him, then got into her car and started the rattling old engine. But then she looked at Carter, still leaning against his car, still staring into the night.

She turned off the motor, got out, and asked him what was wrong.

“Nothing,” he said and opened his car door. “Sorry I didn’t bring you a gift tonight, but . . . ” He waved his hand. “I won’t bother you anymore.” He had one leg inside before she spoke.

“I need to go to the grocery and I want you to drive me there,” she said loudly.

He didn’t understand. “Your car quit again?”

“No.” She seemed to consider her words carefully before she spoke. “I heard that today your father took out his temper on you. Want to talk about it?”

Carter collapsed into the leather seat as though he had deflated. “Does this town know everything about us?”