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“And yet he likes you anyway.”
“Yeah. Because of the changes that don’t really matter. The surface stuff. So sue me if I’m a little wary of a guy who notices me just because I learned to embrace my inner Barbie.”
“I think it’s more than that. The inner changes show, you know, to anyone who cares to notice.” Selene shrugged her shoulders. “But it’s easy enough to make sure he sees beyond the glam.”
“Yeah? How? I’ve been racking my brain all day and I haven’t come up with the answer to that one.”
Selene sipped her tea. “Don’t do your hair or makeup. Don’t dress for dinner. Wear old jeans and a sweatshirt and a ponytail. Maybe even your glasses from high school. You still have those?”
Kara had worn contacts since eleventh grade. But she still had the oval tortoiseshell glasses that had been the bane of her youth. She hated the idea of going back to them. And yet Selene’s suggestion held a lot of appeal. Not so much because it would be a test of the true depth of Jimmy Corona’s interest in her, but because it would no doubt end that interest faster than a pail of ice water over his head. He’d been shallow in high school, interested in the pretty girls, the shapely girls, the popular girls, regardless of what they had in their heads. Even if it was mostly air. No, the appeal of this idea was just exactly that. He’d cool toward her and she would no longer be burdened with this frightening new complication in her life.
It would ease things immensely.
“You’re so smart, sometimes I can’t believe you’re the youngest,” she told her kid sister.
“That’s cause I got the benefit of all my big sisters’ combined wisdom.”
Selene picked a catalogue and began inspecting playground equipment.
* * *
Jim dialed Colby’s cell phone a half dozen times, but only got his voice mail. He left messages, but he couldn’t tell his friend what he wanted to hear. That he’d given up the notion of wooing and winning Kara Brand. If anything, he was more determined than ever. So he just asked Colby to call in, that he was willing to hear him out. Then he phoned Chief Wilcox to check in while Tyler crunched his Count Chocula.
“Good to hear from you, Corona,” Wilcox said. “You settling in all right? Everything good?”
“Fine, Chief. Listen, does anyone besides you know where we are?”
“Not to my knowledge. Why? There a problem?”
Jim sighed. “No, I don’t think so. Colby took off last night. But I pissed him off, so...?
“It’s still early. You have reason to think there’s anything wrong?”
“No reason at all, Chief.” And yet he had a niggling feeling all the same. “Anything up with Skinny Vinnie?”
“Nothing unusual. We’re keeping tabs. I don’t expect him to try anything now that you guys are out of town.”
“Glad to hear it. Let me know if anything looks off, okay?”
“Sure. Call in when you hear from Benton.” The chief paused. “Actually why don’t we set up a schedule? Call me on the eights, huh?”
Jim told himself it wasn’t necessary, but something in his belly disagreed. “Sure. On eights, beginning tonight.”
“Great. I’ll give you safe time of an hour. I don’t hear from you by the nines, a.m. or p.m., I take action. All right?”
“Fine.”
“Anything else?” the chief asked.
Jim paused, tipping his head to one side. Then nodded, his decision made. “I’d like a background check on one Kara Brand from here in Big Falls. Can you do it for me?”
“Sure. If you have a reason. Do you?”
“Suspicious behavior,” he said.
“Very funny. You know, Corona, having a woman investigated probably isn’t the best way to start off a romance.”
“Who said anything about romance?”
