As the enthusiasm of morning wore into the slow tired pace of late afternoon the various vendors finished loading up their trucks and pulling down the tents as the first Farmers Market of the season closed down for the day.
Kara’s Grandma and Grandpa gave each one of the kid’s big hugs for their hard work. Her sweet Grandmother making sure to whisper the menu for the dinner she would be preparing for Nick in his ear, his knees going weak at the incredible sounding dishes as he vowed to marry her right then and there if she would have him. Then after loading the last box of fruit into the back of her Grandfathers truck Kara watched Allie walk to her car, not saying goodbye to anybody before speeding off in a cloud of dust.
“What is her problem?” She muttered under her breath as Nick walked up beside her patting her on her head.
“Hey how about helping me find my car?”
* * *
“I swear to God Kara, it’s around here somewhere?” The two had walked down the long frontage road for almost half a mile scanning the fields where people usually parked for the Market. “I was driving along this road and saw all the people and cars so I pulled into one of these fields to park.” Kara shook her head laughing to herself at the completely oblivious tone of his voice.
“Hmmmm.” Curling his upper lip he scratched his head as he scanned the fields of cars to his left and right looking for the little convertible. “Do you see it anywhere?”
“Hey ding dong,” Kara stood up on her tiptoes to knock on his head with her knuckles “I don’t even know what kind of car you drive so how would I possibly know if I see it or not?” Following his gaze to the left she figured with his kooky personality he probably drove some little beater car from the 80’s. Something that had been painted twelve different shades of something nasty over its’ lifetime and had its’ carburetor dragging on the ground.
“Is that it?” She pointed to an old Gremlin with a bashed in back panel and a white racing stripe running through the lime green and primer exterior.
“Nope.” He shook his head with a smile.
“Well it has to be around here somewhere.”
“Hey, I see it!” He pointed to a clunky Suburban that was pulling forward to reveal the most gorgeous red Mustang convertible Kara had ever seen in her life.
“That, is you car?” She said in surprise as he pulled the keys from his pocket, dangling them from his index finger.
“Yup, that is my car.”
Nick took off in a gallop, Kara on his heels as he reached the car first, pulling open door and sliding comfortably in the driver’s seat with a sigh.
“So what’s the deal, do you want me to drive you back to your car and then I can follow you back to your Grandparent’s farm?” Hanging over the back of the car Kara inhaled the scent of the fine leather interior.
“Hell no,” she walked around to the passenger side of the car and climbed in. “There is no way that I’m going to drive my crappy little Neon while you get to drive around in this thing!” Slamming the door shut behind her she threw her arms up in the air and let out a squeal.
“Well what about your car?” Nick said revving the engine much to Kara’s delight.
“Who cares!” She screamed, her head whipping back as Nick pushed the pedal to the medal and roared through the field up onto the road.
* * *
As they sped along the open road Nick dropped his sunglasses over his eyes and flipped up the knob on the radio, ironically it was the same Bon Jovi song Kara had heard this morning on the way to The Market.
“I like Bon Jovi.” Nick said matter of factly over the roar of the car as he fished around in the console between the seats coming up with a bottle of prescription medication that he tossed to Kara. “Can you pull me out two of those pills please?” He asked, reaching his arm over the backseat for a water bottle.
“Sure.” Kara twisted the bottle around in her hand looking at the label. His name was Nickolas Gene Carter and the pills appeared to be for severe migraines. Shaking out two of the pale blue horse pills she placed him in his outstretched hand and placed the bottle back in the console between the seats.
“So you get migraines?” She asked settling back in the soft buttery leather, the aches and pains from her first day at The Market creeping into her bones.
“Among other things.” He answered flipping a left, on Kara’s instruction, at the crossroads that would lead them to Main Street.
“Do the pills help?”
“Not really, not anymore.”
“Do you get the migraines often?”
“Hey is that a gas station?” Quickly changing the subject Nick popped the pills in his mouth, taking a swig of water before turning into the ancient old gas station. The place was complete with a little general store and a spunky kid in overalls and a crisp white cap who smiled brightly at them as he dragged the gas pump around to the tank side of the car and asked Nick if he wanted him to “fill her up.”
* * *
Kara waited outside while Nick went into the general store and picked up some essential snacks to store in the trunk of his car for the next leg of his journey. Simple things like boxes of Ike and Mikes, some packs of Red Vines, two large bags of Doritos; some bottles of Gatorade and of course an extra large bag of Pork Rinds.
On every tour Brian and Nick had made a habit out of each of them getting a big bag of Pork Rinds at various gas stations across the country so that they could race each other to see who could down their bag first. The whole things had started on one of their first “tours”. Way back before it could be called a tour. When it was the five of them and sweaty Lou Pearlman stuffed in the back of a wood paneled camper van.
They had pulled into some run down gas station so that Lou could go to the john. The guys had all gone into the gas station for snacks when Nick spotted two big dusty bags of Pork Rinds sitting on the shelf. A.J. had gone off, the way only A.J. could do, making a huge production about how sick and wrong pork rinds were and how only a true psycho would eat those things. Well, that was all Nick and Brian needed to hear as each one scooped up a dusty bag, tore it open and began to crunch the tasteless wonders down one by one much to A.J.’s disgust.
Setting the bag on the counter now along with his other things Nick found it funny that over time he had actually developed a taste for the things. He even set a record on the last tour for the fastest time eating a whole bag, three minutes forty two seconds; his bag was gone before they even pulled away from the gas station.
Paying for his items the woman behind the counter smiled brightly at Nick telling him to enjoy his stay in town as she handed him his change. Smiling back at her he figured that his fancy car must have given him away as a tourist.
Walking back towards the car Nick noticed Kara was sitting in the driver’s seat talking and laughing with the kid who had pumped the gas. His first instinct was that jealous feeling in your gut, the one that started out like butterflies and then turned into something really nasty like bad heartburn. He realized that he wanted to knock that stupid white cap right off of the kid’s head. But when he reached the car and the kid stuck out his hand to shake Nick’s hand, welcoming him to town, all his jealousy faded away.
“How the hell does everybody know I’m not from around here?” Nick asked motioning for Kara to scoot over despite her obvious desire to drive his car.
“Well, number one nobody around here drives a car like this.” The kid said pushing the driver’s side door shut once Nick was safely inside the car.
“And second?” Nick motioned for Kara to put on her seatbelt ignoring her outstretched hand as she tried to get his keys from him.
“Second is that you don’t let Kara have everything she wants.” The kid grinned widely as Kara rolled her eyes and dropped her outstretched hand. “Guys from around here would bend over backwards to make Kara Clark happy and everybody knows it.”
Nick raised his eyebrows at Kara as if to say, “is that true?” But she gave nothing away as she casually flipped her ponytail and stuck her nose in the air with a smile, Nick slowly pulling out the station as the kid waved goodbye.
* * *
“So guys would do anything for you huh, even Roy?” Nick stole a glance at Kara as she adjusted her side mirror with a smile.
“I don’t want to talk about me now, and I definitely don’t want to talk about Roy. Let’s talk about you.” Pointing to the right Nick followed her directions turning down a tree lined street. Glancing around he noticed that every house seemed to have a white picket fence and a dog in the yard.
“Okay what do you want to know?”
“Well for starters are you here on business or pleasure or both?”
"I don’t really know.” Kara noticed the way his expression changed to something sad and contemplative as he said the words.
“What do you mean you don’t really know?”
“Nick I need to know where you are planning on going.” Nick stood in the foyer of his Florida home, engaged in another battle royal with his Mother.
“What the hell difference does it make to you where I go?” His arms were folded across his chest in a defiant way that would have signaled to a sane rational person to back the hell off. But he had never considered his mother to be sane or rational.
“I need to know where you will be in case something happens to you.” She pushed at her bleached blonde hair as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other in obvious irritation.
“Since when do you give a fuck what happens to me Mom?”
“Knock it off Nicky, you are treading on thin ice with that attitude of yours and I won’t put up with it.” Nick snorted out a sarcastic laugh, his mother’s eyes narrowing as her lips disappeared into a thin line of irritation.
“I’m not stupid Mom, you only care if something happens to me because you want to make sure you get what I leave behind.” She raised a hand to slap him but Nick stood his ground, squaring up his jaw, his eyes blue steel. “Go ahead an hit me Mom. It won’t be the first time but it might be the last.” His mother dropped her hand her fists clenching at her sides.
“Nick you know that I…..that I…..love you.” She stumbled over the word “love” like it was poison on her tongue. Nick dropped his head and sighed.
“If something happens to me you can play the poor grieving Mother, you can tell everybody how much you loved me and how much you’ll miss me, I really don’t care. But you’re not getting my money or my things. I worked my ass off for all of this,” he spread his arms wide “And I decide where it goes.” Grabbing up the old black duffel bag at his feet he turned and walked towards the door tossing his final goodbye to his Mother over his shoulder on his way out the door.
“Everything has been taken care of, my lawyers will know what to do.” Turning, he twitched his mouth up in a mischievous half smile that had always worked so well at pissing his mother off in the past.
“See you around Mom.”
“Well, business or pleasure?” Kara leaned into Nick’s face batting her big green eyes at him making him laugh. And after careful consideration of her question Nick finally answered her.
“Let’s just say it’s a little bit of both.”