Page 92 of Rest In Pink

I left feeling moderately sure they’d be careful.

Which was not a comfort.

Chapter Forty-One

Peri and I headed to Porter’s.

“Maybe it will be a red car,” Peri said. “I like it that this car is red. It’s just too small.”

“It is small.”

“I liked your old car,” she went on. “It was beat up, but it had all those pillows and a blanket and it was just really cozy.”

“It was,” I said, trying not to mourn my car which had been twenty years old and on its last legs before it died in the ravine. At least it went spectacularly, not broken down along the road. And when it had broken down earlier, it had brought me Vince.

That was a good car.

But time marches on, and I pulled into Porter’s lot, ready to be positive about a new car. It would be a used car, I wasn’t going to be careless with money, but it would be new to me and . . .

I slowed inside the lot. Vince was there, standing beside a bright red car that looked like . . .

“Is that your old car?” Peri said, delighted. “Maybe it still has your pillows in it.”

I parked next to the car. That it held my pillows was doubtful, they were probably moldering at the bottom of the ravine, although we do not mention the ravine around Peri because that’s where her daddy bought it, and that couldn’t possibly be my old Camry, I’d seen what was left of it . . .

Vince opened my car door. “Hello, Magnolia,” he said, sounding nervous.

I got out, still staring at the car.

“That’s not my car, is it?”

“It is now,” he said. He seemed to be searching for something to say and settled on: “Happy birthday.”

“My birthday’s in September.” I was still staring at the Camry in shock as Peri went to look in the windows. It looked exactly like my old car except it was painted Candy Apple Red.

They’d see me coming for miles around.

Vince was giving me a car.

What the hell?

“Early birthday, then,” Vince said. He was talking fast. “Will had the same make and model and year here on the lot and we used some of the parts from your old one and, really, it wasn’t that hard to get it running.”

Peri came back. “The LOVE pillow is gone. The red one.”

Will and Patsy had come out of the office but stayed out of earshot. Patsy had her arms crossed, waiting, but she was grinning, probably enjoying Vince being nervous. Will looked anxious and now I knew why he was so weird yesterday.

“It’spretty,” Peri said. She was looking up at me anxiously. Much like Vince was looking at me. It was a lot of pressure for someone who’d just come from schlepping a kid to her violin lesson while thinking hot thoughts about a guy who’d just given her a car.

“It’s . . .beautiful,” I said, not sure how I felt. He’s giving mea car?That was too much.

Why was he giving me a car?

I know, gift horse. But this wasn’t like us. We were . . . superficial. We did not give expensive presents full of emotional weight.

“I need to use the restroom,” Peri said.

There was one in the office, but Patsy and Will were in the way. The garage was closer. And easier. And out of sight of the other adults.