The Long Game Read Online Free PDF Page B

could be
called, and I agreed.
    “You know,” Rosie continued, obviously
unaware she’d said anything wrong, “my sister knew she’d get a
husband from Georgia. She told me she’d caught a ladybug when my
parents were leaving for the funeral, and when she let it go again,
it flew straight northeast, toward Georgia.”
    “Is that right?” I smiled and pulled her a
hair closer.
    The superstition was popular among the girls
in the clan, but I’d never put much store in a ladybug’s ability to
foretell the future. Our swaying continued, and I started scanning
the crowd of people over her head. Jimmy Boy had struck up a
conversation with our da’s brother, John, and I was glad he’d found
something to distract him from his unease over my dance with
Rosie.
    “Do you want to go somewhere with me?”
    My attention snapped back to her. “What’s
that?”
    Her smile was coy, but there was nothing shy
in her gaze. “I thought we could go for a walk or something.”
    I glanced around. “I don’t—”
    “No one will even notice we’re gone.” She
took her hand from my shoulder and tangled her fingers in mine.
“Trust me.”

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    I ALLOWED ROSIE to lead me from the dance
floor and out of the pavilion. I glanced behind me as we walked,
wondering how accurate Rosie’s prediction had been. No one had
followed after us or even seemed to be looking in our direction,
and I felt the tension in my shoulders ease a little.
    “We should have a little privacy back here,”
she said.
    We’d stopped behind a white trailer painted
with the logo of a local sound equipment rental company. I could
still hear the music and murmur of conversation from the pavilion,
but it was faint at this distance.
    “So…” I cast around for something to say. I’d
spent my share of nights thinking about what I’d do if I was ever
alone with Rosie Sheedy, but conversation hadn’t been a big part of
it.
    “I’ve had my eye on you for a while, you know
that?” Rosie pressed herself against me—or at least tried to with
the barrier of her skirt getting in the way.
    “That so?”
    “It is. Pop has been talking about marrying
me off for at least a year now, and I’ve made sure your name is on
his radar.”
    I laughed. “I’m pretty sure it isn’t, no
matter how many hints you’ve dropped.”
    “You’re wrong,” she said. “He thinks a lot of
you.”
    I leaned back so I could
look her in the eye. “You’re joking, right? I’d be willing to bet
Pop doesn’t think about me one bit.”
    “Of course he does,” she said. “But I don’t
want to talk about him right now.”
    It vaguely registered that
her fingers were tugging at my belt, but all my focus was on what
she’d said. He thinks a lot of
you.
    Rosie abandoned my belt and wrapped her
gloved fingers around my neck to pull my face toward hers. Her
tongue was clumsy against mine, and it occurred to me that this
might have been her first kiss. It wasn’t unlikely. Despite her
boldness—and mine—unmarried men and women enjoying each other in
dark corners wasn’t exactly aboveboard as far as our clan was
concerned.
    A scraping sound forced me to break the kiss
and look around. “Did you hear something?”
    Rosie shook her head and redirected her
efforts at loosening my belt.
    “I don’t think this is a good idea,” I said
uneasily.
    “No one’s going to come out here. Quit
worrying.”
    I heard the metallic flick that signaled
she’d been successful in her mission, and the cloth of her gloved
fingers grazed my abdomen as she went after the button of pants. My
body responded, and all of a sudden I was too impatient to let her
finish without my help. She giggled at my eagerness. The sound
reminded me of the tinkling bell on the door of the hardware
store.
    She pressed another wet kiss to my mouth.
“Tell me you love me,” she said.
    I knew I could lie and she’d never know, but
my mouth refused to form the words.
    “No more talking,” I said instead