Not a Chance(26)

People were gathered on either side of the street waiting for the parade. There were kids sitting on tail gates. Grandparents sitting in lawn chairs. Teenagers gathered in little groups. Everyone was wrapped in triple layers of clothing and the air was punctuated with hundreds of fading puffs of breath.

Arden felt Nick pulling her toward Lacey and Steven Wilder a few yards away. Steven was Nick's best friend from high school. Arden liked the couple okay, but they were his friends more than hers. Nick, Steven and Lacey immediately broke into conversation, leaving Arden silent on the sidelines as usual. She looked around, her eyes searching for some familiar faces. At last she saw her friends gathered in a small group outside of Sweet Nothings.

She gave Nick's arm a squeeze to let him know she'd be right back. He waved her off and she took off up the street. She got halfway to the group when she saw that Travis was standing there, talking to the husbands. Alice's husband Vince, stood two inches taller than Travis, his expression stoic as always, his hands hanging at his sides. Russell, Shannon's husband, stood with his arms crossed over his chest. His long, sandy-blond hair hung in his face and he occasionally darted glances around him. Arden had always thought he looked like a criminal. Maybe he was and maybe that's why he always looked so uncomfortable. Travis stood with them, real easy-like, his thumbs hooked in his pockets.

Arden bit her bottom lip. The husbands stood a few yards away from the women, so maybe it would be okay to go over there. But she didn't want Travis getting the idea that she was going to see him. She started to turn around, but then Shannon saw her and waved her over.

"Arden!" Shannon shouted over the crowd. "Come stand with us!" She shoved a strand of her long, curly red hair back up into her stocking cap.

Arden took a breath and then squeezed through the crowds to her friends. She got hugs from Emma and Alice and then the sound of drumsticks marking time indicated the beginning of the parade.

It came down the street from City Hall and would end down by the river. Russell and Vince moved behind their wives and Emma and Arden so the shorter women could see. There was a float from the church, the high school marching band, and some local businesses. And then the Miss Merry Christmas contestants rolled through, each in a skimpy prom gown, each riding on the hood of a car or truck driven by a high school football player.

Arden remembered riding on the hood of Allen Jessop's Mustang her senior year. She'd had on a strapless, pale pink gown and the smile of a girl who knew without doubt that she would win any pageant she wanted to just because it was what she was born into. Now she looked at these girls and thought how ridiculous they all looked freezing their asses off in those inappropriate dresses.

Suddenly Arden felt a pair of strong hands grip her upper arms. She knew it was Travis even before she felt his breath on her ear. "That one's mine," he said. "Isn't she gorgeous?" He pointed to a teen princess dressed in a pink, strapless gown that strongly resembled the one she had worn only five years earlier. The girl rode on the hood of some kind of muscle car. Arden didn't know what it was. She'd never been terribly interested in cars.

She turned to face Travis, feeling completely disgusted. "She's sixteen, Travis!"

"Not her. The car. The kid next door, Kyle Sanders, asked if he could drive it in the parade. Isn't she a beauty?"

Arden felt a rush of relief and a mild wave of nausea at the passing of what might have been jealousy if she cared at all about Travis. "Yes," she said. "She is indeed a beauty."

Travis beamed proudly as his '69 Mercury Cyclone rolled slowly past. He kept his arm draped over Arden's shoulders. She felt immediately warmer with him pressed up against her. He had on a flannel lined denim coat and a stocking cap pulled down over his ears. He'd shaved his beard and now sported a day's worth of stubble and Arden thought he looked terribly handsome. She applauded herself for her self-discipline when she forced herself to not slip her arm around his waist and bury her face in his chest. That would have been inappropriate, of course. In fact, she should probably make him take his arm off her shoulders, but she couldn't quite bring herself to go that far.

Fortunately, Travis amended the situation himself. After his car passed, he turned back to Russell and Vince who were talking football. Russell, perpetually unshaven, long, scraggly hair hanging in his face, looked completely unfit as a husband for the refined Shannon. Vince, the tallest person in the group, was married to Alice, the shortest. Nobody belonged together.

Arden couldn't help contrasting Travis with the other two men. They were all as redneck as could be. But next to Russell, with his dark, edgy nature and Vince with his strong, quiet reserve...Travis shone like the sun. He was cheerful, witty, outgoing. Of course she already knew this about him from her own personal experience, but seeing him amongst her own acquaintances made her appreciate him all the more.