Free Kiss Me Hard Before You Go by Shannon McCrimmon Page B

we’re right,” Doris said.
    Evie reached the split in the drive leading to her house and left the truck running, waiting for them all to get out.
    “Thanks, hon,” Doris shouted as she, Friedrich, and Mouse exited the truck. Finch jumped out and walked over to Evie.
    He leaned into her window, and his elbows rested on the top of the truck door. “Thanks for the ride.” He smiled, and Evie’s mouth was agape.
    “You are a butt hole!” she yelled and pressed her foot onto the accelerator.
    Finch let out a boisterous laugh. He watched as her tires spun in the loose gravel, kicking up a cloud of dust as the truck sped away.

Chapter 9

    She wanted to turn the truck around and run him over and over again until she flattened him like a pancake and got rid of that annoying smirk of his. She had no idea where her urge of violence stemmed from, but he could make her madder than a wet hen. She was still fuming when she pulled up to the front of her house. She grabbed her crumpled paper bag and got out, looking up at their house and seeing all of the things that needed to be repaired. It needed to be painted, and the columns on the front porch were rotting from the bottom up. The list was getting longer and longer. She could feel the weight of it all laying on her shoulders.
    She pushed the front door open and heard her dad clanking around in the kitchen. He was as loud as a raccoon sifting through garbage cans, and when she entered the kitchen, his eyes widened and a look of guilt filled his round face.
    There, in front of him, was the apple pie Evie had made the night before. He was eating from the pan with his hands, liquid apple oozed from the corners of his mouth.
    “Daddy,” she moaned. “You’re supposed to have one slice.”
    “You can’t just have one,” he said, food still in his mouth. Chunks of apple fell onto his faded maroon t-shirt, and he scooped those off with his fingers and stuck them into his mouth.
    She took the pie away from him.
    “Where’r you going with that?” he asked.
    “I’ll make you a sandwich. You can’t eat pie for lunch,” she said with frustration. Sometimes she felt like she was the parent, and he was her child. She took ham out of the refrigerator and placed it between two slices of bread.
    “It’s what I wanted,” he said, almost sounding like a whining child. He got up and took the pie out of the refrigerator and sat it in front of him, scooping a heap of a piece with his fork and placing it into his mouth.
    She sighed and finished making the sandwich.
    “Where’ve you been?” he asked with a full mouth, but Evie learned long ago how to read him.
    “At Henson’s. I got stuck in the parade, and then the battery died.” She sat across from him and bit into the sandwich that she had made for him. He gave her a smug look when she did so, but she wasn’t biting. Dealing with Finch had worn her out. She wasn’t in the mood to argue with anyone else. She didn’t even know if that’s what she was doing with him – arguing. It felt like more than that – exciting and frustrating at the same time. A part of her wanted it. She shook that thought away, wondering where the absurdity of wanting someone to drive her crazy came from.
    “Did someone jump it for you?”
    “No. I had to buy a new one,” she said.
    “How much is that gonna cost us?”
    “You owe Mike fifteen dollars,” she said.
    “Lawd have mercy, if ain’t one thing, it’s another.”
    She opened up the brown paper bag and took out the small bag that had the bottle of pills in it. She unstapled the bag and took out the bottle. “I picked up your prescription.” She pushed the bottle his way and watched as he ignored her and continued eating. “Henson said he’s been trying to get in touch with you to pick it up.”
    He took a swig of his sweet tea, washing down the pie.
    “He said it’s pretty potent medication,” she continued.
    “You think it’ll make me act like Sally Stratton?” he teased.