The boyfriend snorted.
“Okay, she’s cool. She can stay,” Sophia said, leaning over to kiss Lucas on the cheek.
“Gee, thanks, Sophia,” Lucas muttered, catching her into a close hug and then passing her off to his parents as he shook Neil’s hand. “Neil, this is Chloe.”
“I gathered.” Neil offered me his giant paw of a hand. “And don’t pay any attention to her. His ex really got Soph riled up—it was all I could do to stop her from trying to kick some ass. But in truth?” He leaned in, conspiratorial style. I couldn’t help it; I leaned in too. “She wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“I would so,” she huffed. “As long as it didn’t hurt my hands.”
I nodded. “For the record, Lucas and I really are just friends.”
She looked at both of us for a second, hands on hips. “Mmhmm,” she hummed while shaking her head, clearly not believing it for a second.
“Come on, feisty, I need funnel cakes.” Neil literally picked up Sophia with one arm and began to carry her vertically down the midway towards the fried-everything stand.
Lucas’ parents left as well, leaving me standing wide-eyed next to Lucas. “Tell me again how there would be no weird family dynamic tonight? I’d love to hear that one more time,” I teased.
He looked embarrassed. “I had no idea she’d come on like that,” he said, holding up his hands in defense. “She’s always been a bit headstrong.”
“Headstrong? Your cousin just had me for dinner, and then had funnel cakes for dessert, and you call her headstrong?”
“You did great.” He smiled, and I took the opportunity to jab him in the ribs.
“Hey! They’ve got fried Twinkies!” Neil called out, Sophia now perched lightly on his back.
“Twinkie?” Lucas asked, offering me his arm.
“I prefer chickie baby,” I replied, linking my arm through his and letting him lead me toward his family. And with the smell of ocean air and sand in the air, with a touch of hot asphalt and fried dough, it was a picture-perfect Fourth of July day.
The golden day turned into a starlit night. We’d spent the day wandering the carnival, snacking and drinking cheap beer, playing carnival games, and mostly losing. But I was now the proud owner of a cotton-candy-pink teddy bear almost half my size, courtesy of Lucas. I don’t know how much he ended up spending to win it for me. Determined, he spent at least twenty minutes throwing rigged baseballs at rigged milk cans until he finally came away a winner. Victorious, he presented me with a bear, and promptly begged me to please rub his now-sore shoulder.
I told him he should rub his own shoulder, which earned me a high-five from Neil, a wounded look from Lucas, and an appraising eyebrow raise from Sophia, who seemed to be slowly warming to me. Whether I was warming to her, I wasn’t quite sure. But Neil was great. They were down from San Francisco to see her folks. She’d grown up in Monterey, was only a year younger than Lucas, and it was apparent that the cousins became as close as siblings, just like in my family.
I also met about a million other new people. The Campbells knew almost everyone in town, and every few minutes we stopped and chatted with another group of friends. Lucas always introduced me and told people all the wonderful things Our Gang was already doing, and planned on doing for the community overall with our eventual outreach program. I’d made several good contacts, people who I thought were genuinely interested in what we were doing and really wanted to get involved. This town? Close knit, and kind.
As the evening arrived under a cloudless sky, we wandered with everyone else toward the bandstand. The Fourth of July in Monterey concluded not just with fireworks and music, but with the crowning of Little Miss Stars and Stripes, a local pageant. My mother had kept me out of local pageants, saving me for the ones she felt could lead to bigger and better things. But the truth is, sometimes these local pageants can be the most fun. This one was loaded with sparkle and glamour, small-town pride, and just enough camp to make it fun.
Sophia huffed, “I still can’t believe you were engaged to a former Little Miss Stars and Stripes. A beauty queen—that should have told you something right there.”
Lucas was looking very uncomfortable.
“Was that Julie?” I asked.
As he nodded, Sophia told me, “She was a total twat.”
Lucas said, “For your information, Chloe was a beauty queen. Miss Golden State, right?”
Now I was the one blushing and looking uncomfortable.
“Seriously? Miss Golden State?” she asked, and I nodded. “Well, you don’t seem to be a twat.”
“I’m oddly flattered by that,” I replied, and she offered a smile.
Then someone tapped the microphone on stage, and we all turned to see a parade of cute little girls dressed up in their finest red, white, and blue dresses. As the crowd oohed and aahed, an official-looking man introduced the beginning of the annual Little Miss Stars and Stripes pageant, and asked us to please welcome the judges for this evening. The high school cheerleading coach, the owner of the local supermarket, and a former Little Miss Stars and Stripes.
“Speaking of twats,” Sophie muttered under her breath, and Lucas suddenly went as still as stone beside me.
“Please welcome back to town, all the way from Hollywood, where she can currently be seen in commercials for Mattress Giant, Julie Owens!”
General applause. Hissing from Sophia. Lucas had gone mute.
Oh, boy.
“What the hell is she doing here?” Sophia whisper-yelled.
The announcer said, “Former Little Miss Stars and Stripes Julie Owens is back in town to help us crown our next winner. As you know, we usually have our current Little Miss crown the new winner, but Becky Whippleson is recovering after a nasty accident involving a skateboard and Vespa scooter. We wish Becky a very speedy recovery.”
“So, she’s back just for this?” Sophia asked.
“She came back home just for this. Isn’t that wonderful, ladies and gentlemen? Leaving behind her booming career in Hollywood, she rushed back home to help us out,” the announcer said, sounding more and more like a game show host by the minute.
I looked onstage to see Julie, clad in a red sequin gown and a crown, waving to the appreciative crowd. Then I chanced a look up at Lucas, still frozen but taking it all in.
“I can’t believe she’s here. She better not stay for the fireworks, or I’ll have a bottle rocket with her name on it,” Sophia said, a little louder this time.