Carnal Innocence

swing her in a circle. “I’m crazy about that sassy mouth of yours.” He gave it an enthusiastic kiss. “I bet you went to one of those fancy finishing schools in Switzerland.”
    “I did not, and put me down.” She squirmed for a minute. “I mean it, Tucker. Someone’s coming.”
    He didn’t put her down, but he did look across the lawn. A pair of headlights were coming fast. “I guess we’ll just mosey on over and see who’s calling.”
    He carried her to the drive as much to fluster her as for the pleasure of having that long, slim body cupped in his arms. And he figured once she got over being irritated by it, she’d see the romance.
    “First star’s out,” he said conversationally, and she made a sound suspiciously like a growl.
    “You know, you don’t weigh much more than a sack full of flour. Feel a lot nicer though.”
    “The man’s a poet,” Caroline said between her teeth, and wished she didn’t see the humor of it.
    He couldn’t resist. “‘Fair as a star, when only one is shining in the sky.’” He sent her a smile. “I guess Wordsworth said it better, huh?”
    Before she could think of a proper response, he set her on her feet, gave her bottom a friendly pat, then waved at Bobby Lee, who was scrambling out of his rusting Cutlass.
    “Hey, boy, shouldn’t you be out sparking Marvella?”
    “Tucker.” Bobby Lee pushed a hand through his drooping pompadour. In the headlights he’d neglected to turn off, his face was pale with fear or excitement. “I rode on out as soon as I finished.” He nodded belatedly to Caroline. “Evening, Miz Waverly.”
    “Hello, Bobby Lee. If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to thank Della again for dinner before I leave.”
    She hadn’t even taken the first step when Tucker captured her hand. “It’s early yet. What brings you out?” he asked Bobby Lee.
    “Junior brought in your car this afternoon. Holy Jesus. It sure was a mess, Tucker.”
    Tucker grimaced and touched fingers gingerly to his bandaged head. “Yeah, it’s a heartbreaker, all right. Barely had five thousand miles on her. Frame’s bent, then?”
    “Well, yeah. Bent to shit—excuse me, ma’am. We saw that soon as we had her up on the lift. We figured you’d have to have her hauled down to Jackson, but seeing as we haven’t had a real good wreck come through since Bucky Larsson creamed his Buick out on sixty-one during that ice storm last January, we wanted a look-see.”
    Tucker settled his hip against the Cutlass. “That Buick looked like it’d been run over by a tank when you towed it in. Never could figure out how Bucky got off with only a broken collar bone and eighteen stitches.”
    “Gets a queer look in his eyes sometimes,” Bobby Lee added. “’Course he always did, now that I think on it.”
    Tucker nodded. “His mama was spooked by a nest of copperheads when she was carrying him. Might have addled him.”
    Caroline no longer felt the urge to leave. But she did have to resist the urge to cup her head in her hands and bray with laughter. “You came all this way to tell Tucker his car’s wrecked?”
    The two men looked over at her with identical expressions of puzzlement. To them it was obvious Bobby Lee was only setting the stage for whatever he’d come to say.
    “No, ma’am,” he said politely. “I come out to tell Tucker how his car come to be wrecked. Tucker here drives slick as spit. Everybody knows that.”
    “Thanks, Bobby Lee.”
    “Just telling it like it is. Well, the thing is, Junior mentioned as to how there wasn’t no skid marks or nothing.”
    “Brakes were out.”
    “Yeah. He said. So I got to thinking, and when Junior’s old lady kept calling, complaining how he’d promised to take her and the baby on down to Greenville for spaghetti, I told him I’d stay to watch the station. It’s quiet on Sundays anyhow, so I figured I’d take a look at those brakes for you.”
    He pulled a piece of Double Bubble from his pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth. “I took a good look at the lines, and at the hydraulics for the power steering, too. Might not’ve seen it if I hadn’t been so curious. But I did.”
    “See what?” Caroline demanded when Tucker seemed content to let the silence- hang.
    “Holes poked through the lines. Not rotted or nothing like that, but poked through. Like with an awl, or maybe an ice pick. Fluid would’ve dribbled on out. That’s how your wheel seized up on you, see? You could’ve wrestled