Page 95 of Clara Knows Best

“The guy who dates Clara Wilder has to be okay getting pushed around,” Ted McMann put in. “By her,andher dad.”

“It’s worth it, because she’s a fine piece,” Jordan said lazily.

“I’m not dating Clara.”

There was silence around the table for a moment.

“Dude doesn’t even know he’s dating Clara,” Jordan laughed, and then everyone laughed.

Jesse supposed they had seen or heard about the kiss at the Love Fest, and he knew it would be impossible to convince them otherwise. He was surprisingly okay with the misunderstanding. He waited until the laughter had died down enough for him to be heard when he said, “Do me a favor and don’t call her a fine piece.”

“No disrespect,” Jordan clarified earnestly. “She’s a beautiful woman. Maybe a little high-maintenance, but—”

“Don’t say it again,” Jesse sighed.

“—worth it, because she’s—well, you know. But it’s going to take all that doctor money to keep her happy. And then some.”

Jesse recalled that Jordan had cat-called Clara while she was kneeling on the shoulder of the highway next to what looked like a dead animal, crying. It stood to reason that the kid probably didn’t have much real-life experience with women—or people in general. Jesse was no Casanova, but he knew not to hit on people while they were looking death in the face. “I’m guessing you’re the kind of guy who watches a lot of TV and tries to act like guys you’ve seen in movies.”

Jordan’s brother Cody confirmed, amid more laughter, that this was the case, and Jordan was forbidden from speaking for twenty minutes. Jordan grinned and shrugged with the air of one who received this punishment with regularity from the group of his older cousin’s friends.

“Hey, Ted and I got called to the motorcycle wreck, couple weeks back,” Helio said next. “Gnarly, man. You see that kind of stuff a lot?”

“Yeah, but I’ve never seen them before they’re brought in,” he admitted. “That was a bad one.”

“He sure got lucky that a doctor was driving by at the time,” Cody remarked.

“Clara did great,” Ted said without prejudice. “You both stayed pretty cool. I definitely threw up later.”

“So did I,” Helio admitted.

Jordan couldn’t talk, so he raised his beer in solidarity.

“Young Jordan’s first accident scene,” Cody interpreted. “He wasn’t right for days.”

“So, there was the motorcycle accident,” Helio said, starting to count on his fingers, “and then there was the fight at the LoveFest when you were making out with Clara Wilder, and then there was the border collie. You been making the news nonstop since you got here, man.”

“You guys heard about the dog?” he asked in surprise.

“From Jordan,” a few of them said in unison.

“When Jordan’s allowed to talk again, remind me to ask him about DeWitt Petty.”

“What about him?” Skip asked. “I can tell you that his parole officer in Houston wasn’t too happy to hear that he got arrested six hundred miles away from where he’s supposed to be.”

“No kidding?”

“He’s been back in Houston since yesterday.”

Jesse frowned at Jordan. “You couldn’t have told Clara that? That guy’s been stalking her for months.”

“I forgot,” Jordan defended himself, and Cody and Ted both smacked the back of his head—the penalty, apparently, for speaking out of turn.

“So what’s the deal with the Marine?” Jesse asked next. “Sam?”

“Don’t know a Marine named Sam,” Helio said.

“Yoli and Clara have been talking about him nonstop all day. Giggling over text messages. Ed What’s-his-name’s nephew. Tattoos, works on cars. Lives on Yoli’s block.”

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