Chip smiled. “Unless Amy finds someone else to take her.”
Luke glanced over at his friend and I swear it was taking every bit of self-control not to punch Chip right there in the cafeteria.
Thankfully, Jenny didn’t catch it.
“I don’t think that is likely,” I said to Chip but out of the corner of my eye I watched as Luke smiled at me, sending a warm feeling through me. Luke and I were going to the dance. And I had Jenny to thank for it.
Sometimes, life could be both strange and happy. Who knew?
The next few days were a mish-mash of emotions. I was happy about Jenny and her happiness. I was torn up worrying that she would discover how I felt about her brother. Luke and I somehow kept our hands to ourselves when every fiber of my being wanted to touch him, hold him. Yell to the world that he was my boyfriend.
Oh yeah, and my leg itched permanently. I was getting frustrated being hobbled. It was as if someone had tied me to a fence and forgotten me.
Everything was going sort of okay. Even my dad and I were talking again.
He asked me to pass the salt at dinner and I did so without throwing it at him. He took that as a sign of progress and asked how my day had been.
“Fine,” I lied. No way was I telling him how torn up I was about keeping secrets from Jenny.
He nodded then reminded me that Mom would be arriving in a couple of weeks.
I glanced at him, was he worried, hurt, angry? It was impossible to tell. He was my dad, he didn’t like showing his emotions. He was like Luke in that kind of thing. He would pretend that stuff didn’t bother him when I knew it was tearing him up inside.
We somehow finished dinner without yelling at each other and slowly life got back to normal. Or at least at home, it did.
At school, things were getting harder every day. Luke and I couldn’t even smile at each other without worrying about Jenny. I think Chip was picking up on things and wondered if Luke had told him.
No, I realized. But Chip wasn’t an idiot, he had to know something was going on. I was amazed every morning when Jenny and I got together that she hadn’t seen it. I wondered if it was one of those, refuse to see what you don’t want to see, type situations.
I so wanted to be wrapped up in his arms. To find a quiet place and kiss him until tomorrow. But the chance just never appeared. Either Jenny was there, or a crowd of people who would just love to run and tell her.
No, my love life sucked. There was no other way to put it. Here I was the girlfriend of the most perfect, hottest, sweetest bad boy in school and I couldn’t tell anyone. Life didn’t get much more unfair than that.
Anyway, like I said, life was going pretty good, or at least as well as could be expected considering my life was a lie.
At least until one afternoon, I turned the corner to find Becky Anderson flipping her hair over her shoulder and smiling up at Luke while he worked his locker combination.
Every nerve in my body buzzed with anger as I hurried on my crutches to Luke’s locker.
He looked up and saw me coming. He smiled over the top of Becky’s head and my heart relaxed just a little. She shot around and gave me a glare colder than frozen nitrogen.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” I answered back, as always, an expert at small talk.
I totally ignored Becky, as my mind frantically tried to think of some way to fix the worry coursing through me.
How could I handle this situation? This … ‘Girl’ … was trying to make a move on my man. A fact that I could not even acknowledge. Then it hit me, the perfect thing to say.
“Um, what time are you picking me up for the dance,” I asked him with as much innocence as I could put into a short question. Jenny knew about the dance. She wouldn’t be surprised when someone ran to her with the rumor.
Becky looked down at my cast and frowned. “You’re going to the dance?”
Luke ignored her for a moment and shrugged his shoulders, “Seven?”
“Good,” I said as I shot him my sweetest smile.
Becky looked up at him, then at me, and then back up at him. I could see the disappointment in her eyes and silently laughed at her in my mind. I know, I wasn’t a nice, kind person. But when it came to Luke, I didn’t care what she thought about me as long as she got the message.
I shifted my attention over to Becky. “Oh, hey Becky,” I said as if I had just become aware of her existence. “Who are you going to the dance with?”
Her face fell and a twinge of regret flared inside of me but I quickly squashed it. This was Becky Anderson, queen bee. It would do her good to lose at something. It builds character, my dad would say.
“I haven’t decided yet,” she answered with as much calmness as she could gather. And I knew she wasn’t lying, I’m sure she had a few guys asking her. But she had hoped to land the famous Luke Prescot, bad boy extraordinaire.
A fact that was just not going to happen. Not in this lifetime.
“You want me to carry that?” Luke said, indicating my backpack.
I smiled inside, Luke got it, he was sending a message without being explicit. The look in her eyes was priceless. She knew she had lost and it looked like I hadn’t even been trying. Here I was, hunched over a pair of crutches, and Luke was focused on me, not her. And I hadn’t even flipped my hair or thrust my chest into his face.
It was a mystery that was going to bother her all day.
Smiling at Luke, I slipped out of my backpack and handed it to him. He smiled back and we started to walk away. As we did, I shot Becky a look behind his back. You know that look. The I won, you lost, look.
God, life could be good at times.
Chapter Eighteen
Luke
It was taking every bit of self-control to keep from just pulling her into my arms. This secret stuff was killing me. I had this burning need raging inside of me and I couldn’t acknowledge it. This desire and want that filled my every thought.
My mind couldn’t wrap itself around anything but Amy.
Of course, I wasn’t a complete lost cause. I got my school work done. I somehow got the farm chores completed on time and done correctly. I put in the hours for Mr. Parker. No, I wasn’t a complete idiot.
But inside, things were different. The world looked different. The way I felt about myself was different. I mean, Like, if someone like Amy could find me worthwhile. Who was I to question that? Maybe she was right.
But, like I said, this secret keeping was killing me.
It didn’t bother me about keeping it from Jenny. In truth, I didn’t care if she was mad at me because I liked her friend and her friend liked me. There were bigger issues to worry about. No, what bothered me was that I couldn’t treat Amy the way she deserved to be treated. I couldn’t smile at her. I couldn’t hold her hand and let the world know we were together.
I couldn’t kiss her. That was what was really killing me. That and the fact that I saw the way guys looked at her. With hungry eyes, and they didn’t even have the good sense to do it behind my back.
But why would they? To them, she was a beautiful girl without a boyfriend. What did they have to worry about? The sexist pigs, each one of them. The only thing that stopped me from pounding their faces into pulp was the fact that Amy wouldn’t approve.
Laughing at myself, I turned the corner in time to catch Willie Dawson pushing off the far wall and walking towards Amy as she pulled up at her locker. The guy had been waiting for her. Like a shark at the edge of the reef. Just waiting for her to cross over onto his side.
My fist clenched as I hurried towards them. He got there first, leaning up against the locker and saying something to her. Her shoulders were stiff and she refused to look at him. My gut tightened up as a red rage began to build inside of me.
Amy looked up as I got there, our eyes met. I saw her shoulders relax just a little as she shot me a quick glance to tell me to slow down, she could handle it.
She turned to him and smiled sweetly as s
he gently shook her head and said, “I’m sorry, but my dad has a rule. I’m not allowed to date drug dealers. I know, he’s sort of old-fashioned that way.”
Willie looked as if someone had slipped a knife between his ribs. His face drained of all color as he stammered trying to think of some kind of come back.
Amy closed her locker door then smiled at me as she held out her backpack.
“Can you carry this for me?” she asked. “Thank you.”
I swear the girl was a master. She’d deflected Willie, and sent a message at the same time. All without being blatant about it.
But I saw the look in his eyes and my insides tightened up. This wasn’t over. Like I said, the man didn’t like being told no.
I shot him my best glare and shook my head at him as I turned to follow Amy. I could feel his eyes boring into us as we left him there dumbfounded and confused.
“You’re sexy when you’re mean,” I said in a whisper. “But then you are sexy all the time.”
Her cheeks grew pink for a second as she focused on making her way through the crowd.
“You be careful around him,” I continued, “if he gives you any problem you let me know.”
Amy frowned as she looked up at me. “You stay away from him. I don’t need you getting in trouble right now. They’d lock you up and throw away the key. This is not a good time. I get my cast off in a few days and we’re going to the dance. Don’t screw that up. I bought a dress and everything.”
I laughed. “Hey, at least our ‘Jenny’ problem would be solved.”
She glared at me. “I’m serious,” she said as she came to a halt right there in the middle of the hall. She continued to stare at me, obviously wanting to know if I was going to do what I was told.
“Yes, mam,” I joked as my insides relaxed. We were good and in the real world, that was all that mattered.
The first day I saw her without her cast was sort of special. She wore tight jeans that looked like they’d been painted on. A cute, flowy type top and hoop earrings. Her long chocolate hair cascaded down her back.
The girl was pure sexy. Every curve, every flash of her sparkling eyes, all of it worked to drive me mad.
“Hey, welcome back to the world of normal people,” I said as I leaned up against the lockers. She shot me a quick smile, pushed her hair behind her ear, and gently brushed her hand against mine before quickly pulling it away.
“How’d it go?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Fine, fully healed. It seems the big lug who saved me did a pretty good job with the splints.”
“Yeah, well he sort of had to if he was going to keep you there all alone for the night.”
She blushed as once again she brushed my hand, keeping it there for more than a few seconds. The two of us stared into each other’s eyes and became lost until the first bell rang. Amy jumped back as reality rushed in between us.
“Where’s Jenny?” she asked.
My heart fell as our moment was broken. Was it always going to be like this? I didn’t know how much more I could take.
“She said something about waiting for Chip. I swear, she spent half of last night talking to him on the phone and now she can’t start her day without seeing him in person.”
“I sort of know the feeling,” Amy said as she quickly looked down at her feet.
I reached out and gently rubbed her shoulder. “This can’t go on. It’s killing me. And I’m afraid it is going to ruin ‘us.’
She frowned as she slowly nodded. “Let’s get through the dance and then I will tell her. She is so looking forward to going with Chip. Her life is finally back to the way it should be and I am going to ruin it.”
I sighed heavily then nodded. A few more days. I could do it for a few more days if it made Amy happy.
“So, you’ve come to realize that this … thing between us is real. You’re not going to change your mind next week.”
She sighed as her shoulders slumped. “Yes,” she said without looking up at me. “It’s real.”
My heart soared. I hadn’t realized that in the back of my mind I had been secretly worrying that Amy was going to change her mind. That the idea of upsetting her friend would outweigh her feelings for me.
Either that. Or she would wake up and realize how stupid it was for her to get mixed up with a guy like me.
She finally looked up and smiled sweetly. I swear she could read the thoughts running through my head.
“I can’t pretend anymore either,” she said. “You are too important to me.”
I smiled down at her and started to lean in to kiss her when I remembered where we were. A hundred kids were streaming by. And each one of them would love to have a juicy story.
Pulling back, I sighed. Amy smiled sadly then turned and left, her shoulders tight and her head down as if she had the weight of the world resting there.
My stomach loosened up, after the dance, I told myself. Or at least within a few days after. Then Amy and I could be together.
And what then? I wondered. What was our future? I mean, this was Amy we were talking about. She was going places. Her father would make sure of that. She was destined for big things. And what about me?
Where would I be next year at this time? A farmer? The place wasn’t big enough. Not really. The taxes alone ate any profits. We either had to grow or sink. But was that what I wanted?
And if that, a farmer. Amy wouldn’t be a part of that. She would be off at college, learning new things. Experiencing an entirely different world. A world without me in it.
Suddenly, my hope and happiness crashed down around me as I realized just how bad things could be.
No, I told myself. Do not worry about the future. At least not yet. No. I was going to enjoy this moment. I was going to take a chunk of happiness for myself before it disappeared forever.
Chapter Nineteen
Amy
My insides continued to turn over. I so wished Mom was here to help. She would have known how much makeup to use and a dozen other things I couldn’t stop worrying about.
But no, she chose to run off to a commune and live a life of shared happiness. Of course, it was sharing happiness with people other than her family.
Sighing, I put down the mascara brush and looked into the mirror. She was going to be here in a few days. We would deal with it then I told myself. Tonight, I needed to focus on Luke. One problem at a time.
What was he doing at the moment? Did he feel any of this nervousness? No, not Luke, the man was born cool. He never let stuff like this get to him.
Sighing, I returned to trying to make myself look as pretty as possible. As I worked, I thought back to a conversation I sort of eased-dropped on in the girl’s bathroom. Tammy Johnson and Emily Dean had been talking about how their boyfriends had gotten rooms at the hotel.
They’d both talked as if it were no big deal. Like this sort of thing went on all the time and was sort of expected. My insides rolled over. Would Luke expect that? Did he want that? And what did it mean if he didn’t?
Again, my stomach churned with one more thing to worry about. Was I ready for that? I thought about it for a moment and realized I sort of was. If not tonight. Then soon. The realization made me blush as a burning need flashed through me. This was Luke Prescot, of course, I wanted him. The man was built like a log cabin. Rough around the edges, but hard and stable. Plus, he was naturally sweet and kind. And I just knew he would never hurt me. Not Luke.
So, yes, I was sort of ready. But the thought also made me nervous. A fact that I was going to have to deal with.
Then I thought of Jenny and froze inside. It would be bad enough if she thought we were boyfriend and girlfriend. But if she found out we were sleeping together. She’d never talk to me again.
Sighing, I finished with my make-up and then slipped into my dress. I’d gone with a full-length dress. Not an evening gown, but close. My leg was still all pale from the cast and I needed to cover it up or I’d look like a pinto pony out ther
e on the dance floor.
Once I was fully dressed, I glanced at the clock and realized I still had a half hour before Luke got there. I laughed at myself. I’d been so anxious, I’d hurried. It wasn’t like I was looking forward to it or anything.
When I went downstairs I found Dad in his study. He looked up and froze for a second as he slowly smiled.
“You look good.”
My insides relaxed as I twirled around. He always knew the perfect thing to say and just when to say it.
“I don’t think I like this idea of you growing up. You were just six years old the other day and I was teaching you how to ride a bike.”
I laughed. “Yeah, well, some things can’t be stopped.”
He smiled and I saw a sadness pass behind his eyes. I wondered if it was just me growing up or if he was missing Mom. I know she hurt him, but I don’t think he blamed her near as much as I did.
“What time will you be home?” he asked.
“Oh, I figure Tuesday, maybe Thursday if things go real good,” I joked.
He didn’t laugh as his face grew very serious.
“Dad,” I said with a shake of my head. “I was only joking. Probably around midnight, maybe a little later.”
His shoulders relaxed just a little. “I thought this thing was over at eleven?”
I shrugged. “A bunch of us will probably go out after, grab a piece of pie or something. You know. Live the wildlife of an Everton teenager.”
He continued to frown. “You have your phone with you.”
“Dad,” I said. “This is not a big deal. I’m going to a dance.”
“You’re going out with Luke Prescott,” he said as if that was all that mattered.
My heart jumped as I got ready to tear into him for criticizing Luke then realized that it wouldn’t change things.
“That’s right,” I said. “The one person I can trust with my life. Think about it, he’s already proven that he can be relied upon in an emergency. He’s bigger than half the outdoors so no one will mess with us and my honor will always be protected. Besides, his sister, my best friend will be there. So, like that is the ultimate buzz kill on any romantic possibilities.”
My Best Friend's Brother (Hometown Heroes Book 3) Page 12
