“I can handle throwing away a pizza box and sticking a couple of plates in the dishwasher.”
She smiled. “Okay, then. Thanks for the dinner.”
“Thanks for the help.”
“Let’s just hope it worked.”
He walked her outside. The moon hung high in the sky, throwing shadowed light across their faces. They stopped at the door to her truck and then stood there, uneasy with each other. Colby felt the electricity between them. She might not have been the most active member of the Keeling Creek dating circuit, but she could tell when a man was thinking about kissing her. Unless she was way off, Ian wanted to kiss her.
The scary part? She wanted him to. Unwise and highly unadvisable, though it might be. She opened the door and got inside. The sooner she left the better. “Good night, Ian. Thanks again.”
“Good night, Colby.”
She drove away then, her only consolation the note of regret in his voice.
30
Throughout the week, Lena hadn’t been able to muster much enthusiasm for the campout on Friday night. All of her friends were going. But the problem was, every one of them would be hooking up with a guy once they got there. Every one except her. She was beginning to think something was wrong with her.
They’d just finished setting up the tents when Tim Anderson’s Wagoneer rolled to a stop above the pond where they were camping.
Millie tapped Lena on the shoulder. “Looks like it might be your lucky night.”
Lena’s gaze followed her friend’s to the Wagoneer at the top of the hill. Luke McKinley had just gotten out of the passenger side and made his way around to the back of the vehicle. He and Tim pulled out a couple of duffel bags and headed toward the campsite.
Jefferson County High had its share of good-looking guys. Football players with big muscles and broad shoulders. But Luke McKinley was tall and lean and different from any boy she’d ever known. His walk was loose limbed and hinted at attitude. She couldn’t find her voice. When she did, it came out much higher than normal. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, right, Lena. I’ve seen the way you look at him in the halls. You’re crazy about him.”
“I don’t even know him,” she said with what she hoped sounded like indifference.
“So? I didn’t say you knew him. I said you were crazy about him.”
Lena ignored Millie’s baiting and went over to the campfire to help grill the burgers. What if she thought he was cute? That didn’t mean she wanted to make a fool of herself.
For the next two hours, she did an admirable job of not looking at him. It had to be her overactive imagination that she felt his gaze on her, though. That or wishful thinking.
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes was one of the school’s most popular organizations. Jim Bevson, the economics teacher who headed the group was largely responsible for that. Regarded as the coolest teacher at Jefferson County High, all the kids loved him. His wife, Theresa, was just as cool. She went with him on all the field trips. Lena often thought if she had a dad, she’d have liked him to be like Mr. Bevson. The Bevsons had the best marriage she’d ever seen. Except for Aunt Phoebe and Uncle Frank, of course. Nobody had a better marriage than theirs.
Lena sat at the edge of the campfire and listened while Mr. Bevson told them a story about a boy paralyzed from the neck down after diving off the high board at a swim meet. The boy had pretty much given up on life until, one day, someone brought him a computer he operated with his voice. He began to write stories with it and went on to write a prize-winning novel called When All Is Black.
Mr. Bevson’s stories always had a point. “Every one of us has something in our lives that would hold us back if we let it,” he said when he’d finished. “The key is to deal with it, then find a way around it.”
Lena looked into the campfire flames and thought of the father she’d never met. Anger smoldered inside her when she let herself think about how her mother had lied to her. Could she ever find a way around that? Could she ever forgive her?
The group around the campfire began to break up, interrupting Lena’s thoughts. They didn’t have to be in their sleeping bags until midnight, so when someone suggested a walk, everyone agreed. For the couples, it would be a perfect opportunity to sneak off and make out for an hour or so. Sure enough, ten minutes into the walk, both Millie and her date disappeared. Lena tagged along after the rest of the group, feeling like a fifth wheel. She might as well go back to the camp. She didn’t want to end up one of the few geeks who didn’t have a make-out partner.
Just as she turned to head back, she bumped into someone. She looked up and found herself staring into a pair of narrowed blue eyes. Luke McKinley’s blue eyes.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey, Luke.” The greeting sounded as if she’d just run five miles.
“You headed back?”
“Uh, I guess so.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“Sure.” She shrugged as though it didn’t matter one way or the other.
They turned and walked up the moonlit pavement. The rest of the group continued on, their laughter fading in the distance. They walked for a minute or two without saying anything. Finally unable to stand the silence any longer, Lena said, “I didn’t expect to see you here. I mean—” She gave herself a mental thwap and then chastised herself. Great, Lena. Now he thinks you were watching for him.
“I didn’t expect to come. Anderson said it would be a good time. So far, it’s seemed pretty lame to me.”
Lena immediately took offense. She stopped in the middle of the road. “I suppose there’s a lot more action where you come from.”
Luke stared down at her with his seen-it-all eyes. “Yeah, you could say that.”
“So why’d you come here?”
He swung away from her and dropped his head back to stare up at the star-speckled sky, his hands in his pockets. “It wasn’t my idea.”
“Your dad made you?”
He shrugged.
“Why didn’t you go live with your mother?”
“I don’t have a mother.”
“Oh.” Lena considered that for a moment. “I don’t have a father.”
“Aren’t we the pair of bookends?”
He had a smart mouth. But she had a feeling he did that to cover up something. What, though?
They continued up the hill, not saying anything for a couple of minutes. Lena stopped again halfway up. “So why did he make you come here?”
Luke hesitated, and then told her, “Because he thinks he can reform me.”
The words were blunt and to the point, as if he wanted to shock her, or maybe scare her away. Determined not to let him, she kept her voice nonchalant when she said, “For what?”
He looked down at the ground and scuffed a sneakered toe in the dirt. “I got caught with some drugs at a party.”
“Were you using them?” she asked, somehow unable to picture him as a druggie.
Luke looked at her for a long minute, as if trying to decide how to answer. “Would you believe me if I said it wasn’t something I made a habit of?”
She held his intense gaze, considered the question and then said, “Yeah, I would.”
“I don’t know why I just told you that. I haven’t told anybody else.”
“Your secret’s safe with me.” She tilted her head back and said, “Do you believe in haunted houses?”
“No,” he said, looking surprised.
“Wanna see one?”
He shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”
Lena took off at a jog, cutting through the cornfield to their right. The moon slanted a path of light across the rows of corn stubs. She jumped each one with ease. She congratulated herself for not looking back to see if he was still following her.
At the edge of the field, she slowed to a stop.
“You run track or something?” he asked, coming up behind her.
“As a matter of fact, I do,” she sai
d, then took off again.
“Wait!”
She kept going until she reached the fence surrounding the property. Luke was right behind her. They leaned against the rickety railing, their breathing short and raspy.
“This is the old Hathaway place. Spooky, huh?”
“Looks like a house to me.”
The brick two-story sat some one hundred yards away, eerie in the moonlight. One side of the porch sagged like a lopsided smile. The roof had holes in it, and the breeze brushed a tree limb back and forth against a broken windowpane, the sound almost mournful.
Lena had a moment of doubt as to whether they should go farther, but squashed it at the thought of Luke’s earlier statement about the campout being so lame. She’d show him lame. “Come on. Let’s go inside.”
He looked at her as if he thought she’d lost it. “Why?”
“Why not?”
She hopped over the fence and bounded across the yard before she lost her nerve. She stopped at the front steps. They, too, were in terrible shape, partly rotted on one side. The moon shed little light on the house. Lena tentatively touched a foot to the bottom step, then ventured up.
The door moaned as she gave it a shove inward. Adrenaline shot through her veins. She was crazy to go inside, after what she’d heard about this place. None of the kids she knew would come anywhere near it. But the desire to impress Luke prodded her on. She glanced over her shoulder. He was still behind her.
She stopped inside the enormous hallway. Moonlight shone in from the windows, but it was hard to see. To their right stood a winding staircase. The banister at the top hung precariously loose above them.
Lena pointed at the doorway to their left. “That’s where they used to lay people out. It was called the viewing room.”
“What do you mean ‘lay people out’?”
“They didn’t have funeral homes in those days, so people came to the house for the viewing.”
Luke didn’t say anything, but shifted from one foot to the other. His uneasiness gave her courage. She ventured forward. Boards creaked. From somewhere above, a bird flew out of its nesting place.
Lena stopped, hiding her own fright with words. “This used to be an old plantation. One of the biggest around.”
“What kind of plantation?”
Lena shrugged. “I dunno. Probably cotton or tobacco. Later on, it became a boardinghouse, but people eventually stopped staying here because of all the things that kept happening.”
“Like what?”
“Doors opening and closing in the middle of the night. There was this one chair that no matter where it was moved in the house, it always turned up in front of the living room window. No one could ever explain how it got moved. But it was rumored to be Mrs. Hathaway’s favorite spot to sit.”
Luke snorted in disbelief. “Must have been some explanation.”
Ignoring his skepticism, Lena said, “They say she locked him in the cellar.”
“Locked who in the cellar?” Luke asked, his voice the slightest bit rattled.
“Mr. Hathaway,” Lena said, enjoying herself. “The story goes that he was in love with a young woman who worked for them. They’d planned to run away together, but Mrs. Hathaway found out and put an end to it.”
“She killed them?”
“That’s what they say.”
“What’d she do with the bodies?”
“Some people say she buried them in the cornfield. Others say she buried them in the cellar.”
“Sounds like a tall tale.”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Lena shrugged and continued down the hallway. It led into the kitchen. Luke went over to the old dry basin and worked the pump handle. It squeaked in protest and shot out a puff of dust. At the back of the kitchen, a door stood ajar. Lena pointed at it. “That must be the cellar.”
Luke went over and opened it farther. The bottom scraped against the floor. Lena jumped. Luke stuck his head through the doorway and peered down the steps. “It’s pitch black down there.”
“I think this is as far as I’m going,” she said.
He swung around and gave her a cocky grin, the tables suddenly turned. “Whatsa matter? You scared?”
“If I’d been scared, I wouldn’t have come in here in the first place.”
“No, I guess you wouldn’t have. I don’t know any girls who would come this far,” he admitted.
Almost a compliment. Lena’s courage reasserted itself. She moved to the door and peered down the steps. She couldn’t see a thing. A board beneath her foot collapsed, and she pitched forward.
A pair of hands grabbed her shoulders and yanked her back to safety against a solid chest.
Lena’s heart beat so fast she thought it might actually explode. Luke turned her around and said, “You okay?”
“Yeah. Thanks,” she said, her voice all breathy again. She ridiculed herself for not being a better actress.
They stared at each other while Lena tried to regain her bearings. Feelings of another sort momentarily replaced her fear. In the dimness, the planes and angles of his good-looking face were even more compelling. His hands were still on her shoulders. She didn’t want him to let go.
How long they stood there, she didn’t know. Probably only a few seconds, but it seemed like forever. She didn’t think forever would be long enough.
“We’d better get out of here,” he said finally.
She nodded, not trusting her voice. He led the way, while she followed. They’d almost made it back to the front door when they heard a loud noise from upstairs. They turned around just as a piece of the banister railing fell from the stairway onto the hallway floor.
Lena looked at Luke. He looked at her. Without saying a word, they tore out of the house and ran for all they were worth. Across the porch. Down the steps. Flying through the yard. They didn’t stop until they’d reached the edge of the cornfield, where they collapsed on the ground, their backs to the fence. They were both breathing as if they’d run a marathon.
They were silent for a minute or two, their rasping breaths the only sound in the stillness. They turned to look at each other. Smiles broke out on their faces.
“Chicken,” Lena said.
“Like you weren’t,” Luke said, grinning.
“It’s not so lame around here, after all, is it?” she asked, her own smile widening. If she had planned this night from the start, it never would have been as good as this. Not in her most outlandish imaginings would she have come up with the two of them ending up alone in a haunted house.
Silence hung between them again, the air full of newfound attraction. And a tension Lena had never before experienced.
Luke turned then, his shoulder against the fence. His head lowered toward hers. He was going to kiss her!
His lips brushed hers. He pulled back and said, “Your eyes are open.”
“I know. I want to watch.”
Luke smiled, cupped the side of her neck with his hand and kissed her again. She did watch for a second or two, but never-before-experienced feelings flooded her, and her eyes drifted closed. She savored every single sensation. There were so many. The smell of him, warm and overheated from their run across the field. The feel of him, big, broad, the very essence of him male and thoroughly intriguing.
His head tilted, and he deepened the kiss. Shock waves of surprise and pleasure ricocheted through her. Somehow, they managed to get closer. His arms went around her waist, and she found herself pressed close against his chest. It felt so good. Better than she’d imagined. Better than she’d ever dreamed.
She’d been kissed a couple of times. But never like this. Not quite sure what to do, she let instinct guide her, hoping she wasn’t opening her mouth too wide, following his lead when his tongue brushed against hers.
They kissed for long, pulse-pounding minutes until Luke lifted his head. “When you set out to prove a guy wrong, you pull out all the stops.”
Lena smiled. “I like to win.”
“Yeah
. I can see that.” His thumb caressed her chin, lingering at her bottom lip, filling Lena with a yearning for something she didn’t quite understand but wanted more of nonetheless.
“I think we’d better get back,” Luke said in a reluctant voice.
Disappointment tumbled through her. She straightened her clothes, feeling as if she’d done something wrong. “Yeah. Someone will have missed us by now.”
“Hey.” He reached for her arm and stopped her jerky motions. “Lena, I didn’t expect. . .I mean—”
“Please don’t say you’re sorry,” she said. Being with him made her feel better. For a short while, she’d even become her old self, not the bitchy brat she’d been since she’d discovered her mother’s betrayal. Being with Luke made her feel wanted and worthwhile. Being with him made her forget about the father who hadn’t wanted her. She didn’t want to hear that he wished it hadn’t happened.
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, Lena.” He reached out and curved his hand around her neck. “But the last thing I want to do is go back.”
In the span of a couple of hours, her whole life had changed. She knew without a doubt that she would never be the same again.
Once he’d made sure Lena had reached the campsite, Luke climbed the hill to Tim Anderson’s Wagoneer and pulled a sleeping bag out of the back. He made his way to the tent the two of them had pitched earlier.
Tim was already inside. Opening the flap, Luke ducked in, trying not to wake him.
“Where you been?” the other boy asked, lifting up on one elbow.
“Went for a walk.”
“Some walk. Who went with you?”
“Nobody.”
Tim grinned. “Yeah, I believe that.”
Luke rolled out the bed, then lay down on it, ignoring the other boy’s baiting.
“Somebody said Lena Williams wasn’t back a little while ago. She wasn’t out walking with you, was she?”
‘“Night, Anderson,” Luke said, rolling over on his side.
Tim chuckled. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
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