The Heart Will Lead You Home

by Kristin Leedy

  “I’ve brought Grace to play.”

  “You what?”

  “You heard me. Either she plays, or I don’t.”

  “Whoa, ease up cowgirl.” Colin looked Grace over from head to toe, and circled her one time for good measure. “I don’t know, Lizzie.”

  “Come on, Colin. You can’t afford to lose the Home Run Queen can you?” Having leverage was so great.

  “Well...” He scratched his chin and thought, but all he could picture was the rest of his bumbling team that refused to catch pop flies. “Can she catch?”

  “I’ve taught her everything I know.”

  “Well, put her in the field then, and we’ll see how she does, but I’m not promising anything much.”

  Lizzie was so excited she forgot to be scared, and for the first time ever she stood up on her tip toes and threw her arms around Colin. “Oh, thank you, thank you! You won’t regret this.”

  “Wow,” Payton said as he walked up to his friend just then. “You coming up with some moves that I don’t know about?” Payton grinned when Colin scowled and walked away, but inside Payton had secretly felt himself wanting to know what that hug had felt like.

  He was happy to see that Lizzie was finally starting to make a name for herself around the school. It seemed to him that people were starting to like her, and her image as dork of the school was beginning ever so slowly to wear off. Now, if someone could just convince her to put down her school books every once in a while, she’d just be that much better off.

  And it wasn’t his imagination, he realized as he watched her in the outfield. She was definitely starting to smile more, and with that smile came a pair of glittering eyes that danced with life. Reluctantly, he had to admit to himself, that when she smiled, her face was more than just cute. Her body hadn’t yet caught up with her good looks, he noted as he skimmed his eyes over her body, but when it did... he hated to think of how his already humming body would react when he saw what she looked like as a woman.

  Payton played on Bud and Hank’s team for the game, and when it came time for Lizzie to bat, he took a deep breath and tried to focus on striking out the opponent, which was no small feat he soon discovered.

  She stepped up to the plate, and positioned her body just right so that her tiny little butt barely poked out behind her. He noted with amusement that her tongue licked at the edges of her lips when she was concentrating, and at the moment her tongue was working hard on the right edge. He could see those green eyes all the way from the pitcher’s mound, and he was about to throw to her when his eyes locked with hers and held.

  For what felt like a full minute, but must have been only a second, his eyes held hers, and tearing them away would have been like ripping the sun from his world. He shook his head, to remove the buzz that had settled there, and forced himself to focus on the pitch.

  He let the ball go, and for the first time in his life the ball sailed skyward instead of towards the plate, and everyone on the field stopped in shock.

  Bud, the team coach, jogged over to the pitcher’s mound and tossed an arm around Payton’s shoulder. He huddled in close and whispered to Payton, “You okay there, QB?”

  “Yeah I’m fine. It was just a bee buzzing around. It won’t happen again.”

  Bud took a minute to assess his player and seemed to determine him eligible to pitch because he patted him once on the back and took back off to the sideline/dugout. Payton got the ball back from the catcher and tried to focus his thoughts on the game. He slammed the ball into his glove a few times for good measure and scuffed his feet as if he were the bull ready to charge and let the ball fly again.

  Three pitches later and he ended up walking her.

  Bud stepped up to the mound shaking his head, and placed his hands on Payton’s shoulders. “What’s up man? We need to pull you for a while? You don’t look so good.”

  Payton bent over for a minute to catch his breath then said, “No, I’m okay. Let’s play ball.”

  By the end of the game, Lizzie had hit two home runs, been walked three times, and hadn’t struck out once. Payton had struck out everyone but her, and Grace had caught every pop fly in her area. Colin asked her to come back, and said he would pay her to catch pop flies for him the rest of the time she played.

  Grace laughed. “You don’t have to pay me, Colin.” She batted her eyes and flipped her flame of hair. “But you can take me to the barn party next weekend.”

  Colin smiled sheepishly and turned a light shade of red as she turned to walk away. The other three walked over to him. “So, you got a date, huh? Never dated a red-head before,” Hank chimed in. “But I hear they’re lots of fun.” He chuckled and clapped his friend on the shoulder as he walked off.

  Colin waited until the other guys drifted off and caught up with Payton on his way out of the field. “Uh, Payton.”

  “Yeah, man.”

  “I’ve never, uh... had a date before.” Payton tried to stifle his laugh, and merely grinned instead.

  “Hmmm. And you wanted to know…”

  “Yeah, well, uh...” He ran a finger under the rim of his shirt. “I was, uh...”

  “Just say it.”

  “I’d feel better if you were there to... you know, make sure I do it right.”

  “Uh, man, that’s sick. I’m not going to watch you do it.”

  “No! I mean go on the date, like a double date, and make sure I don’t screw it up.”

  “Fine, but I’m not going to be the third wheel.”

  “Ask New Girl.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why not?” Payton searched his head to try and find a legitimate excuse but nothing, absolutely nothing, came to mind.

  “Just because, I can’t.”

  “What? Don’t be a baby. Just ask her, and let’s go together.” Payton thought it over for a minute, and was about to say no again when Colin added, “You know Payton, you’re an awesome QB, but wouldn’t it be tragic if none of your offensive line was there to defend you in the next game?”

  Payton smirked, “You’re blackmailing me? Now that’s original, Colin.”

  “You bet your ass I’m blackmailing you. Now quite stalling and help me out already.” Payton thought it over. What if he did ask her to go? Would it be so bad to ask Lizzie out? If he was honest with himself for five seconds he’d realize he’d been curious about what it would be like for a while now. At least this way he could pawn it off as a charity cause for his friend and she would never know the difference.

  “Okay, this one time. But that’s it.”

  “Thanks, man. I owe you one.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Payton shoved his books in his locker and wondered how the hell he was supposed to go about asking Lizzie to go to the barn party with him. He slammed the locker door and leaned back against it, waving every once in a while to the various groups of girls as they strolled down the hall. His mind was totally preoccupied though, so he got no real kick out of waving at them.

  How exactly was he supposed to propose this question to her? He must have been momentarily insane when he’d agreed to ask Lizzie to go to the barn party. There was no way he was asking her to go with him. Besides she’d probably be studying or catching up on all of Shakespeare’s works. He couldn’t ask her to go with him to this party because if he did the first thing she would assume was that this was a date, and that was the last thing he wanted. He was a free man, able to flirt with whoever he wanted, able to play the market and not feel guilty. Asking Lizzie to go to the barn party with him was like sealing his doom.

  It crossed his mind as he made his way down the hall to first period, had she ever even had a date before? He sincerely doubted it.

  Yep, he had to face it. This was going to end up being a date unless he did something to make it look like it wasn’t. But what? Payton hunkered down in his chair and hoped the teacher wouldn’t call his name so maybe he could sort this problem out.

  About half way in to the class while eve
ryone else was solving math equations, Payton still mulled the thought over in his brain. Colin expected him to ask Lizzie to go so he could take the red head with him to the party. Only Payton didn’t want a date to the party- he wasn’t ready to be saddled with some girl again. Nope. He’d had all the fun he wanted with Leena and now he wanted to sow his oats with lots of different girls, not just one. And certainly not just one who looked like a future librarian and who probably had read front to back more text books that he could say he read even ten pages out of.

  Maybe he was just in a bad mood that day, or he was catching some kind of bug. Possibly that was the explanation as to why he seemed so hell bent on not asking her to go with him. Something about that girl kept crawling under his skin lately, and it was definitely in a way that didn’t please him. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was- nothing that he could put a finger on, but whatever it was, he was certain that spending any time in a relatively close vicinity to her wouldn’t help the problem go away.

  He gnawed the edge of his pencil and scribbled something on his notebook paper to throw the teacher off for a few more minutes. She’d been looking curiously in his direction and he didn’t want her calling on him. Now... if only he could solve his date problem as easily as he could find ways to blend into a classroom crowd.

  And that’s when the idea struck him. He didn’t have to go on a date at all. He could mention to Lizzie that a group of people were going together to the party and see if she and the red head wanted to tag along. His idea seemed ingenious, and he smiled to himself.

  “Happy that you solved the problem, Mr. Cartwright?” Payton looked up to find the teacher standing over him staring at his almost blank sheet of paper. He grinned sheepishly and tried to think of something cute to say.

  Instead he came out with, “Yeah.”

  “Good. Then why don’t you go to the board and show the class how you solved it without using any of your scratch paper.”

  Man, was he ever in trouble.

  By the time first period ended Payton had had to weasel pretty hard to work himself out of Ms. Yorkshire’s bad graces. He’d smiled extra hard and even resorted to flexing his muscles (because he knew all the girls liked that) and still she hadn’t bought into his routine. In the end he’d settled for an extra hour with her at lunch the next day so he could rework the problems he’d skipped over in class.

  He breathed a sigh of relief when the bell rang and he was released. Now all he needed to do was find Lizzie and ask her to come with the gang to the Barn Party. He caught sight of her walking down the hallway a few people in front of him, and just his luck she was alone. For a minute he just there, alone in a mass of swirling people, enjoying the view her walk afforded him. He didn’t even realize that exactly what he had been trying to avoid only thirty minutes prior was what was now subconsciously being entertained in his mind.

  She looked pretty cute, all dressed in a brown skirt and brown and cream checkered short sleeved sweater. She had her hair pulled back in a long pony tail with a few strands wrapped around the holder to make it look like only her hair held the pony tail in place.

  Something inside him felt odd, not like it did when he saw Lena in the hallway before they had dated. No, he knew exactly what that feeling was. That was the raw, primal urge of a man lusting after a woman. This... this was more of something... well, something inside him that wanted her in his arms and his body wrapped around hers to explore her every curve, but at the same time to protect her from any danger that may come her way. It was a feeling that begged him to take what he wanted from her and to give her back all he was in return. It was a feeling that scared him so much that he instantly shut the door on it, afraid to know that a tenth grader could feel something as strong as that, and afraid that if he let it, it might devour him whole.

  Shaking his head in disgust at himself for letting the quarterback of DixieAcademy’s consciousness get so carried away, he forced himself to focus on the task at hand. Invite the girl to the party, make his goofy friend’s day. Right. Got it. Onward march.

  And then he snapped back to attention and got lost in her walk all over again, enjoying the way her small bottom swayed unconsciously along with her hips. He liked watching her body like that because he knew it was unintentional. Lizzie wasn’t the kind of girl who tried to attract guys by using her looks. He honestly doubted she even knew that she was remotely attractive.

  When he skimmed down past her hips and studied her legs, he saw that he liked what there as well. Her thin legs weren’t straight sticks, but instead had shapely calves that showed lines of muscle when she walked. He could see the power housed in them, and couldn’t help but enjoy them for a minute longer.

  Finally he shook himself back into reality and made his way down the hall to where she stood in front of her locker exchanging books for the next class.

  “Lizzie.” She jumped almost a foot off the ground and he could see that he had startled her. “Sorry, did I scare you?”

  “N-No.” But she gave him a weak smile and her pupils were about five sizes too big, so he just smiled and continued on.

  “Listen, You know about the barn parties that we have around here, don’t you?”

  She shoved a book in her locker and pulled out a notebook, trying not to stare directly into his gorgeously green eyes or his tanned face. “Yes.”

  “Well, there’s gonna be one this Saturday night.”

  “Oh? That’s interesting.” She hoped her voice sounded nonchalant, because inside her blood was rushing and her palms were sweating.

  “Yeah, well, anyway, a bunch of the people you play with out in the field are going to be there, and, well, I just wanted to invite you and your friend to come along if you want to.”

  She turned and faced him, hoping her voice wouldn’t crack. Praying she wasn’t turning beet red like she felt like she was. “You- you want us to come?”

  “Yeah, sure. Colin said you deserved a reward after all the hard work you two put in at the games over at the field.”

  “Well... if you’re sure, then I guess we’d love to come.”

  Payton smiled, those white teeth sparkling even in the dingy fluorescent lighting of the school hallway. “Great. See you there.”

  He was walking away and she was staring at his tight butt when she remembered that she forgot to ask him what time. “Hey!” She waited till he turned and smiled at her, his eyes locking with hers for a minute, then asked, “What time?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “You forgot to tell me the time. You know, for the party.”

  “Oh! Right! Nine. It starts at eight, but everyone shows up just after nine.”

  “Thanks.” Payton just smiled and turned away.

  Lizzie raced frantically around her bedroom and tried on yet another outfit from her closet. Already she had twelve pairs of pants, five skirts, and countless blouses strewn haphazardly across her bed, and her floor looked like a national disaster site ready for clean-up. At least three different bras hung from chairs, the top of her dresser, and one from her ceiling fan where she had flung it in an absolute state of desperation.

  What was she going to wear?

  This was so unlike her to be paranoid about her clothing. Yes, she was fashion conscious, and yes, she liked to make sure she looked good. But, changing clothes this many times was considered paranoia by her standards.

  It was nerves. She knew it. She had had nightmares every night since Monday when Payton had asked her and Grace to come to the barn party. She had never been asked to do anything with anyone in the entire time that she had lived in this town, and for the first time she was. By the most popular boy in school no less.

  She would positively die if she didn’t look perfect tonight.

  The door bell rang and Lizzie nearly jumped out of her skin from nerves. A minute later Grace burst through her bedroom door to observe the utter chaos that was Lizzie’s room.

  “Bean.” Grace folded her arms across her chest and observed t
he insanity. “What are you doing? It’s nearly nine now, we’ve got to go if we’re going. And what are you wearing?” Lizzie could tell this wasn’t the right outfit by Grace’s cocked eyebrows.

  “I know. I know,” Lizzie whined. “I’ve tried on everything and nothing works. I’m just going to go crawl into my sheets and go to sleep instead.”

  “Oh, no you’re not. If I’m going, you’re going. And wild horses couldn’t keep me from being there tonight. You do realize if you blow this invitation off it’s like kissing any chance of having a life right out the window, don’t you?”

  “I don’t believe that, Gracie.”

  “Well, it’s true.”

  “Nope. Sorry, hon. I don’t buy it.”

  “Fine, go crawl under your covers and I’ll go to the barn party. But when I’m popular and having a blast, don’t expect me to pull you out of the trenches.”

  Lizzie eyed her friend to measure her sincerity. “You wouldn’t do that.”

  “Try me.” Only problem was, Lizzie didn’t want to. She wanted to go to the party just as badly as Grace.

  “Fine,” She gave in at last. “Give me five minutes and I’ll be ready.”

  “Deal.”

  By the time Lizzie was dressed and ready to go, Grace had her family laughing in hysterics as some crazy joke she had learned somewhere along the way. Lizzie stood in the doorway of the den and watched as her parents hugged on the sofa and Mary Catherine sat on the floor near the television laughing at Lizzie’s best friend tell a joke. It was good, she realized, so good to finally see her mother laugh again.

  For that one laugh alone, Lizzie realized with warmth in her heart, she would have given up Chicago again and again and moved here every time. Every day of heartache she had had to endure was worth it just to see her mother happy again.

  She bit back the tears of joy that wanted to come and stepped in to the room. “Well, looks like I sure know how to pick the entertainment, huh?” Her father smiled at his daughter and hugged his wife closer.