A Crowe's Song Page 15
“Then why didn’t they show up?”
“They did.” Emily’s eyes closed just as a soft grin lined her lips. “They walked past, didn’t see me, so they assumed I changed my mind and went without me.”
“Why is that funny?”
Her eyes opened, finding his immediately. He’d seen them before, knew what color they were, yet he’d never been this close in this much light. They convinced him that magic existed, because as he memorized every navy striation within the aquamarine, the rest of the world vanished. His history with Bobby disappeared. The rivalry between his family and the Bennetts…gone. No puff of smoke, no cape, no wand or top hat.
Just. Magic.
“Because,” Emily said, breaking through his thoughts, “if I had sat two feet to the left or two steps up, they would’ve seen me. And if they’d seen me, I would’ve never met you. If I hadn’t met you, I probably would’ve taken Bobby back that day in the diner when you came in and saw us.”
“Wait a minute…are you telling me that you’re not with Bobby because of me?”
She shrugged. “Well, yeah. Kind of.”
“Why?”
This took her a little longer to respond, not because she didn’t know the answer, but because she needed to contemplate her words before saying them aloud. “He and I started dating right after…” She rolled her wrist, gesturing that he knew the rest of her thought. “And I don’t believe that he ever got over her. That’s why I think he broke up with me—to go after her. It hurt; I’m not going to pretend it didn’t. Rejection never feels good, regardless of who deals it. But you helped me see it for what it was.”
“Which was…?”
“My heart wasn’t broken. My ego was bruised.”
Pride swelled in his chest, even though he didn’t know where it came from. Regardless, he was proud of her, as well as himself, for playing a significant role in her realization. “So he left to find Brenda, and when that didn’t go his way, he came back and knocked on your door?”
“Well, I don’t know that he went after her for sure; it’s just a gut feeling I have. He said he went with his family to look at property, but I don’t believe it. I also don’t care enough to prove him wrong. But to answer your question, yes. And then he about blew a gasket when he found out I’d spent the Fourth with you.”
This surprised Andy. He balked, pulling his head back and staring at her as if she’d spoken in tongues. “Why would he be mad about that? If anyone should be mad, it’d be me.”
Emily’s reaction now mirrored Andy’s—shocked and confused. “You stole the love of his life from him, so naturally, he’d be upset and paranoid that you were going to take me from him, too.”
“I didn’t steal Brenda from him.”
This was news to Emily, news she desperately wanted and needed to hear.
“He accused her of cheating on him with me, which is what led to their breakup. Brenda and I did end up dating, but she never cheated on him, and I certainly didn’t steal her. He pushed her straight into my arms. Then, at the end of June—less than a week before the Fourth—he asked her to meet up with him to discuss something, and she agreed. She was gone two days later. So really, I should be pissed at him for running her off. I didn’t steal her from him; he stole her from me.”
Emily swallowed harshly, digesting everything that Andy told her. This was a very different story than the one she’d heard from Bobby, and she had a hard time making sense of it all. “We were still together at the end of June. He never said anything to me about meeting up with her.”
Andy sat quietly while she worked it out in her head.
“Does this mean you knew about me?”
“Yes and no.” It was the best answer he could give. Deciding to give her the full explanation, he huffed and dropped his head into his hand for a moment before scratching his jawline in contemplation. “I think—well, we both thought—that Bobby had moved on so quickly to make Brenda jealous. So I knew about you, but not who you were.”
Her stomach twisted into sailors’ knots. “He started dating me to get her back?”
“That’s the theory at least, because she and I weren’t even together at that point. We didn’t become an item until after he started seeing you.”
Emily waved her hands in front of her before burying her face in her palms. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” Her words were muffled, though he still understood.
Andy didn’t want to see her hurt, and he especially didn’t want to be the one who caused her pain, so he agreed to change the subject. “Are you looking forward to going back to school?”
She dropped her arms and stared incredulously at him. “I only have a few more weeks of freedom. Why in the world would I be looking forward to classes and homework and alarms that wake me up entirely too early every morning?”
The same laugh that sang in her dreams now echoed around her as his shoulders bounced with the humor rumbling in his chest. She wanted to sit and listen to it all day, yet after hearing a very different version of events that surrounded her entire relationship with Bobby, she knew her time with Andy would be limited.
At least for today.
September 26th, 1974
Dear Dairy,
I have a secret. Over the last month, I’ve been meeting up with AC out by the river. We have our own spot where we hang out after I get out of school. Nothing’s happened yet. We just hang out and talk about life and classes. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want something to happen…because I do. I stare at his lips all the time, wondering what they would feel like. I’m going to be disappointed if I never get to find out. I think I’m going to make it obvious today and see if he gets the hint.
Leaves and twigs crunched and snapped beneath Emily’s feet as she bounded down the tree-covered hill toward the river. It was their place, where she and Andy regularly met. They came here at least three times a week, and whenever Emily could sneak away, after church on Sundays, too.
He was exactly where he was every time she came, near the riverbank with a fishing pole. This was what he did with his time between jobs, or after working with his family to get a little alone time. Normally, he hated it if someone else tagged along, but he felt differently about it when it came to Emily. He enjoyed her company, even though that scared him. With Brenda’s departure still fresh in his mind, he worried the same would happen with Emily. And he knew he’d never come back from that catastrophe.
The thought of losing Emily was one he couldn’t bear to fathom.
Andy glanced over his shoulder when he heard her footfalls, and at the sight of her bright blue eyes, his lips split into an aching smile. She did that to him every time he saw her, yet he couldn’t figure out why. There was just something about her that filled him with intense euphoria. When he was with her, he felt complete. Like he had found the other half of his soul.
Ignoring the butterflies swarming her stomach, Emily dropped her backpack on the grass next to his tackle box and took a seat. She was used to the attention; she got it almost everywhere she went, but this was the first time it mattered because it came from someone she was interested in.
“Catch anything good?” Emily pulled a book from her backpack and began to do some homework. Well, she at least wanted to look like that’s what she was doing. In reality, it was to give her something to do so she wouldn’t spend the entire time thinking inappropriate thoughts as she stared at the way his jeans molded perfectly to his backside.
“Nothing yet.” He reeled in the line before setting it down and taking a seat beside her. He loved fishing, but when Emily was around, he couldn’t care less about the sport. She was the first girl who had ever successfully made him put away his pole just to talk. “I almost gave us away today, though. So when I heard you coming up behind me, there was a split second when I worried it might’ve been someone else.”
“Who would it have been?” And just like with Andy and his fishing pole, she put her schoolwork to the side.
“Oh, The Gambler?”
His eyes widened the tiniest bit with recognition as he nodded. “Yeah, that one. Anyway, it was brought up and I started to say about how you’ve talked about it relentlessly, but I caught myself before I said your name. I ended up just saying my friend. Which, of course, made them a little suspicious and wanting to know which friend. So my brothers now think you’re a guy named Kenny.”
She arched her brows and waited for more. When he didn’t continue with his story, she asked, “Why in the world would they think that? Where did that even come from?”
“Uh, your last name…?” He started to wonder if he’d gotten her name wrong. “It’s McKinney, right?”
“Oh, yeah. That makes sense. So to keep anyone from knowing you’re hanging out with me, you have to pretend I’m a guy friend?”
Suddenly, he felt foolish, wondering if maybe he’d mistaken her attention or assumed it was more than it was. “Well, yeah. The last thing I need is Bobby coming after me for taking another one of his girlfriends.”
Laughter bubbled out as she shook her head. “But you didn’t take me from him. He gave me up before we ever met.”
“I know this, and you know this. But that’s not how it’ll look to others. I should know, because I’ve been through it before with Brenda. The truth doesn’t matter when it comes to the Bennetts.”
That made perfect sense to Emily. Not to mention, she had her own reasons for wanting to keep it secret for the time being. “I get it. And to be honest, I’ve been kind of doing the same. I mean, I haven’t said anything about you—other than in my journal. But I make sure to call you AC just in case anyone reads it. That way they won’t know I’m talking about you.”
Something didn’t sit right with him, but he couldn’t seem to put his finger on it. “So we’re both lying about the other to keep anyone from finding out?”
“Well, more to keep Bobby from finding out.”
That’s what bothered Andy. It was one thing for him to worry that Bobby might find out about his time with Emily, but he didn’t understand her need to keep it from him too. “Do you still talk to him?” He couldn’t think of any other reason she didn’t want Bobby finding out.
“Sometimes, but never by choice.”
That didn’t make much sense to Andy. “Well, when was the last time you saw him?”
Emily’s stomach knotted. She didn’t want to talk about Bobby, but it seemed she wouldn’t be able to get out of it without causing more questions, so she took a deep breath and told him the truth. “He came by the house last night, and Dad let him in.”
“So you all hung out together—you, Bobby, and your folks?” Jealousy coiled in his clenched jaw.
“It wasn’t like that. I didn’t want to see him, but my parents invited him in and then called for me to come downstairs. As soon as I saw him, I made excuses as to why I couldn’t stay around and entertain—I had homework, needed to get ready for bed. But my parents said he’d just gotten there, and that it would be rude to kick him out so quickly.”
“How long was he there?”
She shrugged while trying to count the minutes in her head. “Maybe ten minutes—if that. As soon as my parents left the front room, I excused myself. I told him I needed to take a shower and get ready for bed because I had school today, and that he was welcome to stay and visit with my parents, but I wouldn’t be back down. I told him I had too much homework to sit around and chat about politics.”
Andy snaked his tongue along his bottom lip, leaving a glistening sheen behind that called her attention. Emily quickly began to lose herself in daydreams of kissing him before being pulled back to reality when he asked, “Do you think you’ll ever get back together?”
That not only broke through her dreamy thoughts, but it also made her laugh. “No. Not at all. Every time he asks me to the movies or dinner or…anything, I say no. He’s questioned me several times, accusing me of going steady with someone else, but I tell him the same thing every time—I don’t have time for a boyfriend.”
“Why keep him around if you don’t intend to take him back?”
She took a deep breath, hating the fact that she had to keep defending herself when it came to questions about Bobby. It didn’t matter who it was from—her friends, her parents, and now, Andy. Emily wanted nothing more than for Bobby to simply disappear. “I don’t keep him around…my parents do.”
“Why do they want you to be with him so badly?”
“Because of his name.” That was the last thing she wanted to tell Andy, but she didn’t have any other choice. She certainly wouldn’t lie to him. “Over the years, my parents have worked three jobs between the two of them. They said that’s the reason they stopped at one kid—because they couldn’t afford to have more and be home to raise them. Like all parents, they want better for me, and I guess they see Bobby as a way for me to have that.”
“Do they not care that he’s a lazy, conniving asshole?”
A smile slowly curled Emily’s lips as she said, “They think he’s the greatest. Because in front of them, he turns on the charm—exactly what he did to me when he first asked me out. He says all the right words and does all the right things, and before you know it, you’re under his spell. He’s a smart guy, I’ll give him that, but unless you see his true colors, you don’t have a clue how selfish and manipulative he can be.”
Andy knew not to push any further. Any other question he had would only produce answers that would upset him, so he let it go. The last thing he wanted to hear was how her parents wouldn’t approve of him simply because he was from the other end of the valley. He understood there were people in this world who cared more about opportunity than true happiness.
He was not one of them.
And he hoped Emily wasn’t, either.
Without hearing Andy’s thoughts, she had no idea how her admission had affected him. However, based on the rejection hardening his eyes, she could come to her own conclusion. Which she did, right before deciding just how she would set him straight.
Emily pushed onto her knees and shimmied her way between his bent legs, face to face. With one hand on his cheek and the other on his shoulder to steady herself, she leaned into him until her mouth was on his.
At first, it was the type of kiss expected of someone inexperienced—flat, unmoving lips, noses side by side. However, that didn’t last long. Taking her by surprise, Andy threaded his fingers into her hair, cradling the back of her head, and deepened the kiss by holding her closer. It was fierce and frenzied, as if this was the only opportunity he would ever have to taste her. And just as it slowed, coming to an end, he gently caught her bottom lip between his teeth and pulled on it, causing Emily to moan softly.
Once her voice and thoughts returned, she said, “I don’t care what my parents think. I don’t care what Bobby ends up doing or saying. Nothing will stop me from spending time with you. I would just like to have a little more time together, with no one knowing about us, before others start to try and pull us apart.”
That made sense to Andy, and not only because he wanted the same. Somewhere deep down, there was a need to give Emily anything she wanted. He knew how ridiculous that was, but it was a desire he couldn’t ignore.
“What are we…a modern-day Romeo and Juliet?”
She playfully rolled her eyes. “For both of our sakes, let’s hope not. Their story didn’t end well.”
Chapter Eleven
Drew
There was something about seeing Kenny in my shirt that did a number of things to me, none of which I’d ever experienced. Or could even explain.
As much as I wanted to stay and watch her face glow red, which intensified her blue eyes, I needed a moment to compose myself. So I carried her clothes to the drye
r and took the time to put on a T-shirt, picking one from the top of the clean pile.
When I returned to the living room, I found Kenny on the floor in front of the fire, her legs crossed beneath her. “You can sit on the couch, you know.”
“Yeah, I just wanted to get closer to the heat. I can’t seem to get warm.”
I so badly wanted to wrap her in my arms, but I couldn’t. It was storming outside, and the last thing I wanted to do was start something that would make her uncomfortable without anywhere to go. Instead, I resumed my seat on the sofa and tossed her a blanket. “That should help.”
“Thanks,” she muttered while wrapping the soft fleece around her shoulders. “You didn’t have to put a shirt on, you know.”
The smirk on her lips sent a wave of desire through me. It also brought a smile to my own face—then again, just being in her presence did that. “Well, you’re wearing one, so I thought it was only fair if I wore one, too.”
That transformed her smirk into a giggle.
“Have you looked at any of your pictures yet?” she asked, reminding me about the photos I took of the fog wall.
I reached across the sofa and grabbed my phone off the side table. As I flipped through each shot, my excitement diminished. “Not one. None of them turned out. It’s just a grey screen. I thought at least one would show the definition at the top, but no such luck.”
“That sucks.” She sounded genuinely disappointed on my behalf.
Just then, the lights flickered. The sky lit up white, flashing into the room as if paparazzi were at the windows taking pictures. Immediately following that, a rumbling boom vibrated the walls and floor, sending waves of tremors through our bodies.
Kenny jumped, but only slightly. Then she smiled as if thinking about a fond memory that had been lost to her for some time. “I used to be afraid of lightning and thunder.”