“I would never break up with you, baby,” he said into my hair. “Never.”
I didn’t respond. I was the one that was going to break up with him, and I had a feeling he knew this. The rest of the afternoon we splashed around, ate pizza, and went for ice cream. We acted like teenagers in love, and that’s what we were. That was the last time we were together as kids. In love, without a care in the world. I was happy that day. I was happy that summer. I was with the people I loved, and they were all happy. They were all safe.
A week before we were all leaving for college, Cole took me on a date. He left me a note on my bed, telling me to dress comfortably and to be ready by six. I threw on a green halter maxi dress and a pair of flip flops. Becky fixed my hair so that it curled widely at the bottom and smoothed out the frizz at the top. She gave my eyes a smoky look, making my gray eyes stand out. My eyes had come alive since I’d been in this house, they were no longer stormy and depressing. I put on lip gloss and went downstairs to wait for Cole. He came up with this idea when we started dating. He said that since we lived together I was missing out on the “fun” part of dates, which was him picking me up and knocking on the door to wait for me. He always asked me to be ready at a certain time so that he had enough time to get ready and leave the house, just to come back to pick me up.
The doorbell rang at 6:00, and I squealed in excitement as I got up and ran to it. I beamed at him when I saw the bouquet of sunflowers in his hand. His eyes greedily ran down my body as he handed me the flowers. He wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me into him, taking my mouth in his and kissing me arduously. The flowers slipped from my hands when I clutched on to his messy hair and pushed myself closer to him. His hands traveled down the thin fabric of my dress, down backside squeezing my butt. He let out a deep moan into my mouth that echoed through my body and made me quiver. When his mouth suddenly left mine, I whimpered in protest. Resting his forehead against mine, we caught our breath before he leaned down, scooping up the flowers and handing them to me again.
“Sorry about that, baby,” he said gruffly. “You look...you just...you make me lose my mind.”
I laughed and kissed his lips softly. “Thank you for the flowers. They’re beautiful.”
Once I placed the flowers in a vase, Cole grabbed my hand and led me to his car. We drove for a little while, I wasn’t sure where he was taking me. We drove by restaurants, the movie theatre, everything we normally frequented before he pulled into a narrow road and started driving on gravel.
“Where are we going?” I asked hesitantly. “This place seems like the perfect place to become victims of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
Cole laughed and squeezed me hand. “Good thing we’re not in Texas,” he said with a wink. He laughed louder at my “I’m not so sure about that” expression.
We pulled up next to a large abandoned house, and I was really starting to freak out. Where in the world are we? Holy crap, we’re going to die here.
“Cole,” I asked in an uneasy voice. “Did you let anyone know where we were going?”
He laughed. “Baby, it’ll be fine. You’re with me.”
“Yeah, but you don’t have a gun or a machete or a chainsaw,” I squeaked.
He chuckled and shook his head before grabbing both sides of my face and giving me a long, lingering kiss that made my head swim.
“I love you, Blake. You’re so damn cute.”
There were so many truths in his green eyes and so much more that scared me. I dubiously let him lead me toward the back of a large abandoned house—and that was when I saw why he brought me.
Behind the house, there was a meadow. There were little purple flowers on both sides of us and acres of unused land. I wondered how he found this place. He didn’t let go of my hand as he walked me to a recently mowed spot surrounded by tall grass. In the middle of the freshly cut grass were four unlit lanterns, one on each corner of a checkered blanket that had a large basket in the middle.
I turned my smiling face to him. “A picnic?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, leaning down to kiss the tip of my nose.
We sat down in the middle of the blanket, and he took out two plates and two cans of pop.
“How’d you hear about this place?” I asked.
His green eyes roamed my face before he let out a breath and answered. “Maggie gave me a letter a week ago. I’ve been wanting to talk to you about it, but I wanted to bring you here first. The letter had information for the bank account that my dad had set up for me. It also had this address on it. It said that I own this land—ten acres to be exact.”
I gaped at him. “What? Did it say why? Is it from your dad?”
He shrugged. “It didn’t give any specifics. The land was put under my name when I was born. Maybe my dad was dying and that’s why he dropped me off? I mean this is a lot of land, and everything looks pretty abandoned. I walked the property yesterday, and there’s an abandoned farmhouse if you keep walking that way. It’s full of mold, and it’s practically falling apart, but I could tell it used to be well kept. I’m guessing this was the main house. Either way, if my dad used to live here, he hasn’t for a very long time.”
“What are you going to do with it?”
“I’m not sure,” he said before taking a bite of one of the sandwiches he put out for us.
“So the bank account? He’s been putting money in it since you were born or since you were dropped off?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Good question. I have to find out. There’s enough money in there for me to live on for years without working, so I guess that’s a good thing. Maggie’s been giving me an allowance for years; she said it was from the money my dad left with her. I just always assumed it would have run out by now.”
I pursed my lips deep in thought. I knew that my bank account was set up by my aunt and that she had nobody else to leave her money to. Cole’s situation was just plain weird though.
“I don’t get it, though. How is money still going into the account? If your dad is dead—and obviously he hasn’t been living here for a long time—who’s been depositing the money?” I asked confused.
“I don’t know, Blake, but I’m going to find out,” he said determined.
We finished eating and lay down close to each other. Cole was supposed to leave for North Carolina soon, and I was leaving for Chicago. We hadn’t spoken about the elephant in the room in a long time, and I felt like we needed to address it soon.
“Cole,” I whispered. “You know that I...really, really care about you. More than I care about anybody else in the world, right?”
“I know, baby. I love you, too,” he said sleepily while he stroked my hair.
“Well, because of that, I think maybe we should take a break,” I whispered in a rushed voice before I had the chance to back down like the coward that I was when I was around him.
“Baby, not this again,” he groaned as he sat up.
“Yes, this again. I’m not kidding, Cole. I’m already sick with jealousy, and you know I don’t do jealous!”
“Blake, I’m sorry about the Sasha thing. She was being stupid, and I acted like an idiot. I shouldn’t have let her stand so close to me. I shouldn’t have spoken to her at all. She was telling me about a couple of friends of hers that are going to my school, that’s all.”