She turned to regard the building, taking in the stained glass that lined all four sides of the belltower. The windows stood ten feet tall, the brass steeple above that, which extended another twenty-plus feet into the sky. “You do all that?”
“It’s one of the many things I do here at the church in my free time.”
She swung her wide eyes toward him. “In your free time?”
Andy’s shoulders shook with the laughter that slipped out beneath his breath. “Yes. This isn’t my full-time job.”
Emily wanted to ask what his real job was, but she decided against it in favor of settling in for the fireworks. She figured that she had at least an hour to bring it up, and if things went well, she hoped to have more time with him in the future.
“Here, just sit on your bottom and lean against the building,” he instructed in a calming voice, wanting to convince her that she had nothing to worry about. “I climb up a ladder from these gangways twice a year to clean and polish the brass. If they weren’t stable, I’d be the first to know about it.”
She did as he said and sat with her back pressed against the cold stone and pulled her knees to her chest. Andy took the space next to her, shoulder to shoulder, and sat with his legs crossed beneath him to keep from dangling his feet over the edge of the iron platform. And within a minute, the sky lit up with the first blasts of color.
“You’re right, Andy…this is the best seat in town.”
He turned his head to the side to regard her and, once again, grew lost in her beauty. He hadn’t noticed the dimple in her chin before now—it was subtle yet perfectly suited. Her pin-straight blond hair had been evident upon their first meeting, but what hadn’t been obvious to him on the back steps of the church had taken him by surprise in the light. And now, beneath the spray of color in the sky, Andy was able to admire even more about her.
The bursts of blue across her face caused her cerulean eyes to glow right before the splashes of red painted her cheeks pink. It made him wonder what she would look like flushed, quickly deciding that it could only make her even more beautiful. The intermittent pops of bright white added to the brilliance of her perfect teeth peeking through her faint smile as she fought to keep the grin off her lips.
Andy recognized that there wasn’t anything extraordinary about her looks; regardless, he thought her to be the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
And that was what had him so stunned.
He smiled, but it didn’t fill his face. “Well, I’m glad you were able to come up here with me. I’ve never had the pleasure of watching the fireworks with anyone, so thank you for making this special. It’s a night I won’t soon forget.”
And neither would Emily.
July 8th, 1974
Dear Diary,
Well, it took Bobby less than a week to reach out to me. He probably thought I’d chase after him, begging him to reconsider. And maybe I would have…if it hadn’t been for my unforgettable night with AC. Now Bobby wants to talk, and I don’t want to, but I feel like I owe it to him, but if he thinks I’m going to jump back into his arms and pretend like nothing happened, then he can think again. If that’s what he’s expecting, he’s a few days late. I guess I should go see what he wants to talk about.
It’d been four days since Emily shared the night with Andy beneath the stars, watching the magnificent blasts of color while he inadvertently healed her partially wounded heart. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since they parted ways after climbing down from the top of the church tower, despite her efforts to run into him in town. However, that didn’t mean he hadn’t crossed her mind every second of those four days.
Now, she sat in a booth in the back of an ice cream parlor…with Bobby Tisdale. He wasn’t who she wanted to be seated across from with a banana split between them. Visions of Andy played on repeat in her mind—the heat of his palm as they held hands, his scent lingering on the flannel shirt she’d borrowed to keep warm, and the grittiness of his voice when he spoke in hushed whispers, as if sharing a secret meant only for her ears.
Realizing where her mind was and who sat across from her, she shivered and shook her head, hoping to clear the thoughts before giving herself away.
“What’s wrong, girl? You cold?” Bobby asked from across the booth.
“Yeah. Ice cream always cools me down.”
The fact that Bobby just shrugged before taking another bite of the chocolate-coated banana only intensified her thoughts of someone else. With nothing more than an assumption that she was chilly, Andy—a complete stranger—had taken off his shirt and wrapped it around her shoulders. Meanwhile, Bobby—who wanted to be her boyfriend—knowing that she was, indeed, cold, did nothing.
Emily questioned herself, wondering why she’d bothered to meet up with him. They hadn’t had the best relationship, even at the beginning. Bobby had moved on to Emily within weeks of his long-time girlfriend leaving town. It’d been a sore topic of conversation between them ever since—Emily didn’t believe that Bobby was over her, and he refused to admit she was right.
Regardless, she rolled her eyes and continued to play with the double scoop of vanilla. If Bobby truly knew her, he would’ve recognized that something bothered her. Vanilla was her favorite flavor, so the fact that she only moved it around with her spoon rather than eat it was a red flag for anyone in her inner circle.
“What is it you wanted to talk about, Bobby?” she asked with ice dripping from her words.
He took his time finishing his mouthful of chocolate before wiping his lips and settling his gaze on her. “I made a mistake breaking up with you, and I want to make it right.”
She couldn’t deny the sincerity in his eyes, though she wasn’t sure it could be trusted. Despite only having dated for a month, Emily wasn’t ignorant to his ability to fool anyone who had even an ounce of empathy in their heart.
“Where were you over the holiday, Bobby?”
His gaze flicked to the left for a split second, but it was enough to tell Emily everything she needed to know. However, that didn’t stop him from carrying on with his deception as he said, “I went with my family to look at property out in Keens; I told you that.”
It was a plausible response, especially given that the townspeople had been given a timeline of when they had to be out of the valley, so finding somewhere to relocate had been at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Nevertheless, she wouldn’t be fooled.
“Then why did your cousin tell me that you didn’t go with them?”
Bobby visibly flinched. He hadn’t expected her to talk to his family about their plans. But in typical fashion, he blinked a few times to right himself in his lie. “That’s because they all went with Paw and Nan. I was with my parents looking at different land to purchase.”
Emily twirled her spoon in the rapidly melting dessert, contemplating the validity of his story. It wasn’t a secret to anyone that his parents weren’t as close to his mom’s side of the family as her brothers were, and had, at times, been left out of family matters and plans. So his version of events wasn’t entirely unbelievable. However, it didn’t diminish the voice in the back of her mind telling her that he had gone after Brenda, the love of his life, whom he had dated before Emily. It was unexplainable, but she couldn’t knock the feeling that she was right about it.