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.
Andy shrugged, unsure how this conversation would go. “Probably one of my brothers. We were all together earlier, and one of them—John or Pete—brought up that movie you want to see. The one that comes out next month…”
“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?”