nowhere (6 page)

“I…better…get Emma inside.” She seemed as affected by my presence as I was by hers. She took a deep breath. “Would you mind helping me get her into the house and up the stairs? I’m not sure I can do it alone.”

“I’d be happy to.” I grabbed Emma under the arms and tossed her over my shoulder. She whimpered, but didn’t wake up. Mikayla held the doors open while I silently carried her sister from the greenhouse into the house and up the stairs to the bedroom. I gently laid her down on the bed Mikayla pointed at. Then I followed Mikayla back downstairs and out onto the porch.

“Thanks, James, for all your help tonight,” she whispered. She moved her eyes over my bare torso and blushed. Quickly she added, “Thanks for the shirt. I can run back upstairs and change so you can wear it.”

“No need. I’m not going anywhere but straight home.”

“I’ll wash your shirt and return it to you the first day of school.”

“The first day of school?” I frowned.

“If you need it before then, I can drop it off at your house. You’ll just have to tell me where you live.” 

Didn’t she realize I wanted to see her before the first week of school? That was five weeks away. Also, there was no way I wanted her stopping by my house.

“I don’t need it back before school starts. I have lots of shirts. You can even keep that one if you want.” Stroking her arm, I added, “I like it on you.”

She blushed and tipped her head down. I swore I thought I saw her take a deep breath through her nose, intentionally smelling my shirt. I hoped it didn’t smell bad. When she looked up, she wore a satisfied smile. 

“Are you busy tomorrow?” Smirking I added, “I know how much you like to walk and there’s a great trail not far from here that I’d like to show you.”

She didn’t answer. She just stood there with a strange look on her face.

“So, are you busy?” I asked for a second time. I never asked the same question twice, but I was desperate for her to say yes. She took so long to answer I began to worry that she was going to turn me down.

She nervously brushed back her hair. “Really? You want to go on a hike with me? After everything that happened tonight?” 

“I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t serious.”

“Okay,” she whispered. “I’ll go.”

“It’s a date. I don’t have practice tomorrow, so as soon as I finish my chores, I’ll call you.”

She smiled and opened the door, disappearing inside the house. 

Mike

I climbed the creaky stairs for a second time tonight and entered the bedroom I shared with Emma. Thanks to James and his strong back, Emma was asleep. I placed the wastepaper basket next to her on the floor, just in case she got sick again. I never made the same mistake twice. I hoped Emma felt like crap in the morning, and that her head hurt so much she wished she were dead. Then I’d give her hell. 

I’d have loved a hot shower, but I knew it would wake everyone up. There’s only one in this house. I missed my home in San Francisco, where I didn’t have to share a bedroom or a bathroom. If we hadn’t moved, I’d be able to jump in the shower without waking the whole house. I angrily peeled off my skirt, leaving it in a heap on the floor, and climbed into bed. James’ oversized shirt was comforting, so I kept it on. He was so tall and strong. I hoped by wearing his shirt, my nightmares might remain at bay. I breathed in his scent—soap with an underlying hint of woodsy earth. I closed my eyes and began to sink into my pillow.

Just as I began to fall asleep, my cell phone rang. Groggily, I scrambled for the device before anyone heard it ringing through these paper-thin walls. Who the hell would be calling me in the middle of the night?
Paige
. I never called her. She probably forgot about the three-hour time difference. 

“Hi Paige,” I said, my voice sounding sleepy to my own ears. 

“I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“It’s one o’clock in the morning.”

“Yeah, but you never go to bed before dawn.”

“After the night I had, trust me, I was more than ready to call it a day.”

“I sense a good story. Do tell.” 

I pictured Paige in her red bedroom that I helped her paint last summer, lying on her huge bed with her arm under her head and her feet crossed at the ankles. 

“Start at the beginning and don’t leave anything out,” Paige prompted.

Paige and I met in sixth grade, when she moved to our school, and we’d been best friends ever since. She knew me better than anyone. She’d been there for me through everything— my dad dying, all the fights with my mom, and most recently this dreadful relocation. Paige and I had talked on the phone every day since I left San Francisco. I didn’t think I would’ve survived the road trip without our daily phone calls.

I began with our arrival and I finished with Emma getting plastered and puking all over me.

“Wow,” Paige said. “Why couldn’t Emma save that performance for when I come to visit you for your birthday? I’d pay to see her make a fool of herself. You must be super pissed.”

“I’m going to kill her in the morning.”

Paige laughed. “From the anger in your voice, I almost feel bad for Emma.”

My friend had witnessed countless fights between me and my sister over the years. Emma never came out on top. 

“Who am I kiddin’? I don’t feel bad for Emma,” Paige recanted. “It sounds like she deserves your wrath…But enough about Emma. Tell me more about the rugged cowboy that came to the rescue. Is he cute?”

I pulled the covers over my head and laughed. “When he took his shirt off and handed it to me, my heart started to race. He’s so beautiful. He has broad shoulders and a perfect six-pack.”  I had to stop to catch my breath. Just talking about him sent tendrils of excitement through my body.

“Wow.” Paige sighed.

I searched for the right words to describe James. “And he’s more than just easy on the eyes. I actually enjoyed talking to him. He’s different than other boys. He seems older, more mature.”

“You enjoyed talking to him?” Paige sounded surprised. I thought a lot of guys were cute, but as soon as they opened their mouths I lost all interest. Guys could be so egotistical and dumb.

I knew Paige was trying to read between the lines. I couldn’t keep anything from her. “We didn’t really talk that much. It wasn’t so much what he said, it was what he didn’t say. He didn’t ramble on and on about himself and talk about football like every other guy I met. Mostly I liked how instead of pointing out how ridiculous I was acting, he gave me time to walk off my anger.”

“And?” She pressed me for my details.

“I thought he was going to kiss me and then, right on cue, Emma…” I ground my teeth as I said her name. “…started throwing up.”

“Oh, the irony!”  Paige exclaimed dramatically—she liked to use borrowed vocabulary and phrases from the classic literature she was always reading.

“He asked me if I had plans tomorrow,” I whispered.

“Well, what did you say?”

“I agreed to go on a hike with him. He’s going to call me in the morning.”

“A hike?” Paige sounded confused. She knew I’d never gone on a hike in my life. I walk to and from school, but I’m a city girl. A hike implies nature. 

“Yes, he thinks that because I insisted on walking home from the party that I must be into hiking. So, we’re going to check out a nearby trail.”

All I heard on the other end of the line was shrieking. I pulled the phone away from my ear for several seconds to prevent permanent damage to my eardrums until I was sure Paige had regained control. 

“I better let you go so you can rest up for your big hike.” She giggled. “And don’t forget to call me tomorrow night.” Her commanding tone left no room for me to ignore her request. “I want details.”

I yawned. “Right. Details. Tomorrow night.” I closed my phone. I hoped I would be telling Paige all about how right I was about James being different than other boys. I could almost feel his strong arms holding me close as we shared a first kiss.

Dooner

My alarm went off at six o’clock this morning and I’d been mucking stalls ever since.  I paused for a second to wipe the sweat from my forehead. Even though it was still early, I could tell it was going to be a hot and humid day. I finished laying fresh hay in the last stall. I couldn’t wait to be done with my chores. I was so hungry, I could’ve eaten a six-egg omelet without blinking an eye.

There was plenty of time to eat, shower, and rest before my date with Mikayla. I was so glad I bumped into Ray yesterday afternoon and found out about the get-together to meet Tyler’s cousins. That had been the first time I went to a party and actually had fun. I couldn’t wait to discover why she was so feisty. Bantering with her almost seemed like foreplay. I grinned at the memory of how hot she looked walking home in the moonlight, her curls bouncing and her sexy ass shaking in that little jean skirt. 

I snapped out of my daydream when my dad came toward me. I scowled. It looked like he was carrying an apple in one hand and a cigarette in the other.  He threw me the apple from twenty yards away. I caught it and took a crunchy bite. It tasted good, but it didn’t even begin to take the edge off of my hunger. 

“Good catch, son.” He slapped me on the back. I almost choked on the large bite of apple in my mouth. “You got a good eye. I would’ve been disappointed if you’d missed that. Not to mention your breakfast would have landed in the dirt.” He laughed. 

“This is my breakfast?” I grumbled angrily, staring at the half-eaten apple. “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”  I swore I heard the horses in the barn whinny. I called out over my shoulder, “Sorry guys, no offense.” 

“It’s all I got.” My dad shrugged his shoulders, as if to say it wasn’t his problem I had such a large appetite. “Anyway, your mom’s too busy this morning to stop and make you something to eat. She has work to do. So do you.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, finishing the apple. I threw the core as far as I could. 

“Not a bad arm either. You sure got talent, kid.” He stamped his cigarette with the toe of his farm boot. “I need your muscle power right now. The tractor has a tire that needs changing.”

“Okay,” I agreed quietly. I knew there was no way out of it. It would be faster in the long run to help him now and get it over with. It wasn’t even 9 a.m. I couldn’t call Mikayla yet anyway because she was probably still asleep. 

We reached the field where the tractor sat, along with his pickup truck. “What exactly do you need me to do?”

“I need you to help me get the tractor up in the air, so that I can take the tire off.  Get the jack.” He pointed to the pile of tools. I carried the heavy jack and placed it under the tractor frame near the flat tire. I cranked it according to my dad’s instructions. I thought my arm might snap in two; I had to use all of my strength just to get it to budge a few inches. Sweat poured down my back, soaking my shirt. My dad loosened the lug nuts and it took both of us to get the old tire off. Tractor tires weren’t light. I sighed with relief when we placed it in the back of the pickup truck. 

“Hey, where’s the new tire?” I looked around, but I didn’t see it. “In the barn?”  I was anxious to finish this job. 

“Get in,” my dad said, closing the tailgate of his truck. I did as I was told. My dad got in too and started the engine.

“Where are we going? I thought the new tire was in the barn?” We weren’t headed in that direction. 

“No, I never said that.” He laughed and lit another cigarette. The smell suffocated me in the small confines of the cab. “The new tire’s at the store. You didn’t actually think I kept spare tractor tires hanging around, did you?”  He chuckled. I never found any humor in my dad’s comments.

“We’re going to the supply store? Now?” I shouted. I was pissed. How could I have been so stupid to think anything my dad involved me in would be quick and easy? “Can’t you go by yourself?  The guys at the store will help you unload the old tire and reload the new one.  Then I’ll help you put the new tire on when you get back,” I reasoned.

“Sorry, Jimmy, I’m not turning around.” He pulled out onto the main road. Like most places, the farm supply store was at least twenty miles away. We were going to be gone awhile.  I let out a frustrated sigh. Today of all days, I didn’t have time for this. Luckily, I felt my phone in my back pocket. I’d call Mikayla while my dad was preoccupied looking at tires. Damn it! I didn’t even have her number. I’d have to call information to get her grandfather’s number.

“All right, stop your fretting,” my dad announced, misinterpreting my brooding. “I’ll take you to breakfast before we get the new tire. You can order whatever you want, no matter the price.” He shook his head. “I never met anyone in my life who thinks about food as much as you do. You’re going to eat me out of house and home. That scholarship of yours better include a meal plan,” he joked, pulling into a local grease joint. 

The smell of dirty oil and fried food hit me as soon as we pushed open the door. The booths were covered in red vinyl and showed signs of wear. Normally I tried to stay away from places like this, but right now I’d eat just about anything. I ordered the special, rightly named the rubbage plate—two hamburgers, mac salad, and home fries. I washed the meal down with a large chocolate milkshake. My dad silently watched me eat, ordering only a cup of coffee for himself.

It was almost noon by the time we pulled into the supply store’s parking lot. Half the day was already gone and I still hadn’t called Mikayla. I helped my dad unload the flat tire and then I took off in the opposite direction.

I called information and had the operator connect me. The whole time I waited I was hoping that Mikayla would understand why I wasn’t going to be able to go on the hike like I’d planned.

On the tenth ring, someone finally answered. “Hello.” The person on the other end sounded annoyed.

“Hi, this is Dooner. Is Mikayla there?”

“Oh hi, Dooner. This is Emma,,” she responded, her tone changing  “Aren’t you such a gentleman to call to see how I’m feelin’?” 

I rolled my eyes, even though she couldn’t see me. “Look, I only have a sec. Can I talk to Mikayla, please?”