Five Hundred Miles From Friona, page 5
No, there’s no way. If Rachel was pregnant, I would have been the first one she told, even before Jake. I’m her best friend; she would have asked me for advice. I don’t know what I would’ve told her though. I don’t even know what I’d do if I got pregnant now, but that’s not going to happen anyway. I need to find Brandon and make him tell me what the furniture comment was about.
Somehow I make it through the class and my next class without getting sick, but I’m still frantic with worry over Rachel. As soon as the bell rings after seventh period, I sprint through the halls, hoping to catch Brandon before he goes in the locker room. I see him as he approaches the door. “Brandon!”
He turns around with a surprised look and trots over to me. “Leanne, what are you doing over here?”
“I have to know why Jake needs to buy furniture,” I pant, slightly out of breath from running.
Brandon’s face breaks into a wide grin and he looks down at me with those pretty blue eyes. “You ran all the way across the school just to ask me that?”
I nod. He must see how worried I am because he puts his arm around my shoulders and hugs me against his side. “I was just giving him a hard time because he gave me a hard time at lunch. That’s all. Meet me at my truck after school and I’ll tell you the whole thing, okay?” When he lets go of me, he stares at my mouth as if he needs to kiss me.
I’m dying to kiss him, and to keep from attacking him in the hall, I sink my teeth into my bottom lip. “Okay. I’ll see you then.”
Thank goodness I wasn’t late for eighth period study hall. Well, I was, but only by a few seconds and luckily, the teacher didn’t say anything; she just gave me a glare. I’m hardly ever late to a class, so I guess she’s letting it slide. Besides that, school is almost out for the year, and I bet the teachers are as ready as we are. I scoot into my seat, relieved that Brandon kind of put my mind at ease. I’m not quite as worried about Rachel now.
When school is out, I hurry out to the parking lot to meet Brandon. He’s already standing next to the Demon with his phone to his ear. As I approach his truck, I hear him say, “We’ll be there in a few minutes.” He puts his phone in his pocket and smiles when he sees me.
I run straight into his arms for a hug and he bends down and kisses me. “I’ve been waiting all afternoon for that kiss, cowboy. Got another one?”
He opens the passenger-side door and grips my waist as he lifts me into the seat. Then he gives me a kiss that literally makes all the air leave my lungs the second our tongues collide. His fingers press into my waist while his thumbs slowly circle against my ribcage through my shirt. I can’t sit still; I need to be closer to him. I have a vision of us together with nothing but our skin between us. I want to feel his hands on me and mine on him. I want everything with Brandon.
I finally have to push away from him so I can catch my breath. Brandon’s muscular chest is heaving beneath his fitted t-shirt, and I know he’s feeling the same way I am. His eyes are almost navy blue now, shades darker than usual, and he’s gazing into mine with what I want to believe is desire. I want to be desirable. I want him to want me as much as I want him.
“Will you come out to my house with me?” he finally says. “I want to show you something.”
“Sure, what is it?”
His hands slide down my legs, leaving my skin tingling in their wake then he rubs the tops of my feet. “It’s a surprise, but I’ll tell you the furniture story on the way.” He slams my door, walks around to his side, and gets in behind the wheel. Instead of starting the truck, he reaches out and gently touches my face. “I need to tell you something.”
My eyes lock on his. “Okay.” It comes out as a whisper, and I brace myself for bad news about Jake and Rachel.
“Leanne, I love you with all my heart.”
Like an idiot, all I can do is stare at him, and my mouth is probably hanging open. I think I’m in shock because I wasn’t expecting him to say that, but he’s melted me into a big gooey puddle of heavenly bliss. I have to clear the emotion out of my voice before I can speak. A few seconds later, I’m able to take a deep breath and form the words I’ve wanted to say to him for so long. “I love you too, Brandon.”
“I know,” he says, giving me a wink.
He holds my hand while we drive a few miles out of town to his house. On the way, he tells me what Jake said about me wanting a ring and wanting to buy furniture.
I feel myself becoming really annoyed as the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I jerk my hand out of Brandon’s grasp. If Jake Wolcott was here, I’d rip him a new one then I’d kick him where it counts. “Well, Jake doesn’t have any room to talk! Rachel has him wrapped around her finger and if she even blinks an eye in his direction, he goes running to her. He practically worships her! And I wouldn’t ask you to buy me a ring, but if my wish from last night comes true, I’ll have one someday.” Uh-oh. He gives me a sideways glance, but I’m on a roll and I can’t stop. “I can’t say that I won’t ever ask you to shop for furniture with me, but if I do, it’ll be because I value your opinion. And—”
I abruptly end my rant when Brandon grabs my hand again, brings it to his mouth and kisses my knuckles. “You know what?”
“What?”
“I made the same wish on that same star last night, and I wouldn’t have made it if I didn’t want it to come true.”
It feels like a warm, fuzzy blanket has been wrapped around me. I’m peaceful and calm, my anger at Jake forgotten. “You really want… to be with me… like, always?”
“Yeah. I thought you said you read my note.”
“I did.”
“What did I tell you, babe?”
Babe? He called me babe! My heart flutters inside my chest. This has to be the best day of my life. “You said you want me in every way.”
“Right. What else?”
“You said you want me to be with you for the rest of your life.”
“Uh huh. And?”
“You refuse to live without me.”
“It’s true, Leanne. Everything I said is true.”
“I want the same things and more.”
His brow wrinkles slightly, and he gives me another sideways glance. “Explain what you mean by more.”
“Brandon, I want us to share everything.” He’s chewing his lip again. I know it’s because I’m confusing him. This is so frustrating for me too, so I try to shrug it off. “It’s a lot of things.”
“I’d like to know what those things are,” he says. “Will you tell me sometime?”
If I can’t say it now, how am I going to say it later? “I’ll try, but only because we don’t have secrets.”
He gives me a sexy smile that makes my stomach do that scrunchy thing. He rubs my hand. “I’m glad we don’t have any secrets.”
A few minutes later, we pass through the gate at the foot of his long driveway and he parks in front of the house. Blitz and Rowdy, his bird dogs, come running through the breezeway to greet us when we get out of the truck. They’re whining, wiggling, and wagging, excited to see us, so I sit down on the driveway to love on them.
Blitz is all alpha female and she expects more attention than Rowdy does. She wants to sit in my lap, all sixty-five pounds of her, and lick my face while I pet her. As great as Brandon is with animals, he’s never been able to convince Blitz that she’s not a lap dog. Rowdy is usually content with a belly rub, but since Blitz is demanding my attention, he goes straight over to get some love from Brandon.
Brandon finally points toward the back of the house and says, “Get in the yard.” Both dogs take off for the back-yard where they know they have to stay. He’s trained them well. I’ve never seen them disobey his commands.
He helps me up then leads the way around the back of the house, through the back yard and past a small fenced pasture to a little wooden stable, which is gray with a corrugated tin roof. As we approach, Brandon’s ten-year-old sister, Kylie, runs out of the stable. “Y’all hurry up! You gotta see this!” Jumping up and down excitedly, she grabs our hands and pulls us along with her. I see Brandon’s mother, Karen, who’s standing next to the closest stall. She steps aside when we get close enough to see what all the excitement’s about. That’s when I see the most precious thing I’ve ever seen in my life: Kylie’s miniature donkey, Mattie, standing in a hay-strewn stall next to her fuzzy-faced newborn foal.
“It’s a boy!” Kylie exclaims, clapping her hands together. “I’m an aunt!”
“Aw, he’s so cute, Kylie!” I tell her. “But are you sure you’re not a grandmother?”
She shakes her head and her long braided pigtails swish back and forth around her shoulders. “I’m too young to be a grandmother, right, Brandon?”
“No, I think you’re the grandmother, Ky,” he teases.
“Mo-om!” Kylie stomps her foot. “Am I the grandmother?”
Karen shrugs and says, “Only if you want to be, sweetheart.”
“I don’t want to be the grandmother; I wanna be the aunt.” She kicks at some hay and turns to me with a “You started this, so what’re you gonna do about it” look on her face.
“How ‘bout you be the aunt and I’ll be the grandmother?” I fish my phone out of my back pocket and take a picture of the foal. “I’ll show his picture to everyone and tell them he’s my grand-donkey. Not very many people have a grand-donkey to show off, especially one this cute.”
She gets the most adorable look on her face as she mulls over what I’ve told her. “No, that’s okay,” she says, looking up at me with crystal blue eyes that match her brother’s. “I’ll be his grandmother, and you can be his aunt.”
“That sounds like a good idea.” I hold my hand out for a low five and she slaps my palm.
“What are you going to name him, Ky?” Brandon asks, squatting down to get a closer look at the foal. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Karen put her fingers over her mouth. I can’t tell if she’s trying not to cry or if she’s trying to hide a smile.
Kylie squats down too, right next to Brandon. Their legs are touching, their backs are to me and they’re both peeking through the gate. It’s a perfect photo op, and I capture the sweet brother-sister moment on my phone. When I hold it out for Karen to see, she gets one of those misty-eyed, sentimental looks and puts her arm around my waist. Now I realize that she’s trying not to cry, and I wonder if she’s thinking about Blake, the son she lost four years ago. Blake was only eight-years-old when he died from a rare form of cancer. Brandon was fourteen and Kylie was six when they lost their brother.
“I’d like to have that picture,” Karen says softly. “Could you send it to me?”
“Sure.” I send it to her. A few seconds later, I hear her phone ding-dong with a notification, but she doesn’t check it; her eyes are glued on her children and her fingers are in front of her mouth again, pressing against her lips.
“No, Ky!” Brandon barks loudly as he stands and glares over his shoulder at his mother.
Karen walks over and puts her hand on his back. “Brandon, please don’t yell at her. Not today.”
“Mama,” Kylie complains, “I already told you his name is Blake Junior, and Brandon said we can’t call him that.”
Brandon closes his eyes then hangs his head. When he looks up a few seconds later, I catch a glimpse of the tears in his eyes. He turns away from us and walks off into another part of the stable. I know he doesn’t want me to see him cry. I’ve never seen him cry before, not even at Blake’s funeral, which the whole town turned out for. My heart breaks for him, but I don’t know what to say or do.
“Sweetheart, let’s go inside and get my big camera so we can take some pictures of the baby,” Karen says, putting her arm around her daughter and guiding her away from the stable. She gives me a sad smile as they walk off, and my heart cracks a little more.
I hear Kylie say, “Can we take lot of pictures so I can take them to school and show everybody?”
“Yes,” Karen answers, “and we should get some carrots for Jasper; I’m sure he feels left out.”
“Mama, I didn’t even tell Jasper he’s a daddy yet. Did you?” They’re out of earshot now, so I can’t hear Karen’s answer.
When they go in the house, I make my way inside the stable to find Brandon. He’s sitting on a bucket in one of the stalls with his head in his hands. I stand behind him, rubbing my hands up and down his back for a few seconds then I put my arms around him and lay my cheek against his neck. I hold him this way for a long time until my back protests and I finally have to stand up straight.
Brandon stands too, pulls me into his arms and speaks into my hair. “Blake…uh… he would’ve been twelve tomorrow.”
Tears sting my eyes, but I try to force myself not to cry. Brandon doesn’t need to deal with seeing my sadness right now when he has so much of his own. “I’m so sorry.”
“Kylie said… uh… he sent her the foal… from heaven… b-because…”
He’s unable to finish his sentence, and I feel him tremble with grief. As hard as I try, I can’t keep a few tears from spilling out of my eyes. He lets go of me minutes later and wipes his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Sorry.”
Stepping up on the bucket so I’m eye-level with him, I steady myself by holding his shoulder while I comb my fingers through the messy waves of hair along his forehead with my other hand. He circles his hands around my waist to keep me from falling, and I can’t resist kissing him. “I know this is so hard for you.”
“His birthday and Christmas are hard for all of us, especially my mom. She tries hard to be happy for me and my dad and Kylie, but I know it kills her.”
It’s killing him too; pain has clouded his red-rimmed eyes. “Maybe naming the foal after Blake is Kylie’s way of honoring his memory.” I try for a smile, but I’m not sure I pull it off. “Besides that, maybe he really did send her the foal from heaven. I believe in angels, don’t you?”
One side of his mouth turns up in sort of a little smile. “Yeah, and you’re my angel on earth.” He picks me up and sets my feet on the ground.
Neither of us says anything else as we walk back over to Mattie’s pen to see the foal again. Mattie is nosing him and snorting softly. It’s amazing to me that she just seems to know what to do for him and that she needs to be gentle. Maternal instinct is something I don’t understand, but lately I’m looking forward to finding out someday.
Karen and Kylie come back shortly with a professional-looking camera and a baggie full of carrots. Kylie’s sweet little face scrunches into a frown when she sees her brother’s tear-stained cheeks. He tugs her braid and says, “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”
She glances in my direction, studying my face for a few seconds then turns back to Brandon and whispers loud enough that I can hear. “Did you and Leanne have a fight?”
Brandon shakes his head. “No.”
“Good, ‘cause I don’t want you to break up with her.”
He still looks sad, but he winks at me. “Not a chance of that happening, Ky.” He squats down so he’s eye-to-eye with her. “You know, I’ve been thinking.” I see his jaw tighten and his Adams apple dip when he swallows. “And I think Blake Junior is a great name for Mattie’s foal. We could call him B.J. for short. What do you think?”
Her eyes get big and she gives her brother a wide, toothy smile. “Ooh, yeah. B.J.’s a real good name.”
“So we’ll call him B.J.?”
“Yep. I gotta go tell Jasper.” She takes the bag of carrots and skips off toward the pasture where Jasper is nibbling on the grass with Brandon’s horse, Lucky.
Karen gives Brandon what I think is an appreciative look. “Thank you, honey.”
He puts his arm around his mother’s shoulders. “I’m going to take Leanne to her car then we’re going to eat and to a movie in Hereford. I’ll be home later.”
“Just promise me you’ll drive carefully.”
“I will, Mom.”
She turns to me and I’m glad to see that she looks happier now. “Come back any time, Leanne.”
“I will. I love coming over here because there’s always something fun going on. It’s boring at my house.”
“There’s never a dull moment around here,” Karen says. “Miss Kylie keeps all of us hopping.”
“Oh, but she’s so fun.” I can see her standing in the pasture talking to Jasper and Lucky. She really is cute.
“Yeah, right,” Brandon mutters, rolling his eyes.
“Brandon, your sister’s adorable and you know it.” I give him a little nudge in the ribs with my elbow. “Come on; admit it. You know you love her.”
He grins at his mother and shakes his head like he’s embarrassed.
“What would you do if some little boy pushed her down on the playground?”
His grin disappears and he growls, “Nobody better ever…“ He realizes what he’s doing and stops himself, narrowing his eyes at me.
I poke my finger at him. “Ha! Made you admit it.”
He has the nerve to swat me on the butt. In front of his mother! The corners of his mouth turn up in a smirk. “You’re going to make me pay for that for the rest of my life, aren’t you?”
The rest of your life with me! “Yeah, so you better watch your step, mister.”
Karen chuckles and pats my shoulder. “You go, girl!”
Looking exasperated, Brandon throws his hands out to his sides. “Mom, whose side are you on?”
“Leanne’s,” she casually answers, and with that she walks out of the stable, back toward the house.
“But I’m your kid!” he hollers after her.
Karen turns around and grins. “Well, you shouldn’t have pushed her down.”
Chapter Eight
