“Stop it!” Zoe’s chair scraped the floor, and an instant later Stacey’s chaise thumped and tilted. Zoe leaned into Stacey and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. “Shh, shh. Don’t cry. Girl, you’re sexy, smart, and talented, and he doesn’t deserve you.”
“I’m shaking. All the time. I can’t sleep. My head hurts so bad.”
“All right, so call him.”
“You mean it?”
“Whatever. I totally don’t think he’s worth it, but if being away from him is making you sick, then call him.”
Stacey lowered her hands from her eyes. Her friend perched on the edge of the chaise, arms crossed, looking at something on the other side of the porch.
“You’re mad at me.”
“So what? You’re in love, so do what you have to do. I don’t care.”
“Zoe …”
She flipped her hair back. “I’m not mad. I just think you need to give yourself more time to get over him. Look, he didn’t call you. He hasn’t tried to apologize for yelling at you at school, accusing you of cheating in front of everybody, and forcing an ultimatum on you. He’s trying to control your life. And maybe he thinks you’re supposed to go crawling back to him. Stace, if it were me, he’d be history.”
“You never really gave him a chance.”
“It doesn’t matter. Call him if you have to.”
Stacey had left her purse on the table, her cell phone inside it. Her body ached to get up, leap across the patio, grab the phone, and dial Calvin’s number. Endorphins flooded her veins and muscles. Do it now.
She touched Zoe’s bare arm. “You’re my best friend. I know you’re just looking out for me. I wish I was stronger, but …”
Zoe tilted her head toward Stacey and smiled crookedly. “Hmm. I can see it now. You’re going to end up marrying the farm boy.”
Stacey’s heart fluttered at the idea. She lifted a shoulder. “Be my bridesmaid?”
“Yeah, right. Don’t you dare make me wear taffeta.”
A strange sound—a giggle—burst from Stacey’s lips. “I’ll let you design your dress.”
“Deal.” Zoe stood. “Guess you don’t want me hanging around while you talk to him. I’ll be inside.”
Stacey unfolded her legs. Despite the urgency in her limbs, she could only move slowly. The world swayed as she stood, and her calves cramped when she walked—a new development. She stepped carefully to the glass-top table and opened her purse. Her cell phone waited in its assigned pocket. She clutched it hard and tapped in Calvin’s phone number.
The phone rang four times.
“Hello?” Mrs. Greenlee’s voice was a pleasant little melody, but it stopped Stacey’s heart. What did Mrs. Greenlee think of her now?
“Hel-lo-o …?”
Stacey shut her eyes and plunged. “Yes, Mrs. Greenlee? Hi. I-is Calvin there?”
Silence on the phone. Did she hang up? Was she checking? Then, “No, Stacey, I’m sorry. He left right after church today.”
“What? He left?”
“He’s gone camping. Didn’t he tell you about that?”
“That’s today?”
“They’ll be back Wednesday afternoon.”
“Um …” She pulled her lip and pressed the phone tighter to her ear. Her thoughts ran in dizzying circles around nothing she could grasp, but she just couldn’t say good-bye yet. “Did he … say anything to you about … about him and me?”
Another long pause. “Not since Monday after school, when he told me y’all broke up.”
A sob burst out of her. “I need to talk to him. I need to know he doesn’t hate me!”
“Stacey, honey, Calvin does not hate you. Now you stop thinking that way.”
“But he didn’t—Did he say anything?”
“Sweetheart, I know this is hard for you. These feelings, when you’re young, are so intense, and you feel like the world is coming to an end. But it’ll be okay. I pro—”
“I just need to hear his voice! I need to hear him say it’ll be okay.”
“All I can do is tell him you called. He’ll get a hold of you as soon as he gets home.”
Tyler; he’d have his cell phone. “Do you think it’d be okay if I called Tyler’s cell?”
“Stacey, please don’t do that. Calvin’s really been looking forward to this trip. Don’t ruin it for him. Just give him a few days, and he’ll call you.”
Oh, so simple. Just wait three more days, don’t ruin his trip, and go crazy in the meantime. Did the woman have any clue what she was saying? Waiting would be torture. It meant Stacey would hang around helplessly when what she needed most was to hear Calvin’s voice. Just a few words. Enough to say it’d be okay.
“P-please.” She was whining like a little child. Stacey sniffed and pushed her shoulders back. “I need to know he’s okay too.”
“Well, I’ll tell you he was in quite a state all week about the argument y’all had, and with his finals at school. Yesterday he was so busy getting ready to go that I didn’t have a chance to talk to him. He might’ve had a talk with Peyton, but she’s over at Ryan’s house visiting with his family right now.”
He was hurting. She’d seen it on his face at school. They’d orchestrated an absurd standoff against each other. She loved him and he loved her—they belonged together. There had to be a way to fix this.
Mrs. Greenlee was saying something. Whole lives ahead of them, blah, blah. Stacey sniffed and waited. She glanced at Zoe’s patio door and the darkness inside. She shuffled back to the chaise and sat down, wet her face with some water while her brain buzzed with options.
“Are you going to be all right?” Mrs. Greenlee asked.
“Um, yes.”
“I’ll tell Calvin to call you. It’ll be all right, honey.”
“Okay. Thank you. Good-bye.”
“Be sweet. Bye-bye.”
Stacey stared at the phone in her hand. Wait until Wednesday night to hear from Calvin? When it would only take a minute or two using Tyler’s phone? Then he could go back to driving or camping or riding or whatever he was doing. Surely the conversation would help him too.
What time was it? Would they be at that lake yet? How far was the place?
Stacey pulled Tyler’s number from her contacts and dialed. The phone rang three times then clicked.
“He—o? … O?”
“Tyler? Tyler, can you hear me?”
“Sta—”
“Tyler! I need to talk to Calvin.”
“… breaking u—hear you.”
“Please!”
“… in the woods. I’ll have to—”
The phone went silent.
Stacey’s breath came out in whimpers and gasps. She redialed Tyler’s number. It rang four times then went to voice mail. On her next try, the call went immediately to voice mail, which meant Tyler had turned his phone off.
Stacey dropped her cell onto the chaise and covered her damp face with her hands. Whimper, gasp, whimper, gasp. She heard the rumble of Zoe’s sliding glass door.
“Uh-oh. Go bad?” Zoe asked.
Stacey dropped her hands and sniffed. “I couldn’t reach him.”
“How come?”
“He went camping somewhere. Badin Lake. Wherever that is. Somewhere west of here.”
“Oh yeah. So …?”
Stacey snatched up her phone and stood. “I have to leave.”
“Leave? But I thought we were going to start making our outfits tonight.”
“I’m sorry. I have to.”
Zoe followed her to the front door. “Where are you going?”
“I’ll see you later.”
Stacey jogged across the front yard to her Honda parked on the shoulder of the road. She flung open the car door and tossed her purse into the passenger seat. She’d have to spend the money Mom gave her for fabric on gas instead. And a map. Daddy would have a map of North Carolina in the garage, but he’d bust a blood vessel if he had any clue what Stacey was planning.
Chapter
28
Calvin gawked, his arms held wide in question, while Tyler and Flannery wrestled over the cell phone. Flannery squealed as Tyler wrapped his arms around her, having fun at Calvin’s expense. “No—Ah! No cell phones!”
Tyler caught her wrists and pulled them above her head. “Give. Me. My. Phone back!”
“I’ll drop it. I’ll drop it!”
“Do it, and I’ll drench your bike seat in motor oil. Give it.” Tyler slipped his grip higher, got his fingers around her hand and the phone.
Calvin lunged forward, reached up to grab the phone himself, but the wrestling pair skittered away from him. “Y’all, come on. I’m dying over here.”
Flannery bent forward, stretching Tyler across her back. His feet slipped in the pine straw-covered ground, nearly toppling them both.
“Promise you’ll turn it off,” Flannery demanded, squirming but trapped.
Tyler snatched the phone away. “Relax. No good signal out here anyway.”
Flannery’s father came around the side of the family’s twenty-one-foot camper trailer, where he’d been hooking up hoses. “You can get a signal when we make our food run.”
“Da-ad! What about getting away from it all, enjoying nature, peace and quiet, and all that stuff?”
Dave barked a laugh. “Peace, quiet, and dirt bikes? ‘Sides, with the ruckus y’all are making, you done scared away all God’s creatures already.”
With a victorious smirk, Tyler shoved his phone into his pocket.
Calvin huffed and dropped his arms to his sides. He ignored Flannery and confronted Tyler. “So? That was Stacey, right? What’d she say?”
“She asked for you, but I couldn’t make out anything else. I lost the signal and then somebody grabbed the phone away.” Tyler squatted next to the tent they had just spread on the ground before his cell phone rang. He picked up a pole and started assembling it.
Calvin tugged his hair. “I should try to call back. Might be important.”
“I don’t have any bars. I’m surprised she got through at all.”
“No phones!” Flannery yelled from the door of the camper.
Calvin groaned. “We heard you the first time.”
She went inside, leaving the camper door swinging. “Who was that, anyway?” she yelled.
Tyler turned back to the tent. “It was your nana. She wanted to make sure you didn’t forget your jammies and pookie bear.”
Sudden movement rocked the camper. An instant later, Flannery’s arm appeared through the door, a stuffed bear in her hand. “Ta-da!”
“Hey!” More scrambling inside the camper. “That’s mine!” her little brother Nigel cried.
Tyler fed his tent pole through the pockets of the tent. “Ah, yes. Peace and quiet.”
Calvin gave up, dropped to his knees, and found another pole.
Why did Stacey wait until now to call? Did she lose her brain and forget about the camping trip? Or did she do it on purpose just to drive him crazy?
He shoved his pole through the top loop. The metal tip snagged on the nylon.
“Easy. You’ll rip it.” Tyler freed the fabric and straightened the pole. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Forget about it. I just need to get out on those trails.”
“I hear ya, bro.”
Setting up Calvin’s dome tent took less than five minutes. Organizing the camper took longer, as Flannery’s mother traipsed back and forth from the trailer to the SUV, carrying plastic bins filled with household stuff. Calvin and Tyler unrolled their sleeping bags and tossed their duffels and riding gear inside the tent, eager to get the important stuff taken care of. As if on cue, Flannery dropped the tailgate on the pickup truck and scrambled up with the bikes.
“Food run first.” Dave waved his daughter down. “Help your mama at the store.”
“I thought we were going to feast on all the humungous fish you catch.”
Dave lunged for Flannery and got in a single noogie before she squirmed away. “Tomorrow. Prepare to be stunned and amazed.”
Tyler opened a canvas camp chair then held his phone out toward Calvin. “You want to call Stacey back? Take the phone and go with Flannery and her mom.”
Calvin looked down at the chair, at the tent behind it, at the green woods around him. No, he really didn’t want to call Stacey back. This trip was supposed to be his escape from all the drama, the only chance he’d have for some fun before starting work on Thursday. Stacey had no right to ruin it for him. She could wait.
At least that’s what he tried to tell his heart.
“I’ll hang here with you and Dave.”
“No riding while I’m gone!” Flannery called as she followed her mother toward the SUV. Her little brother rushed past her to claim the front seat.
No sooner were they gone then Dave set his tackle box on the picnic table and started sorting lures.
Calvin slouched down in the camp chair until his neck rested against the canvas. He stared at patches of blue sky poking through the tree canopy. A breeze cooled his face. His muscles relaxed, and his arms flopped over the sides of the chair. But his fingers twitched and his brain refused to switch off. It had been six days since he’d spoken to Stacey. He’d accepted the idea that it was over between them, and had hoped the camping trip and riding would be the thing to start him on the road back to normal.
Thanks a lot, Stace.
At the sound of a pull tab, he lifted his head. Tyler swigged a can of Mountain Dew.
“Where’d you get that?”
“Bought it when we stopped for gas.”
“Got any more?”
Tyler held his can toward Calvin.
“No way. Not with your backwash in it.”
Tyler shrugged. “Flannery would take it.”
Calvin snorted. “No doubt.”
Tyler settled into another camp chair. He leaned toward Calvin, turning the aluminum can in his hands. “What am I going to do about her?” His voice was almost a whisper.
Oh, great. “Don’t ask me about relationship stuff right now.”
Tyler smacked his lips and stared at the ground.
Calvin sighed and sat up. “Sorry, that was rude.”
“Forget it. It’s not that big a deal.”
“It’s a pretty big deal to her.”
Tyler lifted his eyes toward Calvin. “I don’t want to change anything, you know? We’re friends, and, um, like, you and Stace were together for months, and now you’re not even talking to each other. What if that happened with me and—” He glanced at Flannery’s father, still busy with his fishing gear. “Know what I mean?”
Calvin wanted to say things didn’t always end up that way. But what did he know? His one and only real relationship with a girl had taken a high-side spill into a drainage ditch. “All I can say is to be straight with her.”
“Yeah. But—”
“But what?”
Tyler shook his head. “Not yet. Not while we’re here.”
Calvin leaned back again and stared at the sky. Conflict at camp? “Yeah, that’d be bad.”
His chest rose and fell as if he’d been running. His knee started bouncing. Why did Stacey call? What if she had gone to the doctor and found out she was actually sick?
She had her family and Zoe to watch out for her.
And Noah.
Calvin’s stomach clenched. “I can’t just sit here.” He pushed out of his chair and strode to the pickup truck. “Let’s get these bikes unloaded.”
Dried mud spattered his goggles. The muscles in his arms, legs, and shoulders burned with exertion as the Enduro surged up another ridge and gave him what he’d come for, a ride through open air.
Not far off Tyler’s tail, Calvin skidded around one of many boulders in the trail and accelerated. Tyler must have heard him coming. Without looking back, he popped a little wheelie on his Kawasaki and tossed more dirt at Calvin’s headlight.
A mud patch split the path ahead. Tyler might slow down. Might. To the right of the
puddle was a narrow dry strip. Calvin took it.
There was a reason that path was the way less traveled. A thick tree limb jutted out at eye level. Calvin ducked, hugging the gas tank. Adrenaline flooded every muscle. He came off the path just ahead of Tyler but moving so fast that he struggled for control.
Calvin cranked his throttle. The engine stuttered then accelerated. That tiny hesitation made Calvin’s heart jump as much as the tight space between him and the other bike. A glance in his rearview mirror showed him how close he’d come to slamming his rear end into Tyler’s front tire, which would have dumped them both. He sucked in a hot breath. Part of the game. He’d apologize later.
Calvin accelerated, but the Yamaha coughed and the exhaust popped before giving him more speed. Heat radiating off the engine cooked Calvin’s knees.
No problems. Not now. Please!
He powered the Enduro up another rise. His body and the bike moved in concert. Calvin felt every tree root, pebble, ridge, and trench passing beneath the tires. Though the engine struggled, the bike responded to the smallest press of his hands and shift of his weight.
A powerful four-stroke engine roared in his ears. Calvin glanced left in time to see Flannery’s Suzuki 450 fly past. He hissed. Flannery was going too fast for a blind turn ahead. She hit the brakes, and her rear tire skidded. Her boot made a scrape in the dirt as she tried to save herself.
Calvin lost sight of her around the corner. He eased way off his throttle. Tyler caught up to him and did the same. They puttered around the turn together and found Flannery flat on her back, limbs splayed out, her head resting in a fern bank. The Suzuki silent six feet away.
Calvin killed his engine and jumped off, almost forgetting the kickstand.
Tyler was one step ahead of him reaching Flannery’s side. “Flan, are you all right?”
The riding armor covering Flannery’s chest vibrated. Her upper lip and a flash of teeth appeared above her chin guard. She was laughing. She lifted her arms toward Tyler. “My hero!”
Calvin groaned and pivoted away. No worries. Nothing to see here.
Tyler helped her to her feet. Still, Flannery rose with the grace of an old lady getting out of bed. She pointed at the bike. “I rolled over here. I was almost stopped but lost my balance.”
Running Lean Page 25