Lily sensed the attention of those behind her swing in their direction. The only sound in her ears was of her own breathing and the night noises from the woods. Clay’s statement had been too quiet for the others to hear, they’d all been talking and joking around. But now silence fell.
Half of the basketball team was here. They were sure to side with Tad.
Say something, stupid! Don’t let this happen. Stop it now!
She was still searching for her voice when Tad took a step backward and said, loud enough for everyone to hear, “Thanks, man, for taking her off my hands. It was gonna be a bitch babysitting all night.”
Lily saw red. Babysit! She wanted to jump on his back and beat him on the head with her fists. Tad was at least eight inches taller than she, but she took a step in his direction. At the last second, instead of springing onto his back, she slipped her foot around his ankle.
He stumbled forward, pinwheeling his arms for balance.
Lily didn’t get to see if he recovered or landed face-down on the ground. Clay grabbed her arm and took off at a trot into the woods.
After about two minutes, he slowed their pace and said, “Why in the hell did you show up here tonight?”
All of her foolish, romantic notions (Clay had been willing to fight for her, after all) evaporated. “I didn’t hear anyone asking Karen Kimball why she was here!”
“That’s different.”
Lily stopped moving and put her hands on her hips. “What do you mean, that’s different?”
“Karen’s different.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“Jesus, I thought surely you’d figured out why Luke keeps you away from these games.” He kept on walking. She was about to lose him in the darkness, so she gave up her defiant pose and hurried after him.
“I have. He doesn’t want me to have any fun.”
She’d just about caught up with him. He surprised her by spinning around to face her. She nearly jumped out of her skin.
“Dammit, Lily! You know that’s a crock. Think about it. He lets you hang with us all of the time.”
“I see, so he’s ashamed of me. Afraid I’ll embarrass him in front of the others.”
A loud rustling came from the woods on their right. Clay grabbed her arm and pulled her behind a thick-trunked tree. “Shhh.”
Lily held her breath and pressed her back against the rough bark. The trunk was wide, but not wide enough to offer cover if they stood shoulder to shoulder. Clay pressed against Lily, face to face—or face to chest, as it turned out. Lily closed her eyes and secretly breathed in the scent of him while they waited for the searchers to pass. He smelled like suntan lotion and outdoors, with just a trace of fabric softener.
The warmth of his body against hers dulled her senses to anything beyond his presence. An unnatural lightness encompassed her, as if she could easily float off into the dark night. Her fingertips felt electrified and she yearned to rest her hands against his chest.
Clay tensed and she knew the searchers were nearby. His hands settled on her waist to hold her still—which was totally unnecessary, no way would she voluntarily leave this shared closeness. Her skin under his touch tingled, just as she imagined it would. He’d touched her plenty of times before, held her hand to help her along, pulled her out of the water onto the diving platform. But this was different. He was touching her with his whole body, making her stomach wiggle and squirm. And, they were alone—in the dark.
In her most secret dreams, Clay had held her in the darkness, protected her, whispered words of love in her ear. She wished with all of her heart that the searchers would remain in their vicinity for the rest of the night, holding the two of them prisoner.
The footsteps stopped nearby, close enough to penetrate her fixation on Clay’s nearness. She heard the searchers whispering.
Then the footfalls moved away from them.
Clay inched backward and looked down at her for a moment. It was much too dark here in the woods for her to read his expression. Her breath remained lodged in her chest while she waited to see what he would do.
Finally, he whispered, “I should walk you home.”
Her heart sank. She scrambled for an argument.
“Come on, Clay. I’m with you; I couldn’t be any safer if I was with Luke. Besides, everyone will laugh at me. I won’t be able to go to town for a week. What Tad said was bad enough…”
He put his hands on his hips and looked around. “Where does your dad think you are?”
“In my room, reading. Molly’s at a friend’s overnight. Dad won’t know the difference. It’s Friday night, he won’t be back upstairs until at least three.”
He didn’t say anything else, just took her hand and led her quietly through the woods. Lily was surprised when he stopped at the fire tower.
“Up,” he said, and pointed up the stairs.
“I thought the tower was off-limits.”
“It is. That’s how I know nobody will find us.”
Lily had often wondered what it would be like to look out from the top. However, her uncertainty about heights always kept her feet on the ground. Then again, Clay had never asked her to climb it. Right now, she’d go up those stairs if the darn tower itself was on fire.
She concentrated on one step at a time and the sound of Clay climbing right behind her. She didn’t know if he suspected she was afraid, but after the first couple of flights he put a steadying hand on the small of her back.
Pretty soon, her anxiety fell away. All she could think about was that he was touching her. She began to move more slowly, certain that once they reached the top, he’d take his hand away.
“You all right?” he asked.
“Yeah.” The jig was up. No more slowing down.
When she stepped onto the platform, he let go and her nervousness over the height came back. Instead of looking out over the treetops, Lily slid to her knees and sat down, resting her back against the half-wall. Guess she’d never know what it looked like from up here.
Clay stood, turning slowly in a circle. “Man, even the courthouse clock looks little from here. And you can see clear across the lake. There’s the lighted flagpole at Peter’s dock. Stand up and look.”
If it had been anyone else, even Luke, she would have admitted she was scared shitless. From the moment Clay had stopped touching her, all she could think about was how was she going to get back down. Her knees had started to feel rubbery and her stomach was tied in knots with the mere prospect of standing up and descending those long stairs. But she was with Clay, not Luke. And she’d already been called a baby once tonight. She didn’t want him to think of her that way, not anymore.
She reached up and grabbed the top of the half-wall. Slowly, she pulled herself to her feet. As she did, she kept her gaze fastened on his profile. The moon had risen, silvery and nearly full, casting an interesting light on his features.
He looked at her and laughed softly. He put a hand on the side of her head and gently turned it. “Out there.”
He let his hand drop from her head to her shoulder. She feared he’d take it away, but he let it lay there. The touch was innocent, but Lily’s reaction to it was anything but. The feelings that swept over her caught her off guard. A hot little fire began in the pit of her stomach.
Pointing with his other hand, he said, “See the courthouse, and out there a little farther, that red flashing light is on the grain elevator, the fairgrounds are just on the far side of that.”
Lily did look. With the trees shrouded in darkness below, it looked like Glens Crossing was a collection of fairy lights in an inky sea—almost as if the world had been tipped upside down and she was looking down at the sky.
Suddenly she wasn’t afraid. She didn’t know if it was because her perception of being so high was distorted by the darkness, or if it was her preoccupation with Clay’s touch. But the trembling in her knees ceased and the knots in her stomach unraveled.
Clay said, “Did you ever hear
it?”
Turning to look at him again, she said, “Hear what?”
“The ghost and his fiddle.”
She tucked her chin and said, “Nooo. Don’t tell me you believe…”
He shifted his gaze to the stars. They reflected as tiny pinpoints of light in his eyes. “I want to. A man who loved a woman so much that when she died, he went insane, wandering the hills playing a song so her spirit would know where to find him. I want to believe loving that much is possible.”
For the first time in her life, the legend seemed breathtakingly romantic. When the ghost was talked about around bonfires and at slumber parties, it was creepy and weird. The way Clay talked about it, it was heartbreaking.
She didn’t know what to say, so she just kept her mouth shut.
After a few minutes, he sat down, leaning his back against the wall. Lily sat beside him.
“Why don’t you want the searchers to find us? We’re cheating, so we can’t win.”
He sighed. “If they find us, we have to join the search. I don’t want you anywhere near Tad out there in the dark.”
A bubble of laughter climbed Lily’s throat. “Why would I be afraid of Tad? You pissed him off, not me.”
He rubbed his forehead. She heard his breath leave him in a rush. “Come on, Lily. Why do you think everyone pairs off in boy-girl teams?”
She shrugged. “To keep things even, I guess.”
“God.” It was little more than an exasperated whisper. Raising his knees, he rested his elbows on them and ran a hand through his hair. Lily loved his hair, it was straight and dark, and tended to fall over his forehead no matter how often he brushed it back. “You’re kidding, right?”
She tilted her head and looked at him.
“Man, it’s Luke’s job to tell you stuff like this…” He looked out into the night sky.
“Like what?” She looked down, so the moon glow didn’t reveal her expression. It was easier to feign innocence with her voice than her eyes.
“Maybe you should just ask Luke tomorrow.”
“If I don’t know what you’re talking about, how do I know what to ask him?”
A guttural groan came from behind clenched teeth. “God, you can’t possibly…” He took a deep breath.
“What?”
“Okay.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Guys like Tad… and every other guy, for that matter, except me and Peter, want to get you—well, girls in general—alone in the dark for one thing.”
“What’s that?”
He threw his hands in the air. “He just wanted to see how far he could get, okay?” Frustration made his voice crack.
“Far? You lost me.”
Clay shot to his feet. “Just stay away from Tad!”
Lily couldn’t hold herself together any longer. The noise from her throat erupted at first as a squeal and rolled into breath-grabbing laughter.
“You little shit!” Clay shoved her backward.
She rolled around on her back, fighting to pull in a breath. Tears ran from her eyes.
“I ought to turn you over my knee…” He knelt beside her and grappled to get a hold of her wiggling body.
She laughed harder and squirmed to get away.
Before she knew it, he had her pressed into stillness with the weight of his body over hers and her hands pinned against the floor over her head.
Suddenly her laughter dried up, leaving her breathless. She looked up into his eyes. She could feel his heart pounding against hers.
Time seemed to stop progressing. She didn’t dare move. She wanted him to kiss her more than she could ever remember wanting anything in her whole life.
For a moment, she thought he was going to. He looked like the guys in movies do, right before they kiss a girl.
Suddenly he rolled off her and sat up. “We should go.”
Lily felt like a bright and sparkling world had been snatched from her grasp. “I—” She cleared the squeak from her throat. “I thought you wanted to stay here until everyone was found.”
“Just come on, Lily.” He got up and started for the stairs.
Lily rested her forehead against the steering wheel of her Toyota, surprised by the size of the ache in her chest. She and Clay never again mentioned that night. They didn’t return to the fire tower until—
A sharp rap against the driver’s window made her gasp and jerk with a start.
Steve Clyde peered in at her. She felt like she’d been caught in the middle of something criminal.
For you, Lily, those thoughts are criminal.
“You okay, Lily?”
She rolled down the window and tried to project a calm she didn’t feel. “Yes, I was just reacquainting myself with the tower. You know, a stroll down memory lane.” Did she sound as casual as she thought she did?
“Well, I was just heading to the marina, to make my presence known, so to speak, when I saw you slumped over the wheel.”
“Sorry. I didn’t even think…”
He waved a hand in the air. “Don’t worry about it. It’s my job to assume the worst and check it out.” He laughed and started back to his vehicle, which was parked right behind hers. Then he stopped and came back. “Just don’t go climbing that thing. I’m not sure it’s safe. They’ve had it fenced off for a few years now.”
Lily forced a smile to cover her inner turmoil. “Not a chance in hell I’d climb that thing again.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Lily sat for a few minutes after Steve left, working on shoving those memories back in the dark where they belonged. It was like trying to stuff a bunch of squirming kittens into a flour sack.
By the time she pulled out and headed for the hospital, she had her priorities organized and felt more like herself again.
Lily stopped at the information desk that sat squarely in front of the double doors to the emergency room. It was manned by an elderly woman in a pink volunteer smock. She looked like she couldn’t weigh eighty pounds dripping wet and had a thinning fuzz of white hair—the kind that saw the beauty parlor once a week and a satin pillowcase every night. Her eyes looked owlish behind thick glasses. Her plastic name tag had her photo, in which she resembled a gray Tweetie Bird, next to the hospital logo. It said her name was Bernice.
“I’m here to see Benny Boudreau,” Lily said.
The woman smiled a grandmotherly smile and pulled out the keyboard shelf on her desk.
“Oh, yes, the fire. Um, could you spell the last name for me? Is it o-w or e-a-u?”
“B-o-u-d-r-e-a-u.”
“Sorry, dear, he’s been sent home.” Bernice gave Lily a smile full of well-worn teeth.
“Oh. Thank you.”
Lily pressed her lips together and went to look for a phone book. That’s when she realized she had absolutely no idea what Faye’s last name was.
“Miss!” Bernice called her back. “Oh, dear.” Her gnarled fingers, tipped with pale pink polished nails, flipped through a stack of papers. “I almost forgot. I think there’s a message here for you. You’re his daughter, right?”
“Yes. Lily Holt.” She stood in front of the desk and waited. The woman finished going through the stack and started again at the top.
“Well, now, I know it’s here. That redheaded woman handed it to me.” She paused and bit her lip. “Hmmm, let’s see, what was I doing when she gave it to me?”
Lily put out her hand. “Maybe if I look through them?”
Gray eyes that were hooded by time snapped up to look at her. That sweet grandmotherly appearance shifted to reveal the pit bull terrier underneath. “That’d be against regulations. Just because I’m a volunteer doesn’t mean I don’t follow the rules. Everybody thinks ’cause we’re old we just sit here with our thumbs in our ears. Might as well put a monkey at this desk, far as some folks are concerned.”
“Oh, no.” Lily pulled her hand back and stuck it in her pocket, as if hiding it would take away the offense. “I didn’t mean anything like that. I was just
trying to help. I didn’t know about the… the rule.”
The stiff set of the woman’s lips relaxed slightly. “Of course you didn’t, dear.” The attack dog was gone and the grandmother was back. She pulled open a drawer. “Now, let’s see… when they came by… I was just thinking I needed to check the coffeemaker…” She closed the drawer and got up from her desk. “She handed me the message….
“Then, let’s see… oh, yes, they brought in that little boy with the broken arm… I still had the message in my hand…” Her hand clasped the imaginary slip of paper in front of her as she looked around. “Then the little boy’s father fainted dead away, cracked his head a good one right on the edge of my desk….” Pressing her fingers against her chin, she said, “I don’t remember having it in my hand when they wheeled him away. Man had a knot the size of a hen’s egg….”
Lily’s patience was wearing thin, but she’d already offended the woman—and without the note, she was going to have to ask around to find out where Faye lived. People already looked at her as a negligent and uncaring daughter.
She casually leaned closer to the desk, on the off chance she could see something the volunteer had missed.
Bernice cleared her throat.
Lily raised her gaze to see a very disapproving look. “Sorry.”
“Just give me a second…” As she turned in a half circle, looking on the credenza behind the desk, she slipped a hand in her pocket. “Well! There it is!” She pulled out a folded slip of paper from her smock pocket and looked at Lily with a victorious smile. Nothing but sweet granny now.
Lily took the paper before it made its way into another pocket: “Thank-you, Bernice.” The note was no more than an address. Faye’s address.
“Oh, everybody calls me Bea.” After a second she added, “I hope your dad is on the mend. Tell him I’m so sorry about the fire.” She shook her head. “Terrible storm. Just terrible.”
“Yes, it was.” Lily waved the note at her. “Thanks, Bea.”
There was something special about living in a town where little old ladies cared about the local tavern keeper. More than likely, Bea had never set foot inside the Crossing House, but her concern was genuine.
The Road Home Page 10