Take a Chance

by Shelley Shepard Gray

  “This is nice,” Sam said. “It kind of reminds me of back home.”

  “How so? Did you used to live near a lake?”

  “No,” he said as they started walking on the gravel path that bordered the water. “Not really. But back home, everything is spread out. There are a lot of long roads with nothing around but fields. You feel like you can see for a while and breathe. That’s what this makes me feel like.” After a second, he glanced her way. For the first time that evening, he looked a bit hesitant. “Does that even make sense?”

  “More than you know. At least to me. These last few days have been terrible. I’ve been so upset, my mother started talking about me going to see a counselor.”

  “Is that what you’re gonna do?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t want to,” she admitted. What would he say if she confided that she might want to talk to someone? Would he think she was overreacting?

  Looking down at her, his usual easy expression tightened. “I guess we should talk about what happened.”

  She couldn’t think of anything that would be more awkward. What could they talk about? The state of her very plain, very virginal-looking white bra? Or the fact that she didn’t have a whole lot to fill it out in the first place? “No way. Believe me, we definitely do not need to talk about that picture.”

  He reached for her hand. Before she could fold it over her chest, he linked his fingers through hers and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. “Come on, Kayla. It’s just me.”

  Just him? “It’s embarrassing.”

  A soft smile played on his lips. “Not so much.” Before she could ask him about that, he spoke again, his accent turning thicker. “I think it might be a good idea.”

  A fierce rush of emotions flowed through her, settling into that spot just under her ribs. She wanted to be mad. To be mad at him, even though all he’d done was try to help her.

  But how else could she feel? Here, they were alone, he’d just taken ahold of her hand … but instead of being able to enjoy this moment, he was making her think about stuff she was trying so hard to never think about again.

  “Come on, Kay. Trust me not to make things worse.”

  Hesitantly, she said, “What, exactly, do you want to talk about?”

  He leaned back. “Maybe we could start at the beginning. Do you know who took the picture?”

  Relieved that this question, at least, wasn’t embarrassing, she nodded. “Yeah. A girl named Elizabeth.”

  “I don’t know many girls. Is she on your squad?”

  “Oh, no. She’s not a cheerleader. She, well, it turns out that she was playing some truth-or-dare game with a couple of her friends. She was supposed to take a girl’s picture when she was in the locker room. I think the girl was supposed to be naked or something. But she chickened out and just sent that picture of me.” Emily tried to keep her voice matter-of-fact, but she wasn’t sure she was succeeding. Because, really, it didn’t matter why Elizabeth had done it. Just that she had.

  “So it wasn’t personal.”

  “I guess not. I just happened to be standing nearby.” Giving in to her emotions, she said, “And you know what? I don’t even know if that makes it better or worse.”

  “Because …”

  “Because it still happened. And get this—my mom said that one day I’m going to realize that there was a reason this happened to me. Like having a half-naked picture of me on social media is all part of God’s plan,” she continued in a rush. “Like I’m supposed to assume that God wanted everyone to see my boobs?”

  Sam’s face turned carefully blank. “Ah, maybe He let that happen for a reason only He knows.”

  That was Sam. Instead of cracking a joke or rolling his eyes, he gave some thought to her comment. It calmed her down. “Maybe. But it was still awful.”

  “I know.”

  “It really was. Then it only got worse because she sent it to one of the girls in her crew and she sent it to Garrett.”

  “What a bitch.”

  Kayla privately agreed, though so far she’d never come out and talked about those girls that way. For some reason, her parents and friends all expected her to take the high road and shrug it off. Even though she was completely innocent in the whole thing.

  She squeezed her eyes tight. “So it’s all stupid, really.”

  His voice was hard. “Did Elizabeth ever apologize? Shoot, did she even get suspended, too?”

  “Yeah, she got an at-home suspension like Garrett. And she and her parents came over to my house and apologized.”

  “Good.”

  Remembering how it had felt to stand there, knowing that Elizabeth’s parents had probably seen the photo, too, Kayla felt that knot under her ribs expand. “She was crying, like she’d been having a really tough time. It was so stupid.”

  “Shit,” he murmured, drawing out the one word until it was two or maybe even three syllables.

  She took a breath, intending to stop, but suddenly everything she’d been feeling came pouring out. “So it’s all over. But I feel so gross now. I wouldn’t exactly call Elizabeth and me friends, but we didn’t hate each other. But she ruined my life. And now Principal Hendrix acts like it’s over. He even told me that I should forget about it, because this whole episode was going to blow over soon.”

  “I got the feeling he was hoping if he pretended it wasn’t that big a deal it would all go away and he wouldn’t have to do anything besides give me and Garrett suspensions.”

  “But it hasn’t,” she said, hating that her voice sounded shaky. Of course, that was exactly what she was on the verge of doing—dissolving into a mess of hot, bawling, ugly tears. “Nobody seems to care that my body was on that phone. It’s me who everyone was talking about.” She’d even heard one of Elizabeth’s friends laughing about her underwear looking like an old lady’s.

  Sam looked down at his feet. “I’m real sorry, Kayla. I’d go beat them all up if I could.”

  “You better not.” After giving him a watery smile, she swiped her eyes with the side of her hand. “I just want it to be over. People keep bringing it up. A girl on my squad even told me at halftime that she thought I shouldn’t have made such a big deal about it. She didn’t know what the problem was.”

  Sam grunted. “No way.”

  “Yeah, that my bra covered up a lot more than most bikini tops, so it wasn’t any big deal. And that … that I’m thin, so I don’t have anything to be embarrassed about besides, you know, my small boobs. But I am.”

  He squeezed her hand.

  They had stopped by one of the lights. Because of that, she could see that Sam was gazing at her. So sweetly. But it also seemed like there was something else going on, too. Fearing the worst, she knew she had to ask this question. “Did you look at that picture?”

  For a second she thought he wasn’t going to answer. But then he did. “Yeah.”

  “Oh.” Now her humiliation was complete. Yeah, she assumed he probably had … but she’d been holding out hope that he had been the one decent guy at Bridgeport High.

  Just as quickly, all her insecurities rushed forward. Hating herself, she realized she was actually waiting for him to comment on how she looked.

  What was wrong with her? “Look, I’m gonna go.”

  When she attempted to pull her hand from his, he held on tighter. “Now, hold on. Listen to me.”

  “Sam.”

  “No, stop,” he retorted, his voice firmer. “Will you listen to me?”

  “I don’t think I want to hear what you have to say.”

  Impatience flared in his eyes before he visibly tamped it down. “It wasn’t like you’re thinking. Garrett handed me his phone and then, there you were.”

  She closed her eyes.

  “No, look at me. Please, will you look at me?” When she looked at him again, he continued. �
��Kayla, that’s why I got so mad at Garrett. I didn’t know what he wanted me to see. I thought it was some pic of a football game. I mean, it could have been anything. It caught me off guard.”

  Closing her eyes, she allowed herself to try to imagine being him. And she could. Everyone was putting up YouTube videos or random memes and stuff on their phones. He was right. It could have been anything. “I believe you.”

  He sighed. “I hope so, ’cause once I realized it was you, I told him to take it off.” Turning red, he continued. “I wasn’t um … staring at your picture or anything. I’m not a perv, Kayla.”

  He sounded so appalled that she would think that, in spite of how upset she’d been, she started laughing. Maybe it was the relief. Maybe it was just the way he’d sounded, like he was offended that she’d think he was the kind of guy who did stuff like that. “Oh, Sam.”

  “It’s true.”

  His cheeks were so red it looked like he’d been in Florida for a week. And that just made her laugh harder. And while she did, she realized that she felt better. At last, instead of holding everything in, she admitted everything that she was feeling. Yes, what had happened had been awful, but in the grand scheme of embarrassing situations in high school, she figured she got off kind of lucky. “You know what? All of a sudden, I feel a whole lot better. Thanks for letting me rant.”

  “Anytime.” He smiled at her, then tugged her closer and kissed her cheek. When she giggled again, he pressed his lips to her cheek again. But this time the action was a whole lot slower and a whole lot closer to her lips.

  Was he about to kiss her? Did she want him to kiss her? With a burst of awareness, she realized that yes, yes, she did.

  Her breath hitched as he reached for her other hand and linked their fingers together. “Kayla, you don’t know how—”

  “Sam? Sam, what are you doing here?” a voice called out.

  He jerked away and turned. And then his whole body stiffened.

  Kayla felt off balance. “What’s wrong?” she asked as she tried to figure out who he was reacting to.

  “You are never going to believe this, but my brother is here. With Miss Springer.”

  She dropped her hand. “Miss Springer from school?”

  “Yeah. If I’m not mistaken, my brother is out on a date with my English teacher.” Mumbling something under his breath, he groaned. “I’m sorry, Kayla. I think things are about to get weird.”

  CHAPTER 9

  “There is more to poker than life.”

  —Tom McEvoy

  “Sam, what the f—heck?” Kurt called out, hating that he had almost started cussing like a redneck who didn’t know better. But he couldn’t help himself. What were the odds that both he and his younger brother would be at Lake Isabella at the same time? Until an hour ago, he’d been barely aware the lake existed.

  Thanks to the many muted lights that had been set up at regular intervals around the park, Kurt watched Sam lean down, say something to the pretty girl he was holding hands with, and then head his way, glaring at him and Emily the whole time.

  “Uh-oh,” Emily whispered.

  “Yeah, this is going to be awkward,” he mumbled before bypassing Sam and directing his attention to the girl. She was following Sam, a wary expression on her face.

  He needed to fix this pronto.

  Taking care to keep his voice gentle, he said, “Hey. I’m thinking you’re Kayla.”

  After glancing at Sam, she nodded. “Hi, um …”

  “His name is Kurt,” Sam supplied. He didn’t exactly look or sound pleased by the fact.

  “Hi,” she repeated. After a pause, she mumbled, “And Miss Springer.”

  “Hi, Kayla. Sam,” Emily said in that pretty voice of hers. It was light and airy and sounded as if coming across each other was a great surprise. “How was the game?”

  “We won,” Sam answered, his voice verging on surly.

  Kurt wasn’t sure how to handle this whole situation, so he decided to fake it. With that in mind, he figured it would be better to focus on Sam and his girl instead of the fact that Sam had caught him and his teacher out together. “Sam, I thought y’all were going to go to a field party or something after the game.”

  “I didn’t want to,” Kayla supplied. “And since we couldn’t go to either of our houses, I decided to show Sam around here.”

  “I did the same thing,” Emily said with a smile. “Kurt had no idea that we had a good fishing lake here in Bridgeport.”

  Looking more at ease, Kayla stepped closer. “I was telling Sam the same thing.”

  “Smart girls think alike, I guess,” Emily said.

  Kurt relaxed slightly. Maybe everything was going to be fine after all. He could tell Sam he’d see him later and go on his way.

  But Sam didn’t seem to be of the same mind. “You didn’t tell me you were going out with Miss Springer tonight.”

  “Well, we should talk about that later.”

  Sam puffed up like a bantam rooster. “Maybe we should talk about it now.”

  “No,” Kurt said, his voice hard. “Emily and I are meeting her brother here so we’re gonna to let y’all go. Come home by curfew.”

  “Will you even be home by then?”

  The question caught him off guard, probably because he hadn’t thought that far ahead. “That’s none of your business.”

  But instead of backing down, Sam raised his chin. Almost like he was hoping to air all their laundry right there in front of God, both women, and a good portion of Bridgeport, too.

  Kayla’s eyes widened. “I have to be home before midnight,” she said as she leaned toward Sam.

  “Then that’s when we’ll get you home,” he told her gently before hardening his voice when he turned back to Kurt. “I’ll be home after I drop Kayla off.”

  “Good.” Feeling foolish and as awkward as he’d ever felt about anything, Kurt raised a hand. “See you later.”

  “Good to see you, Sam,” Emily said.

  To his credit, Sam smiled slightly, and nodded. “You too, Miss Springer.” Then he reached for Kayla’s hand again. “Want to keep walking?” They started off in the opposite direction before Kayla could do anything more than nod.

  After a second, Kurt pressed a palm to the center of Emily’s lower back and maneuvered them off to the side. “Well, that was fun.”

  Emily grinned. “It wasn’t so bad. And I’m pretty proud of you. You hardly sounded embarrassed to be seen with me at all.”

  That surprised him. “I wasn’t embarrassed to be seen with you. I guess I’m still trying to get used to looking out for him. And having our lives intersect so much.”

  “In other words, you’re used to having your own life.”

  “Yeah. I’m almost thirteen years older than Sam. Until recently, I did my own thing and assumed that our parents would look after him.”

  “And they did, yes?”

  “Yeah. Until Mom got sick.” Until she died and their father decided he was done doing much of anything.

  She touched his arm. “That’s what should have been happening, right?”

  He shrugged. Why did it sound like he was betraying his father by admitting that?

  “I mean, I’m guessing your father looked after you.”

  Her hand was still resting on his arm. He liked the feel of it there. Liked her reaching out to him. Touching him. “He did. My mom did, too. But then, I didn’t need as much looking after as my brother.”

  “Really?”

  It was awkward as hell, feeling like Emily was digging up all the thoughts and memories that he’d been suppressing for years. “I, well, I wasn’t anything special. I mean, I wasn’t smart like Sam.” Hating that he sounded pitiful, he cleared his throat. “What I’m trying to say is I was just an average kid.”

  “Ah.”

  Ha
lf afraid to see her staring at him with distaste—because what kind of man actually shared his weaknesses?—he forced himself to continue. “Anyway, I made the call to make sure my brother got what he needed. So here we are, for better or worse. I was so sure that pulling Sam somewhere new was the right thing to do. But what if it isn’t?” Of course, what he was really wondering was what if this place wasn’t the right place for him.

  “Maybe you’re worrying too much, Kurt. With the exception of Sam not being real excited to see his older brother and teacher show up in the middle of his date, things seem to be working out.”

  He smiled at that. Just as he was about to wrap an arm around her shoulders and pull her close, Emily grabbed his hand. “Here’s Brenden. Let’s go enjoy the rest of the night.”

  Before he turned around, he scanned the area for Sam and Kayla. “Emily, you know teenagers. Is this place okay for them to be hanging out?”

  “I think it’s safe, if that is what you’re asking.”

  He wasn’t sure what he was asking. “I guess I feel like I should have been offering some kind of words of wisdom or something.” Or be telling him not to disrespect the girl. “I don’t know, I guess I feel like I should be telling him to take care with her.”

  “He was holding her hand and walking with her in a public park. I think he’s doing a pretty good job so far.”

  “Yeah. I guess so.”

  “Come on. Looks like my brother and Samantha brought a cooler and stuff for s’mores.” She smiled. “I’m warning you now that s’mores are kind of a weakness of mine, so don’t make fun of me when I get melted chocolate and marshmallow all over my mouth and fingers.”

  “I’ll try to hold back the comments,” he murmured. Actually, he knew he would be trying to take his own advice and not do anything that he’d later regret, like offering to help clean up that mouth with his own.