The Lying Woods

by Ashley Elston

  “Shit,” Robert mutters, then begins picking the large pieces of broken glass up. “Grab one of those big ziplock bags from the pantry so we can put those shells in something.”

  I fill the plastic bag full of shells while he cleans up the glass. “I hope that jar wasn’t something Gus was going to ask you to steal next,” he says.

  I leave the bag of shells on the counter and drop down in one of the kitchen table chairs.

  “He hasn’t mentioned it, so I think you’re safe.”

  Robert sits down across from me. I linger with the glass at my lips, thinking about that party at Annie’s. “Did you hear what Nate said to me in the kitchen that night?”

  Robert nods.

  “Do you think that’s true? That Maggie’s parents are worried about her?” He always seems to know what’s going on in town and he’s the only person I know to ask.

  Robert swirls his drink, the ice hitting the sides of the glass. “According to her sister, Lucinda, yeah. But Lucinda is pretty jealous of Maggie so maybe she was exaggerating.”

  He’s trying to make me feel better.

  “Want some advice?” he asks.

  “Sure,” I say in the most indifferent voice I can manage. Being more like Robert, without the creep vibe he gives off when he’s nosing around for gossip, might help me have a future with Maggie. I’m here for whatever he has to say, but pride won’t let me beg for it.

  “A place like this can be tricky. All these people have known each other for generations. I’m from a town like this and once you get a certain reputation, there’s no changing anyone’s mind. Don’t be the guy who picks a fight with the town’s favorite son and who sneaks around with the town’s favorite daughter.”

  He takes my silence as a cue to continue. “How much do you know about her? Or her family?”

  I shrug. “Enough.”

  Robert lets out a laugh. “Enough. Okay. I’m just saying, I’ve seen her around. Her family’s business is one of the few here that keeps this town running so they’re like royalty around here. And her daddy is hell-bent on joining their family to Nate’s since his family is one of the biggest land owners around.”

  I push my glass away and lean back in my chair. “You got all this from hanging out at a few parties in town and talking to her sister?”

  Robert grins. “It’s amazing what you can learn when you ask a few people the right questions. Like, for example, I’ve learned that Maggie’s older sister is very nice and very talkative when she’s given a little attention. And she knows everything about everyone. Lucinda also told me that Maggie and Nate do this all the time. Break up, get back together, break up, so you know, maybe don’t get too invested.”

  I throw back the rest of my drink.

  Too late for that.

  I’m almost asleep when Maggie tiptoes in and climbs into bed.

  “Hey, I can’t stay long, but I was dying to see you,” she says.

  It’s been a few days since I’ve seen her. She went out of town with her mom and sister and just got back this morning.

  I roll over and pull her in close, feeling instantly better now that she’s by my side.

  “I missed you,” I whisper in her hair.

  She buries her face in my neck and mumbles, “I missed you, too.”

  Every day that went by that I didn’t see her was the longest of my life. She asked me if I wanted to go with her to a party tonight but things with Gus are getting worse and I thought I should stick close to home. The big house isn’t the only place he’s avoiding now. He’s now avoiding the entire rest of the world. He hasn’t left that small apartment in days.

  We lie there in silence for a while, so long that I think she’s fallen asleep, but then I hear her whisper, “Don’t be mad but I started the paperwork for you for financial aid at LSU. Just need you to fill in the parts I don’t know to finish the application and then we can send it in. If you can take the ACT this fall, I think you can start school in January.”

  I can’t help that my entire body tenses at her words. Me going off to college. With Maggie.

  She takes my reaction wrong and tucks in closer. “Please don’t be mad. I just hate the thought of going off without you. And you said you wanted to go to college. I heard you tell my dad that. That’s what you want, right?”

  I do want that. I want the degree, the MBA, everything. I know there’s more to running a place like this than driving a tractor and if I’m ever going to get somewhere like this on my own, I’m going to need to know how to earn some serious cash.

  Turning over so I can face her, I pull her in close. “Yes, and I’m not mad. Not at all. I want nothing more than to go with you.”

  My life has been so different from hers. College was something I never thought would happen for me. While she was enjoying high school, I was in constant trouble with the police. The first couple of times I was arrested, I got off with probation or spent a couple of days in county either because I got a lenient judge or because I was a minor, but the last arrest wasn’t as pretty. I got a year since I had just turned eighteen. So instead of graduating from high school, I got my GED from behind bars. The judge who passed my sentence promised the next time I got in trouble he was locking me up and throwing away the key, so the day I got out is the day I got on that bus headed south.

  And now Maggie’s telling me there’s a chance I can go off to college. With her.

  “I think you’ll qualify for enough aid to cover tuition but we need to figure out how to get you some money for living expenses. I’ll be in the dorm but after freshman year, we can get a place together so I can help out….”

  I put a finger against her lips. “You’ve done more than enough for me. Let me figure out the rest. I have an idea or two of what I can do to get some money.”

  She relaxes against me and I feel like I’m flying inside. And then I remember the gift for her that I have on the table by the bed.

  I sit up, still holding on to her so she doesn’t fall off the narrow bed. “I made you something. It’s kind of cheesy so don’t laugh too hard when you see it.”

  She sits up, pushing her long hair out of her eyes. “What is it?” she says in an excited voice.

  I hand her the small wrapped package and she’s agonizingly slow opening it. Finally, she pulls it out.

  “It’s too dark in here. I can’t see what it is,” she says.

  I reach past her and turn on the lamp. Light floods the area and she peers closer to the piece of metal.

  “It’s a pendant. I thought you could put it on a necklace,” I say. “It’s copper. And I engraved it myself.”

  The copper pendant is rectangular with a hole on one end so that it could be attached to a chain. I let it sit in an acid bath for two days to get the patina just right before I engraved it with the crude metal stamps I found in Gus’s barn.

  Maggie runs her finger across the front several times. “It’s beautiful. But what do the letters and numbers mean?”

  I take it from her and hold it in front of her. “S 6 R 9 T 4. It turns out Gus has a mapping system for this orchard. These three numbers—6, 9, 4—lead to one particular tree. Section 6, Row 9, Tree 4 is our secret-keeping tree right outside this house.”

  She squeals and grabs the pendant from me. “Noah! I love this. It’s like the coordinates to our place. Our favorite place.” She takes off the necklace that’s around her neck, removing the gold cross from the chain, then threads it through the hole of the pendant I made. Once the necklace is back on, she says, “I’ll never take it off.”

  She pulls me back down and kisses me. I can’t help but feel hope for the future…hope I never thought I’d have. But underneath that, I know it won’t be that easy. It’s never that easy for me.

  18

  Pippa and I get back to the house ten minutes before the contents of my parents’ bedroom are set to be auctioned. There are still a good number of people here but not near as many from this morning, which proves most people just
showed up for the entertainment value of it.

  We wander through the house, making our way to my parents’ room, and it’s unbelievable how different the place looks in such a short amount of time.

  “This is awful,” Pippa says.

  “I guess once you win something, you take it away,” I answer. It looks like someone moved out in the dead of the night, only taking the valuables and leaving everything else. God, this is almost unbearable. “C’mon, let’s get to Mom’s room.”

  There’s a crowd in here, all sticking close to whatever it is they want.

  “They’re like vultures,” I whisper to Pippa and she nods.

  “There had to have been a better way to do this. I mean, this is…just awful.”

  Her hand reaches out for mine and I squeeze it tight. I shouldn’t have asked her to come with me, but I know it would have been a disaster if I was here on my own.

  A woman enters the room, her blue shirt indicating she works for the company handling things, and everyone gets quiet.

  “Thanks so much for sticking with us. I know it’s been a long day but this is the last room up for auction. As I’ve said before, all bidding is done by paddle and all bids are final so if you don’t want it, don’t raise it!”

  This gets a laugh even though I bet these people have heard the same joke all day long.

  She starts with the big stuff, the bed, the chest, the nightstands, and I feel like I’m going to come out of my skin. Pippa pulls me to the side of the room, sandwiching me between her and the wall. Her back is pressed against my chest and I snake my arms around her waist and drop my forehead to her shoulder.

  “Okay, now come closer. We’re going to bid on Mrs. Foster’s jewelry. Each piece is listed in your book. We’ll start at twenty-five dollars for lot 321, which includes this beautiful turquoise beaded necklace.”

  Each lot goes until we’re finally at the one with the necklace I’ve been waiting for.

  “Okay, folks, this is lot 340, which includes an unusual piece. It’s…umm, it’s a copper pendant with hand-stamped letters and numbers. The chain is a, um, a silver chain we believe. There are also a lovely pair of silver earrings and an initial ring with the letter M.”

  Pippa leans in just before the bidding starts. “Do you think she wants that necklace? I mean, your dad…left. Maybe it doesn’t hold the same meaning it once did?”

  This has been the thought I’ve pushed far back in my brain. But I can’t get over that the necklace stands for the place they met. A place that has become very important to me.

  “We’ll get the bracelet, too, so if you’re right, she still has something I know she really wants.”

  She nods and we turn our attention back to the woman in the blue shirt.

  “We’ll start at twenty dollars for this unique grouping.”

  Pippa waits a second, then slowly raises her paddle. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for—will other people bid on it just because they know I want it?

  “We have twenty. Do I hear twenty-five?” The woman looks around the room while most everyone is watching us.

  “Ah! Twenty-five to the gentleman in the back.”

  I spin around to see who is bidding and it’s a man in a dark suit. Someone I don’t know and have never seen before.

  “Who is that?” I whisper to Pippa.

  She stands on her tiptoes to get a better look then shrugs. “I have no idea.”

  Pippa raises her paddle again, bringing the bid to thirty dollars. And almost immediately the man counters with thirty-five.

  Pippa and the stranger go back and forth until the bid is over a hundred dollars, definitely more than I can afford.

  “Want me to keep going?” she asks.

  The woman in blue calls out $120. “Going once.”

  “O, do I bid?”

  I watch the man in the back. He’s completely unflustered and I bet he’d take this as high as he needed to win. But why?

  “A hundred and twenty. Going twice.”

  “O!” Pippa says.

  “Let it go,” I answer just as the woman screams “Sold!”

  We watch the rest of the auction and the only other item the man in the back bids on and wins is the silver bracelet.

  The room clears while he makes his way to the front to claim his winnings.

  I move in his direction but Pippa pulls on the back of my shirt, stopping me. “What are you going to do?”

  “Talk to him.”

  He’s signing off on his purchases when I approach him.

  “Excuse me,” I say. “This was my mother’s jewelry. Is there any chance I can purchase the copper pendant and silver bracelet you outbid me on?”

  He turns toward me and says, “I’m sorry. I’m not the actual bidder. I was hired to procure certain items and that pendant and bracelet were on the list.”

  Someone hired him to bid on these things? I look at the item booklet he set down on the desk so he could sign off on his purchases and see everything marked that he must have been told to buy. I grab it before he can stop me.

  “Wait a second…” he says, but I’m already skimming through the book. He bought most of my mother’s favorite things, like the painting she bought when she took me to California and that ugly vase she made when she went through a pottery phase. And the jewelry.

  “Who hired you?” I ask.

  He barely blinks when he says, “I’m not at liberty to say.”

  I throw the book down on the desk and step closer to him, preparing to force him to tell me when I feel Pippa slam into my back. Her arms lock around me then pull me backward.

  She doesn’t say anything and doesn’t let me go. I could probably free myself if I tried, but then what? Start a fight with this guy because he’s doing what he was paid to do?

  The man collects his things and leaves quickly. A woman who seems familiar but I can’t recall her name watches me from across the room, then stops next to me on her way out.

  “I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re here, acting like this, but I am. But then after what your father did, I shouldn’t expect for you to be any better. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

  I can feel Pippa tense up behind me.

  Looking at the woman, I say, “I’m sorry if my dad stole anything from you. My grandfather gave my mother a silver bracelet when she was younger and I was only hoping to get it back for her. Neither of us have any desire to own the things Dad bought with stolen money.”

  The woman is shocked and by the quiet gasp behind me, Pippa is, too.

  Pippa leans around me and addresses the woman. “Mrs. Trent, I know you don’t believe someone is guilty of their family member’s sins.”

  Mrs. Trent turns from us with a grunt and flees the room.

  “With the way her son and husband act, she has no room to judge anyone else,” Pippa mutters behind me.

  The only other person left in the room is the woman in blue.

  “Do I need to call security?” she asks.

  “No,” Pippa says, untangling herself from me. “We’re done here.”

  Pippa pulls me from the room, through the door that leads outside. We don’t stop until we’re on the other side of the pool, tucked behind the pool house. No one is on this part of the golf course right now so thankfully, we’re alone.

  I lean against the back wall of the pool house and slide down until I’m on the ground, my head falling to my raised knees. I failed Mom today. Totally failed her. Pippa sits down next to me and I cover my head with my hands. I hate that she sees me like this. I hate that I’m falling apart in front of her.

  Her hands wrap around me and she pulls me close.

  I shift, my arms going around her waist, and I drag her to my lap and bury my head against her neck, while her fingers slide through my hair.

  If it wasn’t for Pippa, I feel like I would shatter into a million pieces. Sitting here, with her wrapped around me, fills some of those empty spaces inside.


  “Things are so screwed up. I feel like I’m about to come out of my skin. And as pissed off as I am about everything that has happened, it’s nothing compared to how bad I want to kiss you right now,” I whisper against her, my words drifting across her soft skin.

  She doesn’t say anything but shifts slightly. Her hands are on either side of my face, pulling me closer to her. Our mouths are inches apart and I can see she wants this as badly as I do. We’ve been dancing around this and when her soft lips crush against mine, I’m lost in her. My hands grip the back of her shirt, drawing her even closer, as I deepen the kiss.

  Kissing Pippa is better than I ever thought it would be.

  She’s the first to pull away but only after we’ve kissed long enough that we’re both short of breath.

  “I’ve wanted to kiss you, too. I was afraid it might be weird. But it’s not. Not at all,” she says. Her hands are still wrapped around my neck, her fingers sifting through my hair. “I thought I lost you when you moved. And when you came back, you were someone else, someone I didn’t recognize. But that’s not right, either. You’re different, but so am I. And I’m happy you’re back.”

  I smile and kiss her again, letting her words rush through me. I don’t know where this is going but all I know is I like it. I want to be with her like this. I want us to be friends plus something more.

  There are a lot of things I’m unsure about, but being with Pippa isn’t one of them.

  • • •

  Mom’s at the kitchen table when I finally get home. “Hey,” she says when she sees me. I can tell by her voice something is wrong.

  “Hey.” Nodding to the pans and white bakery boxes stacked in front of her, I ask, “Is this for Mrs. Sullivan’s party?”

  “Yeah, she just called and wants me to deliver everything.”

  And that’s it. She doesn’t want to leave the house. She doesn’t want to show up there and possibly run into her old friends.

  “Want me to deliver it for you?” I ask.