The Heart Will Lead You Home

by Kristin Leedy

  “Hi.” Suddenly a male form filled her vision and she screamed louder than she had in her whole life. The world tipped up on its axis and she felt the wind rush passed her as she tumbled off her favorite branch in the tree.

  Something strong and sturdy caught her, but her eyes were closed so tight she couldn’t see.

  “Easy there, trigger. You could have killed yourself.” Lizzie’s eyes popped open and she realized it was Payton that had caught her. A moment later she realized it was Payton that had scared her.

  She leapt from his arms and brushed herself off, momentarily forgetting that she was the school loser while he was the total opposite. She lit into him like nobody’s business. “I could have killed myself? I could have? At least I wasn’t the one sneaking up on people, making them fall out of trees.” She realized he wasn’t offended, but more likely amused because his face was lit up with a grin that made his dimple poke out on his cheek.

  That only made her madder, and she stormed up the path with a huff trying to act dignified in the act of doing so. He caught up with her about the time she reached the old rickety gate, and took her by the arm.

  “Wait. You forgot your stuff. Besides, I was just having a little fun with you. I wasn’t really trying to scare you.”

  “Having fun with me? Sure, why not? Join the club. People do that at my expense every day, so why not you, too?”

  “See, there you go.”

  “What?”

  “Why don’t you do this in school? If you did half as good a job at telling people off in school like you just did me then you’d have no problems at all.”

  Lizzie blinked.

  “Now come on, I saw you up in the trees a few days ago, and couldn’t help myself. Come back down to the pond, you can fish with me if you want.”

  Fishing with Payton Cartwright. Right. She must be dreaming. But she followed him back to the pond with him stopping every few feet to ensure she was behind him, and she reluctantly took a seat by the edge of the pond close to where he was fishing.

  “Your buddies aren’t coming to fish with you?” She wasn’t sure she could handle being seen in public with him, especially not around his buddies. People would probably think she’d paid him good money to hang out with her.

  “Nope. They’re all gone to camp, won’t be back for another few weeks.” She thought of Grace and how much she missed her. Only a few more weeks and she’d have her buddy back as well.

  He fished on in silence, and she read her book by the side of the pond, sighing occasionally at different parts of the novel. She felt splashes of water when he leapt over her head into the pond and merely glanced up in his direction when he began to swim laps in the water.

  “Hey, New Girl.” She never looked up, she kept right on reading. Just as she suspected, he didn’t even know her name.

  “Lizzie.” She looked up then, only because- shockingly- he’d used her name, and in a tone of voice that strangely made her blood feel sluggish in her veins. When she did she found him kneeling in the shallow water not three feet from her, staring at her face with green eyes glowing brightly in that tanned summer face.

  A slow jolt of electricity pulsed through her as he held her gaze for a beat.

  He’d wanted to say something else, but instead he said, “Why do you let them pick on you like that?” It took a while for her brain to register and the tongue that felt like minced meat to kick into action.

  She sighed then said, “It’s not like I ask them to do it.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t get it. What is it about you that they don’t like?”

  She sniffed. “Trust me, if I knew I’d change it.”

  He kicked back and floated on top of the water for a while, and she turned back to her book. It was strange; this odd kinship the two of them seemed to be sharing. At the same time, though, it was really nice, and she sighed at the thought. Here she was enjoying a lazy day reading a book and in the company of Payton Cartwright no less. Wait till she told Grace about this!

  “You do that a lot.” She glanced up from her book to find him watching her while he treaded water.

  “What?”

  “Sigh. I hear you do it a lot.”

  Lizzie cocked her head to the side in thought then shrugged her shoulders. “Well, it manages to cover a multitude of emotions.” He didn’t say anything and she felt the need to elaborate. “For instance, you can sigh in exasperation or frustration.” She let out a short huff of a sigh. “Or, it can signal feelings of helplessness.” She paused to think of other ways she could use a sigh. “Oh, and you can use it to show satisfaction.”

  He laughed at her final sigh of contentment. “I guess you’re right. Never thought of it that way.”

  “See how beneficial it is to know a dork that has too much time on her hands?”

  He watched her for a minute, his eyes slowly assaulting her, leaving her feeling exposed and vulnerable with precisely the person she didn’t want to feel that way around. At last he shook his head and lent her a sympathetic smile. “You’re not a dork, Lizzie. You’re just misunderstood.”

  He pulled himself out of the water after a while and flopped down on the grassy hillside beside her. He stared at the blue sky above and closed his eyes, shutting out the brilliant green light Lizzie was getting too accustomed to seeing. When he opened them again he focused in on her and studied her features in the sunlight.

  Her hair was longer, almost down to her waist, than when she had first come to the school. She wore it down today, something that she almost never did when they were in classes. His fingers itched, briefly, to run through that silky curling mass, but he knew he shouldn’t so he kept his mind off that train of thought. She was wearing cut off blue jean shorts and a yellow halter top, both of which accentuated the long, willowy lines of her body. He absolutely refused to think about what he would like to do that portion of her.

  She was so focused on that book she read, he remembered that she was always reading something or other, and he wondered if she did it to take her mind off her life or if she actually enjoyed them. He tried to imagine what she would look like without a book in her hand, and failed to draw up more than a brief image. A book in her hand was like pom-poms to a cheerleader.

  “Do you always read?” She glanced up at him, startled that he had shifted so close to hear without her even realizing it.

  “Usually.”

  “Why?”

  “Why not? It passes the time.” Shock registered on his features.

  “Is that what life is to you? Time to kill?”

  What else could it be when you were at the bottom of the heap and not going anywhere. But she laughed and shrugged it off. “Isn’t that what it is to most people?”

  “No.” She realized he was dead serious.

  “Oh.” She couldn’t think of what else to say.

  “Why did your family come here?” There was blatant curiosity in his tone, but she glanced over at him, unsure what his motive was. Instead of answering him immediately, she decided to ride the wave of anger she felt.

  “Why do you care? So you can go tell all your friends that my family really does have a freak in it?”

  “No.” He held up a hand as if to pledge his oath. “I swear it.”

  She sniffed as she skimmed the surface of the lake with her eyes. “Like you really care, anyway.”

  “Try me.” She didn’t want to, but the way he smiled with that cute dimple popping out on his left cheek, she couldn’t help it.

  He couldn’t possibly really care so she decided she wasn’t going to answer, but after a while she marked her spot in the book and put it down beside her. She sighed deeply, but still he waited patiently. After another minute she spoke.

  “I grew up in Chicago, and believe it or not I did have friends there, and I really liked it. My mom, Faith, she adores kids and always wanted about five or six to make her happy. She tried and tried after Mary Catherine, but she never could. When she finally did we were all so exc
ited we had a big party to celebrate.

  “At about seven months she got so nervous that something might not go right. One night she lay down to go to sleep, but she couldn’t feel the baby kick. She waited until morning then went to the hospital and they told her the baby had died while she slept. He was wrapped in the cord.

  “Anyway, she got so depressed she tried to commit suicide and the doctors told my father the best thing he could do was take her somewhere that wasn’t anything like her life now. Move her and the family away and start over somewhere that she wouldn’t remember all the grief. It took a while, but we’re here and she’s better.”

  She hadn’t meant to share as much as she had but once she’d started it just kept spilling out. That was surprising, but what had shocked her most was that Payton’s attention had remained riveted on her the entire time, and not once had he yawned or looked bored or tried to stop her. Not even when that one sad little tear had trickled down from the corner of her eye.

  “If you tell anyone about this, I swear I’ll … I’ll …”

  “You’ll what?”

  “I don’t know,” she whined, “But I’ll think of something.”

  “Then spit on it.”

  “Huh?”

  “Spit on it.”

  “Spit on what?” She tried to remember Grace’s advice and not blush, but that was a lot easier said than done, and it was especially hard when the most popular guy in school was currently laughing at her apparently stupid comment.

  “No, spit on it. It’s like a pinky promise that I won’t tell; only it’s more serious.”

  “Oh.” She pretended that she understood completely when really she didn’t understand at all.

  “Come on you’ll like it.” But when she watched him spit on his hand and hold it out, waiting for her to do the same, she smiled softly and said, “No thanks. I’ll take your word, and a pinky promise.”

  “What? Are you afraid I’ve got koodies or something?” She looked shocked.

  “No! Koodies are so third grade, anyway.”

  “Then what’s the hold up?” He smiled because he knew he had her cornered, and like the winner he was born be, like the champion blood he had running through his veins, he wasn’t one to let the kill go unnoticed.

  She couldn’t let him see that he’d won, so she spat the smallest amount of spit possible into her hand and quickly held it out to him, clenching her eyes shut, turning her head as if to avoid the whole messy process all together. She waited, but nothing happened. She opened first one eye, then slowly the other, and laughed when she saw him watching her as if she had lost her mind.

  “Okay. Here’s the deal, if you’re going to look like you’re about to be force fed cockroaches then it’s no good.” The second time around she only crinkled her nose and cringed inwardly, but she promised herself when she got home that night she’d wash her hands at least a dozen times. That spit shake thing was for the birds. Her only consolation was that she had actually touched Payton’s hand, and this time around she remembered what it felt like.

  His hand had been warm and strong with a small ridge of calluses that were beginning to form from a life of rough play and hard work. She liked the way their hands had looked together, his big and broad, while hers was small and pale compared to his. She hoped he hadn’t noticed the same quick pulse she always had when he was near, or the odd reaction her body had had to his touch. Whatever it was, though, she was quite curious to figure out if it was going to happen every time he touched her.

  She studied him when he lay back into the grass again, oblivious to her curious stare.

  “Why are you so nice,” she asked him at last, and he slowly opened his eyes and looked over at her, genuinely surprised.

  “What are you talking about? I’m not nice.” Right and her shirt wasn’t yellow. She laughed. “Why are you laughing? I told you I’m not nice.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay? Why don’t believe me?”

  “Because- and trust me on this one, I’ve had plenty of time to people watch over the past two years, and you’re just about as nice as they come.”

  “Name one nice thing I’ve done.” His jaw dropped when she rattled off about ten. “Okay, I think we should call that stalking.”

  It was her turn to drop the jaw. “I… I wasn’t stalking you.”

  “Jeez, ease up, trigger. I didn’t say you were I just didn’t know you knew that much about me.”

  “Well, it’s kind of hard not to notice the most popular guy in school.”

  The funny thing was, though, for the most popular boy, it was getting harder and harder not to notice the least popular girl in school as well.

  A secret friendship was formed on the banks of the pond that day, and for the rest of the summer Lizzie looked for him when she went down to the pond each afternoon. Sometimes she’d see him, and sometimes she wouldn’t, but she had fun thinking about the time she had spent with him even when he wasn’t there.

  One afternoon as she sat on her branch in that old oak tree, she heard someone come out of the woods and she smiled as she caught a peek of a familiar pair of red swim trunks, but kept her head ducked and focused on the book. She refused to look obviously interested in him, because that would only put her on the same playing field as every other girl in the school.

  Her legs dangled from the branch and she had just finally forgotten about the other person at the pond when she felt a swift tug on her foot and her world turned upside down.

  “Wh-Whoa!” She screamed as she toppled from the branch, landing squarely in Payton’s arms.

  “You know, you really should have better balance if you’re going to be sitting in those trees all the time. What if I hadn’t been here to save you from that fall?”

  She glared at him through slitted eyes. “If you hadn’t been here I wouldn’t have fallen.”

  “Oh, so you only have bad balance when there are cute boys to catch you.” Her lips twitched, but she refused to let him see her smile.

  “Some boys sure do have mighty big impressions of themselves, don’t they?” And with that he dropped her on her feet, and ran off to dive into the water. Talk about a walking case of hormone confusion. If ever there was a boy to make her blood boil, it was him. And at the same time, he… well, she wouldn’t get in to how big her crush on him had grown.

  “How old are you anyway, Lizzie?” She took a seat on the edge of the bank and watched his muscles ripple, all sleek with warm pond water, as he glided through the waves he had made.

  “I turned fifteen in May. What about you?”

  “Fifteen. I’ll be sixteen in August.”

  “Oh.” She watched as he ducked under the water, and for the first time all summer her skin itched to crawl in the water with him. She looked away when he surfaced and pretended to study a blue bird that landed on a nearby tree.

  “Hot?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Are you hot?” He watched her from just above the surface of the water where his body treaded water as if he did it for hours every day. His eyes, green like the grass she sat on, watched her like an alligator stalking its prey. She suddenly felt very self-conscious.

  “No. Well, maybe a little.” She wanted very much to change the subject. “When does football practice start again?”

  “One week. Why don’t you come into the water with me?”

  “One week, wow, that’s soon. Are all your friends playing this year too?”

  “Some, most are still on JV. The water feels good, come on in.” She scooted back as he came a little closer. She laughed nervously and ran her fingers sub-consciously through her hair.

  “Can you believe you’re a tenth grader and the new starting quarter back for the varsity team?”

  “Uh-huh.” His mind was focused now and he no longer heard her weak attempts to out maneuver him. For some mind-boggling reason he’d been itching to get her into the water with him for days, and yet she always refused. Well, his teenage hormones
wouldn’t hold out any longer, and it was today or never that he got her in with him, clothes and all.

  With one final stroke he made it close enough to her in the water to reach out and encircle her ankle. She yelped when he gave a fierce tug and sent her careening out in the water. She came up sputtering with her dark, waving hair plastered to her face like some monster out of a horror flick. He laughed hard as he watched her flail around trying to push herself out of the water with her heavy, wet clothes weighing her down.

  “Funny. Very funny, Payton Cartwright!” And she fumed as she turned away from him and pulled herself onto the shore.

  “Oh, come on. You looked like you were dying out there, I was just trying to cool you off.” And see how insanely cute that body looked when it was wet instead of dry.

  “You’re nothing but a dumb jock! I can’t believe you did that!”

  “Whoa. There aren’t any dumb jocks around here.” She could see she’d made him mad, but she didn’t care. Mr. I have no idea how to not flirt with my adorable green eyes deserved to be mad at her, because she sure was mad at him.

  “Oh yes there are.”

  “Fine.” And with that he was out of the water on top of her, and before she knew it she had landed back out in the middle of the pond thanks to Payton’s talented arm muscles.

  She sputtered again as she surfaced, and he stood on the bank with his arms folded over his chest. Lizzie couldn’t help but notice the definition that had formed over the pec region even in the short three months of that summer. He looked defiant and arrogant standing there on that shore looking down at her. His face held no sign of sympathy or friendliness, and she recognized at once the power he had within him.

  She swam to the shore opposite from him and pulled herself out, ringing the dripping pond water from her shirt and shorts. She was out of breath from dragging the wet clothes in the water, so she sank to the ground and rested under the bright summer sun for a while.

  “How did you get that name, anyway?” She asked it quietly after she calmed her thoughts, still a little a shaky from the brief edge of power she had seen pulsing out of him.