The Protective One

by Shelley Shepard Gray

  When E.A. looked at him again, her expression was filled with humor but something more. Maybe a new tentativeness. “Hey, Will?”

  “Jah?”

  “Can I tell you something?”

  “You don’t have to ask, E.A. You know that. Tell me whatever you want, whenever you want.”

  “That might have been your best kiss, but it was my first.”

  Her first kiss. He’d given her that. Not her annoying neighbor. Not any of the other guys in the Eight. Not any other man: him. “I’m glad,” he said, after a second or two had slipped by.

  He leaned back against his chair, noticing the fireflies twinkling in the field right across from them. “Those fireflies look like twinkling Christmas lights,” he blurted. “Have you ever noticed?”

  “Jah, Will,” she said around a sweet sigh. “As a matter of fact, I have.”

  EIGHT

  “I couldn’t help but worry about Marie,” John B. said as he held Marie’s hand. “I kept thinking that someone should have been looking after her.” Winking at everyone assembled, he added, “After all, she was wearing a very sparkly crown.”

  FRIDAY

  Almost a whole week had passed and E.A. was still rattled by Will’s visit. What a crazy, unexpected, unsettling night it had been! After he’d left, she’d found herself walking in a daze. She’d been sure her mother was going to be standing at the doorway, eager to ask her a dozen questions about Will, David’s visit, and oh yes, The Kiss.

  But to her surprise, her parents had already gone to bed and her sister, Annie, was more intent on finishing her homework than paying attention to her older sister’s suddenly eventful love life.

  Unfortunately, for the rest of the night, she hadn’t been able to think of anything but her love life—or, rather, her sudden decision to act completely out of the ordinary. She was not impulsive. She loved knowing exactly what was going to happen and when.

  She was not the type of woman to act so impulsively. She certainly didn’t go around kissing men like that!

  So why had she not said a word when Will was lying through his teeth to David? Why had she kept her hand snug in his when Will had been acting like it was impossible to stand next to her without touching?

  Most importantly, why, when she’d realized what Will was about to do, had she kissed him back? Surely she was the type of girl to turn her face. Or push him away.

  Wasn’t she that type of woman? She’d always thought so … but maybe not.

  * * *

  Deciding she needed both advice and something to take her mind off Will Kurtz, she’d arranged a slumber party at her house for that night. To her delight, Marie, Katie, Tricia, and Kendra had all been free and been excited to have some girl time.

  Her parents had seemed bemused by her plans and had even encouraged Annie to go with them to visit friends, no doubt remembering all the nights she’d either had the girls over to her house or had dragged a sleeping bag over to Marie’s or Katie’s house back when they’d been teenagers.

  All five of them had been looking forward to it for days. By seven o’clock, they were camped out in E.A.’s living room in old pajamas, just like they were fourteen again.

  They’d eaten pizza and cooked popcorn and baked cookies. Marie had brought a case of root beer and vanilla ice cream. They were eating more junk food than they had in weeks and laughing more than they had in months.

  “E.A., are you ever going to tell us what is on your mind?” Tricia asked right after they’d all put on pajamas and sprawled out on a bunch of sleeping bags on the floor.

  “I am. I’m just trying to figure out how to tell you.”

  “The easiest way is just to say it,” Katie said. “Then it’s out in the open.”

  “You’re right.” But still E.A. held her tongue. How in the world was she going to tell them what she’d done with Will Kurtz?

  Marie, all golden hair and green eyes, looked at her strangely. “Elizabeth Anne, come on. Nothing can be that bad. Just spit it out.”

  “It’s not that easy.”

  Katie grunted as she flipped onto her stomach. “Sure it is.”

  “All right.” She took a deep breath but hesitated yet again. “Just give me a minute. I’m trying to find the right words.”

  “What do you need the right words for?” Katie asked. “You’re starting to worry me. I’ve never known you to be squeamish about anything.”

  Kendra nodded. “I have to agree. No matter what happens, you are always the first person to make a list and a plan of action.”

  That was the problem. Everything she was about to tell them was completely out of character. “There’s no plan of action for this.”

  “For what?” Tricia practically yelled.

  “For telling you all that I kissed Will last weekend!”

  All the girls froze. Marie’s eyebrows nearly reached her hairline.

  And Katie? Well, Katie started laughing.

  “No way. Now you and Will are a couple?” Katie mused. “This is crazy. All of us are pairing off like we belong in an ark.”

  E.A. wasn’t real crazy about the ark reference. She had a feeling if Noah saw her and Will together, he would kick them off the ark. “This is more complicated than that.”

  “How? Love isn’t complicated.”

  “I never said a word about love.” Which made her actions kind of worse.

  “Oh, speak for yourself, Katie,” Marie interrupted. “I’ve loved John for all my life and our relationship was still complicated.”

  “First, I don’t love Will.” When all the girls gaped at her, she cleared her throat. “I mean, of course I love him.”

  Katie grinned. “Does that mean you do or you don’t?”

  This was going worse than she imagined. She needed to get herself together and fast. “It means I love him as a friend.” When all the girls simply stared at her, she added, “I mean, I love all of you as friends.”

  “I love you, too,” Kendra said, smiling. “As a friend. Just like I love Will.”

  This was going from bad to worse. How was that possible? “You know what I meant.”

  “Absolutely,” Marie murmured. “You have a lot of love in your heart.”

  “Yes. Exactly.” Though, not quite.

  “You love us all, but somehow you accidentally kissed Will,” Katie said.

  If E.A.’s cheeks were any hotter, she’d fear she had a fever. “You are all having too much fun at my expense. What I’m trying to say is that while what happened was unexpected, it didn’t mean a thing.”

  “Why didn’t it?” Katie asked.

  “Because Will was only pretending.”

  “Pretending to kiss you?” Kendra asked.

  “No, the kiss was real. But the circumstances were special,” E.A. explained in a rush. “You see, first David was standing there, acting like a jerk. Then he kind of insinuated that I never had a mind of my own.” She lowered her voice. “And then he kind of made it seem like I would never find another man to give me the time of day.” She swallowed, still hating how that comment had hurt. “And that’s when Will started pretending we were in love.”

  “Which is why he kissed you,” Marie said.

  “Yes. Exactly.”

  “I think that’s strange, but I guess I could see it happening,” Katie said. “Any of us would close ranks against someone giving one of the Eight a hard time. I certainly would.”

  “You’d be on them like a Doberman,” E.A. said. She was relieved that things were finally getting cleared up.

  Just as she was about to take a sip of hot tea, Marie put her cup down abruptly. “Hey, um, E.A.?”

  “Yes?”

  “You never said what happened next.”

  “Next?”

  “Yes. What did David do next? Did he say anything more or did he just silently run off?”

  “He didn’t do anything.”

  Marie raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

  “Well, um, I don’t think David
did anything. I mean, he wasn’t actually standing there when we kissed.”

  All the girls looked at each other again. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand,” Kendra said. “I thought that kiss was for show.”

  “It was, but Will kissed me as David was walking away.”

  Kendra looked like she was attempting not to grin. “So he kissed you just in case David happened to look your way while he was walking away?”

  Now things were sounding stupid again. “Um … yes?”

  Tricia, who’d been mainly just lying on the floor and listening, sat up on her elbows. “Maybe we need more information. Was it a legitimate kiss, or just a peck on the cheek?”

  Oh, she’d certainly kissed him. Thinking about how her hand had been pressed to his chest, how that kiss, no, those kisses had been anything but small pecks, she mumbled her answer. “Legitimate.”

  “Ah,” Tricia said, before taking a sip of her root beer float.

  E.A. picked up her own drink and sipped, too. When she spied Marie and Tricia exchange glances, she felt like covering her face with her hands. Honestly, she was starting to think that this whole sleepover idea had been a mistake. She’d hoped they’d give her clarity, but instead she had a feeling that they were feeling far clearer about her and Will than she was.

  Actually, all discussing Will’s visit had done was make her feel even more confused. “Maybe we should talk about something else for a while.”

  Though Katie looked like she wanted to disagree, Marie—dear Marie—smiled and nodded. “That’s a good idea. There’s so much going on with all of us, we have a lot to talk about. Why, we might end up talking all night long.”

  “I’m fine with that,” Katie said with a smile. “Harley told me to have a good time and sleep in tomorrow. He’s going to take care of all the guests for me. Isn’t he wonderful?”

  “Oh, jah,” Kendra said. “He must really love you a lot. Almost as much as our E.A. here loves us all.”

  E.A. groaned. “Am I ever going to live that down?”

  “Nope,” Tricia and Marie said together.

  When the other girls started laughing, E.A. joined in. After all, that was what good friends were for.

  NINE

  “Can we stop the story now?” Marie called out from the head table. “This is getting awkward.”

  “No way,” Harley replied. “E.A.’s just about to get to the good part.”

  THURSDAY

  It had been so hard to get to her sewing class. Alan had woken up in a bad mood and had found fault with his breakfast, the dishes in the kitchen sink, and even the outfit she’d been wearing.

  Then, when she’d made the mistake of asking him about his boss’s wife, he’d gone on a terrible rant about their move to Walnut Creek almost a year ago, the problems with his boss, and how everyone in the company was working against him.

  Of course, her shocked silence hadn’t helped matters. When he was in that kind of mood, nothing helped to calm him. But still she had tried.

  By the time he’d left for work, his coffee cup was broken, spilled coffee stained the countertops, and she had a new set of bruises on her forearm.

  She’d also been so mad, she’d been shaking. Only two years ago, she would have taken to bed, maybe even taken a sleeping pill to help her forget about her troubles. At the very least, she would have been crying uncontrollably.

  But she was stronger now. What Alan did to her wasn’t right. She didn’t deserve it, and there was no way she was going to subject herself to even another month of his abuse.

  As she bent down to pick up the broken shards from the floor, she took the time to give thanks for how far she’d come. The journey hadn’t been easy. She’d started by tentatively reading books about self-worth. Then she’d begun making goals for herself … and putting aside grocery money.

  Before they’d moved, she had confided in a woman at church. She wanted to help her, and probably would have if they hadn’t moved to Walnut Creek. But instead of giving up, she started making plans again. And now she had her sewing class.

  The young Mennonite woman in the shop would never have any idea how much her kindness and easy acceptance of her had meant. Because of E.A., she didn’t need to hide behind pills or in sleep. No, when she was at her weekly class, she forgot about everything but her projects.

  It didn’t matter to her how anything she made looked, either. She wasn’t trying to find beauty in her work. No, she was looking for beauty in herself. And that meant everything.

  Plus, she had a singular goal now. Somehow, some way, she was going to leave Alan within the next two months. She might not be the person she used to be, but she was still someone worth fighting for.

  That was why, as soon as she was sure Alan wasn’t coming back home, she walked upstairs and picked up Alan’s discarded suit. Searching the pockets, she smiled in triumph. There was a five-dollar bill in the breast coat pocket and seventy-five cents in his slacks.

  Pleased, she carefully hung up his suit, then carried the money downstairs to the laundry room. Opening one of the boxes of dryer sheets, she removed the sheets, pulled out the Ziploc baggie hidden underneath them, and added the latest addition to her money stash. In a few more days, she would go to the drugstore and ask Brenda, the kind cashier, to exchange her latest amount for a twenty-dollar bill. Brenda always did that without asking questions.

  After carefully putting the box back into the cupboard, she walked to the kitchen and finished cleaning up Alan’s mess. When everything looked as perfect as possible, she went back to her bedroom, changed to a light, long-sleeved shirt to hide the new bruises, and picked up her purse. She had a class to get to.

  One hour later, as she greeted her sweet, redheaded sewing teacher, Marta felt herself relax for the first time that day. E.A. was going to show her how to pin pattern pieces on fabric.

  “How are you, Marta?” E.A. asked after a while. “You’ve seemed a little quiet today.”

  Marta looked up from her project. “Me? I’m fine. Not as well as you, though,” she teased. “You look especially happy today.”

  E.A. blushed. “I guess I am.”

  “Did something good happen?”

  “I think so.” E.A. hesitated, then said, “My friend Will and I … well, I think our relationship is changing.”

  She sounded so hopeful that Marta smiled encouragingly. “For the better, I hope?”

  “Oh, jah. I mean, I think so.”

  E.A. was acting so cute. Like an eager schoolgirl. It almost made Marta believe in love again. “I’m happy for you,” Marta said sincerely.

  “Thank you.” E.A. smiled again. “To tell you the truth, I’m not really sure what we’re doing. Sometimes it feels as if I can’t wait to see him—even though I might have seen him the day before.” She bit her lip, then added, “But at other times, I feel so flustered whenever he’s near that I almost want to avoid him. Is that normal, do you think?”

  “I think so.” When E.A. still looked skeptical, Marta laughed. “Don’t worry, dear. We’ve all been there at one time or another. Love is like that.”

  E.A. stared at her in wonder before shaking her head, as if to clear it. “I’m sorry. You’re here to learn to sew, not discuss my love life.” She folded her hands in her lap. “Now, I think we can safely say that you’ve mastered making pillowcases. What else would you like to work on today? Still want to try to pin pattern pieces on fabric? Or, do you have any ideas?”

  “A couple.”

  Before she could share her ideas, E.A. held up a darling apron. It was made of three different coordinating fabrics, each decorated in vibrant blue and yellow patterns. “What do you think about making one of these?” She smiled. “I think you’d look really cute wearing this in your kitchen.”

  Marta laughed. “No, I think you would look really cute baking in such a fancy thing. I, on the other hand, would simply look like myself: a plain-looking thirty-year-old woman.”

  E.A. frowned. “Marta, you are
lovely. And, if I may say so, you have really pretty hair and eyes. And the kind of figure most women dream of.”

  Marta knew the right thing to do would be to deflect the compliment. But she’d had ten years of being told that she was too soft, too fat, too everything. Because of that, she looked at E.A. in wonder. “Do you really think so?”

  “Of course.” A touch of worry entered E.A.’s eyes. “Do you not see yourself that way?”

  No. No, she did not. But maybe one day she would.

  The kernel of an idea that she’d recently started thinking about was blazing inside her now. All she had to do was be brave enough to put it into practice.

  Remembering Alan’s morning tirade, Marta knew it was time. “Actually, E.A., I’ve been thinking that I’d like to make something else.”

  Her teacher smiled encouragingly. “Okay …”

  Taking a deep breath, she plunged forward. “What do you think about me sewing a backpack?”

  E.A. looked flummoxed. “You want to make a backpack?”

  Folding her hands tightly together, Marta nodded. “Yes. I think it would be nice to have something I can put on my shoulders to carry things in case my hands are full.” And in it, she could put some money and a change of clothes. The things she would need in case she ever decided to get brave and leave Alan.

  Realizing that her little teacher was still looking confused, Marta shrugged. “I know it sounds silly, a woman my age wanting a backpack …”

  “No, not at all,” E.A. replied in a rush. “It doesn’t sound silly at all. You just took me by surprise. And what’s this talk about your age? You aren’t even ten years older than me.”

  “You know what? You’re exactly right.” Marta smiled. “So, do you think it would be possible to make a little backpack? I’d really like to try.”

  “Jah. Of course.” E.A. stared at the sewing machine—it was obvious that she was trying to figure out how to make a simple one. “I’ve never made a backpack before, but I could find a pattern and then modify it a bit. You know, make something fairly easy.”