Waylaid (16 page)

Now, though, it had shown its face, and it wasn’t going to slink away.

“Addy, I want us to… It’s going to be hard with you there and me here.”

She pulled away and took my face between her hands. “Graham, are you worried that I’ll forget you?”

I didn’t want to answer. Didn’t want her to know the truth, so I kept quiet.

She kissed me hard and then looked at me straight in the eye. “Graham, I love you with my whole heart. I’ve never loved anyone like this before. Please know,
please know
, that I will not forget you. I will not find anyone to replace you. You are mine and I am yours. Forever. Got that?”

I nodded and let out a long breath. “You’re my life too, Addy. I just… I’m going to miss you so much.”

She sighed and pulled me close again. “I’m going to miss you too. You don’t know how much.”

My heart cried out,
yes, I do…

Addy

The ride to
Purdue went fast. I’d spent the whole time talking to my parents from the back seat. When I wasn’t talking to them, I thought of Graham. Last night with him seemed like a long time ago. Was he really afraid that I would forget him? Find someone else? It wasn’t possible. He was the one for me. No doubts. It sounded crazy, to be so sure after not knowing him that long, but I was one hundred percent certain.

If he had asked me to marry him before I left, I would have said yes.

That wouldn’t work. You’re going away to college
.

We would have worked it out. With love, there’d have been a way. There had to be a way. The realization of what I was doing, leaving him behind, hit me hard when my dad stopped the car in front of my dorm. Several other vehicles were parked along the street, unloading suitcases, boxes, and small appliances.

Mom turned in her seat to look at me. “Well, this is it, kid. Ready?”

I nodded, though my heart ached to say goodbye to them. Wasn’t this what I wanted? What I had wanted for months? To leave town? Get away?

I knew that over time I would get used to being away from them. That was how it was supposed to work. Kids grew up and went their own way.

But it was different leaving Graham. That felt wrong. My heart, suddenly as fragile as a butterfly’s wing, lurched in my chest. This was only the first day of being apart from him. How was I going to do this?

I jumped when Dad opened my door. “Addy? You all set?”

I smiled, more to reassure me than him. “Yep. Let’s do it.” I climbed out and grabbed my suitcase, then led the way inside the building. “My room is on the eighth floor, so they told me we’d have to use the elevator to floor six and then walk up the last two flights.”

The elevator doors opened and a girl walked out holding hands with a guy. My breathing sped up. Was I going to have this reaction every time I saw a guy and girl together? I stepped inside and held the door back with my hand until my mom and dad got on with their boxes.

None of us said anything on the ride up. Why did people do that? Not talk on elevators? It was like it was a law or something. A loud ding preceded the doors opening and we stepped out.

Mom pointed to my left. “There’re the stairs, Addy.”

“Okay.” I glanced around until I spotted a reception area. “Would you mind going on up to room 801 while I get my entrance packet?”

“Sure, honey.” They headed for the stairs. I followed two other girls who were walking to the reception desk. After they were finished, I stepped up.

“Name?” The girl behind the desk glanced up.

“Addy Lafollette.”

She searched through the large box of envelopes. “I have an
Adelaide
Lafollette.”

“Yes. That’s me.”

“Okay. Here ya go.” She handed it over. “Welcome to Prescott Hall.”

“Thanks.” I headed for the stairs and lugged my heavy suitcase up behind me. I was winded by the time I got two floors up.
Guess I’ll be getting a lot of exercise with these steps every day and walking all over campus.

When I reached my room, the door was standing open. I could hear my dad talking to someone.

Excitement warred with nerves as I stepped inside the room. “Amber?”

“Addy!” She rushed forward and hugged me. “It’s so nice to finally meet you!”

I caught my parents give each other a smile, as if they knew I would be fine with at least one friend on campus.

“Addy,” Mom ran her hand down my arm. “Why don’t you stay and get acquainted with Amber and decide where you want to put your stuff? Dad and I will go get the rest.”

I frowned. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Dad touched my shoulder. “We’ll be right back. All right?”

“Thanks.” I watched them leave and then regarded Amber. “Can you believe we’re really here?”

Amber spun her dark red ponytail around her finger. “I know. It’s wild.” She pointed behind her. “I didn’t claim a bed yet, ’cause I wanted to see which one you wanted.”

How sweet
. “I don’t care, really.”

“No, you pick, Addy.”

I eyed both beds. “All right. If you don’t mind, I’ll take the one by the window? Are you okay sleeping by the door?”

“Yeah, the noise in the hall won’t bother me. I can sleep through anything.”

“Great.” I set my suitcase down in front of the dresser closest to my bed.

My bed
. How weird. My family had lived in the same house my whole life, so I’d only had one bed, one room. And since my sister was so much older than me, I’d never even shared a room before.

Amber came over and sat on my bed. “So did you have trouble saying goodbye to your boyfriend? I’m sorry, I forget his name.”

“Graham. And yeah, it was brutal.”

“Me, too. For a while there, I wasn’t sure I could do it, ya know?”

“Yeah, I do.”

A rustling sound caught my attention and I turned toward the door. Mom and Dad were back. “Here let me help.” I hurried over to them and smiled when Amber came to help too.

I took a large box from my mom and set it down. How was I going to fit all my stuff into half of this small room?

Dad pushed in a dolly that held a small dorm sized fridge from my brother. Amber’s eyes rounded. “A fridge? Cool!”

I laughed. “And of course, you can use it, too. I figure my stuff is your stuff.”

She put her arm around my waist. “Same goes for me.” She pointed to a blender. “I happen to have a weakness for milkshakes.”

Mom nodded. “You girls are going to get along just fine.”

My parents helped get my stuff situated on my side of the room. “Hey,” I said, “I can do the rest myself later.”

Mom took my hand. “Are you sure? Maybe we should—”

Dad wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Honey, I think it’s time to go.”

Mom bit her lip and nodded. “I guess so.” She stepped forward and hugged me. “You’ll be fine, Addy. Have fun and study hard. And…” she lowered her voice, “remember what we talked about… with Graham.”

I nodded. “I will. I love you.”

“Love you, too.” She stepped aside.

Dad gave me a great big bear hug. “I’m so proud of you, kid, sticking to the plan. Kick some tail while you’re here, got it?”

I nodded. “I will.” He kissed my cheek, told me he loved me, and grabbed my mom’s hand to pull her out of the room. And just like that, they were gone.

I blinked hard, surprised that I was so emotional. “Well, that was weird.”

Amber, who had stayed on her bed while we said goodbye, nodded. “Yeah, it was the same for me. I didn’t think it would be so hard to tell them goodbye. But it was. Nothing like…”

“Saying goodbye to your boyfriend?”

Tears pooled along her lower lashes. “Uh-huh.”

I went to her, sitting next to her on the bed. I took her hand. “At least we have each other, right? We can commiserate about how much we miss them.”

She wiped a tear from her cheek. “I’m glad you’re here, Addy.”

“Me, too. Ya know what? I can always put my stuff away later. Feel like checking out the campus?”

“Sounds good.”

Amber locked our room with her key and I slipped mine in my purse. After taking the stairs and the elevator, we walked through the main lobby of the building. The doors were propped open, as several students were still moving in. A bunch of guys walked past us, carrying boxes and bags. There weren’t any girls with them.

I grabbed Amber’s arm. “Do guys live in our dorm too?”

“Yep. My mom wasn’t too thrilled, but she felt better when I told her that we’re not on the same floor.”

I grimaced. Graham wouldn’t be thrilled to find that out.

The day had turned cloudy, but a warm breeze swept by. We walked down a short street that fronted our building and turned right onto a main street. The campus was beautiful and would be even prettier when the leaves started to change in a few weeks.

A few weeks… How soon would I see Graham again?

Addy you just got here
.

But I miss him already
.

My throat tightened until I thought I might not be able to even breathe.

Truth was, I missed him before we’d even said goodbye. I knew it would be hard, but I had no idea my chest would actually hurt when I was here and he was still at home.

A whistle came from a carload of guys. I ignored them.

Amber looked their way and then at me. “There are so many guys here. I’m from a really small school so I’m not used to so many.”

“Same here.”

“Are you… worried, you know, that you’ll…” Her voice trailed off, but I knew exactly what she meant.

“Graham and I had that talk last night.” Was it only last night? “I think he was a little afraid that I would forget him and find someone here, but I told him that wouldn’t happen. Why? Are you worried about it?”

Amber gave a one-sided shrug. “Part of me is scared that Harmon will find someone else while I’m gone.”

“Do you really think so?”

“I hope not.”

I didn’t know what else to say to her. How could I reassure her when I barely knew her and had never met her boyfriend?

It’s different for you, though, Addy. You and Graham are tight. Nothing will tear you apart.

Right?

Graham

My cell phone
rang. I ripped off my work gloves to get it from my pocket. “Hello?”

“Graham?”

“Addy! Are you… is everything all right?”

“I…”

“What?”

“It’s so much harder than I thought it would be.”

I closed my eyes. I knew how tough it would be. “Yeah, but you just got there, right? It’ll get better.”

Addy breathed into the phone. Was she crying? “I hope so.”

“Did you meet Amber yet?”

“Yeah, she’s great.”

“That’s good.” I tossed my gloves on the ground and leaned against the fence. “So… how long have you been there?”

“A couple of hours, I guess.”

I rubbed my hand down my face. To me it felt like she’d been gone a month. “How’s your room? Is it nice?”

“Yeah, it’s… okay.”

“Addy? Is something wrong?”

“Oh Graham, I miss you so much.” Her voice caught on the last word.

“I miss you too.” I knew this was going to be hard, but I hadn’t realized my chest would actually feel like it was being crushed.

“I wish…”

“What do you wish?” I flexed my fingers, wishing I could caress her face, see her eyes, kiss her lips.

“That you were here.”

So do I
. “You’ll get busy with classes and then it won’t… seem too bad.” Would I be able to convince myself of that?

“That’s what Amber said.”

“So, she’s nice? Think you’ll be a good fit as roommates?”
I want to be your roommate…

“I think we will.”

Loud laughter filtered through her end of the phone. Male voices. Young. I frowned. “Addy? You still there?”

“Hold on.” Something clicked. “I closed the door to my room. Amber is down the hall checking out the study area.”

“So… who was laughing? Somebody’s brother?”

Silence. What wasn’t she saying?

“No, there’re guys here.”

“Here… where’s here? You mean visiting the dorm?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then…” I squeezed my hand at my side into a fist. What guys were right outside a girl’s dorm room? It had sounded like a whole group of them.

“Graham, I wasn’t keeping it from you, I promise. I didn’t even know until I got here.”

“Know
what?
” Pressure built up inside my chest.

“My dorm is co-ed.”

Visions of Addy leaving the shower in only a towel and walking past other guys in her hall nearly knocked me on my ass. “Oh.”

“Honestly, I didn’t know.”

“I believe you. Um, do these guys… are they living next door?”

“Oh, no. The floors are alternating every-other girls and guys, but they’re allowed on the floor until midnight.”

Great
. “Oh.”

“Are you upset?”

I want to rip someone’s head off
. “Of course not. I should have guessed it might be that way. Besides, I trust you, Addy.”

“I know you do. I just wasn’t expecting it, I guess. I’m good with it, just surprised.”

Time to change the subject. “So, when’s your first class?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Which one?”

“English Lit.”

“Are you looking forward to it?”

“Yeah, it will be okay. As long as it’s not calculus. I have that on Wednesdays.”

“Addy, you do realize that to be a vet, you’re probably going to have to take several math classes, right?”

“Unfortunately, yeah. Are you any good at it?”

“Math? Pretty good. Why?”

“I might need help studying.”

“You’d want me to help you?”

“Sure. If you’d want to, I mean.”

I smiled as something warm curled around my heart. She wanted me to help her. “I could do that. Might cost you, though.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” I could almost picture her smile, with dimples forming in her cheeks.

“I’m sure I can come up with something.”

She giggled. “I just
bet
you can.”

My uncle waved at me from the barn. “Oh, listen, Addy. My uncle is trying to get my attention, so I’d better get back to work.”

“Oh. Sure.”

She sounded so depressed I could picture the light going out of her eyes and her mouth turning down at the corners. “I’m sorry. How about I call you later tonight?”

“I’d like that. Talk to you later.”

“I love you.”

“Love you… too.”

A sniff at the end of the last word let me know she was crying. I disconnected the call and headed for the barn, feeling like my heart had been torn from my chest and a cow had stomped on it.

Addy, my sweet Addy. I just don’t see how we’re going to make this work with you there and me here. We’ll stay together, but why does it have to be so hard?

Uncle Robert was stacking some bales of hay when I walked into the barn. “Got time to help me?”

His voice was gruff but I knew from his smirk that he wasn’t really upset.

“I guess I could find the time.” I hoisted a bale in each hand and placed them on the stack.

Uncle Robert shook his head. “You do the work of two men. I sure am going to miss you around here.”

I stared at him.“Am I going someplace?”

“
Aren’t
you?”

I picked up two more bales and heaved them on the stack. “Maybe you should tell me what you’re talking about. Giving your nephew the boot?”

Uncle Robert shook his head. “Nah. You know you’ve got a job here for as long as you want. But you and I both know it’s not what you want to do forever.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t thinking of leaving right yet. What makes you think I am?”

“I‘ve seen the way you moon around over that Addy. She’s the one for you, ain’t she?”

“Can’t put anything over on you, can I?”

“When I met your Aunt Eileen, I knew that very day that I would marry her.”

I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms and grinned. “You did?”

“Yep. When it’s right, it’s right. Ain’t no use waiting around.”

“What are you saying?”

“If you love this Addy, then what are you waiting for?”

“I’m not sure I follow. She just left for college yesterday.”

“So go after her.” Uncle Robert pointed toward the open barn door as if he expected me to leave right that second.

“And do what? Go to college?”

“Why not?”

I shrugged. “I tried it, remember?”

“Yeah, but you didn’t have a reason to go before. You didn’t have a girl you were wantin’ to marry.”

I held up both hands. “Whoa. Marry?”

“Well ain’t ya?”

“Sure I want to marry her, but don’t you think she’s kinda young?”

“Same age your aunt was when we got married.”

“Oh yeah?”

He nodded. “It don’t matter the age. It’s what’s in the heart that matters.”

I studied him. “Wow. Gettin’ deep in here, Uncle Robert.”

He slugged my shoulder. “Get back to hauling those bales, Graham, and don’t forget to let me know when your last day of work is.”

I grabbed two more bales. Marry? Would Addy go for that? She’d told that Ali creep she didn’t want to get married, but was that just because it was him or because she was only eighteen?

But how would that work? I couldn’t just spring it on her right after she’d started classes. And I hadn’t even thought about what I might want to take. Maybe it would be smarter to start at the winter semester. That way I could help Uncle Robert through the fall when things were busier.

I finished loading the bales and walked back outside. Was I seriously considering this?

I closed my eyes, picturing Addy’s face, her eyes, her lips. I couldn’t believe it had been less than twenty-four hours since we’d said goodbye. If I was this messed up already, and I knew she was the one for me, maybe Uncle Robert was right. What was there to wait for? Time apart would only make us more miserable.

Well, unless Addy didn’t
want
to get married. There was always that. No. I knew she loved me. She’d said I was hers and she was mine forever. And she sounded so upset when I talked to her, not like she was glad to be there. But was that just nervousness from the newness of being away from home?

Time to find out. I gave some thought to what I would say to her that night when I called. It needed to be more than just whatever came out of my mouth at the moment.
Time to grow up, Graham.

Uncle Robert was right. When I’d been at college briefly before, I didn’t have a reason to be there. But now I did. If I wanted to marry Addy, then I needed to have a game plan. Wasn’t that what Addy had talked about for herself? A life plan, she called it. Pretty responsible for someone just out of high school. And here I was, nearly twenty-two with no future plans in sight.

That was about to change.

I finished my work day several hours later and grabbed a shower. What would my folks say to me getting married to someone I’d only known a short time? My mom was peeling potatoes when I walked into the kitchen. “Need help?”

She turned and smiled. “No. But thanks. Hard day of work?”

I shrugged. “The usual, I guess.” I grabbed a soda from the fridge and sat down at the kitchen table. The drum of my fingers tapping the tabletop seemed to explode throughout the room. What would my mom think of my idea? My mouth didn’t seem to want to form the question. I wanted to ask her what she thought of my idea, but I also didn’t want to. Not that they could stop me, I was nearly twenty-two, but it never hurt to have family support.

“Something the matter, Graham?”

Startled from my thoughts, I squinted up to see Mom staring at me, knife in one hand, potato in the other. “Not the matter, really.”

“May as well tell me. That’s where you always sit when you have something on your mind.”

Blinking in surprise, I glanced about the room. “I do?”

“Sure. Everything from you having a fight with the boys who used to live next door to losing your favorite baseball to that dog down the road.” She set down her knife and the potato and sat across from me. “But I’m guessing this is something more. Maybe about Addy?”

I frowned. “How do you know that?”

Mom chuckled. “Because your aunt likes to tell everything she knows, and she had talked to Addy on the phone, remember?”

“Right.”

“So, why don’t you just tell me what’s on your mind so I can get back to peeling those potatoes for supper.” She laughed and rolled her eyes. “’Cause you know that’s my favorite thing in the world to do.”

I let out a breath.
Here goes
… “Well, you’re right that it’s about Addy. She and I…”

“It’s serious, then?”

I nodded. “I know it happened quick but—”

“That doesn’t matter. It’s what’s in your heart that counts.”

“You sound like Uncle Robert.”

“He is my brother, after all. Go on.” She gestured with her hand. “I know there’s more.”

“Addy just left yesterday for college and I’m—”

“Miserable?”

“Yeah.” I took a swig of my drink, hoping not to get choked up in front of my mom.

“So, you’re thinking of doing something so you
won’t
be so miserable?”

I grinned. “Maybe I don’t need to tell you anything. You already seem to know.”

“Experience, Graham. Your dad and I hadn’t known each other that long either. We got married just six months after we met. And we’ve been married over twenty-five years. Happily, I might add.”

“Yeah, it’s obvious you guys like being around each other.”

“I guess what I’m saying is, if you’re sure,
really
sure that she’s the one — and she feels the same?” She raised her eyebrows in question.

I nodded.

“Then, do what you feel is right.”

I ran my finger down the side of my can of soda. “What if I’m thinking of maybe going to college where she does?”

Mom smiled. “I think that would be wonderful.”

“You do?”

“If it’s what you want.”

“I like working with Uncle Robert, but—”

“But it’s not what you want to do forever?”

“Right.” I shrugged.

One side of her mouth rose in a smile. “I wondered when you would come to that realization.”

“You knew? Before I did?”

“Graham, I’ve always known you’re meant for bigger things than doing grunt work on someone else’s farm. It’s not like the farm would ever come to you, you know, with your two younger cousins wanting it when they get older. So there’s not much of a future there for you.”