Come to Me Quietly

She dropped to her knees and dragged the portfolio from under her bed, retrieving the large charcoal drawing that had been awarded first prize. She’d felt proud when they gave her the ribbon, proud when they gave her the check to put into her savings account for college.

It was a landscape, the mountains stretching up to kiss the horizon as the sun sagged behind the mountain, distorted, as if the two were melting into each other.

But this art wasn’t her treasure.

Her treasures were the faces she kept safe, bound up in sketch pads that she’d never show another person.

Now she knew why. She’d been right.

Jared would have laughed.

She swallowed down the humiliation and rushed back down the hall. At the brink of the living room, she slowed, her movements guarded as she made her way to Helene. Jared’s mom was so beautiful… as beautiful as her own… but different, the woman somehow both exotic and plain. Aly wasn’t exactly sure how that could be, but she’d drawn her face so many times she knew it was the truth.

With shaky hands, she gave Helene her offering.

Helene quietly gasped. “This is incredible, Aly. Absolutely beautiful.” She smiled up at her, reflective tears simmering in her eyes. “You did good, baby girl. So good.”

“Thank you,” Aly whispered, feeling heat on her cheeks and warmth in her chest as she took her drawing back into her hands.

“What’s that?”

Aly jumped when the voice that haunted her thoughts came from directly behind her. She jerked to look over her shoulder and came face-to-face with the boy who stole her breath. Her stomach ached again, but this time in a different way. Her mouth went dry, her mind completely blank except for the fact that he was standing less than foot from her. “It’s nothing,” she finally managed to force out.

“Nothing?”

He touched her shoulder, gently prodding her to turn, and took hold of the top of the large image while she held the bottom. For a long moment, he said nothing and just stared at the thick paper separating them, before he lifted his face. “Aly, did you draw this?”

Blue eyes searched her face, and it hurt and stung and soothed, and again, Aly wanted to cry. “It was just a stupid art project I had to do for school.”

“That ended up winning the state championship,” Helene was quick to add. “It’s really beautiful, Jared, isn’t it?”

He didn’t look away from Aly. “Yeah, it is.” Admiration filled his soft smile. “Is this the kind of stuff you keep in your sketch pads?”

Aly swallowed and shook her head. “No,” she admitted with her eyes pinched shut tight.

“Can I see one of those drawings?” he asked.

Helene tsked, her smile light. “Jared, that’s as bad as asking a girl if you can read her journal. You should know better.”

He stumbled through a chuckle and stepped back. “I guess so.”

A timer sounded in the kitchen. Aly’s mom got up and disappeared through the archway. She popped her head back out a minute later. “All right, time for dinner. You kids get washed up.”

Augustyn and Courtney abandoned the cartoon they were watching in the family room and rushed down the hall.

Their families ate together the way they always did, a jumble of people scattered about the room, their parents at the dining table, Jared, Christopher, and Aly at the nook, and the little kids on stools at the bar.

As soon as dinner was over, Jared and Christopher announced their departure.

“You two be careful,” Aly’s mom ordered, wagging her pointed finger at the two of them.

“Of course, Mom,” Christopher promised, jingling his keys at his side.

“I don’t want to hear any more excuses about being late for curfew, Jared Zachary,” Helene warned. “You be home on time tonight.”

Jared just smiled and nodded, quick to head for the door.

“And just because you’re getting ready to turn sixteen doesn’t mean you’re too old to give your mom a kiss good-bye,” Helene called out.

Jared laughed and rushed back up to Helene. He dipped down to kiss her on the cheek. “Never. Love you, Mom.”

“Be good, bear,” she said with nothing but affection.

Aly focused on her plate as Jared passed behind her. She felt a tug on a thick lock of her hair. Her eyes dropped closed because he hadn’t done that in so long. Quiet and subdued, his words came from behind her. “I’m really proud of you, Aly Cat.”

Aly’s heart pressed at her ribs.

Maybe he hadn’t forgotten her after all.

SEVENTEEN

Jared

I was in deep. So deep.

She held on to me from behind, that gorgeous body wrapped around me as if it were supposed to be there. As if she were molded for me.

Wind whipped through my hair, hot, hard, the sun blazing down from overhead.

Aly’s hands tightened their hold on my stomach, and I increased my grip on the throttle, ticking it back a little more as I eased us onto the freeway. The engine warbled deep as I set a cautious pace.