Stef Ann Holm, Lucy Back [paper ebook reader .TXT] 📗

talked about girls constantly, and they gave some healthy descriptions of a few in town who were fun to hang out with. The idea that he had a beautiful seventeen-year-old who boys would be thinking about totally unnerved him.

Mackenzie was beautiful. He was proud she was his. But if any of his boys ever put a hand on her, got close to her, even asked her to a movie, he’d kick their ass.

At the baggage carousel, they waited for Mackenzie’s luggage to slide onto the ramp.

“So everything went okay on the flights?” he asked, repeating himself, then silently cursing.

“Yes.”

“How many bags do you have?”

“Two.”

“Are you hungry?”

“Yeah…kind of.”

“We’ll get something to eat on the way home. What are you in the mood for?”

“I don’t care.” She shrugged. “A hamburger.”

He’d take her to Rainey’s, a small café on the main highway that was quick and easy; they served the food hot off the grill, not too greasy. He didn’t know many people in Hailey so their meal should be quiet and uninterrupted.

He ran his hand through his thick hair again, not caring if he messed it up. Racking his brain for something useful to say, he finally voiced a thought that had been lingering in his mind for days. “Mackenzie, thanks for coming. Thanks for giving this a chance.”

She gazed into his face, looking up at him. He appreciated her height and figured she had to be five foot ten. He was glad she was tall. Like him. Her eyes were green-gold reflections that he easily recognized, because he stared at them daily when he shaved—but their expression was unreadable.

Mackenzie’s wide-eyed innocence was merely a smoke screen. He saw through the layers of hurt, the years that she had suffered, and it just about killed him. Her voice was low and composed, yet softly commanding as she countered, “I’m not promising anything.”

Drew felt strangely comforted that she’d even offer that much. “I’m not asking. Let’s just see how things go.”

Journal of Mackenzie Taylor

Drew’s house is gi-normous. Bigger than I imagined. All this space for one person. It’s like a mansion. The rooms are never-ending, the backyard so big I can’t see where it starts or stops. He’s got a batting cage, a waterfall, a hot-tub and a creek. He showed me, and he wanted me to be impressed. I could tell.

I wish I hadn’t been, but I was.

It’s 2:04 in the morning and I can’t sleep. You’d think with the time change, I would have crashed hours ago. But I’ve only laid here, in this big bed, the softness of fine sheets and smells of fresh linens surrounding me.

I keep thinking about Brad and Misty. About how they went behind my back. I could cry. But I don’t have any tears left to cry anymore. It still hurts, though. Deep inside my chest. Such a betrayal…I want to scream. It’s not fair. I loved him.At least I thought I did. I wanted him to love me, not sleep with Misty Connors!

But there’s nothing I can do about it. And thankfully I’m gone for the rest of the summer so I don’t have to see either one of them.

Me and Drew ate cheeseburgers in Hailey before coming here. I thought Kissimmee was backwoods. Red Duck is as small as a puddle, and Timberline isn’t even a real town. It’s nothing but a big parking lot.

When I first saw Drew’s house, I thought it was a motel. The Silverwood Motel down by the Gaitlin River is half its size. The outside has a rustic feel that Momma would have loved. She always had a fancy for pine trees and laying in a hammock in the shade.

Drew gave me a tour and told me to make myself at home. Now how can I do that if this place isn’t a home?

I noticed he doesn’t have any family pictures up. Momma had tons of me and her, my grandma on my momma’s side, Aunt Lynette and some of my cousins. Our Beagle, Sally, before she died. Pictures of our trip to Disneyworld, one of me and Momma with the albino gator at the Nature Reserve.

Drew Tolman only has photographs of himself. I don’t think he’s stuck up, but that front room, where the big bookcase is, all that’s in there is stuff from a baseball career. Seems like that’s all he has to show for himself. Him wearing a baseball uniform, or with other baseball players, team managers, some pictures of him at dinners and shaking hands with people.

I got a funny feeling in my chest looking at it. What a lonely way to live not to have family memories to remind you of all the love in your life.

Me and Momma, we had each other and I am so grateful I have Aunt Lynette now.

Seems to me, Drew doesn’t have anybody.

I don’t want to feel sorry for him.

So I won’t.

We’re going up to the lake today after we get some breakfast at this place called Opal’s Diner.

When I got up this morning, Drew was sitting on the patio feeding a duck pieces of bread. He said it was Daffy, a mallard that hung around.

He let me feed it. Daffy takes the pieces right out of your hand. We didn’t say much to each other, then Drew got this look on his face and he said something to me that made my heart quiet down to a slow beat.

He asked me how I wanted him to introduce me to his friends, that people were going to ask who I am. He didn’t want either of us to be uncomfortable and it was better we figured out an answer together.

I understood what he meant.

“Who’s the mystery girl, Drew?”

We came up with a reply that we could both live with.

But as I’m getting ready to spend the first whole day with my real daddy, I realize that the simplest of truths might as well be a lie.

Eighteen

“This is Mackenzie. She’s a family friend.”