On Saturday, when Tommy came to pick me up, Mom wasn’t there. Hallelujah! I didn’t want her to know about Tommy. Donald had picked her up early for a breakfast at a local café and an outing to look at possible places for the wedding reception. Mom was particularly excited about the Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston. She’d heard they held parties on the stage.
I stood on the porch, waiting for Tommy, anxious to see him. I knew I shouldn’t be so eager, but I couldn’t help what I was feeling. When his car pulled up, I broke into a grin.
“Hi,” I said, getting into his car. He smiled; I melted.
“Hi,” he said, pulling me to him for a quick hug. He felt good. I wanted to hold on. And he smelled like fresh air. “Ready to go?”
I nodded, wanting to get out of my driveway. I was worried I’d get caught. I had actually thought about telling Mark. But I knew if I did, I wouldn’t be going with Tommy anywhere today. I’d either be fighting with Mark about why I was going to go or fighting with Mark about breaking up.
“Was that your stomach growling?” he asked, giving me another Tommy smile that made my stomach flip. How I’d missed him.
“Sonic would be great. I’m hungry.” I looked away so he wouldn’t see the idiotic grin on my face.
“Sonic, it is.”
At Sonic, we ordered two cheeseburgers, fries, two chocolate malts, tater tots, and two waters.
When the waitress in skates rolled out with our order, I couldn’t help but notice how pretty she was and how she lit up when she saw Tommy. “Thanks for the tip,” she said, giving him an extra little smile.
He just nodded at her and turned back to me.
“Thanks for not flirting with her.”
“I want to be with you, not her,” he said. “I’ve missed you.”
“Dad told me that, when he was over yesterday.” Dad hadn’t stayed long. He’d asked a few questions about Mom, trying to get information about her and Donald, I knew.
“Really? Oh, great,” Tommy said.
“He talks about you all the time now,” I said, teasing him.
“I’ll have to watch what I say.” He grinned.
I smiled, feeling a little shy. Here we were back in Texas, back in my real life, together in his car. I looked at him. “Have you had a lot of girlfriends, Tommy?” This was something I’d been curious about since Florida, or maybe since I’d first seen him in my driveway. “I bet you have.”
“I’ve had a few.”
“Anyone serious?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “A girl in California.”
“California? So a college girlfriend. How long did you date?”
“Until I left.”
“How long was that?”
He laughed. “Well, let’s see. I met her my freshman year at a friend’s party. It was about midway through, I guess. Right before Christmas break.”
“When did you leave college?”
“After sophomore year.”
“Oh my God.”
“What?” he asked.
“That’s a long time to date someone,” I said, feeling a little jealous of this girl from Tommy’s past that had been with him for almost two years.
“As long as you and Mark have gone out, right?”
“Yeah, but those are high school years. You were with her for two college years. That’s some serious dating.”
He laughed. “I don’t think she thought so.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Um … when I stumbled across her making out with my roommate, I figured she wouldn’t mind if I left.”
“Oh no. Really?”
He nodded.
“Is that why you left college?”
“No.” He thought for a moment. “Well. Kind of.”
“Really?” I asked, disappointed.
“Well, no. I mean, I was staying because of her. I wanted to quit my sophomore year, but I didn’t want to leave her. So I figured I’d get a degree and then figure it out. But when I found her with my roommate—and somehow it hurt more that she’d fallen for an idiot, but then, I didn’t have a reason to stay anymore.”
“Oh.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Something is. What are you thinking?”
“I just didn’t think you’d be the kind of guy to change what you’re doing because of a girl.”
“Nothing’s wrong with being in love, Annie.”
“No,” I said. “I know.”
“So is that why you want to stay in Clear Lake? For Mark?”
“I don’t know. It’s for me, I think. Because I don’t want to give it all up. I have it pretty good, Tommy.”
“With Mark?” He looked disappointed.
“I like being with Mark. I don’t think he’s my soul mate, if there is such a thing, but he feels like a part of me.” I tossed a tater tot back in the bag. “I understand people like Lea who want to leave to find something else. Like going to college to get out of here or because they think there’s a better life someplace else. But I don’t think that. I think life is what you make it. And I could be happy wherever I am.”
“So you might stay here?”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“You’re biting your lip,” he said, gently touching my mouth, sending a little thrill through me. “You do that a lot.”
His touch felt sweet and wrong at the same time. “I wasn’t aware of it.”
We looked at one another, and he dropped his hand. “I guess I’m surprised because you were so taken with what Christa McAuliffe was doing—reaching for what she wanted.”
“But I don’t think she did that because she was unhappy,” I said, fighting the sadness that had settled inside me since the accident. “I think she thought it’d be cool to have that experience and share it with her students. But if she hadn’t been selected as the Teacher in Space, I think she would have been perfectly content to stay home and be a great teacher and raise her kids.”
He smiled.
“What?” I asked. “What?”
“You think a lot.”
“I’m good at thinking. I just need to learn how to actually do.” I looked at him. “Don’t you think a lot? You seem to.”
“About things not concerning me, maybe,” he said. “But when it comes to me, I just do. React and do.” He laughed. “Or maybe I just react. Here I am working at the plant, when I say I want to be a teacher.”
“So what’s keeping you from it?” I asked. “Your dad?”
“He’d rather me get a degree in anything rather than work at the plant. But then again maybe I’m waiting for him to change his mind.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. It might just be laziness. I stopped thinking about it as much.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“No?” he asked, looking at me closely.
“No,” I whispered, quieted by his gaze.
He exhaled. “You gotta stop looking at me like that.” He started the car. “Ready to go on an adventure?”