“Yeah, we met him down at the lake today. His name is Eli.”
“When did he get here?”
She scrunched up her face. “Yesterday, I think. I’m not sure. They rented cabin number eighty-six.”
That was just a few cabins down from mine. “Do you know how long he’s staying?”
“No idea.” Lynda finally stepped away from me and walked over toward the boys. She grabbed Aaron’s hand and he looked down at her and smiled. The two of them together still made me a little pukey. They’d been friends for the past few years, but this year they were…more. They had even started kissing. No one had kissed me yet. Not even once.
“Number two on the leader board, huh?” the newcomer said as he came to stand next to me.
“You cheated,” I said again, and I crossed my arms.
“You know I didn’t.” He didn’t say anything else. He just hitched a shoulder against a tall metal post and stared at me.
“Well, I’ll get it back.”
“Get what back?”
“The number one spot,” I spat. “What else?”
He laughed. “I’d like to see you try.”
“You can count on it.” I knew I sounded like a spoiled brat, but I couldn’t let this injustice go unpunished. I just couldn’t.
He pulled a pack of gum from his pocket and popped a piece in his mouth. It smelled juicy and sweet when he blew a huge bubble. “You want a piece?” he asked. He held the pack out to me.
I took a piece reluctantly, slowly opened the wrapper, and tossed it into my mouth. It took a solid five seconds of chewing to soften it up, but then I blew a bubble even bigger than his. It was so big that it popped and covered my face. I lifted the sticky film from my face and shoved it back in my mouth.
“You have a little right here,” he said, and he reached out and touched under my eye. I blinked and looked down. I had a piece stuck to my face. I picked it loose and rolled it between my finger and thumb. Then I did the almost unthinkable, and I flicked it toward his face. I regretted it almost immediately, but he didn’t do anything I expected him to do.
In fact…he laughed. It was a full-on belly laugh, and I caught the tips of my lips quirking into a grin.
“I’m Eli,” he said.
“Bess,” I replied.
“Is that short for anything?”
I raised my eyebrows. “Is Eli short for anything?”
“Elijah.”
I grinned. “Elizabeth.”
“You want to play pool?” he asked, jerking his thumb toward the table.
“Sure,” I said, and I motioned for Lynda and Aaron to join us, but they preferred to go stand in a dark corner together. If they stayed there too long, Mr. Jacobson would get out his high-powered spotlight and shine the light into the dark corner of the room. Nobody enjoyed that.
“You’re new,” I said as he racked the balls.
“We just got here,” he replied and handed me a pool stick.
“How long are you staying?” I pretended like I didn’t care, but I kind of did.
“Until the end of summer,” he replied. “You?”
“Same.” I took in a breath. “Do you have any friends here?”
He smiled at me. “Just you.”
My belly dropped down toward my toes. Then he tossed his head to get the hair out of his eyes, lined up his shot, and broke the balls.
I beat him, and I didn’t feel bad about it at all.
7
Bess
“And that was how it all began,” I say as I stand up and take a small bow. Aaron has just been unhooked from all the tubes and he looks like he can barely keep his eyes open, but he’d listened intently as I’d talked. He grins at me. He has a signature smirk and he’s had it as long as I can remember.
“An auspicious start, to say the least,” he says with a grin. “You two were inseparable that summer. I never thought I’d get to spend time with you again.”
“You’re one to talk. You and Lynda were glued together even before Eli came along.”
“True.” He stares at me. “I still missed you. You were my best friend.”
And he was mine. Only time and distance had kept us apart. Then it became easy not to talk. “Well, you have me now,” I say.
He nods. “Thanks for hanging out with me.”
I motion around the room. “How many treatments do you have left?”
“Every other day for the next two weeks.” He groans as he adjusts himself in the chair.
“That many?”
He nods. “I’ll need a driver. Are you up for it?”
“Every other day for two weeks?” I shake my head. “We’re not going to be at the lake that long.”
He reaches over and extends his hand, palm up. Then he stares at me and waits. He makes a clenching motion with his fingers and I place my palm against his. He holds it tightly. “Can you give me a week, then, Bess? Please?”
A week. One solid week of sharing a cabin with Eli.
“The lake’s a happy place,” he almost sings out. “The happiest of happy places.”
“I know. It’s just…”
“It’s just what?” he asks, his voice quiet and soft, almost breakable.
“It’s just awkward right now with Eli,” I admit. “We’re right in the middle of the divorce…” I let my voice trail off. “It’s just hard, you know?”
“No, Bess,” he says, still holding tightly to my hand. “I don’t know. I know I’d give anything to have Lynda back, and you’re giving it all up.”
“You don’t understand what it’s like between me and Eli.”
“Then tell me. Explain it to me.” His voice is hurried and urgent.
I shake my head. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“Did it start with the first baby?” he asks. I try to jerk my hand back, but he doesn’t let me go. Instead, he holds on even more tightly. “Or was it the second, or the third?”
Eli and I had tried so many times to get pregnant. And occasionally we did, but it never lasted. We never could make a family.
I let my hand go lax in his. “There were more than three,” I whisper. A tear slips from the corner of my eye and rolls down my cheek, leaving a warm trail behind it. I don’t even try to wipe it away. “I wanted a family so bad.”
“You don’t need children to make a family, Bess. You and Eli are a family, all on your own. The two of you are a whole unit. Don’t ever think differently.”
“It’s too late.”
He looks sad. “I know. You told me.”
The nurse returns with his paperwork and unhooks the medical equipment. Aaron buttons his shirt and stands up, a little wobbly on his feet. “Whoa. You might have to drive, Bess,” he says.
“You hate my driving,” I retort. Actually, he just hates riding with anyone else. He always has.
“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” he asks. He looks like he can barely hold his head up.
The moment he gets in the passenger seat of the car, he lays the seat back. “Sorry, but I think I’m going to take a quick nap,” he mutters, sounding fatigued.