“I wanted to help.”
“Good,” Julia mused. “Grab some gloves from the box on the workbench and start with the pile nearest to the doors. Eric already separated what we can recycle or sell from the garbage. Just watch for sharp edges.”
She nodded and bounced into the barn.
Eric walked out with another load and said, “I hope she doesn’t get in the way.”
Julia laughed, “Have you seen the way she’s been looking at you? She’s going to be your shadow, Stud.”
He shook his head as Julia put her gloves on and walked into the barn.
As they worked, Eric couldn’t help but check out Emily in the tight leggings she wore. He compared her ass to her mother’s, and they were very similar. He wondered how Emily’s would feel in his hands. He shook that thought off when Julia smiled and winked at him.
He wished that Emily never came home and wondered what would have become of him and Julia. Would they have stopped seeing each other when he went home? Would they be able to get together once she moved back to the neighborhood? He didn’t dare think they could have a long-term relationship that was out in the open. He was confused.
“What’s the matter, Eric,” Emily asked as she caught him lost in thought.
“Nothing. I was just thinking about something.”
She looked down at his crotch, he didn’t realize he’d gotten an erection.
“It looks like you were thinking of someone not something,” she teased and wiggled her butt on the way to the dumpster. She couldn’t have imagined he was thinking of her mother and not her.
He shook his head and went back to work. Meanwhile, Emily was shocked at the size of his bulge. She couldn’t believe he grew into that hunk of a man. She wasn’t a virgin, but the three men she’d been with were nothing compared to Eric.
Eric fought every desire in his body of luring Julia into the house just for a kiss. He knew she’d never go for a quickie. He just wanted some form of intimacy with her. Julia was right, however. Emily was never far from his side.
They had one side of the barn cleared by lunch and Eric was sweeping the floor when Emily came up behind him.
“Hey, Big Guy. Mom’s got lunch ready for us.”
He set the broom down and walked towards the house. She ran in front of him and walked backwards.
“Why are you still being so cold to me. I noticed you watching me today. You like me, don’t you?”
He laughed. “Like you? You may be beautiful on the outside, but on the inside, you…” he stopped when he saw her pale at his words. “Anyway, no. I’m not interested in you at all.”
She stopped walking and he stepped around her. He regretted what he said, but he wasn’t lying. She, on the other hand, sat on the steps and cried. She couldn’t understand why he couldn’t see she changed.
“He just needs time,” Julia said as she sat down. “I heard what he said. He wasn’t trying to be mean.”
“His intent has nothing to do with the outcome, Mom. I knew what he was going to say, but I’m not ugly on the inside anymore. I’ve tried so hard to be that little girl again. It doesn’t even have anything to do with Eric. I never thought I’d see him again.”
Eric watched from the back door. He felt bad, but he did nothing about it. She caused it, regardless of if she was trying to be a different person. Some wounds cut too deep.
Eric went back into the kitchen and thought about Emily while he ate his sandwich. He remembered the fun they had playing board games. The times they made up games with a deck of cards while their parents played poker. He remembered when she got braces and how she didn’t think having them was a big deal, while other girls in their class cried for a week when they got them. She was different. She was like him, until she wasn’t.
He thought how ironic it was that they were both, what some would call, geeks or nerds, yet they both matured into good looking people. He wondered if he had started changing a year or two earlier as she did, would he have changed as she changed for the worse. He supposed timing was everything.
He couldn’t deny she was beautiful, as she walked into the kitchen with tear-soaked eyes, no makeup, and with her hair in a loose ponytail. He figured she was so shallow, she probably thought she looked terrible.
She sat down and didn’t look at Eric. He looked up at Julia who stood behind her, and she gave him a hand signal to take it easy. He nodded.
“Emily, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to upset you; it’s just so hard seeing you after all these years. Especially after you cut me off so cruelly. You told me you’d always be my friend after you moved, and I believed you.”
A tear fell down her cheek and she sniffed. She didn’t want to be reminded of how horrible she was to him.
“I waited for any sort of contact from you for months. Do you know I remember the day I gave up on you?”
She shook her head, yet still made no eye contact.
“Your parents came up for a party one weekend. I was looking forward to seeing you the whole week before. I had so much to tell you about my life, I wanted to hear all about yours. I had so many new friends I wanted to tell you about, and even though they weren’t in my tier, I wanted to hear about your new friends. There were so many games I got that I wanted to play with you, but it wasn’t to be. I even remember the sadness in your mom’s eyes when she told me you weren’t with them.”
A tear fell down Julia’s cheek. She remembered the conversation well. It broke her heart to tell the excited young man her daughter wasn’t with them. She saw the pain in his eyes before he silently walked away.
“I had a date that night with Jimmy Tate. He was the quarterback of the freshman team.”
“Of course he was.”
Emily took the comment in stride and continued, “I didn’t even think about going with my parents and cancelling the date. I begged my dad to let me stay with Chrissy Allen, while they went to the party. She was dating Jimmy’s best friend and we went to Dairy Queen and then to her house to watch movies. I got my first kiss that day.”
He snorted. “No, you didn’t.”
She looked at him confused and then she remembered. “Jesus, I can’t believe I forgot,” she whispered.
Eric stood and put his plate in the sink. “I have work to do,” he said when he walked out the back door.
“What was that all about?” Julia asked.
Emily cried and said, “It was just before we moved. I told him that I caught you and dad kissing in the kitchen and, of course, him being a ten-year-old boy said that was gross. I told him it was sweet, and he should kiss me to see that it wasn’t gross.”
Julia smiled and shook her head.
“We sat in front of each other, crisscross legged, and leaned towards each other. It was so tender, neither of us knew what we were supposed to do, so we just touched our lips together for a few seconds. When I pulled back, he wiped his lips with the back of his hand.”