“And to think I missed you, Dewayne,” Eva said.

Dewayne winked and threw his towel down in an empty chair. “No need to miss me, pretty girl. You can come see me any time you want to.”

If I didn’t know he was joking I’d be pissed. Instead I focused on tasting Eva’s neck that she had so helpfully arched in my direction.

“Where’s Rock and the fam?” Marcus asked Preston.

“They’re coming but loading up that crew takes awhile. I normally expect them to all be an hour late. Trisha spends as much time fixing Daisy’s hair as she does fixing her own. I swear that kid has more damn bows.”

The pleased sound to his voice as he talked about his little sister’s abundance of bows and Trisha spending time on her hair didn’t go unnoticed by anyone. Rock and Trisha had adopted Preston’s little sister and brothers. They went from Trisha not being able to get pregnant to an instant family. Preston still played a big part in their life but he wasn’t having to be the big brother slash dad slash mom any more. He’d done that long enough.

“I can’t wait to see Daisy. I haven’t seen her in months. I bet she’s grown a foot,” Eva said as she moved her neck away from my mouth. I just grinned and followed it.

“She has and she’s not lisping anymore either. Trisha’s had her in speech therapy. She’s doing great,” Amanda replied.

Eva finally turned around and looked at me. “Would you stop it,” she whispered.

“Probably not. You smell too good,” I replied back in a louder whisper.

“Visit with your friends. They’ve missed you.”

“I’ve miss you more,” I said, and took a small nibble of her earlobe.

“What if we go swim a little. Then will you pay attention to everyone else?” she asked.

“I doubt it but let’s go try it and see.”

Chapter Eleven

EVA

The weekend went by too fast. Watching Cage drive away again had hurt just as bad as it had the first time. He had to get back to do kid’s baseball camps that the school held each summer. Those that were on a full ride scholarship were expected to work the camps. He had tried to convince me to let him come home Saturday night. He had promised he’d finish college online like Marcus was doing and he’d get a job. We would be together and honestly it sounded wonderful.

But I couldn’t let him do that.

When this was over and my daddy was gone, Cage would have lost his dream. For me. I could never allow that. He would resent me one day. Maybe not soon but one day he’d wonder “what if” and it would be all my fault. So. I’d used the excuse that I wanted this future for us again and pushed him back to Tennessee. Knowing it would be three weeks before he came back this time had just about done me in.

Jeremy had held me for at least an hour and let me cry on his shoulder. I’d held it together long enough for his car to turn the corner out of sight before I’d crumpled. Jeremy had been right there picking me up and carrying me to the porch.

By Wednesday I was getting better. I was sleeping in my room again. The first two nights I’d slept in the barn so I could smell Cage. But I started worrying about Daddy needing me at night and me not being there so I made myself sleep in the house on Tuesday night. If I was going to make it three weeks without Cage I had to get a grip on myself. Sleeping in the sheets we’d made love on over and over again wasn’t helping me deal. It was making me worse.

Tonight I had agreed to have dinner at the Beasley’s. Jeremy had asked me for his momma again last night and I finally agreed to it. I couldn’t hold a grudge against Elaine forever. She had been a momma when I needed one growing up. I knew her love for Josh tainted me being in another relationship. Seeing me with anyone other than Josh had to be painful for her. We’d been inseparable from the time we were little kids. As I stood in front of the large photo that still hung over their fireplace of Josh and Jeremy when they were fourteen, I realized that a part of me was always going to ache for him too. I missed him. Even though I loved Cage deeper than I’d ever loved Josh I still loved him. He was my childhood love. My best friend. My other half for so long. Sometimes I wondered what he’d say about Daddy. What his wise words would be. If only you could talk to someone on the other side when you needed to.

“For the longest I wanted her to take that down,” Jeremy said as he entered the room. “But I changed my mind. I miss him. It’s good to walk in here and see his face. Remember.”

I agreed with him. It was nice. “Those were good times. He was special,” I said staring up into their identical faces. I knew the difference though. It was in their eyes. Josh always had that restless twinkle. He wanted more adventure. He couldn’t get enough. Jeremy was happy just being here on the farm. He didn’t require anything else.

“He sure loved you. I’m glad he had you in his life, Eva. You made his life special. He didn’t get to grow up and have a family of his own but he did know what it was like to be in love.”

I smiled. “I’m glad I had him. He will always have a place in my heart.”

“Yeah, I know. That makes it easier sometimes when it hurts. I know he’s still alive in our hearts.”

I reached over and took Jeremy’s hand. We stood there in silence both remembering happy times.

“I’ll have that with Daddy too. The memories. The good times,” I said as a lump formed in my throat at the thought of Daddy being gone like Josh one day.

“He’ll be alive in all our hearts too. Just like Josh. They won’t every really be gone. Not for us.”

Jeremy slipped his arm around my shoulder and I leaned into him as a single tear slid down my face. He was right. Daddy would never be gone. I’d hold him close, forever.

“Why don’t we go down to the lake and swim. We haven’t done that in years. Then you can show me all those constellations you used to try to convince Josh and I were up there.”

I nodded. “Yeah, let’s go do that. I don’t want to go home just yet.”

*

The moon gave us some light but we left the truck headlights on and shown them down over the water for extra light. Jeremy turned on the radio and left the doors open so we would have some music too. This was how we had spent many a summer night in high school. It was nice to remember.

I tried not to think about Cage and all we’d done down at this lake. It would only make me miss him more. Tonight I wanted to be free of the ever-constant ache in my chest.

“You ever wonder what’s in this lake besides catfish?” Jeremy called out when I surfaced from swimming underwater. He was grinning at me like he expected me to go screaming from the water. Crazy boy. I wasn’t scared of the lake. I’d been swimming in it all my life. I knew there were critters in it but I also knew they were more scared of me than I was of them.

“I’m not one of your silly little dates, Jeremy. That won’t work with me,” I called out.

“What about if I tell you I killed a bed of moccasins yesterday morning down by the bend?”

Rolling my eyes I swam over to the edge and sat down in the shallow water. “You’ve been killing snakes down here since you learned to shoot a gun.”

Jeremy laughed. “You’re no fun at all, Eva Brooks.”

Smiling I stretched my legs out in front of me. The water wasn’t too warm yet. It would get warmer with the heat of the summer. I always like it at night when it was cooler.

“You act like you grew up with boys.”

“Strange I know,” I quipped. I had grown up with boys and he knew it.

Jeremy came over and sat down beside me. “What time do I need to have you back for your Cage phone call?” he asked.

“He calls at eleven unless he text me that it will be later.”

“It’s after ten now. You ready to head back?”

I wanted to be there when he called but we had time. “Not yet. It’s peaceful out here.”