“It means—”
“I know what the word means,” he said. “Or I can guess. You know, Faith, you don’t have to have a college education to be worth something in the world.”
“Of course not,” she said quickly, but she could feel her face again turning red.
“Quit looking like you have pity for me,” he said as he started downstairs. “Ready to go to the lake?”
“Actually, I’ve been gone for quite a while already, and I didn’t leave a note for my mother, so maybe I should go home.”
“Okay,” he said quickly. “Whatever
you want.”
He went to the front door and waited for her to leave ahead of him. She stood on the porch for a minute while Ty wrestled with getting the door closed, and took a deep breath of the air. She had been cooped up inside for four long years, her nose always in a book. It seemed that she hadn’t been out of sight of concrete in that entire time. When she’d returned home, her mother had always had a long list of things for her to do. The last two summers Faith had gone with her mother to do beauty treatments. She’d hated every minute of it—especially giving pedicures.
“Maybe…” she began.
“Yes?” Ty asked, looking at her, his handsome face showing nothing.
“Well, since we’re so close to the lake and it is lunchtime, and since I am starving…”
“Go on,” Ty said.
“You can be a real jerk at times, you know that? So what did you bring for lunch? If it’s fried chitlins, I’m leaving now even if I have to walk back.”
“Corn pone,” he said seriously. “Possum. All the things I grew up on.”
“Then it’ll be McDonald’s,” she said, turning away from him.
“Come on. I’ll race you back to the car.” He took off running, Faith right behind him.
When they got to the car, she was drenched in sweat, but Ty looked as cool as if he’d just stepped out of the shower.
“Out of practice, aren’t you?”
“Completely. I haven’t raced a boy back to the car since I was…What? Ten?”
“I knew you’d missed me!” Ty said, smiling as he turned the ignition in the car.
As he pulled out, he stopped so she could see the house silhouetted against the bright blue sky. With some work, it could be a beauty. When she turned to look at Ty, he was smiling in a way that made her think that he knew she was a done deal. As he turned onto the road, she thought that she had to emphasize to him that she was going to marry Eddie and nothing would change that.
Ty drove them to the lake and she knew before he got there where he was going. It was “their” place. It was the place they’d gone with Eddie to catch fish, and later it was the place she and Ty went to make love.
She stood by the lake and looked out at the water as Ty unpacked the car. She made no effort to help him. In a way, it was as though she’d never been away from this tiny town. Today it felt as if all her time at college hadn’t happened. If it weren’t for the books that were rattling around in her head and for the many thousands she owed in student loans, she might think she’d never left.
Turning, she watched Ty spread the old blanket on the ground under the enormous willow tree that they had considered theirs. Like them, the tree had grown and aged. She could still see the place where they’d tried to carve their initials with the little penknife that Ty always carried. The blanket he was spreading was the same one that they’d made love on the first time.
He glanced up at her, and as he often did, he read her mind. “Don’t worry, it’s been washed.”
Smiling, she sat down on the edge of it while he emptied the cooler and put out the food. There were tuna salad sandwiches, cut-up fruit, and homemade cookies.
“You didn’t make this, so who did?”
“Mom.”
Faith looked at him with wide eyes. “Ah, the mother you rarely mention. You know, I don’t think I’ve seen your mother more than a dozen times in my life.” She was teasing, but she was serious also.
“She was there,” Ty said, his face solemn. “She and I’ve always been friends. She said we got along because I was like her and not like my dad.”