Clay heaved a disgusted-sounding sigh and waved them on. “I’ll take care of it. You two go have fun.”
Lily hooked her arm in Del’s as he escorted her to his truck, and he asked, “What’s her deal? She acts like someone stuck a turd under her nose.”
Lily burst out in a rash of giggles that was long-lasting and faintly hysterical. She attributed it to the joy of Del being home safe. Finally she calmed as he started the truck and said, “I think she may have been hoping I’d crap rainbows for her while riding a unicorn!”
Del joined her in her euphoric laughter and asked, “What? Have y’all been getting into the catnip? You’re full of giggles today.”
Lily let out a long, gusty sigh. “Tabitha was up in the air, harping about my friend, Grace. She has a positive attitude and it irritates Tabitha. I’m just really happy to see you, Del. Things are going so right in my world for once. Even Tabitha can’t ruin my day with all her garbage.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Clay got me caught up on how you came to be in Divine again. I’ve got to tell you it’s all my fault we lost touch.”
“It is?”
“Yeah. I’m coming clean, at least for my part. I’ve felt guilty for years.”
“What did you do?”
“In high school one of my girlfriends found one of your letters to me and the reply I was writing back at the time. She laughed and thought it was funny that I was on the football team and the wrestling team and had a girl pen pal. I gave in to peer pressure and I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay. I just got lazy.”
“I never sent that reply and after me and that girl broke up, it had been so long since I’d written that I was embarrassed. I thought you’d be mad at me, or worse, that you didn’t care anyway.”
“No. I always cared, Del. But this is what happens when people are separated by distance. Sometimes the friendships dwindle away.” It got really quiet in the truck, except for the radio playing softly as David Nail sang “Let It Rain.”
“So, I’m sorry. I feel like it was me that let the ball drop.”
Lily shook her head. “No. Clay said the letter writing fell by the wayside for him, too. I’m sorry your girlfriend teased you.”
Del waved his hand dismissively. “Nah, she was a bitch.”
Lily burst into giggles again as he pulled out of the parking lot and onto Main Street.
Five minutes later they arrived at O’Reilley’s steakhouse. “Wow! Big spender.”
“I’m still sucking up,” he replied with a sideways grin. “Hold on. Let me be a gentleman and help you out.”
She waited as he came around and assisted her. When she held on to his shoulder, she couldn’t help but notice how hard and broad his muscled shoulders were. She didn’t pull away when he held her hand in his strong, callused one as he escorted her into the restaurant.
Once they had their iced teas and were done placing their orders, Lily settled back in the booth and looked up at him sitting beside her. She’d thought it odd that he didn’t sit opposite her, but this way she’d be able to hear him talk without shouting across the wide table.
“So…the last time I saw you, we were…younger.” Finding the right word had been difficult.
He turned to her in the booth and settled sideways on the cushioned seat. “You mean helpless?”
Lily pressed her lips together as she remembered the last day they spent together in seventh grade.
At twelve and thirteen, the hormones for adolescence had just barely kicked in for them, besides all the emotional crap going on. Clay and Del were both still scrawny, and Lily was still fat. Lily had begun to develop, but they all three had looked basically the same, only maybe a little taller.
The middle school they’d been bused to outside Morehead was different from the close-knit, rural elementary school they’d gone to in Divine. The kids at the new school had found out that Del was enrolled in special education classes for his learning disability, and they’d been ruthless, mean little monsters. Lily hadn’t been one to sit by while that happened any more than Clay had been.
One day, while waiting for afternoon break time to be over, the teasing had gotten especially bad. One group of disgusting older boys, newly drafted to the middle school football team, had taken it upon themselves to tease and taunt Del about the special classes he took part of the day.
He’d been held back in kindergarten because of extreme difficulty learning to read and write. The boys didn’t care that he had dyslexia. They just wanted a fresh target. Being weak and scrawny, Del was prime meat for them. They’d been murmuring and picking at him in the lunch line and in the hallways, and by break time in the middle of the afternoon, Del had been pushed to his limit.