Lex and Lu(19)

“Good morning,” Amber said as she shuffled across the deck.

Jo’s eyes stayed focused on the rising of the sun. “Good morning.”

Amber hesitated. She thought that anything that came out of her mouth would sound trite, or meaningless, so she opted for silence.

“He’s with her. I imagine their feet are flying swiftly over the pounding surf right about now,” Jo observed.

“Very poetic this morning,” Amber said. Willa had texted her the moment Lex showed up at the house.

“Ha. Do you remember when we first found out that they liked each other?”

“Oh yeah. Our biggest fear realized. Of all of the kids around, all the pairs I imagined, Lex and Lu never entered my mind. She was always so serious and he—was not. Didn’t seem like an obvious connection. And I think Willa and Pete were more surprised than anyone.”

They both smiled at the memory. Willa and Lex were the wild ones, Pete thoughtful, and Lu mature. Lex’s travels cultivated his fun-loving spirit. When he would return, he and Willa would go to parties, hang out with friends, run the same gamut. Although Lu had caught up to them in school, she just didn’t have the social-butterfly gene. Content to stay home, she enjoyed a small, exclusive group of friends. Pete fluctuated between the two—sometimes partying with his brother and Willa, sometimes hanging low. They were an unlikely foursome, brought together by proximity. The boys were naturally protective of the girls, but no one ever noticed any proclivity between Lex and Lu.

Willa had been the first to notice. And no one was ever sure how far it had progressed. Not in the habit of having anything to tell her mother about Lu’s social life, Willa came to Amber more out of a stunned bewilderment than out of a desire to rat out her sister.

“Mom,” she began, “have you noticed anything … different about Lu?”

Amber, taken aback, tried to think about what, if anything, she would have noticed. There wasn’t much to notice. Lu was to graduate with Willa and Lex, but because of her age, Amber was making her stay at home and take courses at the University of South Florida as it offered classes in Sarasota. Their house had been somewhat chaotic because of graduation and prom. As Amber thought about it, though, she had to admit that Lu had been scarce recently.

“Now that you’ve asked me, I guess she’s been gone more recently. But so have you so … What’s going on, Will?” Even Amber had taken to calling the girls by Lex’s dubbing.

“A couple of weeks ago, Lu was pissy. I don’t know why, but she snapped at everyone. Even her nerdy friends were annoyed.”

“Willa Knight. That’s rude.”

“Sorry. Her sweet, unsocial, extremely smart friends. Is that better?” she asked sarcastically.

“That’s enough, Willa.”

Rolling her eyes, Willa continued. “This is going to sound ridiculous,” Willa noted, shaking her head. “I really can’t even believe that I am thinking this.”

Amber was suddenly on high alert. “Willa, for goodness’ sake, just tell me what’s going on.”

“Well, Lu was in a really bad mood. She was especially bitchy.” Willa looked directly at her mother, “Sorry, sorry. She was in an exceptionally foul mood,” she said in a very proper tone, while looking at her mother inquiringly.

“Just tell me!”

“She was really rude to Lex. It was weird. I’ve never really seen her be mean to him, but she was acting all high and mighty, Miss Smarty pants, around him. Like she was pissed. But for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why. I asked Pete, and he was just as baffled. Then, all of a sudden, everything’s great and she and Lex are now together all of the time.”

Amber got very still.

Willa, knowing she had a captive audience, put it out there. “I think something is going on with Lex and Lu. Something of a not-friend relationship.”

Bewildered, Amber turned away from her, contemplating her news. Although Willa and Lu were different as night and day, they were close. That closeness added validity to Willa’s claims. But she knew there was more, because Willa wouldn’t have come to her unless she was sure. Turning back, she looked at Willa, “What else?”

Willa heaved a deep breath. “I saw them kissing.”

Amber was horrified. She loved Lex, because he made it extremely difficult to not like him. But he was leaving. And as smart as Lu was, Amber imagined that when she let herself love, it was going to be the sticking kind.

Jarred back to the present when Jo stood up to get more coffee, Amber waited for her to return. “I was just thinking about the day that Willa told me about them,” Amber told her.