Eternal (Eternal series) (29 page)

He couldn't fight it anymore.  He had to tell her tonight.  But how do you tell someone they are the center of your universe and you feel like you’re just revolving around them with no idea why or how to stop?

Did she have any idea what she was doing to him?  He didn’t feel like himself any more.  It was as if he was an extension of her.  Everything she did, everything she thought, every move she made affected him.  Destry felt like he was in a poem or a sappy love song.  The sky lost its color and everything looked gray when Emma wasn't around, food lost its taste.  But when he was with her, everything was vivid and new as if he were seeing it for the first time, like he'd been blind before.

Destry slammed his back up against the door of his truck.  There was no way he was going to be able to tell Emma all of this without coming off as some sort of a stalker freak.  She'd probably run screaming.  That's what any sane person would do, because there was no question that nothing about this was sane. 

Destry took a deep breath and closed his eyes.  It didn't help; Emma's face seemed to be etched into his mind like it had been for months now. 

He needed to come up with a rational explanation that she could understand.  Unfortunately, he still didn't know what that was himself.

As he stood, leaning against his truck, the sun warmed the front of him.  It reminded him of the way it had felt being pressed up against Emma while he'd been teaching her to fish.  The feeling had been indescribable; it had aroused strange things in him he couldn't seem to forget.  It wasn't just the typical guy feelings that he assumed all boys got when their bodies were that close to someone of the opposite sex—not that that hadn't been part of it.  There was more to it than that.

Destry hadn't ever really dated before, so he couldn't be positive that this didn't happen to all guys, but he'd never heard of anything like it.  When his body had been close to Emma's, pressed up against her, it was like something inside of her grabbed hold of something inside of him.  They were connected on a deeper level, locked together, and the electrical current that ran through his body from hers had been intense. 

If Emma had felt it, she hadn't let on.  Of course, he'd done a pretty good job of hiding it himself, so maybe she
had
felt something.

He looked at his watch; two more hours until their date.  One hundred and twenty minutes until he could be near her again; see her, smell her, touch her.  It seemed like an eternity to him.  What was he going to do with himself for that long? 

He decided that his first plan of action should probably be to take a hot shower.  He needed to get the fish smell off. 

He headed toward the house. 

O
n second thought, I'd better make it a cold shower,
he thought to himself



“Are you sure you’re okay?”  Catherine asked again at dinner, for the hundredth time it seemed.  “You look kind of flushed.”

“
I’m great mom,” Emma assured her with her best smile.

Emma had no intention of telling her mom about her afternoon of impromptu fishing.  It would just cause Catherine to get unnecessarily excited.  This thing with Destry couldn't go on much longer and she didn't want her mom trying to talk her out of anything.

Catherine continued to watch Emma suspiciously as she cleared the table, and washed the dishes alone without being asked.  Even Cody raised a disbelieving eyebrow at her when she told him to go outside and play while it was still light, she didn’t need his help with dishes tonight. 

Emma finished tidying the kitchen, and then moved on to her bedroom, picking up laundry and straightening the pillows on her bed.  Keeping busy helped her avoid thinking about Micah and Destry and her own problems. 

Her stomach lurched, as she heard the sound of a truck.  Crap!  Was it seven already?  She heard the truck door close, and then seconds later there was a knock at the front door.

“
It’s you again, huh?”  Emma heard Cody challenge as he opened the door.  She heard Destry chuckle wickedly.

“
Is your sister ready Pip?”  Emma heard him tease.

“
Ha-ha-ha,” Cody faked a laugh.  “You’re sooo funny.  My sister said to tell you she doesn’t want to go anywhere with you.  She said that she thinks you’re dumb!” 

At hearing Cody’s taunting Emma rushed to the front door, pushing him out of the way.

“Sorry about that,” she said rolling her eyes in Cody’s direction.

“
Not as sorry as you’re gonna be when you marry that dork, and your kids come out looking like goblins,” Cody yelled from behind her.

“
Shut up Cody!” Emma yelled back, and then composed herself the best she could as she turned back to Destry and gave him a cheesy grin.  “Are you ready to go?”

“
Yep,” he said smiling, apparently unaffected by Cody’s not-so-nice welcome.

Emma pushed him out the door, closing it quickly behind them, hoping to escape unnoticed—but she wasn’t that lucky.  She heard the door open again when they were just a few feet down the sidewalk.

“Emma,” her mom called from the doorway.  “Are you going out?”

Emma closed her eyes tightly, making a face, and then turned to face her mom.  “Oh...yeah…Mom.  I’ll be back in a couple of hours, is that okay?”

“You two just stay out of trouble,” Catherine smiled warmly.  “Nice to see you again Destry,” she cooed.

“
Nice to see you too ma’am,” Destry said sweetly. "How have you been?"

“
Good, thanks,” Catherine continued to smile.

“
Glad to hear it,” Destry returned with his smooth voice, and gave her a handsome smile.

“
Have fun,” Catherine said, with a little wave and turned back into the house, closing the door behind her.

“
Sorry about that,” Emma said grimacing.

“
There’s nothin’ to be sorry about.  I like your family.  Your mom’s nice,” his smile was reassuring, “she reminds me a lot of my mom.”

“
Oh,” was all Emma could say. 

She realized now that she wasn't only going to be pushing Destry out of her life, but out of her family’s as well. 

It hurt to hear him say her mom reminded him of his own mother who'd died.  Emma was going to take that away from him too, and she hated herself for it.

Emma mustered up a weak attempt at a smile, and started towards Destry's truck again, him following right behind her.  He rushed ahead of her to open the door, and she climbed in noticing her mom peeking out the front window from behind the curtains.  Catherine winked at her, and Emma let out a silent groan. 

Her mom liked Destry too.  Emma remembered her asking after their prom date, where he was from.  When Emma had told her that he'd just moved here from Nebraska with his dad, Catherine had gotten a perplexed look on her face.  "That's odd," she'd said, "he looks so familiar to me."

Emma hadn’t been able to forget that comment because when she looked at him she had the same strange feeling, that she knew Destry from somewhere else.

Chapter 24:  SPECIAL

They were already driving down the road when Emma snapped out of her trance.  She looked over at Destry to see if he’d noticed her distant stare.  He had.

“What are you thinking about?” He questioned calmly.

“
I'm just a little embarrassed about my family,” Emma hoped he was buying it.

“
Don’t worry about it,” he grinned, “I really do think they’re great!”

“
You’re way too easy going,” Emma teased.

“
I try not to sweat the small stuff,” he shrugged, “and everything is small stuff if you think about it.”

“
So you’re an optimist, huh?” Emma smirked.

“
Yeah, I guess you could say that.  I try to be happy.  There are too many miserable people in this world already, you know?”

“
I’m pretty sure I fall into that category a lot,” Emma said dejectedly.

“
You’re not miserable Emma,” he spoke seriously.  “You just need to relax sometimes.  Be happy for what you’ve got.  If you think happy thoughts, you will be happy—generally speaking.”

“
That sounds like a line from Peter Pan,” she teased.

“
Yeah, I guess it does, but that doesn’t make it any less true,” Destry insisted.

Emma mulled that over.  She knew she wasn’t really miserable, just a little too dramatic most of the time.  There were times she felt completely happy, and she hated to admit that a lot of those times involved Destry.  But a lot had to do with Micah too. 

Emma just wanted to find her perfect someone.  She believed that if she could, her whole life would fall into place, all of the pieces fitting nicely together.

Could her life be complete with this boy in it, Emma wondered?  She believed it could, but she wasn’t sure.  Could her life be complete with Micah?  She loved him, and he loved her back, but the talk with Gram, and with him earlier that day, had reminded her that flesh and blood had its advantages.  Did she really need it though?  Couldn’t she be happy with the way things were right now? 

Micah made her feel all warm and safe on the inside.  But she couldn’t deny that Destry made her feel things too, inside and out. 

“
So where are we going?”  Emma wondered out loud, determined to keep it light, no more heavy thinking tonight.

“
Well, I noticed that you had so much fun fishing today,” Destry gave her a sarcastic smile, “that I guessed you’d like to see something else I like doing.”

Emma shot him a horrified look.

“Don’t worry, it’s fun, and you don’t have to do anything but sit and watch.”

“
And it’s something you like to do?” Emma questioned, still hesitant to go along.

“
Yep, and I have a feeling you’re gonna love it!”

They weren’t too far down the dirt road when Destry made a small turn onto another road that led up the hill towards the place they'd gone earlier that day.

“We’re not going fishing in the dark are we?” Emma asked with hesitation.  “You said I would just have to watch.  I have a hard enough time walking in the woods when it’s light, there’s no way I’m trying it in the dark.”

“
I told you, don’t worry.  We aren’t even going to get out of the truck.”

That statement made Emma feel better and worse at the same time.  Being trapped in the truck with him again in the dark wasn’t a good idea. 

She looked sideways at him and saw that he was smiling, with one hand on the steering wheel, and the other arm resting on the opened window sill.  Emma was glad Destry had the window down, somehow the cool air made it less uncomfortable sitting next to him—he didn‘t feel quite so close.

The truck slowed, Emma peered through the dim twilight trying to determine their destination.  Destry stopped at a pull-off area next to a line of trees that paralleled the road on one side, and sat facing a large open meadow on the opposite side.  The meadow was beautiful and filled with fresh spring grasses that swayed in the gentle breeze, but she had no idea why they had stopped here. 

Destry turned the truck off, leaving no dash lights, no headlights, just dimly lit air.  She glanced in his direction. His profile in the moonlight was arousing feelings in her that she didn't want to surface, so she pressed them down into the pit of her stomach and swallowed hard.

They sat in silence for a moment until Emma couldn’t take it anymore.

“
What are we looking at exactly?” she prompted him meekly.

“
Just wait,” Destry said quietly, and then pointed.  “Keep watching over there.”

“
This is kind of creepy,” she whispered back to him.

He snickered, “why is it creepy?”

“Because it’s getting darker, and it’s so quiet and we’re the only ones out here.”  Emma rambled nervously.

“
We’re fine Emma,” Destry assured her.  “I don’t think there are any serial killers wandering around out here in the dark.”

“
I’m not worried about serial killers,” Emma scoffed, “just about bears...and mountain lions.”

“
They won’t attack us in the truck,” he smiled, “I’ll roll up the window if it makes you feel better.”

“
No, I’m fine,” Emma said coolly, folding her arms across her chest.  Destry looked at her and raised an eyebrow.  She thought he wanted to say something else, but he held back thankfully, not wanting to keep pressing the matter.

“
I’ll be right back,” he said suddenly, jumping out of the cab of the truck.

“
Where are you going?” Emma said, panicking, but he was already gone. 

After a minute, Destry reappeared at the side of the truck, and climbed in. He held a wicker picnic basket, and he was grinning from ear to ear.