Under the Open Sky (Montana Heritage Series) (15 page)

             
“No, yes,” Jenny shrugged. “I’m too young for him now, I know that, but more than anything I want to see him happy.”

             
“Me too,” Amanda nodded. Her brother hadn’t been truly happy since Angie’s death. The sound of boots on the stairs prompted both girls to glance toward the door and hallway beyond.

             
“Let’s take them their things,” Amanda suggested as she jumped up and grabbed the boxes she and Jenny had put together. Jenny trailed Amanda across the hall where Amanda knocked and waited for her brother to give her permission to enter.

             
“What do you want, pest?” Trent was grinning as he opened the door.

             
“We have something for you two if you’ll be nice,” she returned as she entered the room and flopped down on her brother’s spare bed. Her parents had been convinced that Amanda would be another boy and had decorated Trent’s room accordingly; no one had bothered to redecorate after her mother died.

             
“So what do you have for us?” Trent crossed his arms and watched his sister with interest. Jenny, eyeing the room curiously, seated herself beside Amanda.

             
“Here you go,” Amanda stood to hand one small box to her brother and the other to Cade where he sat at her brother’s desk, his sock feet propped on top. “There’s stationary, envelopes, stamps, some pictures of home, cookies, though I’m sure those will be gone before you ever get there; just stuff like that,” Amanda informed them.

             
“Thanks, pest,” her brother was looking over the pictures and smiling.

             
“Thanks, Manny; I don’t exactly have anyone to write but thanks,” Cade looked rather amused.

             
“I was rather hoping you would write me back,” Amanda plopped her hands on her hips and surveyed him.

             
He looked slightly taken back and then nodded.

             
“If you write; I’ll write back.”

             
“Good,” Amanda seated herself back on the bed and glanced around at the open boxes that sat scattered through the room. Trent had all his clothing packed, she knew because she had sat on his bed and watched him pack it the day before, but he was still gathering personal items he wanted to take.

             
“What’s left?” Amanda queried as her brother grabbed a couple of photo frames and added them to an open box.

             
“Not much. I’m about ready to tape up the boxes and load them,” he admitted.

             
Amanda sighed and grabbed the pillow from the bed before stopping and frowning at it.

             
“Where did you get this pillow?”

             
“That’s mine,” Cade informed her.

             
“Oh, well I’m borrowing it,” Amanda stretched out on her belly and wrapped her arms around the pillow before laying her head on it. She watched her brother tape up a box and found herself fighting tears.

             
“I don’t want you two to leave; it makes me depressed just thinking about it,” Amanda’s words were slurred from her cheek being pressed against the pillow.

             
“You’re such a drama queen, Mandy,” Trent accused.

             
“I’m going to miss you,” Amanda countered.

             
“I’ll miss you too, pest,” Trent’s own voice sounded suspiciously blue. He taped two more boxes and then stacked them.

             
“Mind helping?” he shot at Cade.

             
“Nope,” Cade put his feet back on the floor and pulled his boots on. The two soon disappeared out the door, boxes balanced in their arms.

             
Taking Trent’s absence as an opportunity to move around the room, Jenny stood and started studying the remaining photos and various items he hadn’t packed.

              “You look ready to cry,” Jenny noted.

             
“I feel ready to cry,” Amanda admitted.

             
“I’m sorry, Mandy, I know this is hard for you,” Jenny’s gaze was sympathetic.

             
“I don’t like being left behind,” Amanda offered on a sigh.

             
“Me either,” Jenny’s eyes misted.

             
“I’m sorry, Jenny, here I am griping when my brother will be back and your sister won’t,” Amanda offered sincerely.

             
“Both are hard, just in different ways,” Jenny forced a shrug and wiped impatiently at her eyes.

             
“Yours is worse,” Amanda countered.

             
“What we’re going to have a competition over it?” Jenny offered a genuine smile.

             
“No,” Amanda smiled back. “I’m so glad we became friends, Jenny; I don’t know how I would deal with this alone.”

             
“Me either,” Jenny returned as she made her way back to the bed and seated herself. “Maybe we’ll have some classes together.”

             
“I hope so,” Amanda responded. Due to the way their birthdays fell the two were in the same grade despite their age difference.

             
“You two still in here,” Trent teased as he reentered the room.

             
“Yes, I have to aggravate you while I can,” Amanda offered.

             
“At least you’re honest,” he collapsed onto his own bed.

             
“What time are you two leaving in the morning?” Jenny queried.

             
“We’re hoping no later than seven.”

             
“Can’t I stow away in your luggage?” Amanda joked.

             
“Then you would be missing Dad, Naomi, and your friends.

             
“I think I would miss them less,” she predicted. “Maybe,” she added on further reflection.

             
“You would be homesick before I even finished unpacking,” Trent predicted.

             
“Yeah, I guess I would,” she acknowledged.

             
“It’ll be me and you leaving in a couple of years,” Jenny reminded Amanda. Trent looked so startled at her words that Jenny and Amanda both started laughing.

             
“Shit, Jenny; did you have to say that?” Trent looked downright irritable.

             
“Sorry,” she offered unrepentantly.

             
“You two stay out of trouble, you hear me?” Trent ordered them gruffly.

             
“We’ll do our best,” Jenny offered sweetly.

             
“Don’t you get my sister in trouble,” Trent warned.

             
“Excuse me, you take that back and don’t talk to my friend that way!” Amanda protested.

             
“You two are dangerous together!” Trent persisted.

             
“We promise to try and stay out of trouble if you two promise to try and stay out of trouble,” Jenny, her eyes twinkling, proposed.

             
“Here’s the deal. One of you always has to be the voice of reason for one another and one of us will always be the voice of reason for one another,” Amanda offered. She watched her brother exchange a glance with a smiling Cade.

             
“Well? Take it or leave it?” Amanda waited for her brother to respond.

             
“I think you laid a nice trap for us, Trent,” Cade accused.

             
“Deal,” Trent finally muttered.

             
“I think you and I should room at college,” Jenny suggested to Amanda. Amanda lifted her head from the pillow to peer at her friend.

             
“That’s a good idea,” she agreed before she laid her head back down to find Cade watching her. Wishing she could read his mind, she held his gaze.

             
“I don’t know, Cade, what do you think? Deal or no deal, can we trust these two together?” Trent turned to his friend.

             
Cade shifted his gaze to Trent and smiled.

             
“I think they both like pushing your buttons is what I think.”

             
Jenny engaged Trent in a series of questions about his upcoming classes and Amanda closed her eyes as she let their voices roll over her. Too soon she would only hear her brother’s voice on the phone and holidays. Amanda became aware of Cade’s cologne clinging to his pillow and sniffed appreciatively. It was a spicy masculine scent and she had, without even realizing it, come to recognize it as Cade’s.

             
“You falling asleep over there, Pest?”

             
“No. Just relaxing and filing this memory away for after you two are gone,” she admitted.

             
“Well aren’t you sappy?” Trent shot at her.

             
Amanda opened one eye to glare at her brother. “Better than mean,” she offered.

             
Trent grinned a moment, his gaze affectionate as it rested on his sister. His expression turned serious, his brow furrowing.

             
“All teasing and joking aside, Amanda, I want you to be careful and I want you to really think things through before you leap. You’ll be…dating before long and…”

             
“Trent! What do you think I’m going to do? You think one night I’m going to go to town announce I’m bored and ask if anyone wants my virginity? Good grief; I’ve already told you that the idea of sleeping around for no good reason creeps me out!” Amanda was now glaring at her brother with both eyes.

             
“It’s not you I worry about so much,” Trent snapped in return. “I’m worried that some horny prick is going to start pressuring you girls to do things you don’t want to do!”

             
“Yes, because it’s so easy to get me to do something I don’t want to do!” Amanda was frowning at her brother.

             
“Guys can be persuasive.”

             
“And I can be stubborn.”

             
“And when you’re caught up in a moment…”

             
“Trent, I intend to be the one to decide when, if, where, I make that step. Not some prick as you put it. I want it to mean something, okay? So please stop acting like I’m some…whore; would you?” Amanda shot at her brother in frustration.

             
“Sorry, Mandy. I didn’t mean it that way. I’m just worried about you. You don’t know how guys think; I do.”

             
“No; really? Well we girls have opinions on it too. Did Angie sleep with you for kicks?” Amanda shot at her brother and watched his surprise gaze fly to Jenny.

             
“I knew you two were sleeping together; she told me,” Jenny let him know she wasn’t shocked. “And I can answer that one. She was on a cloud; it definitely meant something to her. Are you telling us it meant nothing to you?”

             
“No, it meant something to me,” Trent’s voice had gone soft.

             
“So why don’t you give me a list of guys to avoid and we’re good,” Amanda suggested.

             
“All of them,” her brother offered a smile.

             
“Great.”  Amanda stood and turned to Jenny. “Jenny, I think I’m bored let’s go to town and see if we can find a couple of horny teenage boys.”

             
A pillow hit Amanda upside the head before she could make further comment.

             
“Damn, Manny; no wonder your brother worries about you,” Cade was shaking his head and smiling at her antics.

             
“If he wouldn’t treat me like an idiot I wouldn’t say such outrageous things,” Amanda launched the pillow back at her brother before laying back down.

             
“I’m not in the habit of sleeping around either, well at all actually just so you know I won’t corrupt your sister,” Jenny, her cheeks slightly pink, offered. “I’m not sure why you think I’m so wild.”

             
“I know you aren’t wild, Jenny, but you are very bold.”

             
“Manny isn’t? Maybe you should be worried about Jenny?” Cade teased.

             
“You’re right,” Trent nodded at his friend. “Amanda, I do not want to hear of you getting sweet little Jenny here into any trouble.”