You're Gone (Finding Solid Ground) (2 page)

“I love you, too,” she sighed, intertwining her fingers with his as they watched the show.

Life was good. It was better than good. Life was wonderful. It was fantastic. It was marvelous. It was
excellent
! Charleigh had never been happier in her life, but she couldn’t imagine it getting any better.

Firstly, and most importantly, Charleigh had Jamie back in her life. She was in love, and it was the best feeling in the world.

And she had her work. Everyone at the clinic stopped treating Charleigh as if she was an intruder. Business at the feed store was good. In fact, it was better than ever before with the changes and additions John was continually making.

The rift that had grown between Charleigh and Madie since her return from New York was now completely patched up. She was back working with the horses, and riding again for the first time since the miscarriage. It had been hard to be around Abernathy, but all was forgiven and forgotten.

They went for their first ride together since then the day before. Jamie had rode Daisy, and Charleigh had rode Abernathy just as they had that day, but something was different the second time around. On Abe’s part, at least. It was as if the horse realized that he’d done wrong by throwing Charleigh all those months before, and he was remorseful for it.

On this particular day, Abernathy paced himself through the pasture. Daisy was a little more energetic, galloping with Jamie a few lengths ahead.

“Are you sure that’s the same horse that tossed you?” Jamie asked, coming back to ride beside her.

“I’m positive. He’s just… I don’t know. Maybe he’s calmed down a little since the accident.” Charleigh leaned forward in the saddle to hug Abe’s neck.

              “I don’t think so. He was acting wild last week when Toby tried to saddle him up.”

“Maybe now he knows to act differently with a lady in the saddle.”

“A
lady
?” Jamie laughed.

“Yeah, a lady.” Abernathy was a few hands taller than Daisy, giving Charleigh ample opportunity to look down at her fiancé. “And this
lady
will kick your butt any day of the week. Won’t we, Abe?” She eyed Jamie.

“Is that a challenge?”

“Dang Skippy. You will never beat me.” She tightened the reins to make the horse stop. “We start from here. All the way back to the stable.”

“What do I get on the offhand chance that I do win?” Jamie asked with a raised brow. A sly smile spread across his lips.

Charleigh rolled her eyes. “The winner, whoever he or
she
may be, gets
whatever
they want.”

“Anything?”

“Anything. Ready! Set!” And she was gone.

***

“You cheated,” Jamie said when he came into the stable with Daisy several minutes later. “You cheated and I win by default.”

Charleigh already had Abernathy unsaddle and was
brushing him down. “Aw, bull!” She looked past Jamie to see a few of his younger cousins coming in with him. “I didn’t do anything you wouldn’t have, had you came up with the idea first.”

Fifteen year old Tara— with her long, blonde hair flowing down her back and too much eyeliner around her green eyes—came to stand in the stall doorway beside Charleigh. “Hey, are
you coming to the campout?”

“I don’t know. Is that tonight?” Charleigh stepped around the horse to begin the other side.

“Yeah. It’s supposed to be a lot of fun.” Fourteen year old, blue-eyed Lacey was right beside Tara, watching with expectant eyes.

             
“I haven’t thought much about it.”
Not at all.
Charleigh shrugged, smearing mayonnaise onto a piece of bread. She licked some from her finger. The girls had spent the last half hour trying to bring Charleigh around to the idea.

Jamie sat in front of her at the counter, doing the same but with mustard. “What is this campout-thing you’re talking about?”

“Every year the church has a campout for the youth group. We play games, sing songs, roast hot dogs. Stuff like that,” Twelve year old Carol Anne said over a mouthful of potato chips.

Jamie had never been camping. Before coming to Oklahoma, he hadn’t seen much nature, either. He thought it sounded like a lot of fun.

Charleigh exchanged a look with Lenore. The old lady sat at the table, silently stirring her cup of Earl Grey tea. The glint in her eyes meant that the wheels were turning.

Neither C
harleigh nor Lenore shared their thoughts on the subject with Jamie. They both knew that the yearly campout was generally just another place for the kids to hang out and do their normal thing: get in trouble. It didn’t matter that it was a church activity; the kids still sneaked off to make out or have sex, to smoke cigarettes or a little pot. What other reason that these was the game ‘Flashlight Tag’ invented? Of course, parents were around, but the number of kids was always larger than the number of parents and responsible adults. There were never enough pairs of watchful eyes to keep track of the under-aged nymphomaniacs and rabble-rousers.

“Well, what do you think?” Jamie watched as Charleigh stacked Cool-Ranch Doritos on top of cheese. She put on the top piece of bread and smashed everything together.

              She took a bite, shrugged. Charleigh didn’t want to say anything in front of Jamie’s cousins because they’d deny all of the things she knew, without a doubt, happened.
Been there, done that, I know it happens.
The girls were young, but she knew very well that they were aware of the same goings-on.

              Charleigh could only reply, “Maybe.”

“Cool,” the girls said in unison, smiling and nodding to one another.

***

“What was that look?” Jamie asked hours later as he pushed the shopping cart down the refrigerated section at Healy’s. Charleigh clung onto the front, grabbing items as they went by.

“What look are you talking about? I have many looks.”

“That look—” He stopped the cart to do a pretty good imitation, grabbed a pepperoni pizza from the nearby freezer case in the process.
“The one you gave Aunt Lenore in the kitchen earlier. Didn’t think I noticed, huh?”

“I—”
Charleigh gave him a sheepish smile.   

“Uh-huh.” They continued around the store.

“Do you
really
want to go to that thing tonight? It’s not all it’s cracked up to be, darlin’. Sweetie.”

Jamie knew she was up to something when she started calling him pet names. Charleigh hated them more than
his mother. “Buttercup. Honeybunch. Sugarplum. All those other little cutesy nicknames you southern girls come up with. Why are you so down on the idea of going on the campout? It could be fun.”

“It could be…” Charleigh stopped to lick her lips, searched both sides of the canned vegetables aisle for the green beans. “…that I have a problem with all those little teenyboppers going out behind the bushes to party with Mary-Jane and make whoopee.”

“What?” Jamie stopped searching for a can of stewed tomatoes to look at Charleigh with a disbelievingly smile.

After finally finding what she wanted, she shrugged. Without a word, Charleigh continued on around the store to find other items on her list.

“You don’t have to believe me. It’s fine, really.” She went to take a couple loaves of bread from the shelf. Hanging on to the ends of the plastic bags, Charleigh turned to look at him. “Has Madie or Lenore ever explained the whole theory about the preacher’s kids to you? How they’re usually the wildest?” Jamie shook his head, but she continued anyway

“It’s generally anytime they get out from under their parents’ thumbs —
as far as I know, it’s not that way with the Wilkerson kids, though— because they’re raised with an iron fist. Southern Baptists are all fire and brimstone,” She sighed. She didn’t mean to be stereotypical or a gossip. Charleigh was just stating the facts the way she viewed them. “Anyway, they
usually
act like complete hoodlums and do things you would never expect from any child from a good Christian family. Fact is, a good fraction do things you can’t imagine.”

“And you fit in where? You grew up in church. Were you a hoodlum or a good little girl?” Jamie grabbed several bags of potato chips, half of which Charleigh put back.

“I’m the local vet’s daughter, Jamie, of course I was a good girl,” Charleigh whispered as they approached the check-out.

“Yeah, okay,” Jamie replied cynically as they began to unload the cart.

Mister Healy smiled at the young couple from behind the counter. He’d heard some of their conversation. Although he didn’t completely agree with what Charleigh said about the notion —or the Wilkerson kids; some people paid more attention to the town gossip than others— it was mostly true.

“What do you think, Mister Healy?” Jamie asked. “
Was
Charleigh a good girl?”

The old man’s eyes shifted from Jamie to Charleigh and back. He smiled. “She was the best.”

Charleigh gazed at him with a satisfied smile and appreciative glimmer in her eyes. With a craftier smile, she said to Jamie, “Told you so.”

Their groceries were totaled and bagged. Jamie pushed the cart out to where Charleigh’s Tahoe was parked. He remained silent as Charleigh opened the back door, though, he wanted to push the issue a little more. The explanation Charleigh had given wasn’t good enough.

“Why is this campout so important to you?” She asked, putting a brown grocery bag onto the back seat.

“It’s not one of those I-can’t-live-unless, important things. I’ve just never been camping.” Jamie sighed, “Never had anyone who cared enough to take me when I was a kid.”

Jamie put in the last remaining bags while Charleigh returned the shopping cart to the designated place on the sidewalk. He got into the driver’s seat; she opened the passenger-side door.

“And now, years later? Why?”

With his hands on the steering wheel, Jamie looked through the windshield at the signs displayed on the glass windows of Healy’s. One in particular that caught his attention was one for charcoal lighter fluid. He didn’t know why. It wasn’t like it was on the list; Charleigh had just bought a brand-new propane-gas grill.

“I said— maybe not to anyone specifically
; maybe I just thought it— but I made up my mind that things were going to change for the better in my life. I wanted to do some things that I’d never done before. Whether or not you accepted my proposal, though, I put a whole lot of emphasis on you being a part of those things.”

“
Camping was one of them, huh?” Charleigh leaned over the console, kissed a corner of Jamie’s turned-down mouth. 

He looked over at her
. “Yeah. I find myself doing a lot of things with you that I’ve never done before. I find myself
thinking
about doing a lot of things with you that I’ve never done.”

The comment was tugging on Charleigh
’s heart-strings. It also made her smile. “Okay. We’ll go camping, just not at the campout. I have a problem with all those little teenyboppers being around if I decide
I
want to go out behind the bushes to make whoopee.”

Jamie arched an eyebrow, smiled.
“
Oh, really
?”

***

              The flames of the campfire were a brilliant orange and blue. A two-person tent was set up with two comfy sleeping bags unrolled inside. A cooler filled with all their camping amenities sat just outside.

They roasted hot dogs. They made smores. Jamie was as excited as a child about the whole experience, though going to restroom in the outdoors was the only downfall he could find. It was a good thing the house was only a few hundred yards away. 

It was a warm night. There was hardly any relief from the heat of the day. Temperatures in Magnolia topped ninety-nine, but the telvision showed that Durant hit one-hundred-one. Jamie wore cargo shorts and a t-shirt; Charleigh was wearing jeans with a pink and purple plaid shirt, with the long sleeves rolled up to just below her elbows. Her only explanation was, “Mosquitos.” He thought she was a crazy woman, until he was fully under attack by the blood-sucking insects. Luckily, she’d also brought a can of Off.

They laid on a
blanket under a velvety-black sky filled with a million twinkling stars. Her head was on Jamie’s chest. Corey laid in the space between their intersecting bodies. Amos laid closer to Charleigh, with his head on her other shoulder. 

Charleigh pointed out all of the constellations to Jamie, telling him about the mythology of how they got their names. He listened intently, his fingers toyed with the silky coils of her hair all the while. Jamie noticed how she told the stories. With authority and intelligence. It made him wonder if Charleigh really believed what she was telling him, and he said so.

“What’s so wrong with believing in magic? In the possibilty of something bigger out there, somewhere?”

“
Am I marrying a mystic or a Treky?” Jamie joked.

A smile crossed Charleigh
’s lips.  “Live long and prosper.” She rolled her eyes, spread her fingers into the shape of the Vulcan greeting. “No, you’re definitely not marrying a Treky, though I did watch the show. That female doctor’s son on
The Next Genereation
was
hot
! My first movie star crush.”