Chapter Thirty Eight
Taylor
I’d had no luck convincing my father to let Dylan and I go to the prom. I’m sure he’d heard stories about how girls lost their virginity on prom night. Well, that ship had sailed. Of course, my father didn’t know that. He wouldn’t suspect.
I turned to my mother for help. I wanted her to see what a good guy Dylan was, that he needed to stay, and that at least he was a known variable in the dating world. At least they knew who he was.
So, I decided to make my mother feel sorry for him – to realize that he was a good guy, despite where he’d come from. As a mother, her heart had to go out for his situation.
To do this, I asked my mother to go for a drive.
“Me?” she said.
“Yes, you, Mom.”
She looked at me as if I had two heads. “You sure you don’t want to go with your father?”
“No, Mom, you.”
“Okay.”
I directed her as she drove. I wanted her to see Dylan’s trailer. I wanted her to see what we’d saved him from.
“Why are we going down this rutted driveway?” she said. “Who lives here?”
“I’ll explain when we get there.”
She pressed her lips together, but kept driving. When we came in view of the trailer, she stopped the car. “Why are we here, Taylor? I don’t have time for games.”
“No, games. I want to show you something.”
I urged her to park closer, so she did. We climbed out of the car. I retrieved Dylan’s spare key, then unlocked the front door. We stepped into the place that hadn’t been aired for a few days. It stunk of gasoline from Dylan’s uniforms. My mother had made him take off his uniform in the garage his first night working and living with us. He kept sweats in the garage so he wouldn’t have to walk through the house in his underwear.
Not that I would mind.
“Who lives here?” my mother said, standing in the doorway.
“This is Dylan’s trailer. Or where he was living.”
“Why did you bring me here?”
“Because I want you to see what will happen if you kick him out. This is the best there is to offer him. After it’s sold, he has no place to live.”
“Then he needs to keep his nose clean.”
“He has been, Mom. I’m the one who has been screwing up. Not him. I don’t have anything to lose but privileges.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I don’t want him to be homeless because I’ve been stupid. I’m trying to abide by the rules, but I love him, Mom.”
Her mouth opened slightly at my revelation. I don’t think she realized until that moment that I had real feelings for him. I think she thought I was just playing. I had to prove to her that I wasn’t playing, that I was growing up.
She leaned against the closed door behind her. “Did I ever tell you about the first boy I loved?”
“No, Mom.”
“Your father wasn’t my first love and that’s okay. He’s my last.”
She glanced around as if she’d been here before, or she was going somewhere in her mind.
“Go ahead,” I said.
I leaned against the back of the couch. Waiting. I didn’t know much about my mother’s past.
“I never told you about my childhood, either.”
“No,” I said.
I knew lots about my father’s family and how he grew up. My mother was always tight-lipped about what went on in her childhood.
“I grew up in a trailer just like this.”
I gasped. I never would have guessed. My mother was frugal when she could be, but she’d never spared any expense for me. “Okay.”
“I mean, just like this. Same lack of space. Same smell, almost.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. Never thought about your mother that way. My parents loved me. There were happy times, but I was always eager to be out. I never wanted to be reminded that we were poor.”
I would never have known. “Then why didn’t you have compassion for Dylan?”
“I’ve never thought about that trailer once I graduated from college. I had a good job. I met your father, who had a good job. I never was poor again. My parents died not long after I graduated. They both died in a fire in that trailer. I figured if I never thought about it again, I’d never be touched by it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I hated being poor. I wanted to forget that I was ever that way. With Dylan in our lives, I had to remember.”
I walked over and hugged her. “He’s a good person even if he’s poor.”
“I know that. At least, some part of me knows that. Not that I’m thrilled that you have feelings for him.”
I stepped away from her. “Think about it this way. You know more about him than you would know about any other guy I could date. You know where he came from. You know his influences. You know that he wants to do anything he can to stay in our house, so he isn’t going to do anything to hurt me.”
My mother looked down at me as if she had never seen me before. “You’re growing up.”
“I am. I’m glad you noticed.”
“You really care about him?”
“I do. He’s good to me. He’s more mature than the other guys at high school.”
“That’s good and bad.”
I knew she was talking about a physical relationship. He would want that. Well, I wanted it, too, but that didn’t need to be said here. “You need to trust me. You need to trust Dylan. We both have plans for our future and neither of us want to mess that up.”
She smiled. “I guess I have to let you grow up.”
“I thought you were excited about it. You’re starting something new,” I said.
“It’s bittersweet, Taylor.”
I nodded, understanding. “Now, how do we get Daddy to let Dylan take me to the prom?”
***
My mother and I managed to convince my father to let Dylan take me to the prom. He’d even taken Dylan out to rent a tuxedo. My mother and I had gone shopping, and I ended up with a green dress that didn’t show too much.
It had spaghetti straps, which was a compromise from the strapless one I wanted. I still loved the dress. After my mother helped me with my hair, she stood behind me as we both gazed into the mirror.
“You are no longer a little girl,” she told me.
Guess she wasn’t ready for me to grow up. “Thank you for helping me convince Daddy to let Dylan take me.”
“You’re welcome. Now, he’s waiting downstairs. Nervous. He gets an audience when he sees you.”
I glanced back at my reflection once, happy with how I looked. I almost didn’t recognize myself.
My mother opened the door for me. I grabbed my clutch that matched my dress, then walked down the steps. Dylan was pacing at the bottom. My father leaned on the doorway to the living room a small smile on his face. When he looked up at me, his smile broadened.
I stopped hallway down, and Dylan finally looked my way. His lips were open and I knew he was surprised. His eyes widened as he said, “You look beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
“Oh, kitten. You do look beautiful.”
We took pictures out on the lawn. Dylan was a gentleman and held the door to the limousine that my father had rented for us. He held my hand the whole way to the venue.
“I can’t stop staring at you, Taylor. You look amazing. Awesome.”
“You look pretty handsome, too, Dylan. You clean up well.”
He laughed. “Your father had to help a little.”
Now I laughed. “At least he did. He could have protested.”
“Oh, he let me know that we were to come home after the dance and that if we were going somewhere tomorrow, we weren’t staying over.”
I rested my head against his shoulder. “I don’t need any of that. Just you.”
“That’s sweet, Taylor.”
I shrugged.
The ballroom was full of teenage couples. The tables were decorated with blue and white balloons, our school colors. I couldn’t believe the day had finally come. This was the last big event of our senior year.
After this, it was only a few weeks until graduation.
I held Dylan’s hand as we entered the room. I heard a squeal and was hugged fiercely by Helena. I looked her over. “You look pretty amazing.”
She smiled. “You look beautiful, too. I grabbed your place cards. You’re sitting with us.”
“Cool.”
She wore a dark blue dress that accented her eyes. Cole, her date, wore a matching cummerbund. Those two had met at one point during the drama of Dylan and I, and they’d hit it off. I told Cole that if he didn’t treat her properly, he would have me to answer to.
So far, he’d been a very good boyfriend to her.
“Do we get pictures first?” I said.
“Yeah. Cole and I got ours,” Helena said.
I turned to Dylan. “Let’s get this over with. I don’t know how good I’m going to look after I’m dancing.”
“Dancing?”
I laughed. “Yes. We’ll be dancing.”
“Did I agree to that?”
I laughed and swatted his arm. “It’s implied when you take someone to a prom.”
“Oh, okay. Didn’t know that.”
The smile on his face told me he was teasing me.
We did the pictures, and then there was a slow song. Dylan held me as if I were china. “Why didn’t you run for prom queen?” he asked me.
I shrugged. “Didn’t seem important with all that was going on with you.”
“Do you regret it?”
“Nope. I get to dance with only you all night instead of the prom king.”
“I like that idea.” He nuzzled my neck. “This is kind of nice. Kind of fun.”
“Better than you thought?”
“Much better, but I think that has to do with my date,” he said.
That filled me with such a warm feeling. I wanted to tell him that I loved him, but I didn’t think I was ready to be that vulnerable. Yet. Maybe by the end of the night.
The prom queen was crowned and the fast music started. I dragged Dylan out on the dance floor.
“But they just served dessert,” he said.
“It’ll be there when you get back,” I said. “I want to see you dance.”
“I’m not very good.”
He actually was okay; he had more rhythm than a lot of guys on the dance floor. He had nothing to be embarrassed about. We didn’t sit down for three songs. Then I needed a drink.
The cake was gone. He looked like a puppy who had been kicked.
“I’ll bake you a chocolate cake tomorrow.”
Dylan’s face lit up. “Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Okay, then.”
And for one quick moment, I saw the teenage Dylan. Not the serious grownup one that had been around lately. Not that I minded, either.
“Last song of the night, girls and boys,” the disc jockey said.
I turned back to Dylan. “One more.”
He kissed my nose. “Of course.”
He held me close again, and I never wanted the night to end. His warm body was pressed against mine, his bow tie was in his pocket, and his sleeves were rolled up.
He was all mine. At least, for now.
When the song ended, he led me to the table. We gathered our things said goodnight to everyone. I really didn’t want to go back to reality. This had been wonderful.
I held onto Dylan’s arm, my high heels in my hand. “This was great. Thank you.”
He smiled down at me. “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.”
I stopped him before we climbed into the limousine.
“Is something wrong?” he said.
“No. I just wanted to tell you that I love you.”
His smile lit up his face. “I love you, too.”
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SEAL's Arrival
By Naomi Niles
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 Naomi Niles
CHAPTER 1
Elsa
I was raking the endless pile of leaves when I heard Mama ring the bell for supper. I leaned my rake carefully against a sturdy tree and walked over to my house to join my family at the table. I washed up in the kitchen sink before I ran my damp hands through my Blonde curls that had come loose from my braid before I stepped towards the dining area. I glanced out of the window to see a shiny yellow car parked in our driveway, something you didn’t ever see out here in Amish country. It looked older than some of the cars I sometimes saw when we were going into town. What was happening?
I paused in shock as I took the beautiful vehicle in, at least until I heard Mama calling my name from the dining room. “Coming, Mama!” I called out before I walked into the long room with the massive wooden table and took my seat next to my brother Adam with my father to my left, which was a little different than I was used to. I frequently sat by Mama with Adam across from me, but now they closed me in at the table when there was plenty of seats.
Another meal with my family. It had been this way for so many years, and I had been all too aware that Rumspringa was just around the bend for me for some time now. I’d dreamed of it at night and wondered what I was going to do, and who I was going to do it with. My brother went with some friends, and it was a mystery what they’d done. I knew a few older girls that had left and come back as well, and while they had a few hushed stories to tell when we had a moment alone, they were here now. They came back. Most of the Amish did and settled right back into their lives, even getting married and starting their family.
I felt a presence in the room and lifted my eyes to see my family seated as well as a stranger. He was tall and muscular, gorgeous with dark black cropped hair and intense brown eyes that were taking me in quite intently. He was dressed in a clean white t-shirt and a worn leather jacket and smiled at me as I found myself returning one to him easily. I suspected that he was the owner of that car in the driveway, and everything about him screamed that he was an outsider to me. It was enticing, and the timing couldn’t have been worse, or better, depending on how you looked at it.
I could smell him in the room above the scent of my supper, clean and woodsy as I took a deep breath.
I noticed the scar tissue on his arm where the jacket was pushed up just slightly, perhaps to be easier for him to move. Maybe the feeling of anything on his skin irritated the marred red welts that covered his forearm. It made me wonder what happened, and I took the hands of my family as my Daddy said the nightly prayer before supper.
I was introduced to the man after the prayer was said and the food was being passed around the table. His name was Aidan Wolcott, and he winked at me after the introduction as I felt my body warm up and my cheeks flush pink. I found out from his easy way of talking that he was a veteran of the Afghanistan War. I didn’t know too much about anything other than what little I’d been taught in school and without television or the internet like other folks had there was no way for me to know anymore apart from what he was telling all of us. It was fascinating to hear about life outside of my little community, and his eyes showed that he hid a few details with his storytelling and witty banter that had me laughing all too quickly. I think that my family was even entertained by him as I took peeks at them when I wasn’t staring at Aidan.
There was a large part of me that wanted to go to a modern college during my time away as I listened to him talk and learn everything that I could, though that decision would have to be made at a later date. I hadn’t even left yet though I was feeling a stirring in my belly as I got more and more lost in Aidan.
He was animated and witty, much different from any of the men-or boys-that I’d ever met living in this community. They all paled in comparison to him with their awkward ways, and I was hooked on his voice. His banter had me smiling and laughing before I even realized I was doing so, and it took away from the focus on the supper I’d piled on my plate.
Supper was normally a quieter event for my family, and I noticed the looks that my father was giving me as I cleared my throat and looked down as I played with the roast on my plate. The food was delicious as always as my mother was one of the best cooks in the community, but I didn’t have any taste for it tonight. The appetite that I’d worked up outside in the yard seemed to disappear when I saw this stranger at my table, in my house.
My father, Isaac, told me that Aidan was making a cross country drive from Virginia when his car broke down just in front of our farm. He gave me a stern look as he mentioned that he would be spending the night before a repairman came to take a look at the vehicle in the morning and I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my older brother Adam was sitting up straighter. I wanted to laugh at him and ask how he could think that he could intimidate a man like Aidan? He was strong and had lived such a life, one that I wanted so badly to know more about. No man here in my community could ever compare to Aidan, and I knew that I would never forget him.
We finished supper, and I cleaned up in the kitchen with Mama as the men sat out on the porch and talked. Daddy liked to have his coffee and relax after he ate and I think my brother went out there just to spy on Aidan. I couldn’t help but wonder what they were talking about as we washed and dried the dishes and got the kitchen all cleaned up for the night. She looked at me with the same green eyes that I had and cleared her throat. “You liked that young man, Elsa. I could see it.”
“He’s so different from anyone I’ve ever met here. What’s not to be fascinated by, Mama?” I asked her as I looked at her in wonder. I knew that she was worried about my time away and concerned that I might choose not to return, and the arrival of this man was a little too close to comfort for her. I knew that she had wanted the Amish life and loved it since she’d married my father soon after returning and settling into the family life. Of course, she wanted the same for me, but I’d always wanted to explore and see the world.
I loved my family more than anything, but I’d always wanted something different for myself. I had looked forward to my freedom since I was a little girl and I anticipated spreading my wings and seeing more of the world, even if it was just the next town over. I knew that I was safe here and sheltered, which I didn’t want to be for my entire life.
“I just think a man like that is far too advanced to be good for a woman like you, Elsa. That’s all.” She sounded concerned, and I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. “He’s dangerous.”
“Mama, he will be gone before you know it. I am sure that he appreciates your generosity.” I tried to assure her as she hugged me back. “Everything is going to be just fine,”
I told her to go and clean up for bed and that I would finish up in here since I needed a moment to myself. My mama and I didn’t talk about her time away, only ever about how happy she was here with us and her peaceful life. Mama hinted that the life she’d seen outside of our community was messy and troubling, and that was a sentiment that my father backed up.
My brother had even come back to our life, and he was looking to marry Abby Rhodes in a few months’ time. She was a nice girl, and they’d known each other their whole life, but it made me wonder what he’d seen on the outside to return.
Was the outside so terrible that nobody wanted to stay there? Would I not like it as I thought I would so many times?