Thomas didn’t want the evening to end. This was the last chance he had to spend with her before she went back to New York City. Who knew when he’d see her again? Dinner was amazing like it had been the last time, and he was glad he’d suggested it.
Mandy came back from the bathroom where she’d applied bright red lipstick that sent his heart racing. “Ready to go. Sorry it took a bit.”
“No problem.” He paid for their dinner, then caught the cab that Mandy had set up.
Students and their leaders poured into the convention center and toward the concert. He kept his hand on the small of her back so they wouldn’t lose each other. The guards scanned their tickets and then he led her to where the rest of the group stood waiting for the concert to start.
Hannah brightened when she saw Mandy. “Hey, you came.”
“I wouldn’t miss.” Mandy pulled her into a hug. “Cute skirt.”
“Thanks. I picked it up earlier today.” Hannah turned so Mandy could see the whole thing.
Thomas leaned down to Mandy’s ear. “You should show her your designs. She’d love them.”
Mandy smiled up at him then pulled out her phone to show the girls. He knew by the squeals that he’d been right.
Eric pushed past them and stood next to Thomas. “You were almost caught, by the way. They wanted pictures of everyone’s group and I had to tell them you were back at the hotel after eating too many hot dogs.”
“Too many . . . you couldn’t come up with something else?” Thomas shook his head.
“Hey, don’t disappear and I won’t have to come up with stories.” Eric slugged him in the shoulder. “She looks pretty good, doesn’t she?”
Thomas raised an eyebrow. “She’s too old for you, man. But yes, she looks amazing. Where’s Mr. Hunter?”
“I think one of the competitions went long. Some of the guys aren’t here yet.” Eric waved at someone. “Now that you’re back with your date, I’m going to go spend time with mine.”
He was gone before Thomas could say anything. If it had been any of the other kids, he would have worried. Eric would be back when the concert was over. He turned back to Mandy to find them still talking about the dresses. They really were amazing. How she could design something like that was beyond him. He was having a hard enough time planning a house and here she was designing all these fancy clothes.
Mandy looked over at him and stepped closer. “These girls have an eye for fashion. If they ever need a job, I know where to find them one.”
“I figured they’d love it.” Thomas wanted to say more but the lights went off. The concert was about to start. The others went to stand by friends and Thomas moved closer to Mandy. Screams erupted as the music started, and that meant that talking would have to wait until after the concert.
Thomas knew this wasn’t Mandy’s favorite music. They’d discussed it often enough during her visit to Idaho. But she still seemed to have fun and jumped along with the rest of the group.
When a slow song began, some people paired off to dance. Mandy looked up at Thomas and he held a hand out. She took it and stepped into his arms, leaning her head against his chest. He hoped she’d mistake the wild thumping of his heart for the beat of the concert. The way she fit in his arms just felt so right.
The song ended and the spell broke as she stepped away. He wanted to take her hand, but hesitated. As much as he cared for her, he knew that she would be gone the next day. Like she had after her vacation. Like she had after Laura’s wedding. No matter how right it felt to have her in his arms, he couldn’t give in. He didn’t want to be hurt again.
When the house lights came on, it was time to make sure he had everyone in his group. Eric came back from where he’d been sitting and judging by the lipstick on his cheek, the concert had gone well for him.
Thomas counted everyone three times to make sure he had it right. “Off to the buses, guys. Make sure to stick together.”
They walked out to the bus and once everyone was on, he turned to Mandy. “Thanks for coming tonight.”
“Of course. Thanks for inviting me.” She tipped her head to the side. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, why?”
She frowned. “You’ve just been a little distant since we danced. Did I step on your foot or something?”
“No. I wanted you to enjoy the concert, so I figured I wouldn’t interrupt you.” It was a half-truth, but it was enough to satisfy her. “Good luck with your designs. And if you end up in Idaho again, look me up. Although your globe spinning will probably take you to Africa or something.”
Mandy shook her head. “No more globe spinning. It’s not quite as fun without Laura here.”
“True. Well, I guess I’ll see you sometime.”
Mandy nodded, then paused. “What if I were to throw her a baby shower? I’d have to fly out there for that.”
Thomas’s heart lifted a little. “That could be fun. I could help.”
“I’d love that.” Mandy turned to leave, but stopped. She threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek. “It was good to see you. I’ll be in touch.”
And just like that, she was gone again. Thomas stared toward the spot where she’d disappeared around the bus.
“Are you just going to stand there or can we go back to the hotel?” Mr. Hunter stood on the bottom step of the bus with a smirk.
“Oh, sorry.” Thomas climbed on and stared out the window until they got to the hotel. While the others ran inside to catch a basketball game, Thomas trudged behind them. He knew this was going to happen. Whether it was tonight or three days from now, she was going to leave. And it was better for both of them that she left when she did. Otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have let her go.
Thomas turned on the TV to watch basketball and pulled out his sketchpad. He’d been trying to get his house plans just right, but he couldn’t get the dimensions how he wanted them. He extended a few of the rooms by a few feet and added a fireplace to the living room. The kitchen needed an island, so he expanded that as well.
When he started picturing Mandy alongside him, he tossed the notebook on the other bed and rolled over. It was a good thing the next day’s competition schedule was so packed. He was going to need all the distractions he could get.
Thomas stood and cheered loudly as his debate team took first place. All the mini-debates had paid off. He’d drilled them between every break. Now that the day was over, it was time to celebrate. He wound through the crowd to meet up with the group. As soon as they saw him, he was attacked with hugs.
“We did it!” Hannah beamed. “I can’t believe it.”
“I can. You guys showed no mercy. How’d you come up with that research at the last second? I thought you were going to be in trouble.” Thomas shook hands with the other leaders and turned back.
Eric smiled slyly. “It’s this little thing called a phone. They kept talking while I found out the information.”
Thomas raised an eyebrow. “Is that even legal?”
“Hey, they gave us time for the rebuttal. That was perfectly okay. I think.” Eric grinned at someone behind Thomas. “Excuse me. I’ll be back.”
Adam rolled his eyes. “Always leaving for a girl.”
Hailey elbowed him. “Maybe you should try it. Can we go shopping now? Please?”
“Yes, let’s head down to the vendor floor. I’ll even let you guys break off into groups if you’d like. As long as you have your phones in case we need to meet up.”
Hannah let out a whoop. “There’s a pair of boots I’ve been dying to grab. Now I just hope they have some in my size. Come on, Hailey.”
They left, and Adam looked up at Thomas. “Guess I’m with you?”
“If you want. Or you can go by yourself.” Thomas checked his watch. “We have a couple of hours until the rodeo. Go. Celebrate.”
Adam shrugged. “I’ll just stay with you.”
“Sounds good. Let’s let Eric know where we’re going and then we’ll head down.” Thomas stood on the stage and looked out over the crowd until he spotted Eric in the back kissing a redhead girl. “Well, looks like he’s doing okay.”
Adam smirked and followed behind Thomas as they left the room. Thomas stopped long enough to tell them where they’d be and then told him to behave and started for the door. Maybe it wasn’t smart to leave an eighteen-year-old alone. He turned back.
“Just kidding. Why don’t you two come with us?” Thomas shot Eric a ‘you’d-better-not-argue-or-I’ll-make-your-life-miserable’ look until Eric sighed.
“Hey, Bethany, why don’t we hang out with my friend and our jerk-for-a-leader, Thomas? Doesn’t that sound exciting?”
Bethany pouted. “I finally got away from mine.”
Thomas leaned forward. “That’s an even better reason for you to come with us. We don’t bite. Well, I don’t. Adam does sometimes.”
“Only on Wednesdays—oh wait, it is Wednesday.” Adam grinned, surprising Thomas. Usually he was pretty quiet.
“Ignore them.” Eric wrapped an arm around her waist and left the room in front of Thomas and Adam, then shot them a glare.
Thomas laughed and turned to Adam. “Where’d you get that from?”
“I don’t know. Just figured it was something you would say.” Adam shoved his hands in his pockets. The vendor floor was packed with kids and their leaders. Everyone was pretty much done with competitions for the day, so it was prime shopping time. Thomas let the boys lead the way since he wasn’t really planning to buy anything. Eric and Bethany didn’t really look at anything, but Adam stopped at a few places, picked something up, then muttered and put it back down.
After three more booths, Thomas couldn’t keep quiet. “Okay, I know this . . . thing you’re doing. Who are you shopping for?”
Adam turned away, blushing. “No one.”
“You’ve picked up several scarves, a ring, a couple of figurines, and a, well, a bag of popcorn. They’re not for you. I’ve never seen your mom or sister wear anything like that before. And the blush tells me it’s for someone else.”
Adam blinked. “How do you do that?”
Thomas shrugged. “I don’t know. I just pick up on things. Now, tell me about this person, and I can help you find something.”
“Well, you know her pretty well.”
Thomas’s first thought went to Mandy. “Uh . . .”
“No, not her. She is clearly head over heels for you. I meant,” he looked around to make sure no one was around. “I meant Hailey.”
A lightbulb went off in Thomas’s head. Adam usually found a way to sit by her in any of the competitions. And had helped when she couldn’t find her keys. And when she had a panic attack. But he was always so quiet. This was perfect.
“Okay, here’s what we do.” Thomas looked around for the right booth and led him over there. “From what I understand, Hailey likes music, right?”
“Yeah, she’s amazing at the piano.” Adam looked up at Thomas. “You think she’d want something to do with that?”
Thomas gestured toward the music boxes. “I think she would go absolutely crazy over something like this.”
Adam wound a couple of the boxes up, shook his head and moved to the next one. Thomas nodded to himself. The kid was quiet, but he knew what he wanted. None of the songs seemed to work for what he wanted. Thomas picked up a jewelry box with a rose on top of it. He opened it, and it played a lullaby. Adam’s hand froze, and he turned back.
“That’s the one.”
“You sure?” Thomas handed it to him. It was extremely fragile, and Thomas wasn’t sure it would survive the trip home, but it was beautiful.
Adam nodded and inspected the inside and outside. His face fell a little at the price. “Well, maybe not.”
Thomas checked the price and opened his wallet. “Do it.”
“What? No. I can’t take your money.” Adam moved to set down the box, but Thomas stopped him.
“You know she’d love it, right?”
“Well, yeah, but I can’t have you just give me the money for it.” Adam glared.
Thomas held out the money. “Who said anything about giving? I have a whole plot of land that needs to be developed and no one to help me.”
Adam stared at him. “You’d let me work for it?”
“Well, you need a job, right?” Thomas handed the money and the music box over to the woman in the booth so she could wrap it up.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Thomas clapped him on the back. “Perfect. It works for both of us. You can start when we get home.”
Adam took the wrapped gift and set it gingerly in his bag so Hailey wouldn’t see it. “I have basketball starting up.”
“Great. You can work when you don’t have practice. Now, about finding the right time to give it to her . . . first, you need to actually talk to her. Beyond assisting her with finding her keys. What else does she like to talk about?”
“I don’t know. Sports, music, FFA.” Adam looked around for her. “When are we supposed to meet with them anyway?”
Thomas checked the time. “We have another hour. Okay, here’s what you do. We make sure you two are sitting by each other at the rodeo. You offer to buy her a churro, or something—”
“A churro?” Adam snorted. “She doesn’t like churros. Or anything fried.”
“Fine. Offer to buy her a burger and a drink. Anyway, you need to talk, but don’t talk too much. Find out more about her. Offer to help with basketball or whatever if she feels like she’s not going to make the team. Things like that.”
Adam glanced up at him. “You’ve done this before.”
“What? Dated? Yeah, a few times.” Thomas waved to Eric and Bethany and headed toward them.
“No, you’ve set people up.” Adam had to jog to catch up with Thomas.
Thomas nodded. “That’s how Laura and Justin ended up together. Well, I mean, we helped. I’m sure they would have hooked up eventually. They were perfect for each other.”
“Do you think . . . What about Hailey and me?” Adam said it quietly as they got closer to Eric.
“Yes. I do.” Thomas clapped him on the back and sat next to Eric. “We lost you back there.”
Eric smirked. “You two seemed like you were on a mission, so we held back. Did you find whatever it was you were looking for?”
“Yep. Hey, we’re going to go look at some of the colleges. That was the part you wanted to look at, right? We can go do that until it’s time to meet up with the girls.”
Eric stood. “Right. I was. Let’s go.”
They wandered over to the other part of the vendor area and wandered through, stopping when they found a college or organizations they were interested in. They grabbed a few brochures and wrote their information down at a few other booths before it was time to go. The hour past quicker than they’d expected.
Adam shook the hand of one of the dairy farm chairmen and took the card they handed him. “Thank you for your time.”
“You’re so welcome. And we hope to be hearing from you in the next year or two.” The man beamed and moved on to the next group of people who came by.
Thomas sent a text to Hailey and Hannah to tell them to meet by the main entrance. It took longer than he’d hoped since everyone else seemed to be leaving at the same time, but they finally saw the girls up ahead.
“Remember, be friendly and play it cool. Just be me.” Thomas grinned.
Adam rolled his eyes. “Got it. Do you think we could run our things out to the bus? I’d rather not have this in my bag all night.”
Thomas took it from him. “I’ll run it back to the hotel. Find Mr. Hunter and stick with him and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Adam handed him the bag, and Thomas took the bags from the other three as well so they wouldn’t get suspicious.
The hotel wasn’t too far from the center, so if he ran, he could get back in time for the rodeo. Of course, if he ran, people would think he stole the four bags in his hands. He hefted them on his shoulders and half jogged, have walked to the hotel. He didn’t know what the girls had in their bags, but he wouldn’t have been surprised to find a few dozen bricks. Since he didn’t have keys to their rooms, he put everything in his and grabbed a drink of water.
On his way back, he sent a quick text to Mandy to see if she made it home safely. When she responded with a thumbs-up, he had to laugh. Usually she talked a lot more, so either she was stuck in a meeting, or was just getting on or off the plane.
Once Thomas got into the arena, he grabbed himself a burger, drink, and some fries and went to find his group. Hailey sat with Adam and Hannah was with another guy from a different group. Eric was most likely with Bethany somewhere.
Thomas sat next to Mr. Hunter and set his drink down. “Anything exciting happen yet?”
“Nope. Where were you?”
“Dropping bags off at the hotel. They bought a few things that they didn’t want to break so I offered to take them back.” Thomas took a bite of his burger and then popped a fry in his mouth. “How’d your kids do?”
Mr. Hunter shrugged. “A few of them placed. They lost the debate in the first round. Yours?”
“They won. The whole thing.” Thomas took another bite of his burger, trying not to show a smug look at Mr. Hunter. After all the garbage Mr. Hunter had thrown at him, it was nice to beat him at something.
“Well done. I’m impressed.” Except he didn’t look impressed.
Thomas sighed and continued to eat. It would be a miracle if he ever proved himself, but he didn’t care. He’d worked hard to get these kids trained and it had paid off. That’s what counted. And it looked like things were going well between Adam and Hailey, so that was even better. He checked his phone again, but Mandy still hadn’t texted anything else.
Two more days left and then he could go home. Harvest would almost be over, which meant that he could start working on clearing his land and getting power and everything else out to his lot. That’s what mattered now. Well, that and attempting to get a job at the school. If that didn’t happen, maybe he could just offer work to those who wanted it and he could help them out that way. He wanted to be the same good influence that his uncle had been on him, even if it meant going around someone like Mr. Hunter and doing it in his own way.