Return to Summerhouse (The Summerhouse 2)

“Just cut it out,” Faith said, her hands on her hips as she glared at his back.

“Cut what out?” he said in that lazy way he had. It was a way that attracted lots of girls to him, Faith included. For all that she didn’t want to, she couldn’t help noticing how he’d changed in the three years since they’d last been together. It seemed that every time she’d returned from college, something had kept her from seeing him. During those years, his father had died and she’d heard that most of his siblings had left town. Last summer she’d been told that now only Ty and his mother lived in the old house back in the woods. Faith had meant to visit him, but she hadn’t. She knew that he’d stopped by her house and called her a few times, but she’d never called him back. Maybe she hadn’t visited him because she knew he’d ask her about her and Eddie and she didn’t want to tell him. She could lie to her mother and the town, but Ty would see through her.

“We’re not kids anymore and you can’t just jump into my bedroom anytime you want,” she said sternly.

“Is that so?” He stretched out on her bed. It was covered in the pink, ruffled spread she’d chosen when she was nine years old, and he looked even more masculine on it. He was taller than she remembered and his feet passed the end of the bed. She didn’t mean to, but she couldn’t help comparing him to Eddie. Whereas Eddie was blond and blue-eyed, with a look of innocence and sweetness about him, Ty was dark and lean and…And sexy, she thought. It was as though her childhood bedroom had been invaded by something that children should know nothing about.

What Faith wanted to do was lie down on the bed beside him and snuggle against him. Could he still kiss as well as he used to? He had been her first lover and their last two years of high school had been passionate. She could still feel the leather of his car seats on the back of her bare thighs.

“So?” he asked. “What do you think? You’re looking at me awfully hard.”

“I was wondering how you could presume so much after all this time.”

“Right,” he said. “And that’s what I think when I see you too. You look good. You look like you have some muscle on you.”

“Sports,” she said. “At college.”

She’d meant the word as a put-down, but Ty just smiled. He was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt that showed off his muscles, but she wasn’t going to comment on it.

“I think you should leave,” she said as primly as she could manage.

“And I think you should take off that fancy dress, put on some Levi’s, and go with me.”

“Where to?”

He shrugged, a gesture that was very familiar to her. “Just for a drive. I spent the weekend tuning up the old convertible and it’s outside. Wouldn’t you like to ride in it with me, with your hair streaming out the back? What did you do to your hair anyway? Is it still there?”

“It’s here,” she said, putting her hand up. “It’s just that it’s better to pull it back. It’s more tidy that way.”

“And who told you that? Edward?” As he sat up, he picked up the photo on the bedside table. It was of the three of them as children, their arms around each other, happy. They were all three filthy and laughing as they held up strings of fish they’d caught that day.

Back then, Faith had seen only the joy of that day, but now she remembered the grown-up part of it. They’d given the fish to Ty because they knew his big family always needed food. Eddie’s mother had punished her son for getting dirty and smelly; he’d not been allowed out of the house for two weeks. Faith’s mother had cried at the sight of her dirty daughter and lectured her for two hours about being “a lady.”

Faith stepped toward Ty and took the photo out of his hand. “I think you should leave.”

Before she could step back, his arms went around her waist and he put his head against her belly. “I’ve missed you,” he said softly. “Every minute of these years, I’ve missed you. I thought I’d die when you came back and wouldn’t see me. I didn’t think I’d make it until you left that damned school and came home to me.”

She knew she should push him away, but she couldn’t. Her hand came up and touched his hair. It was thick and full and soft and it reminded her of the warm summer days they’d spent together. She remembered every night that she’d buried her face in his hair and smelled of it, inhaling deeply, letting the scent soak into her.

He looked up at her. “Go with me to the lake. Just for the afternoon. I’ve got a cooler full of food in the car.”

“I…” she began. She knew that she had a lot to do. Eddie had things he wanted her to do with him, and her mother had scheduled her for half a dozen events around town, but at the moment she couldn’t seem to remember what any of them were. “All right,” she heard herself saying.

Ty stood up, his body moving up the front of her. “Good. Get dressed. I’ll see you outside in five minutes. You take six and I’ll come in after you.” With that, he planted a quick, sweet kiss on her lips, then opened the window and climbed out.

For a full minute, Faith stood there looking at the window in confusion. She’d just finished four years at a Northern college where she’d been Edward Wellman’s girlfriend and she’d worked hard to be worthy of his attention, his friends, and his name.

Her freshman year had been difficult. She’d attended her first classes wearing a skirt so short it was almost cheeky. Her hair was in fat curls down about her shoulders, and she had on a tank top that fit like skin. As she’d strode across campus, young m

en had patted their hearts and dramatically fallen to the ground near her feet. She’d laughed at them and enjoyed every second of it.

It was when the girls saw her that she encountered the sneers. When one girl with her straight brown hair pulled back with a headband made a remark about “Southern hicks,” Faith realized how they were seeing her. She understood that in her rebellion against her mother and Eddie’s, she’d gone too far the other way.

The next day she’d had her hair cut, and she went to class wearing what the other girls wore: jeans and a modest top. It had taken the rest of the year to redo her image, but she did it by studying harder than anyone else. Her high grades made her sought after as study help in the classes. When she graduated with an honors degree in English lit, she was well respected by both her teachers and her peers.

Best of all, she was sure she’d changed herself so much that Eddie’s mother would accept her. And to achieve this approval, she knew it was imperative to stay away from Ty when she was home. She could not be seen riding around town in a convertible with one of the Parks kids. What Faith wanted most in life was to be seen as a demure young woman who had a right to be Eddie Wellman’s wife.

But right now her girlish bedroom was filled with the scent and raw sexuality of Ty, and it was as though the four years of college and behaving herself had never happened. Without conscious thought, she pulled the pins from her hair, then the tight band, and let it loose. Her hair was thick and a natural dark auburn and she knew that if she let it hang loose it made men think of sex—or that’s what Ty used to tell her when she’d lie in his arms and look at the stars.