Here With Me

She’s beautiful.

For a little girl.

“Fine.” I start to go. I want to leave her after that outburst, but I only get a few steps before turning back. My jaw clenches, and my voice is more like a growl. “What’s wrong with you?”

She answers sharp and fast. “Nothing’s wrong with me.”

“Why are you crying?”

“It’s nothing you’d understand, Sawyer LaGrange. No one’s ever made fun of you.” She shoves a coiled lock of hair behind her ear. “Just forget you ever saw me here.”

Little drama queen. Fat chance of that. “I got to get back to the house. Don’t make me put you over my shoulder.”

Her lips press together, and she glares daggers at me for the space of a few blinks. But when I start walking, I hear her following me. Reaching over the side, I put the bucket of fish and my rod in the bed of the truck while she climbs in on the passenger’s side.

The engine is a low rumble in the quiet, and I shift it into gear before driving us slowly back toward my house. Mindy’s arms are crossed. She’s staring out the window, but her lower lip quivers. It makes me uncomfortable.

Still… “Want to tell me what happened?”

“No.”

Suits me just fine. I direct my gaze out the windshield, thinking about what’s waiting for me.

The sun rises slowly over the rows of peach trees that make up our family’s 100-acre orchard. Golden light tips the frost on the dark green leaves. Frost is okay now with no buds on the trees, but frost in April can wipe out an entire crop, all our income for the year.

As the oldest son, Daddy’s been grooming me to take over the place one day. Leon’s only seven, and Noel’s just a girl. I have mixed feelings about the idea.

Before Mamma died, I thought I might travel, maybe join the military. I’ve been in Harristown my whole life, and while it’s my home, I want to do something, see the world before I settle down and take over.

Resting my elbow on the window, I rub my forehead wondering what’s going to become of all that now. My mind’s a million miles away when Mindy’s voice pulls me back.

“Why do girls want to be in cliques?”

I look over at her. Her green eyes are red-rimmed, but she’s stopped crying.

“Is that what this is about?”

“Elizabeth Haynes said I look like I stuck my finger in a socket.” She tugs on the side of her hair. “Beth Hebert and everybody laughed. They said I must be adopted.”

My hands tighten on the steering wheel. I don’t know why girls do what they do. “Why don’t you just hang out with Noel?”

Her chin drops, and she twists her fingers. “She’s kind of… out of it.” She quickly adds, “Which is understandable! I understand… I just get lonely.”

My mind returns to that thought I was having earlier about the adults being out to lunch and leaving us to figure it out.

“Listen.” Her green eyes fix on mine, and I’ve got her attention. I’m sixteen. I’m the oldest of all us kids, and they do what I say. “You’re gonna be really pretty one day. Some girls have a problem with that.”

Her slim brows furrow. “Gonna be? One day? Make me feel better next time.”

This is why I don’t say much. It always comes out all fucked up.

“I just mean people want to keep you in your place. You gotta blow that shit off and be yourself. Take the high road.”

Daddy always said I’m “old for my age.” I just keep my mouth shut and watch how people act. After a while, you start to notice patterns.

Mindy looks out the window again like she’s thinking about what I said. We’re pulling into my long driveway, and I see a few cars I wasn’t expecting. One of them is the sheriff’s, and my heart beats faster. What now?

The tightness in my shoulders moves around to the front of my neck, like somebody’s strangling me.