Ashley nodded again, then cleared her throat nervously. Kyara looked at her, nervous about what would come next.
"Jay's not my boyfriend," Ashley blurted out.
Whoa, gear-shift, thought Kyara, still trying to process the town siding with her instead of the sheriff, at least passively.
"A lot of the things Marsh had to say were about you being a whore here to steal boys away from our nice white girls," explained K, one eyebrow quirked.
"And you're not," Ashley admitted. "Stealing him. Or a whore, obviously. I mean, I always hoped, and everyone basically assumed, but ... he's single." The look of los
s and loneliness on Ashely's face reminded Kyara of her own. Kyara crossed the path to her, wrapping her arm around the blond for a hug.
"I'm really not trying to," said Kyara.
"But you do like him," pointed out K.
"Well, yeah," admitted Kyara. "He's ..."
"Super hot?" suggested K.
"Kind," finished Kyara. "He's been kind to me."
All three of her new friends looked at her.
"Damn, girl, you got it bad," said Ashley, her eyes starting to get a little puffy.
Kyara shrugged and smiled, not wanted to flaunt her new feelings in front of her hurting friend.
"I don't have to do anything about it," said Kyara quietly, even as she wished she hadn't.
Ashley straightened her shoulders and shook her head, clearly pushing her feelings away.
We have more in common than I thought, reflected Kyara.
"No," said Ashley. "I've been waiting since we broke up before he went away to college. He's had plenty of time, and so have I. You ... do what you have to do." The blond looked like just saying the words hurt her. Kyara understood.
"Yeah," cut in K, her voice deadpan. "We'll only think you're a total bitch for a little while. Then it'll all be good." Kyara looked at her and was relieved to see a little smile at the corner of her friend's mouth, revealing the joke in her words.
The rest of the walk went quickly, their words turned back to less dangerous topics. K's mother wanted to move in with her. Caitlin was debating going away to law school. When they arrived, they were soon far too busy laying down the gravel and hooking the massive stump up to the SUV for much talk.
Soon the SUV was hooked up and the stump was ready. As a precaution, everyone went far away from the tires. Flying mud had been bad, flying gravel could be disastrous. The moment of truth was almost anti-climactic. The tires of the SUV caught right away, the weight of the extra bags of gravel in back pushing its tires deep into the now rocky ground beneath it. The stump began to move, then popped free of its hole in the ground with a loud crack of snapping roots..
The volunteers sprang into action hauling the stump away and filling the hole that they had just created. Kyara worked with them.
I didn't think I was an outdoorsy type, she reflected as she wiped mud from her cheek. But I could really get used to this.
The next Tuesday brought another surprise. The trail crew all met at Kyara's once again. As she got ready to go with them, they once again went out through the back door, where they had parked a small fleet of....
"What are those doing here?" asked Kyara
Jason smiled proudly at the neatly parked rows of ATVs. He was wearing gray today. He looked good in gray. His eyes shifted to match it, giving the illusion that she was somehow seeing a stormy sky inside him.
"The trail is getting too long to just walk down it. Last weeks you guys spent half the evening walking. So, transportation," explained Jason.
"Ashley rents them out," said K from right behind her. "Along with snowmobiles, skis, all that stuff. Right, Ash?"
Ashley nodded as she walked up.
"Along with the safety equipment and lessons, yeah," the blonde agreed.