4

Dad and I were up early to be on time for my 9 AM appointment with the UCLA admissions office. After that, we checked out the campus and met up with the assistant baseball coach. I even got to hit a few balls with some of the college guys hanging around the field.

We left before lunch, and Dad took me out for pizza at my favorite place. The familiar smells wafted around me as we entered the building. What was it about pizza joints? Each establishment has a certain smell—same ingredients but a totally different taste. It’s one of those mysteries like how they built the pyramids and what happened to the city of Atlantis.

I took a seat while Dad ordered.

He joined me a few minutes later with two glasses and a pitcher of soda. “So what do you think? Are you more enthused about UCLA now?”

“It’s not like we haven’t been on campus before.”

Dad’s face formed a frown.

“I mean, it’s great. It’s a good school. No one can argue that…except maybe USC.”

That made him crack a smile. “I don’t want to even hear you hint that you’re planning on applying to USC.” He pointed his index finger at me playfully and then poured me something to drink.

“I wouldn’t dare.” I took the glass and sipped at the cool beverage through a straw.

Dad leaned back against the wood-backed booth with his glass. “So, I had a talk with the Bruins assistant coach while you were out hitting balls today. He liked what he saw in you. He asked where you were going to school and suggested if you were at an LA public school, you might have a better chance of being offered a scholarship.”

The last bit of soda coming through the straw started me coughing at Dad’s hint. I tried to clear my throat and wiped my mouth with a napkin. “I’m not”—I cleared my throat again—“I’m not moving back…not yet.”

“You’ve only been gone a couple months. You’d still be considered a resident of the state if you came to live with me, which would also lower tuition.”

I shook my head. “I can’t leave Mom.”

“Your mother would understand. It’s for your future.”

The server showed up with our pizzas. She wore a Santa hat and smiled widely. “A Supreme with everything and a Veggie Extreme.” She set the pizzas up on those little table stands and left us.

Dad served himself a slice and took a bite. “Mmm, I haven’t had good pizza since you left, son.”

It smelled good, but I’d suddenly lost my appetite.

“Aren’t you going to eat?”

I reached in toward the Supreme. “I’m not moving in with you, Dad.”

“Look, I know you haven’t been real happy with me lately, but it would be different now.”

“What makes it different?” I eyed him and tried hard not to roll my eyes in disbelief.

“Well.” He sat up straighter with a cheery smile. Yeah, sincerely happy. The kind of smile that made it all the way to his eyes. A genuine smile.

It had been a long time since I’d seen him that way.

His gaze met mine. “I’m planning to ask Heather to marry me.”

~*~

“So, how do you feel about that?” Andrea asked me the next morning.

I’d waited the whole night before calling her. I needed time to digest. I was still digesting. “I don’t even know. I think I’m still in shock.” I settled a folded arm under my head as I spoke while lying on the bed in my temporary bedroom. “I mean, by the way my dad has been for years, I thought he hated being married. Why would he want to get married again…and so soon? They’ve been divorced only ten months.”

“I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t like being alone. I’ve heard some men are like that.”

“I guess…maybe. Anyway, I can’t wait to get back home.”

“Only eight more days,” she replied cheerfully.

“Yeah, eight more days. Well, enough of me. What have you been up to?”

“Oh, you know, it’s been pretty boring.”

“I know it can get that way with me gone.”

“Ha! Ha! But yeah, with you gone and Amy and Angie away on that missions trip, it has been on the dull side.”

“But I have a feeling you’ve been filling your time with lots of piano practice. How’s everything coming along?”

“You do not want me to regale you with complaints about the chord I just can’t get right.”

I laughed. “Of course I do. I live and breath listening to you talk musical speak.”

“It must be like when you talk about RBIs and batting averages.”

We shared a laugh.

“Most of it is the typical Christmas carols, which are no-brainers, but I’m playing one of my own compositions and that is freaking me out a little.”

“You’ll be awesome. I wish I could be there to hear you.”

“Me too,” she said a little wistfully. “Just remember, eight more…”

“I know, eight more days.”

“So, what did you think of my journal?”

I sat up straighter on the bed, leaning against the dark wood headboard. “Your journal?” I swallowed hard. “I…uh, honestly, I was surprised you gave it to me.”

“It’s just a loan.”

“I’ll take good care of it until I see you.”

“I know you will. I trust you.”

She did. She trusted me. It kind of surprised me, because Andrea wasn’t always so forthcoming with her thoughts, and now she’d given me a gateway to them.

“Have you read it yet?”

“Um, no, I haven’t had a chance. I’ll look at it today.”

“Only if you want. I thought it might help you. You are praying about everything, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, of course.” I covered my eyes with one hand.

It was a lie. My first lie to Andrea. I wanted to punch myself. I’d promised I’d never lie the way my dad always did. But I didn’t want her to know that I hadn’t prayed since leaving NC. “I’ll look through it later on. I promise. So are we going to Skype while we watch this superhero flick or what?”

“I can’t.”

“What? I have it all queued up and ready to start.”

“I got some extra practice time in the school auditorium. It will be great practice for the Christmas Eve concert. Maybe it will settle my nerves. I can’t tell you how on edge I’ve been.”

My door banged open. Charli traipsed inside and flung herself on the bed, just as brazen as when the opposing team broke in and stole our mascot at my old school in Orange County.

“Hey! Charli! What are you doing here?” I muted my cellphone before she could speak.

“Just visiting you. It’s Mom’s day off, and she has plans with your dad, so I came along.”

“Don’t you have any other friends you can bother?”

“Are we friends now?” She batted her eyelashes.

I unmuted the phone. “I got to go. Heather is here and she brought her offspring.”

“Charlie, I heard. So, you’re making friends, are you?” Andrea teased.

“I’m trying.”

“Tell him hi from me.”

“I will. Bye.” As I pressed the button to end the call, it registered that she’d said him. Andrea thought Charli was a Charlie. Great! Something else I’d have to sort out. But not now. Later.

“Was that your girlfriend?” Charli asked.

“Yeah, it was Andrea.”

“Do you have a picture of her?”

“No.” I set my phone on the bedside table.

“Sure you do.” She hopped off the bed. “I bet you have a whole slew of them on that phone.” She grabbed it off the table. “Aw, look at the two of you on your cover screen. She’s pretty, but not in an annoying way. How old is she anyway?”

“Sixteen. Why?”

“Just wondering. So, she must be a junior. I think I might like her if I ever saw her in real life.”

I grabbed the phone away from her. “Well, that’ll never happen.” I stuffed the phone into my pocket. “What do you want, Charli?”

“I want you to come out with me. Let’s go to the beach or something. The weather is awesome today. Seventy-five and breezy. My mom can drop us off and we can take the bus back.” She grabbed the remote control and turned off the TV. “It’s too nice to be inside. In a couple more days, I go back to the snow and ice.”

The weather was terrific. If I did miss one thing in moving from California, it was the weather…and maybe the Mexican food. You couldn’t get decent Mexican food anywhere near my new home.

“Fine. I could use some air.”

“And later we can get something to eat. The last time I was here, Mom took me to get Mexican food at this little hole-in-the-wall place down the street.”

I smiled at her. Had she been reading my mind? “Sounds good. I could go for Mexican.”

“Boys! They’re always hungry.”

~*~

The air had been dry, the warm wind intermingled with chilly air all morning at the beach. We walked and played in the surf all the way down from the Huntington Beach Pier almost to Sunset Beach. It amazed me how much I missed this place—the feel of the grainy, dark sand under my toes; the strong, almost repugnant smell of the sea; and the thick kelp washing up on shore. I had to admit, this felt like home. A spiral of excitement spun in my chest as the sea breezes whizzed passed my face.

I almost thought about renting a board and hitting the waves. They were always good this time of year, but I resisted. If I had suggested it, I’m sure Charli would have asked me to teach her how to surf and that was the last thing I needed.

She’d been like an annoying fly that just wouldn’t leave me alone, but I guess that wasn’t fair. She didn’t know anyone out here and she was bored. I couldn’t blame her there. I had to admit, she was fun to be around. It made me forget that Andrea was too busy for me once again.

After the beach, we took the bus and picked up some food on the way back to the condo community. We lay out in the lounge chairs around the deserted pool.

Charli’s straw squeaked as she sucked the last of her vanilla shake. “I think I’m going to ask my mom if I can move here permanently. I mean, it is snowing in Chicago right this very second.”

I wondered what she’d think once my dad asked her mom to marry him. Did she like the idea of her mom remarrying? Did she want a new dad?

“The weather is awesome. I do miss that, but I wouldn’t move back here for anything.” I reclined farther with my hands cradled beneath my head.

“Life is that good back in NC, huh?”

“It’s not perfect. It’s different, but yeah, it’s pretty good.”

“It’s Jim, your dad. You don’t like him so much, do you?”

I firmed my mouth. Was I that obvious? “We still have issues.”

“I thought Christians were supposed to forgive each other and all that. Did he do something really horrible to your mother, or what?”

“We’re working through it.”

“Private, aren’t you? Well, I’m going in for a swim.” She peeled off her top and shorts to reveal the two-piece bathing suit she’d worn at the beach. Her three tattoos were in plain sight too. A rose on the inside of her right wrist, a butterfly on her left shoulder, and an infinity symbol at the small of her back with her name intertwined with Mike. Who was Mike? A boyfriend? She’d neglected to mention him. He must have been important enough at some point to tattoo his name on her body. How had her parents allowed her to get three tattoos? She couldn’t be more than fourteen. Although Charli seemed like the type who went and did whatever she wanted. This time, though, she must have gotten her parents to go along with it. She splashed into the eight-foot-deep, kidney-shaped pool.

It looked as if it hadn’t been cleaned out since the fall. Bugs and tree debris littered the surface. I figured their lack of pool maintenance must be due to the drought.

Charli popped her head out of the water and braced her arms up over the side. “It’s great. You should join me.”

“It looks disgusting.”

“It could use a cleaning, but trust me, it’s a lot warmer than the ocean was this morning.”

“Yeah, the California surf is pretty chilly even in the summer.”

“Come on, you know what they say: ‘Never swim alone.’”

“I’ll keep an eye on you from here.”

“Luke, why do you make everything difficult?”

Me? Difficult?

“Fine. I guess I’ll be showering afterward anyway, after a day at the beach.” I dove into the eight-foot depth and then swam back and forth the length of the pool twice. I held on to the side of the pool at the deep end and looked for Charli.

She came up next to me. “See, feels good, right? Just imagine all your friends freezing their behinds off back home.”

There was that word home again.

“I guess you’re right.”

“I had a boyfriend in Chicago. He dropped out of school and dumped me last week.”

She looked at me as if I should have something comforting to say. I had nothing. I guess this answered the question of Mike. “Sorry,” I offered.

“Yeah, well, don’t be. He was a total tool. I’m better off without him.” Even with her damp face, I could see her eyes water.

“I’m sure you are.”

“Luke.” She looked right into my eyes with the most sincere expression I’d seen on her. No attitude or sarcasm. She lifted my hand and set it on her shoulder. “Would you kiss me?”

“What?...No!” I pulled my hand away. “Of course not.”

“I mean, I know you have a girlfriend, but she’s three thousand miles away.”

“So what?”

“Well, she wouldn’t know, and I really want you to kiss me.” She smiled at me, unabashed.

Did this girl have no shame? Or a filter?

“It would make me feel better. Don’t you want me to feel better?”

“I’m not going to kiss you, Charli. I’ve only kissed one girl in my life, and I’m not about to change that statistic right now.” I gripped the handle of the ladder and started up to exit the pool. I couldn’t believe her. I’d only known her for a couple days and she was asking me to kiss her? OK, admittedly, I wanted to kiss Andrea after knowing her for like a day, but I didn’t. I waited like two months before that happened. And I’m glad I did. It was a special, never-to-be-forgotten first kiss. I wasn’t about to spoil all that for Charli. Even if she was kind of cute in a weird way and had those plump, kissable kind of lips. Wait…where had that come from?

Charli followed behind. “Don’t be mad. It was just a test. I wanted to see what kind of guy you really were.”

“A test?” I eyed her for a moment as we both stood there with water creating puddles at our feet. “Did your boyfriend really break up with you?”

“Yeah, that was true. I really am upset. He’s like slime, trust me. But you’re different. You’re a good guy. Andrea’s a lucky girl.”

“And what if I had kissed you?”

“Well, then I would have enjoyed it. You are cute in a tall, dark, broad-shouldered kind of way. I am female, after all.” She shrugged. “Even if you’re not my type.”

“Well, you aren’t my type either.”

“And what’s your type?”

Immediately, I thought, She’s not Andrea. But I didn’t answer aloud.

I walked Charli to her mom’s condo on the other side of the complex and then strolled back to Dad’s. Charli was wrong. I was the lucky one…well, the blessed one. God had brought Andrea and me together. I needed her. I needed her now more than ever. But I wondered if she still needed me.