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My heart went out to her. “I don’t want you to, either. I guess this means you’ll be going home soon?”
Kate bobbed her head, then wrapped her arms around my middle. “Sunday.”
“Which means we have an entire week left to go.” I leaned back and lifted her chin so I could see her eyes. “We can do a bunch of things until then.”
“Why?” She blinked up at me but the smile I hoped to find wasn’t there.
“Why not?”
“Because it’ll be harder to walk away.” It’s hard to say if she was talking on my behalf or hers, but I appreciated it all the same.
“We don’t have to if you don’t want.” A long-distance relationship would be hard, but not impossible. “I’m sure we can figure something out.”
“Two hundred miles away?” Her voice went up an octave.
“New Jersey and Oaksprings aren’t that far apart. I could drive out to you on the weekends. Besides, traveling across the state is way better than having to fly to another country.” I managed a small smile, then held her close. “We’ll find a way to make things work.” Even if I had to disband from my pack to do it.
* * *
Kate didn’t say much after that. Either because of work or because of the worries she’d hidden from me, I couldn’t be sure. But until she said otherwise, I wasn’t about to pressure her. So, during lunch, instead of bringing it up, I sat beside her in silence and tried not to stare.
Her body tensed whenever I looked her way, so after the third time, I decided to focus on the floor instead.
“There’s a lifetime supply of sugar in here,” I said in hopes of filling the uncomfortable silence between us. “Does Nora need that many chocolate chips?” There must’ve been sixty bags of them.
“It looks like she’s getting ready for a wedding next month,” Kate said. “I wish she’d get some help for that.”
“Maybe you could come and visit for a few days.”
Kate was already shaking her head before I could finish. “Between the bus fare and school starting in a few weeks, I wouldn’t be able to afford it.”
“I could always–”
Kate placed her hand on my arm. “No. To be honest, I’m not looking forward to going home.”
“You aren’t?” But didn’t she say how much she missed it before?
“I don’t know why I’m saying this. It isn’t like it’ll matter.”
“Kate?” When she looked at me, I continued. “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
Kate chewed her bottom lip, deep in thought. Then, in one big breath, she spoke. “Nora isn’t the reason I’m here. It’s me. I’m the problem.”
“You need to have knee surgery?”
There’s the smile I know and love!
“Things at home haven’t been going very well.” She bowed her head and placed her hands in her lap. “I know I said how I missed it before, and I do, but I came here because I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
What?What did she mean? “What happened?”
“You remember what I said about going to school for one thing and my mom wanting another?”
“Yeah?”
