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“Okay,” she said.
“First, I am not trying to start an argument or anything of the sort. I’m looking for some clarity. And second, to be clear, baby, I have not been pining away for you. But you did leave me, and now here we are, trapped in a snowstorm for all intents and purposes, and I cannot think of a better way to get you to fess up to the truth, short of taking you in for a real interrogation.” He grinned, hoping she hadn’t lost her sense of humor over the years, and knew he wasn’t serious about the last part.
Coralee rolled her eyes at him. “Okay, first of all. Why does it matter? It’s been years.”
Jake put his soup bowl in the sink next to where he was leaning against the stovetop, then crossed his arms. “Why does it matter?”
“Yes, Jake. Why does it matter?”
“It matters because it’s clear there’s still something there between us.” Coralee opened her mouth to speak, likely to protest what realistically was obvious, but Jake stopped her. “Don’t. Don’t you dare insult me by lying, Coralee. I’ve known you since you were a baby. I know you way better than you think I do.”
“Okay, maybe there is something between us, but did it occur to you that it might be the stress of the situation, or just the old familiarity we have?”
“Try again,” he replied without inflection.
Coralee huffed dramatically and crossed her arms over her chest. “Fine!” She bit the words out. “You’re not gonna like it.”
Jake contemplated whether or not he wanted to know now that he’d cornered her. Her discomfort was evident, and the possibility of some worst case scenarios started running through his mind. He sighed, and while he knew it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of life why his high school sweetheart left him, she was the one that got away. And now she’d stirred up all of these old feelings in him. He stuck to his guns.
“I didn’t like it then either. So, I’d like to know.”
Coralee sucked in a breath and appeared to hold it for a second. “I left you before you were gonna leave me.” She pursed her lips after rushing out the words.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I overheard you tell your dad you were going to leave El Paso. So, before you had a chance to dump me to go off on your own, I took care of it.” She crossed her arms over her chest again and huffed as she hugged herself.
“I don’t know what conversation you think you overheard, but it sounds like you didn’t get the full story.”
“I heard all I needed to. You told your dad you were going to go to school where you wanted to, regardless of what anyone else thought about it. And if you wanted to leave El Paso behind, that’s exactly what you would do.”
Jake scrubbed his palm down his face. Coralee definitely hadn’t heard the whole conversation between he and his dad. In fact, if she had, she’d have known in the same discussion, he’d told his father his plans for the future, and how Coralee was a part of them. Jake stared at her for a minute, trying to formulate the words he wanted to say.
“What?” she asked after a long pause.
“You left me, because you thought I was gonna leave you?” She nodded. “But you didn’t even try to talk to me about it.”
“Jake, I was eighteen years old. And I was pissed. It seemed like the right thing to do to protect myself at the time. I really don’t know what to say.”
“Well, first of all . . . you absolutely didn’t hear ‘all you needed to hear.’ Because if you had, you would’ve also heard me tell my dad that after I finished school, I was planning to ask you to marry me. And I wanted to make sure that he understood the plan. You know I always wanted to be in law enforcement like him, but I also always planned to stay working or helping with the ranch too. None of that should’ve been any kind of surprise.”
“But you said you were leaving, and you never even told me. I was confused.”
“So you didn’t think toaskme? I can’t believe this, Coralee!” Jake didn’t mean to shout, and when he saw Coralee flinch, he softened his tone immediately. “I can’t believe this is what I was wondering about for years. Would you like to hear what weactuallysaid in that conversation? If you had bothered to stick around to listen . . .”
Tears pooled in her eyes, and she nodded. “Yes,” she replied quietly.
“My dad asked me what the plan was for school. Yes, he was hoping I would go to UTEP downtown, but that’s because it’s down the road. He didn’t want me to leave home. I had scholarships all over, so money wasn’t the issue, and I told him if I wanted to leave El Paso for school, that is exactly what I was gonna do. If you’d stuck around, you’d have heard me sayafterward, that I would always come back home.” Coralee’s eyes widened. “Yeah, you heard me. I told my dad that you were here, and we were gonna get married, and I might leave for school, but I’d always be back, because El Paso is home.”
Coralee stood up from the table and walked toward Jake. “I am so sorry, Jake. I didn’t know.”
Jake wasn’t even mad. He was disappointed. He opened his arms up wide and she stepped in, dropping her head on his shoulder. “We wasted so much time, baby.” Coralee slid her hands around his waist toward his back and tugged herself closer.
She pulled back after giving him another squeeze. Jake loved the feel of her in his arms and didn’t want to let go. At this point, he’d just as soon hold her all night in this ridiculous little trailer they were stuck in and consider it hitting the lottery. He didn’t get the answers he was looking for, or did he? It didn’t really matter; they’d both gone off to college anyway, lived their lives, and yet here they were, back in each other’s arms, years later.
“Well, then let’s not waste any more,” she said, lifting up on her toes.
Jake grinned, and met her halfway, taking her invitation to the kiss that would change everything for them.
