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He stood and held his hand out to me. I paused a moment before I placed my hand in his. Tingles ran up my arm at his touch, but I did my best to ignore them as I stood up in front of him.
“It was cool talking to you, Sawyer,” he said.
As warmth moved through me, I replied, “You too, Jesse. Thanks for listening.”
“Anytime, baby girl,” he returned with a wink.
I was momentarily speechless. The endearment mixed with the wink was more than I had been prepared for. Somehow, I pulled myself together, said goodbye, and walked toward my mom’s car with butterflies in my belly.
A couple of weeks later, by some strange miracle, I got the lead part in the school play.
And just as he promised he would, Jesse was there a few months later when I had to perform. Seeing him in the audience sent my heart racing.
THREE
Sawyer
Two years eight months later
“Come on, Sawyer.”
I couldn’t help myself from feeling such an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. So much had changed over the last few years, and those words were proof of that change.
Faye, Cristina, Janelle, and I were out at the quarry, and it was the three of them who were now encouraging me to be a little daring.
Granted, I didn’t necessarily need the push, because I had every intention of following behind them, but I loved knowing that they’d all sort of come out of their shells and opened their eyes to the adventure ahead of them.
The four of us had just finished our last final exam for our senior year in high school. Our graduation ceremony was in a week, and we had decided to celebrate the fact that we were finally done with school. Of course, college was on the horizon for the three of them, so they weren’t completely done, but this was a huge milestone.
I hadn’t quite decided just yet what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and I’d taken some time to really think about my future and how I wanted to spend the next few years. I eventually concluded that continuing with school immediately wasn’t where I wanted to go.
So, I was taking the next year off to travel and to cross some items off of my list. While I’d managed to accomplish a few things on the list, it seemed I was constantly coming up with new ideas of things I wanted to do, so the list always seemed to be growing.
I wasn’t afraid of that, though.
I was excited.
I was ready for the challenges ahead of me, and I couldn’t wait to start really living the life my dad had always wanted for me.
Truthfully, I couldn’t say that I hadn’t been living some of that over the last couple of years. I’d thoroughly enjoyed my high school years. I continued to do well in school, and I had the best three friends a girl could ever ask for.
After I’d had that discussion with Jesse, where I shared the truth about my list with him, I told the girls about it. I didn’t tell them about Jesse, but I did tell them about all of the things I was planning and why I’d decided to do it.
Once they knew why there had been such a change in me and my determination to try so many new things, they even offered to do some of them with me. I loved that they were all willing to try, and it showed me just how much they cared about me. I didn’t know how it was possible, but the four of us grew even closer.
Then, there was Jesse.
I’d managed to see him with some regular frequency throughout my sophomore and his senior year in high school. Our relationship hadn’t ever progressed beyond just friendship, but there had been some substantial flirting between us.
Unfortunately, I suffered the loss of physical closeness with him when, after he graduated, he decided to enlist in the Marines. The only thing that made that easier was writing to him.
Before Jesse left, he asked for my address. About two weeks later, I received my first letter in the mail. From there, the two of us continued to mail letters back and forth, and I absolutely loved everything about those twelve weeks.
After Jesse went from being a recruit to being a Marine, our relationship changed. I was no longer receiving letters from him, but I did manage to see him once when he first returned to Steel Ridge for leave following basic training.
But then he was off again.
Months went by where I didn’t have any interaction with him.
