Page 62 of Sunday Morning

“I’m eighteen.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Totally.” Eve nodded slowly. “Is that what you told Mom and Dad?”

“It’s what I’m telling you. In two years, you’ll be eighteen too. So let’s ‘do unto others.’ Okay?”

“You owe me.” Eve opened the door.

“Are you blackmailing me?” The second the words left my mouth, I thought of Isaac suggesting I had blackmailed him.

“Call it what you want. I’m just saying you owe me.” She and Erin headed toward the stairs.

I locked my door, leaning my back against it with my head tipped to the ceiling for a long sigh. After a few seconds, I closed my shades, took off my clothes, and sat on my bed with something that belonged to Isaac pressed to my naked body.

It was silly and ridiculous. And I was never going to tell anyone that I did it—and I liked it.

Saturday morning,my sisters and I helped my parents around the church grounds, mowing, watering flowers, and pulling weeds.

“So, seriously, how was the rodeo?” Eve asked as we tossed weeds into an empty five-gallon bucket and spread new mulch around the flowers by the sign at the parking lot entrance.

I glanced around to see if my mom or Gabby were in earshot. “Awful.”

“What?” Eve sat back on her heels. “Are you serious? Why?”

“I’m serious.” I rubbed my arm over my sweaty brow. “Matt’s brother ropes. And while I thought I knew what that meant, I was totally wrong. On his horse, he chased a baby cow, lassoed its neck, and then jumped off his horse and hogtied it. The poor thing lay in the dirt, struggling and totally scared until they untied it. It was cruel and unnecessary, all in the name of entertainment.”

“That’s awful,” Eve said.

I nodded.

“Did you talk to Isaac?”

I shrugged, keeping my gaze on the flowerbed. “Yeah, a little before I left.”

“What do you think of him? He’s so hot.” Eve grinned, but she kept her head bowed as I glanced up. Her cheeks were already red from the heat, so I couldn’t tell if she was blushing, but it wouldn’t have surprised me. Isaac had that effect on women. He had many effects on them.

I shifted from my knees to my butt and leaned back on my hands, taking a break. “Matt and I don’t plan to staytogether when he goes to college this fall, but I’m afraid to tell Mom and Dad.”

Eve’s brown eyes shot wide open as her hands paused with weeds clenched into both fists. “Sarah, everyone thinks you two are getting married, not breaking up.”

I stretched my legs out straight, lips twisted as I stared at my dirty old Reebok high-tops. “I know. But that’s not what we want. Not now. I feel like, at some point, we stopped being together for the reasons we first started going together. And now we’re still with each other just because everyone expects us to be together and get married. But sometimes I think, am I really going to marry my first love? It’s a big world. What if we’re together simply because there’s been a lack of choice?”

Eve tossed the weeds into the bucket and pulled off her gloves. “Sure, you didn’t graduate with two hundred other kids, and Devil’s Head is small. But it doesn’t matter what school you went to; Matt is a great catch. He’s cute, smart, and so nice. He’s respectful. And he’s going to be a big deal someday. Everyone knows he’ll get drafted. And even if, by some weird chance, he doesn’t, he wants to go to law school. He’s perfect. How can you possibly think you can do better?”

Better wasn’t the right word.

“Because he’s the only guy I’ve ever kissed. Mom and Dad like him so much that I thinktheywant to marry him. He’s going to Michigan in the fall, and I don’t want a long-distance relationship. Yet, it’s a foregone conclusion in everyone’s eyes that we’re going to eventually get married, but I don’t want to think about husbands or college because I want to move to Nashville.” I sighed. “So, it doesn’t matter that he’s a good catch. Guys aren’t a one-size-fits-all. Andnow that we’re out of school, I don’t know if he’s right for me.”

Eve shifted her eyes over my shoulder to our parents. “Whoa, that’s a lot, Sarah,” she murmured. “His family owns our house.”

I closed my eyes with another long sigh. “I know.”

“I’m not saying you should take one for the team, but …” Eve wrinkled her nose, bringing her gaze back to me.

“No. It’s not fair to ask me totake one for the team.Going on one date with someone you don’t like because you’re doing a friend a favor is taking one for the team. Giving up your dreams and marrying the wrong man is ludicrous.”

“When are you going to tell everyone?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I don’t know. His parents will hate me. And ours will disown me, especially if we get evicted because Wesley and Violet hold a grudge.”

---