Page 78 of A Ballad of Betrayal and Beauty

An expression I can’t pin down crosses her face. “Right.”

I sit down awkwardly on the couch, and after a few moments, she joins me. Neither of us says anything until finally, her fingers lace with mine.

“Key, I . . . if you’re not comfortable with this—we don’t have to. We could just hang out like we usually do.”

I can’t hold it in any longer. “Dusty, I love you.”

Her eyes widen, those ruby-red lips forming a delicate O.

“I’ve loved you since we were kids. I don’t know why I’ve never told you, but you’re not just my best friend or my girlfriend. You’re my everything.”

Tears fill her eyes, but I didn’t mean to make her cry. “Key . . .”

“We’re just two idiots who still haven’t finished high school, but when the time is right, I want us to be more than that. I want to drive off into the sunset with you. I want us to follow our dreams together.”

I jump up from the couch and walk over to my guitar. I loosen the D string until it comes free, then twist and twist and twist. Triumphantly, I hold up the little wire ring and, as heat pools at my collar, kneel down on one knee before her.

“Dusty Connors,” I say, holding up the makeshift ring, “I love you, and I want to be with you always. Will you accept this ring as a token of my promise to love you forever?”

Her gaze bounces between my face and the ring, and my heart has never beat harder. But then she smiles and leans forward, palming the sides of my face.

“Of course I will, Key, because I love you too.”

She breathes out a laugh, and I slip the guitar wire ring onto her finger, my cheeks in pain from the smile pulling at them. “It’s beautiful,” she whispers, twirling it once, twice.

“It’s a D string,” I confess. “For Dusty.”

“Appropriate,” she says with a giggle, then she reaches up to the nape of her neck. Her eyes never leave mine but the breath halts in my chest as her necklace comes loose. She holds up the gold chain in front of me then takes my hand. “I know you won’t be able to wear it because of your parents, but I want you to have this.”

She takes my hand and drops the sun pendant into my scarred palm. “Really? But you . . . You’ve worn it for as long as I’ve known you.”

With a look down at the necklace she takes a deep breath. “My mother gave it to me the day she left—the day we met. She told me to always look for the sunshine in life. That’s why you should have it,” she whispers. “Because my world is brighter because of you. And I promise that you’ll never have to come back for me again, because I’ll never leave your side.”

She kisses me, and the candles flicker and burn down to the wick as we spend the night showing each other just how far our love goes.

CHAPTER20

Separate Ways

JOEL

Al tried his best, but first thing in the morning, that damn article is everywhere. I see it when I drive to the corner store for smokes. When I stop and grab some pick-me-up donuts for Key. That awful headline follows me everywhere.

When I get home, the phone is hanging off the hook. I set it right, wondering how it got knocked off in the first place, but a second later it starts ringing. And ringing. Reporters and journalists calling for a statement, clogging up the line with their barbed comments.

Key is no help of course. He must have been the one to take the phone off the hook in the first place, but no matter what I try, he refuses to get out of bed. James and Dave manage to get through once to ask if I have any new information from Key, and I feel sick to my stomach when I have to admit I have nothing new to tell them. I’m exhausted. Whatever Al is working on, I hope he comes up with something fast.

By eight the next morning the phone is already ringing again. I yank it off the hook, ready to scream at the motherfuckers to leave us alone, when a familiar voice speaks first.

“Joel, honey?”

My eyes widen. “Ma?”

“How’s my boy doing?” she asks.

I chuckle and shake my head. “Considering I almost told you to fuck off, not too great.”

A thoughtful hum vibrates through the phone. “I read the article. Nonsense, all of it. How could people think such a thing is true?”

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