Read Online The Best Week of My Life by Suzanne D. Williams - Free Book Online Page B

on his back. Could be he felt that way, and I sure hoped it was nothing I’d put there. But my gut said I had.
    “Let’s play a game,” my mother said, interrupting my thoughts.
    “Not cribbage,” my dad replied.
    She scowled at him. “Of course not. I was thinking charades.”
    My parents playing charades should really be recorded for all time. That way I could play it for my kids in the future and have a good laugh. I wasn’t much into laughing right then, but they brought it out in me. Dad standing on one leg like a stork. Mom belly dancing. I sucked at the game. I had two left feet. But participated as best I could, and it did help while away the time. A good two hours in fact.
    We ended the game and all sat there staring at the blustery sky. Then my dad spoke. “And the rains came and the wind blew,” he said, quoting the Bible story.
    My mom finished the quote, “And beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
    I didn’t comment, their quote seeming prophetic to me, my little world, the bubble I’d built over five days now was crumbling into dust. I’d fooled myself to believe Carter cared for me, even a little. All those words he’d said, I’m sure he’d meant them at the time. But face it, Daphne, you are what you are.
    Mom and Dad either didn’t notice my mood or chose not to comment on it. I’m sure they were thinking how Carter hadn’t come, but I doubted they had any knowledge of what’d gone on between us. Why would they? They probably simply thought the weather was disrupting things.
    Mom fixed lunch, a collection of leftovers from meals and snack bags. She believed in being thrifty, hating to take anything home from the beach. Somehow in her mind it all had to stay here. It became tainted if we toted it the hour’s drive home.
    I ate in silence, concentrating on my food, and afterward, decided to read the book I’d brought along. The one I hadn’t touched because I’d spent every waking moment with Carter. I made it two chapters in before I realized I hadn’t any idea what the story was about. I’d drifted away to thoughts of me and him.
    Me in the pool sans shorts.
    Us swimming in the ocean, skin to skin.
    Him saying he had a crush on me.
    Us at the aquarium, and his declaration, “I like Daphne Merrill for who she is, and I like her a lot. She makes me happy.”
    Well, if I made him happy, then where was he? Was he thinking of me at all? Or had he simply done exactly what I thought all boys did after spending time with me – moved on?
    The rain and my thoughts sent me to sleep. I awoke to the rumble of thunder and drone of the TV. Dragging myself out the door, I have hoped he’d be there, smiling and waiting. But instead, it was my parents, cuddled up together, backs to me.
    I stared at them. Would that ever be me? Would I ever find someone who’d love me like that, in spite of everything I manage to goof up? Tears pushed at my eyes and I tried to hold them back. But soon it was impossible, and so lip trembling, cheeks warm and damp, my spirits as low as they could get, I stood there and wept.
     
    ***
     
    He’d ended it wrong. First, he hadn’t followed through in kissing her, and then he’d simply walked off, leaving her confused. That’d been written all over her face, a kind of, “What just happened?” Which sadly wasn’t her fault. Daphne was simply Daphne. She couldn’t be anything else.
    As far as he was concerned, he hadn’t lied to her. He wasn’t looking for a girlfriend when he’d come here. The pain of Carrie’s rejection was too fresh. He did have a crush on her. She was great – funny and honest and real. He did like her exactly how she was and she did make him happy.
    Then why was he so upset?
    Because he didn’t measure up. It all came back to that. Her dad had said to relax and give himself a chance, yet nothing in his psyche wanted to do that. It wanted to go over and over and over the problem, running through all the