Jodi Thomas - Rustler's Moon

It meant they could have a date. A real date, she thought as she stormed the dorm door and took the two flights of stairs at a run.

She had spent her last two years of high school waiting for Lucas to come home from college so they could start dating. Only, when he did come home, he was always working on weekends and their times together consisted of no more than a few moonlit walks along the lake or early-morning coffee at the café before he headed back. He’d promised that when she joined him at Tech it would be different. They would be together, a real couple. Studying wrapped up in one another. Sharing kisses in the dark corners of the library. Late-night phone calls.

Until last month, she’d lived on thirty-minute breakfasts with him before he left Crossroads to go back to Lubbock, and late-night ice-cream runs where they talked in the Dairy Queen parking lot after he got finished working on one of the ranches around town. She’d lived on hope that he’d soon be her real boyfriend. They’d finally both be in college. They’d be a couple. No one could say he was too old for her. A few years difference wouldn’t seem so much.

She’d been at Texas Tech over a month and none of her dreams were coming true. Her entire love life had been Photoshopping her and Lucas Reyes’s faces onto couples in all the old movies she’d seen. If possible she saw less of him here than she had when she’d lived in Crossroads and he’d dropped in on weekends to work. College wasn’t turning out to be what she planned.

As Lauren opened her dorm room door, she wasn’t surprised to see her roommate still in bed. After all, it wasn’t dark yet.

Polly Pierce rolled over, her black-and-red hair streaking across her face. “You’re back already?”

“It’s after five, Polly. You missed lunch.” Lauren used to say that she missed class, but Polly was on the one-semester plan. She never studied and hadn’t bothered to unpack most of her stuff. There was little doubt that she’d be moving back home by Christmas break.

“I know. I’m starving.” She rolled over and pulled an empty cracker box from under her back. “I ate all your peanut butter and crackers.”

“Where’s the peanut butter jar?” Lauren wondered why she even talked to Polly. As an only child raised by her pop, the county sheriff of Ransom Canyon, Lauren had always had her own neat, organized space. Sharing quarters with Polly was like some kind of experiment to see if two different life forms could survive in the same environment.

Polly rummaged around in her mass of covers and found the empty jar. “Don’t give me that look,” she said, cuddling back under her blankets. “I think I’m descended from bears. It’s not my fault the fall semester parallels with hibernation.”

Lauren didn’t comment on how Polly managed to stay awake all weekend. “Don’t you have a date tonight?”

Polly’s words were muffled. “Jack texted me and said he had to work, and my backup date has the flu.” She sighed. “I could go out looking for a backup for my backup, but it’s such a bother to train a new one.”

When Lauren didn’t comment, Polly rolled over to face the wall. End of conversation.

Lauren pulled out her cell phone, punched in her favorite number and dropped atop her neatly made bed.

As soon as Lucas answered, she squealed. “I made an A on my first big chem test.”

“Who is this?” Lucas Reyes answered in a low voice flavored just a touch with his Hispanic heritage.

She could almost see the smile in his question. “It’s me.”

“Oh, yeah, the only freshman I know,” he teased. “Congrats.”

Lauren held the phone tight in hope. “Let’s celebrate, Lucas. I’ll buy the pizza.”

The moment of silence told her all she needed to know.

“Can’t tonight. I’m headed home as soon as I get cleaned up from mucking out stalls at the agriculture barn. Mr. Kirkland needs me to work at his place all weekend. Probably won’t be back on campus until late Sunday.”

Lauren fought down tears. He lived half a mile away on campus, and they were still miles apart. The only guy she’d ever really liked didn’t like her enough to stay around one evening.

“I’ll call you Sunday night and we can talk as I drive in.”

“No, don’t call. I’ve got a seven-thirty class Monday.” When he didn’t try to convince her, she tried another possibility. “I could drive home tomorrow. It would surprise Pop. I told him I wouldn’t be back until Thanksgiving. Maybe we could get together after you finish on Saturday night? We could cook out by the lake, then drive over and watch the stars on Kirkland land.”

“Doubt I’ll have time. Mom says she’s going to forget my name if I don’t spend a few hours with the family while I’m home this time.” His answer made sense, but he was breaking her heart.

Trying to sound as if she didn’t care, Lauren added, “No problem. I need to study this weekend anyway.” Lucas was her best friend, her first boyfriend, her only love even if she’d never told him. She knew how busy he was. He carried a full load, worked part-time at the campus AG farm on weeknights and left every weekend to work either with his father or on the Kirkland ranch next door. He was working his way through school, no scholarship, no loans.

“I’m proud of you about the A.” His warm voice broke the silence between them.

“Thanks.” Somehow it didn’t seem so important anymore. She’d spent two years dreaming of being at college with him and now, if possible, she was more lonely than she’d been back in Crossroads.

She hung up. All the happiness had drained out of Lauren. In the weeks she’d been at college they hadn’t had a real date. Study lunches and Lucas walking her to class a few times didn’t count.

She curled into a ball and let silent tears fall. Maybe Polly had the right idea. Sleep your years of higher education away.

The phone sounded. One, two, three rings before she found it in the covers.

“Lauren!” Tim O’Grady’s voice reminded her of home. Maybe because he’d been her neighbor in Ransom Canyon for most of her life. “Want to go get something to eat? It’s Friday night and, as usual, I don’t have a date. You can pick the restaurant. Anything but dorm food.”

She wiped a tear off her cheek as she pushed her heartache deeper inside. “Sure.” This was Tim’s second year at Tech, and it seemed during his freshman year he’d done an extensive study of the coffeehouses, bars and cheap restaurants in town. “I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

“Food,” the body under the blankets on the other side of the room mumbled. “Food.”

Lauren frowned. “Can my roommate come, too?”

Tim was silent for a moment, then added, “If she combs her hair. Last time she tagged along I kept thinking a bush was following us.”

“Fair enough. Give us ten minutes. I have to get out of this dress.”

Laughter traveled through the phone. “I’ve been waiting to hear you say that for years, Lauren.”

She smiled knowing he was kidding. “In your dreams, O’Grady.”

The phone went dead. Lauren stood and began changing clothes. “Ten minutes, Polly,” she shouted toward the other side of the room, “or we’re leaving without you.”

Fifteen minutes later, with Polly buttoning her blouse as she walked, Lauren and her never-friendly roommate headed downstairs.

Tim’s dorm and hers were joined by a long lobby and cafeteria. When Lauren watched him coming toward her, she could tell immediately he was tired by his slight limp, something she knew he’d correct the minute he spotted her.

The limp was a lingering reminder from a night almost three years ago when they’d both been hurt.

Polly must have noticed the limp, too. She leaned toward Lauren and asked, “What happened to your friend’s leg?”