A Longtime -And at One Point Illegal- Crush

  “Oh, I’ve been there many times,” Elsie said. “It’s always a lovely reprieve from the Montana winters.”

  Both of Kye’s parents laughed at that. “True enough,” Mr. McBride said.

  Kye’s gaze was steady on Elsie. “So where did we actually meet?”

  She had to tell him then, even though she didn’t want to. “When I was eight you came over to tutor Carson. After a while you went to play basketball, and I wanted to play too. Carson told me to go away, but you said I could be on your team. You put me on your shoulders.”

  Mrs. McBride let out an appreciative sigh. “That’s so sweet.” She patted Kye’s arm. “It’s nice to know you were kind to someone’s sister, since you were rarely kind to your own.”

  “I was frequently kind to Celeste,” Kye said.

  Mrs. McBride kept patting his arm. “Oh, I’m just teasing.” She turned to Elsie confidently. “He was usually kind to his sister. I always told my boys you could tell how a man would treat his wife by the way he treated his sister.”

  “Poor Olivia,” Elsie said, referring to Carson’s fiancé. “Maybe I should warn her about that deer head Carson kept hiding in my bedroom.” One Christmas Elsie’s parents had been given a mounted deer head from some relative of theirs. Elsie had thought it was horrible and had said they shouldn’t keep it, which had apparently been an invitation for her brothers in to hide it in places she would find it—her bed, her shower, her closet, the back of their car.

  Kye raised a finger of recognition. “I do remember the deer head. I probably should confess that it was my idea to put it in your fridge. Took Carson and me a good half an hour to clear out the space for it.”

  “Really?” Elsie asked with a smile of her own. “Well, I absolve you for it. My mother was the one who found it that time. I think that’s what finally convinced her to get rid of the thing.”

  Mrs. McBride shook her head at her son. “A deer head in the fridge? Someone should be warning Lisa about you.”

  Kye went back to his dinner. “Totally unnecessary. Besides, I don’t think you can really judge a man by how he treats his sisters.”

  Mrs. McBride finished off a bite of her sandwich. “Then how should you judge him?”

  “By the way he treats his students,” Elsie supplied. She shouldn’t have said it. It was too close to admitting that the memory of Kye rejecting her still stung.

  “In that case,” Kye said, “I have nothing to worry about. I’ve always treated my students well.”

  Is that the way he saw it? Granted, maybe by law he’d had to reject her, but he hadn’t needed to do it so heartlessly—accusing her of trying to get him fired and emphasizing it had always been one-sided between them. Hadn’t he ever heard of the phrase “I’m flattered, but I just want to be friends”?

  Mrs. McBride spooned a second helping of potato salad on her plate. “I’d say you’ve treated some of your students a fair sight better than they’ve treated you.” She offered the bowl to Elsie. “The shenanigans those kids come up with.”

  Elsie felt her cheeks warm. Shenanigans like throwing yourself at your teacher? Was Mrs. McBride about to make the connection? Well, it served Elsie right. She should have kept her mouth shut. She should have said nothing during the meal except, “My, this food is good. Thank you.”

  Elsie shook her head at the bowl of potato salad. She wasn’t hungry, and the sooner dinner ended, the better.

  “Skipping school,” Mrs. McBride went on, “cheating, trying to forge parent’s notes—it’s amazing the school can get anybody to teach these days.”

  Mr. McBride leaned forward to take the potato salad from his wife. “Kye won’t have to put up with it much longer. Every year I get more useless. Soon Kye will have to run the entire ranch.” He put a couple of dollops of the salad on his plate. “I suppose dealing with all those kids is good practice for herding ornery cattle.”

  “Not all the kids are bad,” Kye said, probably for her benefit. “Some are great. And some . . .” his gaze was back on hers, “some stay with you.”

  Why did he say things like that? Was he teasing her? Pitying her? Or was she reading things into his words that weren’t there? Maybe he was talking about all of his students who hadn’t kissed him.

  The conversation moved on. Eventually Kye’s cell phone rang, and he told Elsie that Frank had cleaned the corrosion off the posts and her battery should work fine now.

  After they finished eating, Elsie thanked the McBrides for dinner and followed Kye to the garage. Kye led her to a new dark-blue pickup truck, not the old white Ford he’d driven to school his first year as a teacher. He opened the door for her and helped her step up into the cab.

  Well, that was another moment to cross off her prayer list—three years too late.

  She sat down, pulled on her seatbelt, and couldn’t think of anything to say. She wanted to ask who Lisa was and if he remembered how they’d met, but asking either question would make her sound like she hadn’t moved beyond him. And she had. Or at least she was going to. So Elsie sat in the cab, her arms wrapped around her middle to keep warm.

  Kye silently drove toward Windham road. She’d forgotten how bright the stars were out here away from the city lights. They hung in the sky above them, sparkling like frozen chips of ice.

  Kye asked a few questions to fill the silence, mostly things about the wedding. “It’s funny that Carson is marrying a girl from Lark Field,” he said. “I always figured he wouldn’t stick around.” Kye shot her a glance. “I guess not everyone wants to get as far away from here as possible.”

  That, she supposed, was a reference to what she’d said to him at graduation. “People change,” she said.

  “Yes, thankfully they do.” Another glance. “You’ve grown up quite a bit.”

  What did he mean by that? Did he see her as a peer now, or did he just think she was more mature because she was no longer throwing herself at him? Elsie inwardly groaned. This was the problem with being around Kye. She would forever analyze everything he said. He probably meant the statement in the same way his parents had meant it when they’d said nearly the same thing. Kye hadn’t seen her in three years. She looked three years older, that was all.

  Time to say something else so there wasn’t an awkward, long pause. “I was surprised Carson and Olivia hit it off,” Elsie said. Carson and Olivia had gone to school together but hadn’t dated. He’d been a jock, and she’d been the bookish type three classes his junior.

  “Well, like you said, people change.” Another glance.

  She wished Kye would stop doing that, looking at her like that. It was hard not to overanalyze what he said when he kept giving her that blue-eyed gaze.

  How did Kye see her now? She asked a question so she wouldn’t have to think about it. “You must have wanted to leave Lark Field at one time. Weren’t you going to become an electrical engineer? Not many jobs for those in Lark Field.”

  He shrugged as though it wasn’t a big deal. “I’ve always been good at math, so it seemed like I should take a job that used it. But I wouldn’t have lasted long in a cubicle, and I would have hated living in some crowded city. I like space too much.” He took his gaze off the road for long enough to send her a questioning look. “Don’t you miss Lark Field at all?”

  “Sometimes,” she said. She didn’t have to say more because they’d reached her car.

  “I’ll wait around to make sure it starts,” he said.

  “I’m sure it will. Tell Frank thanks for me.” She opened the door and slid outside. She probably should have said more, thanked him again for dinner, something. Instead she hurried to her car.

  It started right up. Good. Apparently Fate was done making her suffer. Elsie gave Kye a wave to let him know everything was fine, then drove down the road toward home.

  Tomorrow Kye would be with Lisa, and Elsie wouldn’t have to worry about being thrown together with him again.

  Chapter 5

  The next day was a blur of weddi
ng activities. Olivia’s family had never been wealthy. Her mother worked as the school nurse, and her father had never been around much. Carson said the man worked construction in Billings when he worked at all. No one was sure whether he would come to the wedding or if he’d be sober if he did come.

  Olivia’s mother was doing what she could, but Carson’s family was taking care of the bulk of the food and decorations. Elsie’s grandmother sewed the bridesmaid dresses. A friend was making the cake. Mrs. Clark had been cutting up ingredients for the chicken salad sandwiches for days. Lucas and Mason were kitchen slaves, doing whatever bidding their mother asked. Elsie was only exempt from kitchen duty because she was holed up in her room for most of the day transforming a dozen white roses into corsages and boutonnieres.

  Most of the day, but not all of it. Somehow she found time before the rehearsal dinner to drive to town and get her hair trimmed and highlighted. It was more than she usually paid for her hair, but she wanted to look good for the wedding photos. The new red sweater she wore—the one that clung to her just right—had been on sale, and she’d never been one to pass up a bargain. Ditto for the jeans, which were the perfect combination of soft and formfitting. Her boots were a sophisticated touch that also worked well in cold weather.

  When Elsie’s parents called to her that it was time to leave for the rehearsal, she cast a satisfied glance at herself in the mirror. Last night when Kye had plucked Elsie off the road, she may have looked like a bedraggled college student. Tonight, though . . . tonight she looked like a woman in charge of her destiny.

  When they got to the church, most of the wedding party was already there. The pastor was in the chapel talking to Olivia’s mother. Olivia stood beside them, her long dark hair pulled back in an I’ve-been-running-around-all-day ponytail. Still, she had a glow of excitement about her. Elsie walked over and gave her a hug. “Nervous?”

  “I’m too busy to be nervous,” Olivia said.

  “I guess that’s the point,” Elsie said. “Keep the bride and groom so busy that they don’t have second thoughts and bolt.”

  Olivia let out a laugh. “If that’s the point, then you’d better keep Carson extra busy. If he bolts now, I’ll kill him.”

  “And I would help you,” Elsie said. “After all, we have enough food for the funeral.” She looked around the chapel at the rows of empty pews. “Speaking of which, where is my brother?”

  “He and Kye are picking up some decorations.” Olivia glanced at her watch. “He should be here by now.”

  The church had a large meeting room behind the chapel, which would be used for refreshments and dancing tomorrow after the wedding. Elsie’s dad had been hauling things over all day: silk trees, a trellis, twinkle lights, yards of chiffon, anything Elsie’s mom thought would add to the occasion.

  The pastor, a balding man with glasses that rested low on his nose, turned to Olivia. “Are we ready to start? Where is the groom?”

  “I’m here,” Carson called from the back of the chapel.

  Elsie turned at the sound of his voice. Kye was striding up the aisle next to him: tall and tan and looking better in a pair of Levis than a man ought to. His eyes met Elsie’s, and then his gaze ran over her, from the heels of her sophisticated boots to the tips of her newly-highlighted hair.

  She felt transparent then, as though he could tell she had dressed up for him. She turned away from him with an inward sigh. She couldn’t win. Yesterday she’d felt dowdy and pathetic. Now she felt dressed up and pathetic.

  The pastor went over the instructions, letting them all know their part in the ceremony. The best man and maid of honor would walk in first. In this case, Kye and Elsie. She shouldn’t have been the maid of honor, really. She’d only been given the position because Olivia didn’t have any sisters and didn’t want to choose one of her friends above the others.

  After Kye and Elsie walked down the aisle, the rest of the wedding party would follow. Last of all, the father of the bride was supposed to walk his daughter down the aisle. The pastor paused and turned to Olivia. “Will your dad be giving you away?”

  Olivia glanced at the door as though still waiting for his appearance. “I don’t think so. I think my uncle will do it.” Her face fell a little as she spoke, as though she didn’t like admitting this. Her mother reached over and gave her hand a squeeze.

  “Your uncle then,” the pastor said and went on describing the rest of the ceremony.

  When he was done, everyone lined up behind the chapel doors to do the run-through.

  The organ started up, and Kye held out his arm to Elsie. “Shall we?”

  Without comment, she took his arm, looked straight ahead, and stepped down the aisle to the slow rhythm of the music. She supposed this meant she could mark off another thing on her prayer list—walking down the aisle with Kye. So close and yet so far away.

  Concentrate, she told herself. Don’t think about how near he is. Don’t notice how strong his arm is or how good he smells. He did smell good. Sort of woodsy and spicy, like worn leather. Like something you could run your fingers through.

  She really was pathetic. He’d already made it perfectly clear he wasn’t interested in her. “There is no us,” he’d said. She needed to repeat it like a mantra so she’d remember it.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kye glancing at her. She was not going to smile at him or do anything he could interpret as flirting.

  Carson, standing at the front of the chapel, shook his head. “Stop looking so stern, Els. You’re walking to the altar, not being sacrificed on it.”

  She sent her brother a forced, glaring smile. He wasn’t making this any easier.

  Carson rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that will look great on the wedding video. Hey Kye, your assignment is to make sure Elsie loosens up by tomorrow. Use some of your cowboy charm on her.”

  Did her brother really just say that? Did he tell the guy he knew she’d had a childhood crush on to use his charm on her and loosen her up?

  She felt Kye stiffen, felt his arm muscles shift underneath her fingertips. A glance at his face let her know he wasn’t amused by the suggestion. Again, she wondered how much Carson knew about the night at the Mathematics Decathlon. Who had Kye told about her kiss?

  She and Kye had reached the altar and parted to walk to their separate sides of the room.

  She watched the others come in. Everyone else was smiling and happy. Her brother Lucas waltzed the entire way with his bridesmaid. Mason put on a pair of sunglasses and acted like a celebrity on the red carpet. “No pictures,” he called out. “The paparazzi aren’t allowed inside.”

  When you came right down to it, brothers were overrated. Elsie decided right then not to invite hers to her wedding. Especially not Carson.

  After the rehearsal ended, Elsie’s parents announced that everyone was invited to a restaurant in town for dinner, their treat. Everyone accepted except for Kye. He said he had some things he needed to do. Right. He was probably worried Elsie was going to corner him and demand to see some cowboy charm.

  Or maybe he was going to meet Lisa. That was probably it. His absence most likely had nothing to do with Carson’s instructions. The thought should have made Elsie feel better, but didn’t. Elsie couldn’t help wondering what Lisa had that she didn’t. What did a girl have to do to attract Kye McBride?

  * * *

  The next morning consisted mostly of putting the food together and decorating the reception hall. Kye was noticeably absent during all of this. Not even Carson knew where he was. Elsie supposed he was either busy with Lisa or didn’t want to spend any more time near Elsie. . . which, either way, was fine . . . because Elsie wasn’t interested in him.

  It wasn’t until ten minutes before the wedding, when Carson was cursing as he made yet another call to Kye’s phone, that Elsie began to worry about him.

  Lucas, who at this point in the preparations was wearing his tuxedo’s bow tie in his hair, said, “Maybe Kye got cold feet.”

  “As
the best man?” Carson shoved his phone back in his pocket. “I don’t think so.”

  Lucas slipped his tie around his neck and tightened it. “Some dudes just aren’t into commitment.”

  “He’s got the ring,” Carson said.

  It wasn’t like Kye to be late for his friend’s wedding. It wasn’t like Kye to be late for anything, actually. Elsie got a sick feeling in the base of her stomach. What if he’d died in a car crash? What if he had been trampled by a bull on his ranch? The place was so huge—anything could have happened, and it would take weeks of searching to find him.

  Carson’s phone beeped. He pulled it out of his pocket and read the text out loud. “Sorry I’m running late. Don’t worry. I’m five minutes away from the church.”

  Lucas shook his head and laughed. “He’s cutting it close. Lisa must be really hot.”

  Elsie stopped listening after that. She went to the bride’s changing room to see if Olivia needed anything. Elsie found Olivia’s mother there, fussing over her daughter. Olivia looked like a porcelain doll. Her wedding dress had a satin bodice with lace and ruffles cascading over the skirt. Her hair was pinned up in ringlets; her beautiful face looked happy and expectant. “Is everyone ready?” she asked Elsie.

  “Just about,” Elsie said. No need to worry her about the still-missing ring.

  Olivia’s mother kept spritzing her daughter with hairspray. “You’re so beautiful,” she murmured. “I can’t believe you’re getting married.”

  “Do you need anything?” Elsie asked.

  “A time machine so I can go back and get more comfortable shoes.”

  “Can’t help you there,” Elsie said.

  A knock sounded on the door, then the pastor’s voice said, “The last member of the wedding party is here.”

  Nice of Kye to finally show.

  “Can I come in?” a man’s voice asked, one Elsie didn’t recognize.

  Olivia moved toward the door, completely missing a cloud of hairspray sent in her direction. She flung open the door, let out a gasp, and threw her arms around a middle-aged man. “Dad!” she exclaimed. “You made it!”