A Million Miles Away(60)

“Yeah, right,” Kelsey had whispered. “Miss your own graduation? Where will you go?”

“I don’t know. The East Coast. Maybe Europe.”

Kelsey had looked at her sister and raised her eyebrows, sarcastic. “Fine. Good riddance.”

Kelsey was pulled back to the present by the stone in her gut. Gillian and Ingrid stood beside her, soaking up the midafternoon heat.

She wished now she would have said something else. No, asked something. She wished she would have asked Michelle what she wanted to do when she got there, what art she would make, who she wanted to be. Had she asked, her sister wouldn’t have been such a mystery to her now, in the present.

Then again, maybe Michelle didn’t know, either. She might have been a completely different person by now. So much could change in a year. So much could change in seconds.

Thank you, she thought, though she didn’t know who or what she was thanking. She was thankful for the memories, at least, that would never leave her, but didn’t have to haunt her, either. Not all ghosts are meant to make you sad or scared.

She was grateful for the passage of time.

“I wish Peter were here,” Kelsey found herself saying aloud.

Gillian glanced at her, winking. After Peter had called the other day, she had told Gillian and Ingrid straightaway. They had pestered her with questions: What would she do once he got back? Would he move to Lawrence? Would she follow him out East? Would they live out the summer, and leave it at that?

Kelsey didn’t know. Love had a way of dissolving every object and detail and fact of reality that wasn’t immediately blooming, offering itself to the feeling. She let herself be carried by it.

All she knew was that in two days, she would attend the official tryout for the Rock Chalk Dancers. She had practiced the assigned routine for hours, until it had become pure muscle memory. Ingrid, while watching her, had told her the only thing missing was her face. Kelsey didn’t look like she was enjoying it, Ingrid said.

In two days, Ingrid would start her summer job, lifeguarding at the local pool.

In two days, Gillian would leave town, visiting her older sister in New York.

Two days didn’t matter right now, though.

Now they were sipping margaritas, all of them in heels that made them several inches taller than usual.

Beside her, Ingrid hit her arm.

“What?”

“We have to go downstairs,” Ingrid said, her voice squealing.

“Please don’t tell me it’s another picture,” Kelsey said, rolling her eyes as she stared into her empty margarita glass. “My mouth hurts from smiling.”

Gillian also gasped, and pulled Kelsey away from the porch railing, toward her room. She licked her thumb, rubbing a dab of taco sauce off of Kelsey’s cheek.

“What the hell, Gil?” They must have seen something she didn’t see. She made for the porch again, but the two of them yanked her away.

“Downstairs. Now,” Gillian said.

She followed them as they stomped quickly down the steps, trying not to trip on their heels. When they reached the kitchen, Ingrid opened the back door, and Gillian ushered Kelsey outside.

Against the fence, he stood, almost unrecognizable in army dress blues. He was holding his beret in one hand, and a bouquet of roses in the other, searching through the faces for hers.

Finally, they found each other’s eyes from across the yard.

Her mouth fell open.





CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE


“Peter.”

He pushed past the mingling crowd and was suddenly in her arms, swaying back and forth, her body pressed against the buttons of his coat.

“We got pulled,” he whispered in her ear. “My company got pulled early.”

“When did you get here?” she said, still muffled in his shoulder.

“Just now. Just landed in Kansas City. I asked Meg where you were. I wanted to surprise you,” he said, running his fingers through her hair.

“You did!” she said, laughing.

She had so much to take in about him, she didn’t know where to look. His smile, sly and sweet and proud, or his dark blue eyes. She found her favorite part, the white blonde streak in his eyebrow, and brushed her thumb over it.

People were looking. She didn’t care.

She pulled him to a corner of the yard, away from the crowd. “Look at you.” She held him out in front of her.

Peter looked down at the flowers in his hand. “I didn’t know if you like roses, but I figure, who doesn’t like—”

“Everyone likes roses,” she said, and giggled. She led him inside. Shivers poured through her from her chest down to her feet, washing her calm, almost sleepy with happiness.

They sat in the still house, making room on the couch among the balloons.

“I feel like I’m in outer space or something,” he said, looking around.

“This is perfect,” she said quietly. “How long will you be back?”

“Until they call me for another tour,” Peter said. “Which may be in a couple of months, maybe never.”

“Let’s say never.” Red and blue light cast through the spheres. Then Kelsey pulled his face close to her and kissed him. “I love you so much,” she said, and his eyes lit up.

Their foreheads touched.