Toe the Line(16)

My hand landed on his arm. “You can tell me.”

He kept shaking his head. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“The beginning?” I offered a sympathetic smile. “Or not. I just want you to know you can vent. I won’t tell anyone.”

He closed his eyes for a long while. “This may be the last summer that anything looks remotely the same, Noelle.”

A sinking feeling came over me. “What’s happening?”

“My mother is losing her mind.”

“What do you mean?”

“She was diagnosed with early-onset dementia.”

Oh no. “When?”

“The signs had been there for a while, but the diagnosis came about six months ago.”

That explained why she was asking him the same questions again that one night at dinner.

“I’m so sorry, Archie.”

“That’s not even all of it.” He blew out a shaky breath. “Sorry. I need a minute. I haven’t spoken about this with anyone.”

“Take your time.”

“I think my dad is having an affair,” he finally said. “Actually, I know he is.”

My mouth fell open. “Oh my God.”

“So while my poor mother is suffering, that bastard is taking full advantage of her not being in her right mind.”

I held my stomach. “That sickens me.”

Archie looked up at the sky. “I just feel…so much pressure—to be there for my mother, to please my father, because he expects me to follow in his footsteps and work for his firm someday. The thing is, I want to do that, if just to prove myself to him. There’s nothing I want more. But there’s something you don’t know about me—why it’s gonna be so goddamn difficult.”

My heartbeat accelerated. “What?”

“I might seem outgoing from the outside. But I...don’t speak in front of people. Public speaking is not my thing. I get terrified. How the fuck do you become a trial attorney when you freeze up?”

Relief washed over me. I’d expected something worse. “I would never have known that about you.”

“I come across as cool and confident, I know. I have everyone fucking fooled.”

“It’s actually quite common, a fear of public speaking.”

“That’s why my father volunteered me to present him with that award in the fall. I made the mistake of opening up to him about my issue once. So now he wants to throw me into the fire.”

No wonder he’d had a panic attack today.

He raked a hand through his hair. “So between the stress of that dumb speech I have to write by the fall, applying to law schools, my father’s affair, and most of all, worrying about my mom…I think I’ve been falling apart for a long time. Today I just finally lost it altogether. Unfortunately, you got a front row seat to the show.”

“Well, I want my money back.”

He looked over at me and smiled.

“Kidding.” I squeezed his knee. “There are some things you can’t change. But other things you can.”

“Meaning…”

“Why don’t we work on it this summer? The whole public speaking thing.”

“We? You’re gonna help me what—learn how to not be a blubbering idiot?”

“Yeah. You can practice on me. It won’t matter how many times you flub up. We’ll keep working on it until you get more comfortable. This kind of thing is my forte.”

“I almost forgot, Miss America.”

“Miss America Scholastic,” I clarified. “Anyway, it’s not just about learning to communicate in front of an audience; it’s about how to not give a shit what other people think in that scenario.” Excitement grew within me at the prospect of working with him. “Seriously, let me help you.”

“You don’t need me as a summer project.”

“Actually, I do. You have your internship. What am I good for if I can’t accomplish something useful here?”

He paused. “When are we supposed to do this?”

“Anytime you want.”

“You know I’m desperate if I’m agreeing to let you coach me.”

“How about a couple nights a week, like after dinner but before we go to the beach? It can be whenever, really. It’s the middle of June, so we have two months to work on it.”

He laughed. “I hope you’re not sorely disappointed when you can’t help me. But I guess we can give it a shot.”

“Cool.” I smiled.

“You’re pretty cool, Noelle. Nothing like the goody-two-shoes know-it-all I might’ve assumed you were.” He winked.

“And you’re nothing like the snobby jackass I thought you were,” I replied. “I mean, you’re a jackass, but not a snob.”

“Fair enough.”

“Kidding again.” I elbowed him.

He took another deep breath, looked around, and finally got up from the rock.

“Ready to roll?” he asked.

I brushed off my butt. “If you are…”

We ran together back to the house in silence. The Archie alongside me now was nothing like the Archie I thought I’d known this morning.