Stars Still Fall by Jules Kelley

Author:Jules Kelley [Kelley, Jules]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jules Kelley

Nine

Johnny’s car wasn’t yet in the driveway when Jolene pulled into the front yard, and I found I was grateful not to have to explain to him where I’d been or with whom. I hadn’t been doing anything wrong—right?—but somehow it felt like I had.

“You’ll be okay by yourself?” Jolene asked, peering at the dark trailer as I unbuckled and shouldered open the heavy truck door.

“Yeah. Johnny should be home soon.” Halfway out of the truck, I realized she’d be alone too, and nobody would be there to be sure she got home safe. “Um, if you…” Maybe it wasn’t my place. Maybe it was too demanding. But I knew part of me would wonder if something had gone wrong the minute she was out of sight, and I also knew that she deserved to feel like someone in this town cared about what happened to her. “If you remember, when you get home, do you mind calling to let me know you got there safely?”

A tiny twitch of a smile. “Yeah. I can do that.” The smile was still there when she glanced up in the rearview mirror at the end of the driveway and gave a little wave before pulling away.

It wasn’t until twenty minutes later, when I heard Johnny’s car crunching up the driveway as I was running water into a pot, that I remembered she told me that she still hadn’t gotten the telephone situation figured out at her apartment. Maybe she’d forgotten about that, too.

“Hey.” Johnny’s voice at the entry of the kitchen made me turn to see him. He already had his shirt off, smudges of grease and dirt and oil on his arms and jaw. He looked so tired; too tired for someone who had just been in high school a few years ago. I looked at him for a long time, wondering if Jolene would recognize him now. If Cole would. “What’s for dinner?”

“Spaghetti.” Easy to cook, easy to clean. “And garlic toast.”

He nodded. “Sounds good. I’m gonna shower.” He’d only gotten a few steps down the hall when I heard him stop. “Hey, where’d you find this?”

His letter jacket. I’d forgotten about it already. “Oh.” I didn’t consciously decide to lie; it just rolled off my tongue. “I found it while I was cleaning out the closet.”

I wasn’t proud of that fib, but I also wasn’t ready to deal with how Johnny might react to hearing that Jolene had come out to the house. Maybe Jolene had moved on, but that didn’t mean Johnny had. How could he? I’d just spent several hours with her, and I already knew I’d never be quite the same. He’d been with her for two years.

He was silent as he rubbed his thumb over the embroidery of his name, and he didn’t say anything else as he dropped the jacket back to the recliner where I’d left it. The next thing I heard was the shower coming on, and I turned back to the pot of salted water and unopened jar of Prego.

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