My Desert Haven (BOYXBOY)

Chapter 29

"It’s not a big one, just a little speedboat, so we won’t be sleeping in it; but there’s a hotel not far from the lake that serves a decent breakfast. What do you think?" Eddie asked as he slowed down our shopping cart so I could place a gallon of milk into it.

What did I think?

I thought I was tired, and wanted to go back to bed. It was Tuesday morning, and Eddie had woken me up nice and early to go run errands with him. My guess was that he wanted to make sure I was still okay after the night before. Maybe he thought I’d want to talk. I’m not sure. But, when I didn’t, he’d started talking about vacations and how no one could seem to get the same days off, so he and Jase had decided on a weekend trip to a lake where apparently Jase owned a boat.

"When would we go?" I asked, yawning.

Eddie pointed past me.

"We need apple juice," he said, and I reached to get it. "How about this weekend?"

"Didn’t you tell Dave he could stay over this weekend?" I asked.

"Yeah; I did, didn’t I? His mom isn’t going to let us take him with us if they have relatives in town--he’ll have to see them eventually."

"Do we need eggs?" I asked. "I don’t remember what Jase put on the list." Jase had left us a shopping list, but neither of us remembered to actually take it with us.

"Get them to be safe," Eddie replied, and we stopped so I could pick a carton. "I think we’ll go the next weekend. That’s about, what, two weeks before you go, right?"

"I think so," I replied, placing the eggs in the cart.

I yawned again, following Eddie as we turned down another aisle, and rubbed the goose bumps away from my arms as we got even closer to the freezer section.

"Have you given anymore thought to that?" Eddie asked, and I frowned. I did not want to have this conversation. "I mean, have you even talked to your grandma? Maybe it might be best for you to really think about staying here."

"Eddie, I’ve tried to talk to her," I insisted. "And… we’ll work things out. Eventually."

"That’s not what I meant. I know you guys can work things out, but maybe it’s not the best thing for you to actually live with her."

"I lived with her just fine before I came here," I pointed out.

Eddie frowned. It looked like he was trying to choose his next words carefully. I couldn’t really blame him. I was becoming irritated with this conversation, and I’m sure it showed.

"Okay," he said slowly. "Why don’t you just try school here. If you don’t like it..."

"Eddie..."

"Rory," he cut me off, sounding as irritated as I did, "if you try school here I’ll put you on a plane tonight back to your grandma’s and you can spend the next four weeks working things out with her! You... are finally starting to settle in here. You’re making friends. We are getting along, aren’t we?"

"Yes, but..."

"I don’t want you to leave, and I think if you’d just stop and think about a few things, you’d figure out that you don’t want to go, either."