Broken Lantern

Chapter Twenty-Six

"Calm down, Alley, geez." Robby says, rolling his eyes at me. "We weren't doing anything." He tries to convince me, not knowing exactly what I saw and just hoping that I'll buy it.

"Robby Wilson, don't you dare stand here and try to lie to my face. You had your tongue in her mouth, I saw you both with my own eyes!" I say, pointing to my wide-open eyes.

He looks down at the ground, a smug grin on his face, and turns his head halfway to peek out of the corner of his eye at Beth, who is looking down also, moving the dirt at her feet with her shoe. She turns her head slightly to peek at Robby too, and I've seen enough.

"Oh... my. Oh, no no no. You're 13!" I say to Robby, "and she's only 12!"

"She'll be 13 in two months!" He protests, trying to make this sound better.

"And you'll be 14 in three months, Robby! But that's beside the point. You're both too young for this. It's wrong."

"Why is it wrong?" He asks, stepping toward her. I stand between them and he steps back, continuing in his fight for his rights to kiss Darry's sister. "I love her, Alley! I'm going to marry her one day, just like Darry married you." He says, very matter of fact, total confidence in what he's telling me. I'm taken back for a moment, opening my mouth to speak but no words will come out.

I look from my little brother to Darry's little sister, and for the first time, I see us. I see us when we were their age, not sneaking around kissing in barn stalls, but our love for one another, our loyalty to each other. The way that Robby is standing up to me, which I had first seen as him being defiant, is him being protective... of her and his love for her.

He's acting just like Darry! This is exactly how Darry would have acted had this been us, being caught like this. He would have tried to put himself in front of me and he would have fought tooth and nail for his right to sneak off and kiss me too.

All of my shock and anger melts off of me. I am defenseless, unable to argue any further. I can't help but smile at the thought that he would have acted just like this, as I tell me brother and Beth, "Fine, I get it. I understand. You love each other." I step out from in between the two of them and Robby runs over to take her hand, to which she looks up with a big smile on her sweet girl in love face, and I continue, "I won't tell any of them, but you both have to promise me that you will not be sneaking off to do anything other than kissing! So help me, Robby, if you so much as..."

I stop because of the horrified looks on their faces. I can't stop it from coming out, I'm laughing uncontrollably at their expressions and the fact that Beth just pulled her hand from his just at the thought of anything beyond kissing.

"Ewww!" She cries and turns to run inside my parents' house. Robby looks at me, an annoyed look on his face, "She just agreed to kiss me, Alley, just today... Thanks."

And he turns to walk inside, probably to find Beth and do major damage control.

Kevin walks out the door and comes down to find me. I'm still laughing when he makes it to me. "What was that all about? Beth came running in, her face brighter than a baboon's butt."

I tell him what had happened and what I had said and about her reaction and Robby's revelation that he'd been working on this kiss and she just agreed to it today, when I walked in on it, disrupting their make out session. And now we're both standing here laughing. I make Kevin promise not to say anything to our parent's unless something forces us to tell them.

But by her reaction to the thought of anything more, I think we're safe, for a while anyway.

"I think we need to go back to church, and I'm thinking maybe we should take those two along with us." I tell Kevin, waiting for him to protest, but he agrees and says he thinks that's a great idea.

We walk back to the house, hand in hand, Kevin swinging our arms as we walk. "So, when do you want to ask all of the grandparents' about taking shifts watching Dally while we're gone to Oregon?"

I smile at him, knowing he doesn't want to be the one to do it. "Now's as good a time as any, I'll get this bunch if you'll ask your parents." He nods in agreement and texts his mom.

Once we're inside, I find them all finishing their coffee, almost ready to go back out to tend to the farm, and I peek my head in the door, "Hey, you think y'all would be willing to take shifts staying with Dally, so we don't have to put her on a plane?" I ask, wording it that way on purpose.

They all agree and tell us to let them work out a schedule and they'll get back to us. Kevin comes in telling everyone that his parents agree to take whatever days they are needed on as well.

I cross the room to take Dallas from Mom and kiss her face. "I love you, baby girl. I'll see you this afternoon." I tell her, handing her off to Kevin who does the same. "Thank y'all so much for doing this, and for everything you do to help us and keep us going. Y'all are amazing! Truly." He tells them, taking my hand to lead me out to his truck so we're not late for school.

"Two more weeks! And we're free!" He says, helping me into the truck and closing the door. Two more weeks, and I'm free.