Masquerade (37 page)

“
I walked up there the
other day. It’s really peaceful and beautiful.” Not to mention that
Sam and I spent precious ‘alone time’ there.

She got a wistful look in her eyes.
“Your father always enjoyed working in the orchard.”

I smiled. “I remember. We always had
so much fun picking fruit.” I wondered why I’d never thought of
this before.

“
The orchard hasn’t been a
priority of mine for a few years. I am sure it needs some work,”
she said, thoughtful.

“
I can do it!”

“
It’s hard work,” she
cautioned.

I nodded emphatically. “I’d like to
try.”

Grandma grinned. “Wonderful! If we get
a lot of good fruit then we can set up a farming stand and people
can come and buy bushels of apples or pick their own. I haven’t
done that in years,” she mused.

“
Can I plant some pumpkins,
too?” An image of Sam carving out a pumpkin popped into my head. It
made me smile.

“
I grew those when you were
little.”

“
I remember.”

“
It’s a plan, then.” She
nodded, smiling. “Are you sure you’re up for it?”

“
Sure.” I pulled out the
newspaper. “I was thinking I might get a job too, just for the
summer.”

“
A job?”

“
Mmmhmm. So I can start
saving for a car and to have some spending money.”

“
I think that Sam is a good
influence on you.”

I nodded. “He works really hard. He
has two jobs just to support himself. He pays rent and buys his own
food…” my voice trailed off. And he does all of that while taking
very good care of me. How is he not utterly exhausted?

“
He’s emancipated?” Grandma
asked. I’d told her that he was when I first came to
stay.

I nodded. “He didn’t get along with
his dad at all. It caused his parents to fight a lot, so Sam
figured that it would be best for his mom if he moved out.” It was
as close to the truth that I could get.

“
Well, I like him. He has
good manners, and he always cleans his plate.”

I giggled. “You really approve of
him?”

“
I really do,” she said,
sitting at the table across from me with her coffee. “But don’t
tell your mother,” she whispered.

I laughed, but inside I felt really
nervous. I decided to take Kimber’s advice and try to talk to my
mother. I mean really, how could things get any worse?

Grandma and I were making plans for
the orchard and looking over the want ads when Sam knocked on the
door. I was so relieved to see him that I bounded through the open
door and flew right into his arms.

He chuckled. “Good
morning.”

“
Morning,” I said, stepping
back and returning to my chair.

Sam closed the door behind him and
came into the kitchen.

“
Help yourself to some
coffee, Sam,” Grandma said. “I didn’t make breakfast this morning;
I was out in the barn doing chores.”

I froze, remembering that Sam was
staying there and had a bunch of stuff in the loft. I caught his
eyes, and he shook his head slightly. I relaxed, guessing he
cleaned it out.

“
I already ate,” Sam said
while he poured some coffee. I got up and got out the cream and
sugar for him and handed him a spoon. Then I got down a bowl and
poured some cereal, adding milk. I sat it in front of him at the
table, giving him a stern look. Power bars were not breakfast.
Especially for someone with his metabolism.

He dug in with gusto.

I sat down, satisfied.

“
Here’s one, Heven,”
Grandma said, pointing. I leaned over to see. The local ice cream
shop was hiring part-time help for the summer. It was a
possibility. Then, I wondered if I could take strangers coming in
every day staring at my face.
Get used to
it,
I told myself.

“
I’ll check it out later,”
I said.

“
Check what out?” Sam said,
draining the bowl of all its milk.

“
I’m getting a job this
summer.”

His bowl hit the table with a clink.
“A job?”

I nodded.

I could see he didn’t really like this
idea, but he couldn’t say so in front of Gran.

“
The ice cream shop is
hiring. I’ll give you free ice cream,” I sang.

He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach
his eyes. “Sounds delicious.”

“
Grandma is going to show
me how to take care of the orchard this year, too. We want to open
a farm stand when the fruit is ripe.”

His eyes displayed real interest. “The
orchard we walked to the other day?” Was it a special place for him
too?

I nodded with a small
smile.

“
Cool.”

“
That reminds me, Sam. I
have an offer for you,” Gran said, cutting into our private
moment.

Sam turned his eyes to her. I felt a
little hollow for the loss.

“
I know you have two jobs
and may not want another, but I could use a farmhand around here
for the summer.”

“
Yes, ma’am.” Sam
nodded.

“
You could come out early
in the morning, or in the evening – whatever works for you. I’ll
pay you, and you’d be welcome to stay for supper or breakfast,
whichever you’re here for.”

I could barely contain myself. I was
so excited.

“
I could come first thing
in the mornings,” Sam told her, “before I go to my other
jobs.”

My excitement dimmed. Would this be
too much for him? How much could one person take? Maybe he
shouldn’t take the job.

“
Wonderful. I’ll show you
how to work the tractor tomorrow. You can do all the mowing, and
I’ll show you where everything else is. I’m sure Heven will need
help with the orchard, it’s probably really overgrown.

“
Thank you for the
opportunity, ma’am.” Sam smiled. “You know, I would do this work
for you for free.”

My heart melted. He was so, so
sweet.

Gran smiled. “I know. But it’s honest,
hard work and you deserve to be compensated for your
time.”

“
Yes ma’am.”

She chuckled. “And please call me
Silvia.”

He nodded and stood, taking his empty
bowl to the sink. My breath caught when he looked at me. He was so
completely gorgeous that I wanted to pinch myself.

“
So, I need to go
somewhere, and I was hoping you…”

“
I’ll go anywhere with
you,” I rushed out, cutting him off.

He grinned and Grandma laughed. I
blushed so much my face felt hot.

“
Don’t you want to know
where we’re going?” he asked, his honey eyes twinkling.

“
Yeah,” I said
sheepishly.

“
I found a place to rent, I
am supposed to go look at it this morning.”

I jumped up. “Let’s go!”

He smiled and went to the door. I
turned to Gran. “May I?”

She made a shooing motion with her
hand. “I’ll see you later.”

I raced out the door after
Sam.

The place was a dump. Okay, it wasn’t
that bad, but it wasn’t great either. It was an efficiency
apartment, which meant that it was one room with a bathroom. It had
everything he needed: a fridge, microwave and a sink in the small
kitchen, which was off to the right of the front door. The landlord
seemed to think that the stove and oven was a big deal. I guess
that not many tiny apartments had them. The rest of the room was a
big open space. The floors were nice, which were a light-colored
hardwood. They were scratched up, but a rug would fix that. There
was enough room for a TV, a bed and a small table. The bathroom was
off to the left of the space. It had old tiles that I guess you
could call retro, that were shaped like small hexagons and were in
alternating colors of blue and white. There was shower stall that
needed a curtain, and there was a pedestal sink and a toilet. It
all needed a good cleaning.

“
Well, what do you think?”
the landlord asked Sam. We were standing in the center of the room,
hands clasped and taking in the little space.

“
I like it.” He
shrugged.

At the same time I said, “It needs
painting.”

The landlord must have really wanted
to rent the place because he said, “I’ll pay for the paint if you
keep it neutral and do the painting yourself.”

Sam was about to agree when I squeezed
his hand. “He needs a rug. For the floor,” I added when the guy
looked a little blank. He still didn’t say anything so I said, “The
floors are a little scratched.” Actually, a lot.

The man sighed. “Okay, you can pick
one out that I have downstairs in the shop.”

I nodded. The apartment was above a
secondhand store.

“
The place rents for three
hundred a month and includes all utilities but cable.”

“
Two eighty,” I
tried.

The landlord narrowed his eyes. “Who’s
going to be living here?”

Oops. Maybe I went too far. Sam
cleared his throat. “Just me, sir.”

“
Aren’t you kind of young
to be renting on your own?”

“
I’m emancipated,” Sam said
and held out the document proving it. The landlord looked it over
and handed it back.

“
This your girlfriend or
your agent, son?”

Sam grinned. His hand returned for
mine. “Girlfriend. She can be a little bossy.”

“
Hey!” I argued.

“
What woman isn’t?” the guy
muttered.

I sputtered. But Sam said, “I’ll take
it.”

“
Good.” Then he looked at
Sam. “You into partying?”

“
No, sir.”

He pointed a finger at Sam and said,
“There will be no wild parties here.”

This made me angry. Sam worked hard,
he didn’t need this. I stepped forward. “Listen here, he works
three jobs. Three. And he goes to school. He doesn’t have time for
parties.”

Sam pulled me back to his side, but I
still glared at the landlord.

“
Three jobs,
huh?”

Sam nodded.

He sighed. “All right, then. Come on
downstairs and sign the papers.”

I cleared my throat. “Two eighty?” I
asked.

The guy laughed. “Geez, you should be
a lawyer. Two eighty it is.”

I grinned. Sam shook his head. When
the landlord left the room Sam leaned over and kissed me. “You’re
amazing.”

“
I wish I could have got
you more.” He deserved everything. More than he had.

“
I already have everything,
sweetheart.” He pulled me close. “So what do you think of the
place?” he asked, leading me from the room.

“
Ask me again after we
paint, and I scrub the place with bleach.”

“
You’re going to help
me?”

“
Of course. When I’m done
with this place it will be perfect.”

“
I don’t know about that.”
He smiled.

“
I do. You’ll
see.”

The morning I spent with
Sam was close to perfect. We had time to be alone, and we found him
an apartment (which, yes, needed some work – okay a lot of work),
that promised even more time to be alone. I couldn’t quite explain
it, but there was something inside that was urging me to find
places for us to be ourselves. Almost like we needed a place that
could be a sanctuary. I didn’t tell this to Sam because it sounded
a little weird, and he was already worried enough. Everywhere we
went he was constantly searching, his eyes were never still, and
his shoulders were never relaxed. He stayed as close to me as
possible, as if he was prepared to jump in front of me at any given
moment
.
It made
me nervous, and I was constantly reminded that we were not safe and
that someone sick was after me.

He seemed angry when he dropped me off
at Gran’s before he went to work. When I asked him about it, he
scooped my face up in his huge palms and said fiercely, “I love
you.” He made it sound like a sacred vow that no one would dare
challenge. I was left staring at his retreating truck through the
house window with a ball of ice in my belly and goose bumps on my
arms.

I spent some time staring out the
windows and jumping at every strange sound I heard until my own
paranoia began to annoy me.

I couldn’t live my life like
this.

Sam couldn’t live his life like
this.

For months and months I’d lived under
a hood, beneath my hair and in the shadows. How much longer was I
going to hide? My life was here now, and it was waiting. I looked
out the window once more, not to be certain that no one was there,
but to see the blue sky and the bright, shining sun. I looked out
to the orchard where the trees were budding with new life. For too
long I’d lived, mostly without knowing, in fear of
China.