her arms around him when they reached her vehicle. “I’m going to miss you,” Amanda informed him.
“I’ll miss you too,” he assured her. Amanda couldn’t stop her tears when Cade kissed her; she knew this year was going to be a miserable one.
“Don’t cry, Manny; it’ll be over before we know it.”
“I hope so,” she responded. Cade cupped her face and kissed her again as he pulled her closer.
“If we had skipped the party last night we would have had some warm memories to dwell on,” Amanda teased.
Cade smiled, “We have something to look forward to,” he countered.
Amanda smiled and nodded, “I’ll count the days.”
“So will I,” he promised and kissed her one last time before he released her. Amanda glanced up to see her brother watching them. He was frowning but he looked more puzzled than angry. Amanda waved in his direction and climbed into her Jeep.
“Bye, Manny,” Cade stepped back so she could shut the door.
“Bye, Cade,” she returned.
“I’ll call you tonight,” he told her.
“I’ll be waiting.”
Amanda put her Jeep in gear and started back up the drive.
“I’m surprised you two stayed all night,” Jenny finally spoke after they were on the highway.
“It wasn’t my idea to,” Amanda admitted.
“How many times is he going to turn you down?” Jenny demanded; she sounded both amused and baffled.
“I don’t know; he wants us to wait until we’re through with school,” Amanda sighed.
“I can kind of see what he means, Mandy,” Jenny admitted.
“I know; it just feels like I’ve waited forever just for it to be okay to be with him.”
“So what’s a few more months?”
“Torture,” Amanda grinned; Jenny laughed.
____________________________________
Amanda felt blue after Cade and her brother returned to school, she made a point of focusing on her own schooling and ignored her male admirers altogether. When her father announced he was moving the cabin, Amanda made frequent trips out to watch his progress. The old place was slowly taking shape, the rooms being refinished and prepared for occupants. She helped him select furnishing and colors and spent her free nights helping rather than going out on the weekends. It was pointless; there was only one man she was interested in and he was several hours away. Besides, they had made a promise to each other. They wrote often and spoke on the phone almost every night but she hadn’t seen him since the morning after the party at Jason’s.
“I appreciate all your help, Mandy-Lynn,” her father told her as they painted side by side. Amanda smiled; her father hadn’t called her Mandy- Lynn since she was a child.
“Glad to,” she assured him.
“I was thinking that when Trent returned from college he should move out here. It will give him some privacy and let him learn some independence,” her father announced.
Amanda felt her heart fall; she had always loved this place.
“If he and Christy continue on as serious as they seem to be, then he’ll be needing the privacy,” her father pointed out.
“That’s true,” Amanda nodded.
“Naomi says she’s glad to see the old place make a comeback,” Sterling shared with his daughter.
“How long did she live here?” Amanda asked as she poured more paint into her rolling pan.
“Just a few years but they were a few years she needed to deal with some stuff she was going through. She wasn’t always the prim old lady she is now,” Sterling offered his daughter a smile.
“I cannot imagine Naomi as anything but prim and proper,” Amanda admitted as she started rolling paint onto a blank wall.
“She wasn’t so different from you once, Mandy. Perhaps not quite as sassy and outspoken as you’ve always been, but not so very different.”
“That’s hard to imagine. What happened?”
“It’s her story to tell; you should ask her sometime. I will tell you this, she learned the hard way about decisions, their consequences and their reaching effects. She seems to have decided after what happened to err on the side of caution. I know that’s always caused you two some distance,” Sterling shared with her.
It was true, Amanda loved her aunt and knew that she loved her in return but it seemed that Amanda had always been nonverbally reminding Naomi that she was not her mother. Amanda wasn’t entirely certain why that was.
“I love Naomi, I guess she is kind of like a mother to me but we haven’t ever been terribly close,” Amanda admitted. “I guess because I was a tomboy for so long.”
“That your aunt has never been. She’s always been a girly girl as you call