Spring Rain Read Online Free PDF Page A

was going to beat him out for the number one spot in the class. She was so fierce about her schoolwork, like it was the most important thing in the world. He often watched her take a test orwork in the library, the tiny frown line between her eyebrows indicating her intensity. He wanted to smooth that little line away so she would feel better, so he could feel what her skin was like. He imagined it was soft, like a rose petal.
    “We’re so proud of you, Clay! You are such a fine boy.” It was Grandmom Wharton, hugging him too hard as usual. The ardent clasps to her bosom wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t insist on wearing garish pins that all seemed to have multiple lethal points that inflicted intense pain and fell mere millimeters short of running you through. Often as boys he and Ted had compared wounds after a visit with her.
    He flinched at the pricks of pain somewhere in the vicinity of his ribcage as he watched Leigh over Grandmom Wharton’s shoulder. Leigh pulled her cap with its gold tassel off her head and slid her gown off. She was wearing a white dress that had little pink flowers embroidered around the hem, tendrils of green reaching from one bloom to the next. All around her girls were wearing shorts or slacks, but she wore a dress. Like graduation was special, and you dressed up for it.
    She lifted her hair with one hand and let it slide little by little down her back in a shimmering waterfall. Then she turned and walked out the front door of the school. No one said anything to her, busy as they were with their families.
    No one except Ted.
    “Leigh,” he called and ran to her, thus escaping Grandmom’s waiting arms and pin.
    She stopped and turned, welcoming him with a warm smile.
    He threw his arms around her and hugged her. She hugged him back, her smile lighting her face. She caught Clay watching her as he absently rubbed the pinpricks in his side, and their eyes locked. Her smile faded.
    Clay nodded slightly, and she gave a faint quirk upward of one corner of her mouth. Then Ted stepped back, and she focused her attention on him. Clay watched his twin kiss her on the cheek and wondered why she smiled so brightly for Ted and not for him.
    “Ted,” his mother called. “We have to go.”
    Ted squeezed Leigh’s shoulders once again and came back to the family cluster. Leigh continued out the door and down the steps alone.
    As his family distributed itself in the various cars they had driven to the school, Clay continued to think about her. In fact, he’d thought about her quite a lot recently, and he was pretty sure God wasn’t very happy with some of his thoughts. He swallowed and made an effort to curb his hormones. It was bad enough Ted had turned out to be so perverted and loose. Clay was better than that, at least most of the time. And
his
thoughts were directed toward a girl. God had to like that.
    He glanced out the school door again and saw her disappear down the street. An ocean breeze blew her skirt against her legs, and her hair fanned out behind her. He sighed with pleasure at the sight.
    Taken as he was with her, he still knew very little about her. He knew she never stayed after school for any activities, just hurried home. He suspected that was because of Johnny Spenser. But she’d been on in-school committees with Clay, and she was always polite, reliable, sweet. And cute as could be. But she rarely talked to him. Certainly she wasn’t at ease with him like she was with Ted, though sometimes he caught her watching him. She’d always blush and look away fast.
    After a few minutes the cars and drivers were sorted out, and the family all left the school. Mom and Dad went in their car, the aunts and uncles in theirs. Ted ended up driving Grandmom, and Clay was alone.
    Instead of turning right toward the north end of Seaside and his home, he turned left. He drove slowly down Bay Avenue, watching the sidewalk carefully. In a couple of blocks he saw Leigh, walking alone, head down.