Read Batteries Not Required for Free Online Page B

startled. “What the hell—?”
    â€œThe day I left Parable,” I burst out. “I came looking for you, to tell you I couldn’t go to college like we planned, and there you were, climbing all over some other girl in broad daylight!”
    â€œ That’s why you left? Your letter said you met somebody else—”
    â€œI lied, okay? I wanted to get back at you for cheating on me!”
    â€œI wasn’t cheating on you.”
    â€œI saw you with Miss Rodeo!”
    â€œYou saw me with an old friend. Cindy Robbins. We went to kindergarten together. The vet had just put her horse down, and she was pretty shook up.”
    It was just ridiculous enough to be true.
    I really got mad then. Mad at myself, not Tristan. I’d been upset, that long ago day, because I’d just learned my dad was a married man and my mother was his lover, and because I wasn’t going to college. I hadn’t stopped to think, or to ask questions. Instead, I’d gone to the bank, withdrawn my paltry savings, dashed off a brief, vengeful letter to Tristan, explaining my passion for a made-up guy, and caught the four o’clock bus out of town, without so much as packing a suitcase, let alone saying good-bye to my mother.
    Rash, yes. But I was only seventeen, and once I’d made my dramatic exit, my pride wouldn’t let me go home.
    â€œHey,” Tristan said, with a gruff tenderness that undid me even further. “You okay?”
    â€œNo,” I replied. “I’m not okay.”
    â€œThere wasn’t any other guy, was there?”
    I shook my head.
    He grinned. I was falling apart, on the street, and he grinned.
    â€œBob’s not a guy, either,” I said.
    â€œWhat?” Tristan did the thumb thing again, wiping away my tears.
    â€œHe’s a vibrator.”
    Tristan threw back his head and laughed, then he pulled me close, right there in front of God and everybody. “Hallelujah,” he whispered, and squeezed me even more tightly.
    He walked me back to the Lakeside Motel, and I might have invited him in, if the minivan family hadn’t been there, swimming again. They smiled and waved, like we were old friends.
    â€œLater,” Tristan said, and kissed me lightly.
    With that, he walked away, leaving me standing there with my room key in one hand, feeling like a fool.
    I finally let myself in, locked the door, and took a cold shower.
    When I got out, I wrapped myself in a towel, turned on my cell phone, and dialed my mother’s number. I was expecting the usual redial marathon, but she answered on the second ring. I heard a motorcycle engine purring in the background.
    â€œHello?”
    â€œMom? It’s me. Gayle.”
    She chuckled. “I remember you,” she said. “Are you in Parable?”
    â€œYes, and you set me up.”
    â€œSure did,” she replied, without a glimmer of guilt. “The meeting’s tomorrow, at Tristan’s office. Ten o’clock.”
    â€œThanks for telling me.”
    â€œIf you’d bothered to read the documents, you would have known from the first.”
    â€œIt was a sneaky thing to do!”
    â€œI’m a mother. I get to do sneaky things. It’s in the contract.”
    I paused. My mother is no June Cleaver, but I love her.
    â€œHow are you?” I asked, after a couple of breaths. My voice had gone soft.
    â€œHappy. How about you?”
    â€œBeginning to think it’s possible.”
    â€œThat’s progress,” Mom said, and I knew she was smiling.
    The Harley engine began to rev. Biker impatience.
    â€œGotta go,” Mom told me. “I love you, kiddo.”
    â€œI love you, too,” I said, but she had already disconnected.
    I shut off the phone, curled up in a fetal position in the middle of the bed, and dropped off to sleep.
    When I woke up, it was dark and somebody was rapping on my door.
    I dragged myself up from a drugged slumber, rubbing my