Free The Wright Brother by Marie Hall

to swim with tears, and yanking a tissue out of the box from beside the candy bowl, she dabbed at them.
    Elisa knew exactly what Lori was talking about. She’d witnessed the transformation herself. Just thinking about it brought a smile to her face, but reality came crashing down hard.
    “He’ll be fine. He has to be, I’m leaving.”
    Lori’s brows gathered into a tight vee. “Elisa, I don’t know what happened the other day when you guys went swimming.”
    Squirming, she plucked at her nightgown. “No…nothing happened.”
    But Lori didn’t seem entirely convinced by her weak words.
    Waving a hand, she said, “I’m not here to talk about that. Because like I said, I don’t know. All I do know is he came back that day devastated. I suspect my boy has developed a serious crush on you.”
    Cringing, Elisa shook her head.
    But Lori only nodded harder. “Not only do I believe that, but I think you know that. Which is probably why he returned to me as he did. I understand there’s a fairly significant age gap—”
    “Mrs. Wright—”
    “Lori.” She raised her brows.
    Huffing, Elisa corrected herself. Habits were hard to break. “Lori. I’m nineteen. Yes, there is a huge age gap, and I’m sorry for how he feels about me.” She squelched the little voice reminding her that he’d not been the only one affected that day. “But I would never cross that line.”
    “Oh dear Lord.” She grabbed her chest. “I hope you don’t think I’m asking you to. I would never.”
    Elisa flicked her wrist. “Then what are you doing?”
    “I’m only asking for you to understand that it’s a phase, and he’ll get over you. He’s got two more years before college, he’ll understand it could never be, what I don’t want though is for you to ignore him. You’re good for him, Elisa.”
    Why had the thought of him getting over her made her feel such a heavy flash of sadness? It shouldn’t, because the fact was that was exactly what she wanted. What she needed. Elisa was going to college and she was going to flirt, she was going to date, and, hopefully, she’d find the man of her dreams, graduate with honors, and forget all about that stolen moment on the pier that’d made her heart beat faster than it ever had before in her life.
    “Write to him. Email him. Text him. Just every once in a while. Just let him down easy, Lisa, that’s all I’m asking. I’m afraid what will happen if you shut him out. Once he realizes you two could never be anything, he’ll move on, and he’ll be happy again, but I’m begging you, please, don’t lock him out.”
    She knew Jules. And the fact was, she knew Lori was right. What Julian felt for her was puppy dog worship, an infatuation that would end. But when it did the one thing Elisa wanted was to know that they would always remain friends.
    “I really do love them all.”
    Lori dabbed at her eyes again. “I know you do, sweetheart. And I’m so grateful for that.”
    Then she got up and Elisa assumed their conversation was over, but Lori stood there fidgeting, glancing between the door and her, before with a loud sigh she reached under her shirt and yanked out a sheet of paper that looked as though it’d been crumpled at one point and tossed away.
    She stared at the paper. “I wasn’t going to give this to you. I figured you wouldn’t want it anyway. But…” She glanced up and started to walk over to Elisa. “Julian is an amazing artist. One of the best I’ve ever seen, but this drawing…” She sighed and smoothed her fingers over the sheet lovingly. “It has his soul stamped on it. You can keep it or you can toss it, like he did, but…”
    Then, with a twitch of her lips, she thrust the paper at Elisa. She took it without glancing down.
    “Good luck in college, Elisa Jane. I’ll always be pulling for you.”
    And without so much as a wave, she turned and walked away. Elisa waited for a good minute after Lori had left to finally glance down and when she did her