Page 81 of The Summer of ’98

“You wanna do something today?”

I looked up at Leroy while he waited for an answer to his question. His arm was wrapped around me, his hand rubbing soft circles on my shoulder while I rested on his chest. There was no feeling better than being held in his incredibly strong arms.

“Yeah, what should we do?”

“It’s a surprise.”

It didn’t matter that I pleaded for him to fill me in—he didn’t budge. It wasn’t until we were in a furniture store full of brand-new sofas, tables, desks, and beds that he told me what we were doing.

“A sofa?”

“Yeah,” Leroy nodded. He rested his hands on his hips and glanced around the furniture store before his gaze fell back on me. “You’re coming to Baylor with me, right? We’ll have our own place. We should get a sofa.”

He was so sweet. His blue, collared T-shirt looked perfect against his skin tone. I watched him with a ridiculous smile, letting his plans sink in. He spoke as though there wasn’t a thing to be worried about. Like no matter what happened, it would be him and me. And we’d be fine. The only furniture stores that I’d ever bothered setting foot in were secondhand ones. They all had the distinctive scent of mothballs and must. There was none of that here. It smelled like clean material: brand new leather, fabric cleaners, and wood stain.

“So, which one should we get?” he asked. “It can be our first purchase together toward our apartment.”

“Leroy, I can’t afford this. I’m running low on savings and I’m going to need something to put toward the baby things.”

He shook his head from side to side with an amused smile and sighed. “Baby, you need to stop stressing out,” he wrapped his arm around my waist. “I’m going to take care of you. Always.”

It was so hard to believe that he wanted to look after me so much. But at the same time, I knew that he meant what he said. “I wonder if I can get a job for the rest of the summer?”

“Els, summer is over in a couple of weeks,” he laughed. “Wait until we get back to Waco if you want to work that badly. But you don’t have to.”

“I want to,” I said, dropping into a plush corner sofa with an intricate pattern and detailing. It was a rich blue with tones of black weaved throughout the patterns on it. And it was comfortable. “I’m sure I can find something for a few months until I can’t work anymore. I love this one, by the way.”

Leroy smiled and sat down beside me. “This one it is, then.”

“Where are we going to put it until we move?”

“I’ll get the store manager to ship it to us on a set date. He knows our family. It’ll be no problem.”

There was still a lot that we had to figure out before we went back to Waco in a few weeks. We had to decide where we’d live. It had to be close enough to school that Leroy could get to and from without hassle. He was planning on living on campus in student housing, but that plan wasn’t going to work with a girlfriend and child.

“What are you thinking about?” Leroy interrupted my internal churning as he wrapped an arm around me and I realized that I had been gnawing on my lip.

“Where we’ll live. Rent. Furniture.” My stomach started to feel like it was in knots, twisting and making me nauseous. “There’s just so much—”

“Listen.” He pulled me tighter against him and I rested my head on his shoulder, letting his presence calm me. “I know things haven’t come easy to you. But my parents are sitting on a comfortable fortune. Dad was in the NFL for years and they don’t splash their funds about. I know it sounds like a rich kid thing to say, but they can help us, and it won’t make a dent in their account. Just let them help. All right? It’s okay.”

It made sense. I knew they did well for themselves. But money was something I had stressed over since I was young. We could never have gone out and spent it without saving for what we wanted first. Momma had taught me to be cautious and attentive to what I was doing with my allowances. It was odd to have this list of things that we needed and not have to worry because it would just be made available to us.

Leroy made arrangements for the sofa. He paid for it and said he’d be in touch with a date and location drop-off. We also decided to do the rest of our furniture shopping in Waco once we had an apartment, which was on our list of to-dos. We needed to spend a weekend viewing places so that we could apply. I felt a little nervous about being back in Waco so soon after the dispute with Momma. Some irrational part of me was afraid that I would bump into her.

But I knew where she worked and spent most of her time. So, I was sure that I could avoid those particular places. When we arrived home from furniture shopping, Eleanor was in the living room, sitting on the floor with boxes surrounding her. Jacob was reclined in his chair with a beer, as usual. Both of them greeted us when we strolled in and sat on the sofa.

“Good day?” Jacob asked.

“We bought a sofa,” Leroy said as his mother paused what she was doing and stared at us. “It’s for when we move. I’m having it sent to Waco.”

She raised her brows but made no further comment as she reached back into her boxes. “You got it from Furniture Tree, I hope?”

“Yeah, we did,” Leroy said. “What’s all this?”

“It’s old baby things.” Eleanor’s expression brightened as she held up an adorable onesie and waved it about. “We kept sentimental things from when you and Noah were babies. You two can go through and have a look. See if there are bits that you’d like to keep. There are a lot of gender-neutral items. But you can have the blue outfits as well if you have a boy.”

I was almost bouncing out of the seat at the thought of looking through Leroy’s old baby items. He gestured for me to go ahead. My heart couldn’t handle the excitement. I stood up as Noah came strolling down the step and into the living room.

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