Best Laid Plans by Elaine Raco Chase Read Free Book Online

"I'm getting sixty bucks under
the table plus the pick of the seconds for you." A sparkling gray eye
favored him with a wink. "Seymour's cousin designs sportswear for tall
women, and every other Friday I'll be modeling for late-night buyers. I'm a
perfect size eight."
    "You're too skinny." To
this day Lucas still wondered why he had ever said that!
    Amanda laughed, leaned back against
the wall, a pillow snuggled against her breasts. "What a day! Lucas, it
was fantastic! Seventh Avenue is like . . . like a beehive gone berserk."
    She kicked off her sandals and
arranged herself full length on the sunset-colored India-print bedspread.
"I walked through eighteen blocks filled with dress racks, trucks and
handcarts. I went through picture-perfect showrooms into workrooms of unpainted
steel, overhead pipes and a million humming sewing machines.
    "Everyone was yelling and
screaming and eating. Phones never stopped ringing. At lunchtime the streets
were strangled with people." Amanda exhaled a genuine sigh of pleasure.
"It was congested, hurried and high-strung." She smothered a yawn.
"It was wonderful."
    Lucas stared down at her. His anger
ebbed into oblivion. The glow on her face was more eloquent than words. Amanda
had turned the drudgery of everyday into something magic and lyrical. He found
her enthusiasm contagious. Pushing her long legs to one side, Lucas had sat on
the narrow mattress and demanded a minute-by-minute replay of her day, anxious
to embrace her fever as his own.
    By the end of Amanda's first month at
NYU and Seymour's, Lucas had three new shirts and a sweater hanging in his
closet. He was also taking a lot of heat from his friends. "Nail
Wyatt?" became the byword of his dorm, but Lucas had refused to let the
locker-room mentality of his cronies put an end to a friendship that had become
almost vital to him.
    Amanda had given him a validation of
his own worth and something more: courage. Not the courage he had discovered on
the battlefield, but the courage to ignore peer-group pressure and listen to
his inner conscience. She proved the perfect panacea to his cynicism; the
elixir needed to perk up the tedium that invaded his studies. Lucas found he
embraced each day with a passion; his improved grades reiterated that
assertion.
    It was mid-October before Amanda's
initial bravado wore off. College proved more of everything than high school,
and her added work schedule didn't help. A child emerged. She became hesitant,
homesick, and confused. He had been there to make the transition easier. Since
he had gone through experiences similar to hers, his support gave her
confidence.
    His advice was impartial, not
parental. He wasn't there to protect or censor. In talking to him, Amanda was
able to discover the answers to her own questions. They fed off each other's
stability, fears, loneliness and humor - with no strings attached.
    "You are proving to be the big brother
I never realized I missed having," Amanda had said, sniffling against his
collar one cold, sleeting December afternoon. She had been desolated about not
being asked to a freshman holiday mixer. "I couldn't have dropped more
hints to Randy if I had encased them in concrete. Why do all you tall guys
prefer to date the most petite girls? It's just not fair."
    "Randall Henderson is a dumb
jock." Lucas hunted through his pockets for a handkerchief. She took it
even though it was smeared with grease from the oil dipstick on his car.
"Consider yourself lucky, kid. Would you really want to spend a perfectly
good Saturday night gagging on fruit punch and stale cookies?"
    "Yes." She had said it so
positively they both had laughed. Her low voice droned into his ear, her chin
settled into a comfortable niche on his shoulder. "My mother asked me that
same question about my junior prom and senior ball. I didn't get asked to them
either."
    "Were there any guys with brains
in your high school?"
    "Brains, yes. Height, no. I was
taller than the center on the basketball team.