Empty Arms: A Novel by Erika Liodice Read Free Book Online

bedroom closet where his wife’s clothes used to be and the way all his picture frames hung empty. It was fun fueling the gossip until the day I looked out his bathroom window and saw him kneeling in a row of corn sprouts talking to the sky.
    “He’s my mother’s brother,” he said. “My family runs a ranch in Texas, so we don’t get up here to see him much.”
    I nodded and chewed my lip, wondering what brought him here now.
    “He needs an extra set of hands around here,” he added, as if he’d heard the question in my mind.
    Mom beeped the horn, startling me. “Well, I guess I’ll see you around.”
    “Wait.” He stepped toward me. “What’s your name?”
    “Cate. What’s yours?”
    “James.”
    “Nice to meet you, James. Sorry for almost killing you.”
    A crooked smile broke across his face and he shrugged. “It wouldn’t have been such a bad way to go.”
    Mom beeped again. I waved to him and climbed back in the car. “Geez, Mom. I was just apologizing.”
    Her lips were pursed and her eyes were furious. “You’re never going to get your driver’s license if you don’t pay attention to where you’re going,” she said, and the tires kicked up gravel as she steered back onto the road. I pretended to listen as she scolded me, but my eyes were glued on the boy in the side mirror.
    I didn’t see him again until the day of the eclipse, a week later, but I replayed our encounter in my mind a hundred times. Angela and I went to a party at Angel Falls, and that’s when I saw him, standing at the top of the waterfall, assessing the distance to the gorge below.
    “Who’s that?” Angela asked in awe of his strong body. We watched in stunned silence as he did a back flip into the cold water and swam ashore. Before I could answer her, she bounced over to his side with a towel, and I knew that I didn’t stand a chance. With big boobs and a small waist, Angela was always the girlfriend and I was just the friend. Even though I was used to it, I couldn’t ignore the sliver of jealousy poking at my ribs.
    I grabbed a beer and found a patch of moss on the riverbank where I could watch my friends dive into the water and ignore Angela making a play for the guy who had dominated my thoughts for the past week.
    A couple of minutes later, a shadow fell across my lap. “Cate?”
    James was standing over me, a black T-shirt hiding the strong upper body that had made Angela swoon. “Oh, hi. James, right?”
    “Yeah.” He sat down next to me and dangled his legs in the water. His amber eyes caught the sunlight reflected off the surface. His damp hair was drying to a shade of brown so dark it was nearly black, although in the sunlight I could see subtle red highlights. His tan skin was smooth and untouched by the wrath of acne that most guys our age were battling.
    I sipped my beer, trying to act casual, but my heart was skittering in my chest. “What are you doing here?”
    “Creighton invited me.” He nodded in the direction of our high school’s star quarterback, who was carrying a kicking and screaming Angela toward the water’s edge. “He got a flat tire by the farm. I helped him change it.”
    “You’re a regular Mr. Fix-It, aren’t you?”
    He shrugged. “I’ve always been good with my hands.”
    My cheeks flushed and I buried my smile in my beer. “So, what part of Texas are you from?”
    “Eagle Pass.”
    I nodded though I couldn’t imagine it. I’d never been anywhere but the seashore. “What’s it like?”
    “Hotter than a deuce,” he laughed. “Let’s just say I’m glad to be spending the summer this far north.”
    My ears perked up. He was going to be in Angel Falls all summer. I brought my cup to my lips, trying to contain the smile that was on the verge of dancing across my face.
    “So what do you do for fun?” he asked.
    I glanced over at my friends jumping off the falls and drinking around the bonfire. “You’re looking at it.”
    “No, what do
you
do for fun?”
    I