her to him and kissed her as if there were no tomorrow. He couldn’t stop kissing her. He wanted to drown in her large blue eyes and in that luscious mouth. When she finally pulled away from him, she laid the top of her head down onto his chest, her fists folded at his waist.
“Dari, you’ve got to stop doing that! You make me feel all weird inside.”
“It’s supposed to, Lia. Has any other guy made you feel this way? Because no other girl has made me feel half of what I feel for you. I’ve never…”
She raised her lavender blue eyes to him. “Dari, I have to tell you. You’re the only boy I’ve ever kissed. I never saw one that I even wanted to kiss before you. You’re the only one, Dari.”
And he grabbed her again, feeling like he’d been given a special gift. God, this girl was completely his. No other guys. No guy had ever made her feel what he did. How could he stand that? It made him feel like he was flying up around the moon somewhere. He’d never let her go. Never!
And so it went. They dated exclusively and Darian asked her if she would be his steady girl. She said she would because there were no other boys that she would even consider. Darian was in her every waking thought and invaded her dreams. She attended his football games, usually with Jenny, Francie, Lil, Barb, and some others from time to time. Afterwards he’d walk her to her car and did not want to let her go. Dari was falling deeper and deeper in love with Lia, and she with him. It was as if no one else existed for them when they were together. Fall turned to winter and soon the New Year came, and Dari asked Lia to come to his house for a party, as he had one every New Year’s Eve.
“I’d rather be alone with you, Lia, but my friends all expect me to have the party. I’ve had my friends over every New Year’s for the past couple or three years.”
“I can be there for a while,” she told him, “but I have to get back home by eleven at the latest.” Lia could not tell him that her mother wasn’t feeling too well and she had to be there to make sure her mother had her medicine on time. Her mother might sleep through the time for her medicines and she could not let that happen. If she told Dari why she had to be home, it would bring up too many questions she wasn’t prepared to answer.
He’d take what he could get. She’d never allowed him to come to her house because of her mother, but always met him to cruise, to go to a movie, or anywhere else they wanted to go. Sometimes with Butch and Jenny and sometimes alone. He hated all the sneaking around, but if that was the only way he could see her, he’d take it. It was very hard for Dari to stop himself when she was so close to him, but Lia always managed to stop before they went too far. Not that she wanted to, but she had to. She could not disappoint her mother.
Lia had a really good time with all the kids at Dari’s house on New Year’s Eve, dancing with Dari, Butch and some others, and getting to know several people she hadn’t met. And Mrs. Wilks had laid out a great variety of refreshments, with pizza being the main dish. Chips, dips, different cookies and colas were available and there was no set time for them to eat. One or two were always at the table nibbling on something. Anything that kids liked to eat was available.
Upon meeting Dari’s mother and father, she’d been shy, but soon opened up to them and showed off the necklace that Dari had gotten her for Christmas. Of course, his mother had seen it, since she’d gone with Dari to one of the better jewelry stores to pick it out, but Lia didn’t know that. The necklace was so special, a gold chain with two hearts in the center, one slightly above and to the right of the other, as if they had been forged into one. Engraved in the center were the initials D and L that had been so elaborately and delicately intertwined, they looked to be inseparable. When she’d seen it, she had cried, thinking how very much they meant to each other and that, as the initials, nothing could ever separate them.
All too soon, it was time for her to leave the party. It would take her a while to get from the nice ranch style house that Dari’s family lived in to the Trenton’s up on the hill overlooking the city. There was a world of difference in the extravagance of the neighborhoods, but also a world between their small apartment and Dari’s nice house.
Dari kissed her goodnight at her car, wanting so much to go with her, but he had guests, and she, unfortunately, had to be home. He understood to a certain degree, but had never heard of anyone being as strict as her mother. As she drove away, he got an idea, but didn’t know how his own mother would feel about it.
Running back into the house, he grabbed his jacket, asked Butch to go with him, and told his mother he’d be back shortly. Please, he had to go for a few minutes. Not long. Just long enough to make sure that Lia got home all right. There was a skiff of snow on the streets and it bothered him. And his mother acquiesced, understanding his concern. The way these kids were, Dari didn’t have to be there every second. They were having a good enough time and there were so many of them, they probably wouldn’t notice whether he was there or not.
In truth, Dari wanted to see where Lia lived. She’d never invited him there, evidently because of her mother, and he was curious as to where she did live. Butch thought he was nuts, running the risk of her mom maybe noticing that he had followed her daughter home.
“How could her mother know, Butch? She’s never seen Dad’s Chevy and will just think it’s another car taking the same street.” But he was worried, nonetheless. He wouldn’t have Lia get into trouble because of him for anything.
Following at a discreet distance, he wound around the curves, watching the taillights of the Mercury move slowly over the snow up into the ritzy section of town. Where was she going? Surely Lia didn’t live in that neighborhood! Only the most affluent in the city had homes on Liberty Highway and they were few and far between. You might see one house and go for a mile or more until you came to the next large estate. Some homes you couldn’t see from the road, only gates leading to them.
“Butch, would you have believed this? No wonder her mother is so strict! Probably doesn’t want her associating with us common folk.” He watched as she slid around a corner and turned into a driveway of a mansion that, with the grounds, took up more than two city blocks. What? His Lia lived in this gigantic place?
“Holy moley! I would have never believed this, would you?” Butch was flabbergasted. “I knew her name was Trenton, but sure didn’t associate her with these Trenton’s. Look at those towers on that place. And even the fountains are lit up. I’ve been up by here, but it’s been awhile. And there’s her name, right on the gates. Good gosh, Dari! You sure got yourself a rich one.”
As they passed the huge mansion, Lia had followed the driveway around to the back of the house and was out of their view. Why hadn’t he thought of following her before? Why had he let so much time pass and him not know that she was a member of the Trenton family that owned the steel mill and practically half the town. They owned most of the buildings downtown, for Christ’s sake! And if he had heard right, had their fingers in every Blue Chip company there was. What in God’s name was he going to do? He didn’t want to lose Lia, but this? How could he get past her being one of the Trenton’s? Why hadn’t he thought of that possibility?
Darian traveled to the end of the road, turned in the cul de sac and following his own tracks, stared again at the mansion that Lia called home. His heart felt heavy, as if he carried the rock of Gibraltar in his chest. How could he ever touch her again, knowing that she was so far out of his league? Her mother had probably warned her about boys like him, average Joe’s, who would probably end up taking over his father’s garage when his dad retired, making a fairly decent living, but nowhere near what she would be accustomed to. But she’d seemed so common, just like the rest of them. She didn’t act rich at all, and probably went out of her way to dress down so people wouldn’t know who she was.
The
