giggled.
"Looks like I'm interrupting something." Jim arrived looking splendid in white jeans and a turquoise polo shirt. "Don't mind me," he said as Sally turned to acknowledge him. "Just go on with, uh, whatever you two were doing." He grinned broadly as he sat beside Meg, easily slipping an arm behind her on the table.
Sally extricated herself from the clutches of her husband. "Meg tells me you're going to take her into Holbrook for the show tonight."
"If it's okay with you two."
"More than okay," Sally said.
"Sounds good to me," Frank added.
Jim looked to Meg, who smiled dreamily. "Me too." Was that her voice? It sounded like an infatuated teen’s, all giggly and breathless.
"That's settled then." Sally dismissed them with an easy gesture. "Go have fun at the fireworks. Then maybe we can all get together later this week."
"It's a date," Jim said. "You ready Peggy, er, Meg?"
"Sure Jimmy, er, Jim." Meg fell into step beside the golden man who had been her girlhood pal. She had never been so ready in her life.
Chapter Two
The sun nestled into the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, gilding the sagebrush and greasewood in burnished tones. Meg leaned forward in the cab of Jim's truck, eagerly watching the road as they drove toward Holbrook. "So much has changed," she said, "and so little. Everything looks just as I remembered it."
"You've been away a long time." Jim's voice was quiet.
"Yes." Meg looked out the window. "This place never meant the same things to me as it did to you. The wonder to me is that you could stay here."
"Was it that bad?"
“Do you really need to ask? You remember the kids who called me Piggy and worse. They were just as tough on you."
"On Sally too, but she stayed."
Meg shrugged. "Sally fell in love."
The expression on Jim's face made her wish she hadn't said it. "I guess that made the difference," he said.
Not wishing to explore the source of the tension that suddenly stretched between them, Meg opted for a question. "So what about you, Jimmy--uh, Jim? Why did you come back?"
"I told you. I came home."
Meg sighed. "I don't understand."
"Apparently not," he said without rancor.
She smiled brightly. "So do you think you could explain? Enlighten an old friend?"
He grinned that adorable, lopsided smile that made Meg want to catch her breath. "I can try, but home is home. If you don't feel it, no one can explain it to you."
Maybe not , Meg thought with longing, but I'd like to try. I'd like to know what home feels like . "Give it a shot," she said aloud. "See what happens."
"Well, for starters, my family's here."
"You McAllisters always seemed close."
"We are. Everybody's still in the area and I couldn't see being somewhere else when the people I love are here."
"That makes sense." And I wish I had it. Meg had to stifle the sudden sense of longing.
"And my work's here too."
"What is it you do, anyway? I know you said you're into commerce. What does that mean, exactly?"
"You know, basic trade, buying and selling." Now it was Jim's turn to look out at the darkening sky. "But it's more than just my family or my work, Meg. There's just something about the high desert. The stark beauty of this place--" He paused and swallowed. "I can't find it anywhere else. It's home. That's all."
The passion in his voice stirred her. "I can see it means a lot to you." She paused, weighing her next words. "I've never felt that way about any place." She shrugged. "Guess I never stayed anywhere long enough. Rainbow Rock was the longest I ever lived anywhere, and that was just five years."
"Then I'm sorry for you. Everybody needs a home."
They drove in silence, passing through Holbrook and continuing southward. Just out of town Jim turned the truck onto a side road, joining an informal parade of vehicles. "They do the fireworks here by the county buildings." He pulled up next to a uniformed man with a flashlight. "They shoot off the rockets from the bluff back there," he explained as he