Searching for Selene

  ” “As good as an old coot like me deserves. Cut it with my ax.” He grinned sheepishly. There was no way I was going to say “I told you so.”

  He cleared his throat and shifted his feet. “Selene,” he said, “your grandma was the right bride for me. It was a thing I always knew.”

  He was going to say more, but I stopped him. “I know, Grandpa.” And I did. I understood now. Hugging him, I said, “I love you.”

  There would be time later for the details about Selena Marie. And to find out why he chose to search for her for all those years when he had to have known she had simply left town. That's what it had been—a choice. He could have done something about it, if he'd chosen to.

  I became aware that there was one more person there, one who stayed in the background until everyone else had greeted me. Then he stepped forward, and I was surprised at how happy I was to see him. He seemed changed—taller, maybe, or more grown up. Or maybe I was seeing him with new eyes because I had changed.

  He shifted his feet. “I was just wondering. That morning I called you—why did you hang up?”

  “Oh! It was you!” The phone call that my mother had cut off! It had been Lex. “It was an accident,” I said. “I didn't know it was you.”

  “You didn't mean to hang up?”

  “I would like to have talked with you, Lex. Why did you call?”

  He smiled down at me. “I just wanted to tell you how really much I missed you.”

  I thought he was going to shake my hand. But then, right there in front of everybody, Lex put his arms around me, bent his head, and kissed me full on the lips. It was no quick, lifelong-playmate kiss, either. He took his time about it, and I was breathless when it ended. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus…

  I looked up at him with my new eyes and saw that he was no longer part of the furniture.

  Later, when we got home, I would write an e-mail to Heather. “Guess what?” I'd say. “Sweet sixteen and now I've been kissed. And it wasn't onstage.”

  Then I'd add, “There's a really nice guy I want to introduce you to. You'll like him. He'll quote poetry to you. His name is Bryan.”

  About the Author

  Lael Jensen Littke grew up in Mink Creek, Idaho, and graduated from Utah State University. Following her marriage to George C. Littke, she accompanied him to New York City, where both sought higher education. When they moved to California, she studied writing at Pasadena City College and UCLA, later teaching extension writing classes at both institutions. She made her first story sales to Church magazines, then went on to publish in national magazines. After selling stories to young people's magazines, she decided she'd like to concentrate on writing books for that age group. She now has almost forty books to her credit, put out by both national publishers and Deseret Book Company. She lives in Pasadena, California, sharing her home with Frank, Charles, Solange, and Sadie (they are her cats). Her daughter and son-in-law, Lori and Douglas Silfen, live in a nearby city.