TUESDAY TALES - EVERGREEN

Welcome to Tuesday Tales! This week's word prompt is "evergreen". This short piece is from my WIP, Echoes of the Heart.
Last week, Joe found his mother's high school picture in his boss', Cliff's, wallet. He wants and explanation. 

Echoes of the Heart

Dale put down the phone. She didn’t want to talk to Joe, to explain the complications in her life. She didn’t want him to know about Cliff. She grew restless. Slipping out of the house, she wandered down the back of the property to a grove of evergreen trees. Now that Cliff was back, every nook and cranny of the house and town refreshed a memory of them together. Dale had been a tomboy. Her spindly, bean-pole body had been athletic and agile.

She often climbed the pine trees, hiding among the branches, watching birds and spying on people below. Cliff had attended the same elementary school. They’d been friends, had adventures hunting frogs, tracking animals through the woods and climbing trees.
She leaned against a big tree and allowed her mind to wander back to the day she first discovered her feelings for him.
It was seventh grade. Her body had just begun to blossom. She had been hiding in the tree when Cliff came along, holding hands with Amelia.
Dale watched them as Cliff leaned back against the tree and pulled Amelia close for a kiss. She had giggled and pushed him away. Jealousy burned in Dales bosom.

“Don’t,” she said, touching her lips with her fingers.
“Why not?”
"I don’t like you that way, Cliff.”
Amelia backed off and disappeared. Cliff picked up a stick and
threw it. Dale descended from the tree.
"What were you doing, kissing Amelia?” Hands on hips, she stood blocking his way.
“Were you up there spying on me the whole time?”
“Answer my question first.”
“Amelia puts out.”
“What?”
“All the guys are after her.”  

“Not you!” Dale laughed to herself, wondering how she had shed her shy demeanor to brazenly walk up to Cliff and kiss him quickly on the lips. “She can’t have you. You’re mine.”

The surprised look on Cliff’s face disappeared quickly as he drew her to him and kissed her again. That had been the beginning. They were inseparable from that point on. Dale sighed at the memory of their innocent love that wasn’t consummated until she was seventeen. Her reverie was broken by a harsh, demanding voice.

“Why does Cliff have your picture in his wallet?” Joe stood behind her, his face clouded with anger. 
Thanks for stopping by.

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