"I'm going to summer school. That way, I'll be able to graduate in December—two days after I turn seventeen."
"That's young to graduate."
"Matt was sixteen."
"Oh," Meredith said, wondering about the quality of a rural school system that let everyone graduate so early. "What will you do after you graduate?"
"Go to college. I'm going to major in one of the sciences, but I haven't decided which one yet. Biology probably."
"Really?"
Julie nodded and said with pride, "I have a full scholarship. Matt's waited until now to go away because he wanted to be certain I'd be okay on my own. It's just as well, though, because it gave him a chance to get his M.B.A. while he was waiting around for me to grow up. Although he'd have had to stay in Edmunton and keep working anyway, just to finish paying off Mom's medical bills."
Meredith whirled around and gaped at her. "Matt had a chance to get his what?"
"His M.B.A.—you know, master's degree—business administration. That's what comes after you get your bachelor's degree," she prompted helpfully. "Matt had a dual major for his undergraduate degree—economics and finance. Brains run in our family," she added, then she saw Meredith's blank shock and stopped. Hesitantly, she said, "You—you don't know anything at all about Matt, do you?"
Only how he kisses and makes love, Meredith thought with shame. "Not much," she admitted in a small voice.
"Well, you shouldn't blame yourself. Most people think Matt's hard to get to know, and you two have known each other for only two days." That sounded so sordid that Meredith turned away, unable to face her. She picked up a mug and started wiping it. "Meredith," Julie said, looking worriedly at her averted face, "it's nothing to be ashamed of—I mean it's no big deal to me that you're pregnant." Meredith dropped the mug and it rolled across the linoleum under the sink. "Well, it isn't!" Julie persisted, bending down and scooping it up.
"Did Matt tell you I'm pregnant?" Meredith managed. "Or did you figure it out for yourself?"
"Matt told my dad privately, and I eavesdropped, although I'd already figured it out myself, actually."
"Wonderful," Meredith said, drowning in mortification.
"I thought it was pretty neat," Julie agreed. "I mean, until Matt told Dad all about you, I was starting to feel like I was the only virgin alive over the age of sixteen!"
Meredith closed her eyes, feeling a little faint from the wild leaps of intensely revealing conversation and angry that Matt had discussed her with his father. "That must have been quite a little gossip session they were having," she said bitterly.
"Matt wasn't gossiping about you! He was straightening out my dad about what sort of girl you are." That made Meredith feel immeasurably better, and when Julie saw it, she continued in a slightly different vein. "Thirty-eight of the two hundred girls in my high school class this year are pregnant. Actually," she confided a little dispiritedly, "I've never had to worry about it. Most guys are afraid to kiss me."
Feeling that some reply was in order, Meredith cleared her throat and said, "Why?"
"Because of Matt," Julie said succinctly. "Every guy in Edmunton knows Matt Farrell is my brother. They know what Matt would do to them if he found out they tried anything with me. When it comes to guarding a woman's 'virtue,'" she added with a laughing sigh, "having Matt around is like wearing a chastity belt."
"Somehow," Meredith said before she could stop herself, "I didn't find that to be exactly true."
Julie laughed, and Meredith suddenly found herself laughing with her.
When they joined the men in the living room, Meredith braced herself for an awkward couple of hours of watching television, but Julie again took matters into her own hands. "What shall we do?" she asked, looking expectantly from Matt to Meredith. "I know, how about a game or something? Cards? No, wait, how about something really silly—" She turned to the bookshelves, running her finger past several games. "Monopoly!" she said, looking over her shoulder.
"Not me," Patrick said. "I'd rather watch this movie."
Matt had no desire whatsoever to play any game, particularly that one, and he was on the verge of suggesting that Meredith go for a walk with him, when he realized that what she probably needed was some relief from anything intense, which their conversation outside would undoubtedly become. Moreover, she'd established a rapport with Julie and seemed to feel comfortable with her. He nodded, trying to appear as if he enjoyed the prospect, then he glanced to Meredith for a decision. She didn't look any more enthusiastic than he felt, but she smiled and nodded too.
Two hours later he admitted to himself that the Monopoly game had been an unexpected and unqualified success that even he'd enjoyed. With Julie as instigator, the game had immediately become a kind of farce, with both girls trying their damnedest to beat him and, failing that, to cheat him. Twice he'd caught Julie stealing the money he'd already won, and now Meredith was coming up with outrageous reasons for refusing to pay him his due. "No excuses this time," he warned Meredith as her token landed on a property he owned. "You owe me fourteen hundred for that."
"No, I don't," she said with a smug grin. She pointed to the little plastic hotels he'd put on his property, one of which she'd nudged with her finger. "That hotel is encroaching on my easement. You built on my land, therefore you owe me."
"I'll 'encroach on your easement' but good," he threatened, chuckling, "if you don't hand over my money."
Laughing, Meredith turned to Julie. "I have only one thousand. Can you lend me some?"
"Sure thing," Julie said, even though she'd already lost all her money. Reaching out, she snatched several $500 bills from Matt's pile and handed them to Meredith. A few minutes later, Meredith admitted defeat. Julie went to get her books and Meredith finished putting the game away, then she got up to return it to the bookshelf. Behind her, Patrick Farrell stood up. "I'd better get going," he said to Matt. "Did you leave the truck at the garage?" When Matt said he had, and that he'd get a ride into town in the morning to pick it up, Patrick turned to Meredith. Throughout their rowdy Monopoly game, she'd felt his eyes on her. Now he smiled—a grim, uncertain smile. "Good night, Meredith."
Matt stood up, too, and asked her if she felt like going for a walk.