"Do I need to call Gianna and get your bank account number, or something?" Beth asked.
"Nope. I hit an ATM on the way to the bar. We're all good."
Beth was indignant. "You withdrew cash for bail before you assaulted him?"
William shrugged. "Made things a whole lot simpler, don't you think?"
Beth rolled her eyes. "You're a naughty monkey, and I'm never letting you out of my sight again."
"I like the sound of that," William answered.
AT LONG LAST
"Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery."
~Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
Beth followed her father through the front door, towing William behind her and grinning at his overkill respectful tone. "You're sure it's no trouble, sir?"
"Don't call me sir, it makes me feel old," her father answered. "And no, it's no trouble at all, young man. You are welcome here any time."
"Thank you, s-uh…..thanks."
"Beth, you can fix him up in Lindy's room." He raised his voice for William's benefit. "That's the one right across the hall from ours."
"Do you mind if I shower first? I'm kind of a mess."
"It's across from your room," Beth answered. "Come back here after you're done so I can take care of your face. And give me your shirt - we're not even going to bother washing that thing."
"Yes, ma'am," William intoned as he obediently unbuttoned and shed his ruined shirt. He had several small bruises on his chest and arms, and a few cuts. Beth sighed and shook her head as William grinned like a little boy caught fighting at school.
After William veered toward the bathroom, Beth took in her father's suspicious look. "What is it, dad?"
He said nothing for a moment, then approached Beth carefully. "You know I trust you, Beth. You've never given me a reason to do otherwise. But considering recent events, perhaps I should stay here tonight instead of returning to the hospital."
"I didn't know you were going back," Beth answered, surprised. "Whatever you're more comfortable with, Dad." She almost reminded him that she'd been staying with William in New York for the past few days, and had managed to return untarnished. Not that she'd exactly publicized the fact that she'd stayed with William.
He eyed her for a moment, then nodded in resignation. "Your mother really shouldn't be alone. You know how she gets." He paused, not sure what to do with himself. "And your William seems like a decent fellow."
Your William. If Beth could smile about anything today, it was that. "He is."
Sounding his age, he said, "Call if you need anything."
"Okay, dad," Beth agreed, kissing her father on the cheek. After he left, she went to her room and changed into a t-shirt and pajama pants. She ran her fingers through the tangle that was her hair, pulling it back into a stubby pony tail off her neck. In the laundry room cupboards she rummaged for cotton, hydrogen peroxide, triple antibiotic ointment, and bandages, then made her way back to the kitchen.
William shuffled in a few minutes later, bare-chested with a t-shirt in his hands, plaid pajama pants hanging low on his hips. Beth turned, lest he catch her ogling, and filled a glass with water. She pushed it into his hand with a "here, drink" and two Tylenol PM. He complied in silence, his eyes never leaving her face.
"Okay, here's the stuff," Beth said, indicating the spread of medical supplies on the counter. "I'm going to start with your forehead - can you scrunch down a little?"
William gave her a scathing look before clamping his hands around her waist and lifting her onto the kitchen counter in front of him. "There. No scrunching."
Heat spread over her face as she tried to keep her eyes on her work and off his physique. She worked quickly, dabbing his cuts with the peroxide, smudging ointment on them, and bandaging only the cut over his brow with gauze and medical tape.
"You look tired," he commented after a moment.
Beth shrugged, dabbing at his shoulder now. "I haven't really slept since I got here - except a couple hours next to Lindy."
"How is she?"
"I can't even describe…..how awful she looks….." Beth bit down on her bottom lip and swallowed. Absently, she shook her head as the image of Lindy's battered face swam before her. Blinking, she tried to throw off the gravity as she capped the ointment and put away the gauze. "She'll probably be in the hospital for at least a week - they said she lost a lot of blood."
William took a controlled breath, gripping the counter on either side of Beth and looking down as a dark cloud passed over his face. Beth gripped his chin and forced him to meet her eyes.
"This. Is. Not. Your. Fault! If anyone in this house is to be blamed, it's not you." She paused for efficacy. "You know the force that is Lindy, William. You've seen it first-hand."
"It doesn't change the fact that I should have snapped his neck at the Malt Shop."
Beth smiled, trying to lighten his mood. "I don't think I could've gotten you out of that one so easily."
He sighed in resignation, hopefully too tired for the self-loathing to consume him again.
When Beth held his shirt up, he grimaced. "You might need to help me."
Spreading the neck of his shirt, she gingerly guided it over his head and helped him thread his arms through. He winced in pain as she pulled the fabric over his damaged chest, then let his head fall onto her shoulder.
"Ow," he moaned.
"What hurts?" she asked softly, running her fingers through his hair.
"Everything."
"I could kiss it better?"
William looked up, a wry smile playing across his bruised lips. "We've already established that kissing makes my owies worse."
Beth settled her arms carefully on his shoulders, clasping them behind his neck. "I'll just have to avoid your owies," she whispered, then pressed her lips carefully to the small patches of unmarred skin on his face. William's breathing deepened, and he relocated his hands from the counter to the small of her back. When her lips brushed his earlobe, he pulled her against him, planting his mouth on hers. She could taste the tender flesh of his lips, feel his warm breath mingling with her own and filling her body with liquid fire. Just when she thought he would stiffen and pull away, he swept her legs out from under her, pulling her into his arms and carrying her down the hall.
"Which room's yours?" he asked in a broken whisper between kisses.
Hope and dread contended within Beth. The last thing she wanted was to be parted from William, but sleeping with him in her own room seemed a poor way to repay her father's confidence in them both.
"I think I'll handle the tucking in tonight," she told him lightly. When he set her on her feet a moment later, she was simultaneously disappointed and relieved. "Let's get you settled," she said, pulling him into Lindy's room by the hand and throwing back the covers. When she straightened and looked back, William was grinning.
"What?"
"I thought I was going to have to beat you off with a stick, then use it to bolt the door," he said.
Beth looked down. "My dad's staying at the hospital tonight. He was a little concerned about us being here alone."
"As any good father would be," William said. "And I'm glad to see you have a little regard for your own virtue." He smiled tiredly. "I don't know if I could've held you off in my condition."
"Don't tempt me," Beth warned darkly, taking him by the hand and leading him to Lindy's twin bed. She met with no arguments when she pushed him onto the bed and pulled the covers up over him. Pressing a chaste kiss on the good side of his mouth, she stood and headed for the door. She paused in the doorway to look back at him, to see his beautiful dark eyes one last time. But his eyes were already closed, his chest moving up and down with swelling breaths. After watching him for a moment more, Beth quietly closed the door and put herself to bed across the hall.
SURRENDER
"….what made you so unwilling to come to the point at last?"
~Elizabeth Bennet, Pride & Prejudice
The last week had flown
by like a hyperspace jump. In Beth's mind it was a fantastic muddle of William's constant presence, watching movies every night until Beth's father would announce his arrival by clearing his throat loudly as he walked down the hall ('good heavens, are you two still up?' - that was their cue to turn in for the night), and her mother's shameless attempts at flirting with William. At first Beth had worried that William would be annoyed. But he kept up easily, flirting back and obviously enjoying himself. Less pleasant were the frequent hospital trips to see Lindy.
At first, her condition had worsened, keeping time with her appearance. Beth wouldn't have thought she could look worse than she had at first. But then her black-and-blue battle wounds turned a sickly shade of yellow, and more bruises materialized out of nowhere, rallying to the cause. She had broken her collar bone, several ribs, and her spine was damaged. It was difficult for her to get out of bed for the first time and walk around the glaringly clean halls, and there had been no good news to temper the pain: the doctors still weren't sure if she would ever walk normally again. They said time would just have to tell.
The only good news about the matter was that Jaxon would be behind bars for a long, long time.
Lindy's spirit seemed to have been tenderized, like her body. It was as though all the spunk had been beaten out of her. She was a shell of who she used to be; a very brittle, papery-skinned shell. The kind that cracks into a million tiny bits of sparkling dust when you drop it.
Tomorrow she would be coming home from the hospital, and Beth had done her very best to make sure she would be comfortable once she arrived. After changing the bedding in Lindy's room and double checking the hospital corners, she'd set out all of Lindy's favorite knick knacks. Then she'd pulled the TV/DVD combo in from the kitchen and positioned it in front of her bed. Yesterday she and William had bought a selection of DVDs for Lindy (action, comedy, drama - anything but romance), and they were arraigned on a rickety table next to the TV, their plastic shrink wrap already removed.
Tempers were running high on this night, the eve of the big homecoming. Beth's mother had been slaving in the kitchen all day, making an assortment of Lindy's favorite snacks to try and coax back some of the weight she had lost in the hospital. Her mother didn't seem to be happy unless everyone in the house was having an anxiety attack along with her. Beth's father had finally given up trying to please his wife, sequestering himself in his study to read a book instead.
William stretched out on Lindy's bed, watching as Beth bustled around the room. He'd finally stopped asking how he could help. Beth pushed her hair behind her ears and gave the room yet another once-over. Then she pulled William up off the bed and towed him from the room. She informed her parents that they were going out, and not to wait up, not bothering to ask permission or wait for a reaction. She retrieved a couple thick blankets from the linen closet in the hall and pulled William out the front door, across the lawn, and into her little red truck.
"We're getting out of here," she informed William as she put the truck in gear. The house fell behind them like a sulky child left standing in the road. Beth accelerated, not feeling the least bit guilty.
~:~
William was half amused, half curious as they got out of the truck. "Did you bring me here to park?"
"Of course not," Beth said, sounding affronted as she climbed into the back of her truck. "If I wanted to 'park,' the truck would be facing the view instead of the mountain." As she spoke she shook out the blankets and spread them across the ridged metal of the truck bed.
William leaned against the tailgate of the truck with his arms folded, unable to keep a grin from his face as he watched her.
"But traditionally, this is where people come to park," she added, waving a hand toward the valley. It wasn't a very impressive sight. There weren't enough lights to make a spectacular view, and it was too dark to see anything else. She wrapped her arms around William's chest from behind as she knelt in the bed of the truck and tilted his head back with her hand. "This is why I brought you here."
William had never seen anything like it, even in all his outdoor excursions. The few lights winking at them from the small town of Meryton didn't remotely compare to the spectacular sight above. He imagined he was looking at every star ever created. A glittering dust cloud stretched across the sky like a reaching hand - one of the Milky Way's arms. It made him short of breath; but the hand pressed to the skin over his heart made it impossible to breathe at all. Beth's cheek was against his, and he could feel her breath on his face.
"By the way," she whispered, "I love you too."
William couldn't be sure if it was the hot puff of air that had escaped from her mouth to his ear, or the words themselves, but it felt like his heart had just been shocked with an electric pulse. He pivoted and closed his arms around Beth, the tailgate separating them, and looked up into her face. Her eyes were bright as fire, her fingers spindles of flame as they tangled in his hair. It was the first time he'd been properly alone with her since that night in the kitchen when she'd doctored his cuts. For some time now he had been holding on to a question he meant to ask her. His pulse quickened and he knew it was time. He kissed her once, softly, and then pulled back with difficulty - the rest of him screamed for so much more.
"You love me?"
Beth answered by leaning in for another kiss. With a great display of self-denial William pulled back, smiling.
"How much do you love me?"
Beth's eyes smoldered. "I was about to demonstrate."
William grinned. "Yes, I'll bet you were. I need you to do something for me first, though."
Beth narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, then leaned forward with a hard look in her eyes. "Anything."
William swallowed. "Marry me?"
Beth's eyes widened as she watched William for a few minutes in silence. "You're serious."
"Completely."
William waited in hopeful agony as Beth caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Then her face broke into a smile, and the almost-dimple surfaced in her right cheek.
Raising up on her knees so that she looked down at him, she pulled her fingers through his hair, then kissed him until he couldn't think straight.
"Is that a yes?" he asked against her mouth several minutes later. You couldn't blame a guy for wanting clarification.
A mischievous glint came into Beth's eyes, which she narrowed at him, as if she were listing the pros and cons in her head. This went on for so long that William began to worry in earnest. Then she laughed and nodded. "Yes."
William took her face in his hands and kissed her hard, as if trying to punish her. "Don't do that to me, woman."
Beth smiled in a slightly ashamed way.
"Be nice to me," he murmured in her ear, "or I won't give you your present." To his satisfaction, Beth shivered at the brush of his lips.
"Present?"
Barely able to contain his excitement, William plunged a hand into his pocket, closing his fingers around the object in question - something he'd been holding onto for a while. Beth's curiosity piqued; she sat back on her ankles and tucked her hair behind her ear, looking nervous.
"Close your eyes," William instructed. When she did, he slid a thin platinum band onto the ring finger of her left hand.
Clearly, she hadn't expected the present to be an engagement ring. Her mouth hung open in astonishment as she gaped at the diamond, which was rather impressive if he did say so himself.
"You have a ring?" she accused, sounding indignant.
"I've had this ring since before Les and Jenna's wedding," William informed her.
"What?! When……?"
"Remember the day you left the studio to chew Jenna out for giving Fritz your lyrics? Tiffany's is right down the street from Fritz's studio. Do you like it?"
A speechless Beth had to be a first. "What's not to like?" she finally answered, unable to take her eyes off the ring. "It's more like an ice rink than a ring. How big is this diamond?"
William s
miled at her tone, incredulity trimmed with longing. "Three karats," William answered. At her reprimanding expression, he decided not to tell her about the wedding bands - which easily cleared another karat of baguettes each.
Beth tugged on William's arms, signaling that she no longer wanted the tailgate between them. They lay down side by side on their backs, William holding her right hand as she pivoted her left. The moonlight glinted off the stone, and William mentally patted himself on the back. Nailed it, he thought happily.
Beth propped herself up on one elbow, still transfixed by her hand. "I wouldn't call this a ring, though. I think it's spatially closer to a continental iceberg."
William laughed. "A continental iceberg?"
"You know, like Greenland," she clarified, lowering her mouth to his.
William didn't protest, and a session of intense communication followed, none of which was verbal.
VERTIGO
"A man who had felt less, might."
~Mr. Darcy, Pride & Prejudice
It was a mild day in early September. The sky was a vibrant cornflower blue, and the wind created a sort of hushed violence as it brushed coppery leaves across the ground. The crisp scent of autumn was in the air, and William could feel the summer ebbing away, as if reluctant to yield its dominion to the chill. He took a generous swig of the glass offered to him by Les, wondering when the uncomfortable fluttering in his stomach would stop.
"So…..you about ready, man? I think it's time." Les's smile was broad as always, but somehow even more pronounced today.
"Yeah," William managed through his nerves. He swiped his jacketed arm across his forehead to get rid of the perspiration that had gathered there.
"Dude! I wasn't nervous at all on my wedding day. What's up?"
William took a shaky breath, feeling ridiculous. He hesitated, thinking. "What if she changes her mind?"
Les clapped William heartily on the shoulder. "There's always Kara."
William sunk a mock punch into Les's gut. He looked in the mirror once more and asked distractedly, "Still upset about not being a bridesmaid?"
Pride's Prejudice Page 26