by Carolyn Nash
“You did come,” he breathed.
I looked away. “Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come in and see me?”
“You were busy with the press.”
“Couldn’t you wait until they left?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I was tired. I had a life to get back to.”
“You could have left me a note, some kind of word.”
I looked at him. “Why, Andrew?”
He looked surprised. “What do you mean why?”
“I mean why? Why did you want to find me? Why does it matter where I was? Your ‘official fiancée’ was there.”
He looked away. “You’re my friend. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
I swallowed and nodded. “I am okay.”
“Good.”
We stared at each other for a long minute. It was I who finally broke the silence. “Look, Andrew. I’ve got to finish cleaning up and go. I talked to the landlord and settled everything and I’ve got to get to the airport. Mr. Kent will be picking me up in about ten minutes.”
“Settled?” His eyes widened. “Good Lord, Melanie. I didn’t even think. You paid for all of this.” He reached for his wallet. “How much was it?”
“Forget it.” I grabbed the t-shirt with my make-up and set it on the other clothing I held. I scanned the room to see if I had forgotten anything.
“No, I won’t,” he said and shook his head. I watched the long, red-gold hair hanging over his forehead shift in the light. I blinked and looked down at my clothes. “You can’t afford this. How much was it?”
I headed for the door. “I said, forget it. I don’t want your money.”
“No, damn it!” He reached out and grabbed my arm. I had hidden the bandage under the clothing I carried, and it was that wrist that he grabbed. I winced and dropped the clothing on the floor. He looked down at my hand swathed in white, then to my face. “My god, Melanie,” he breathed, “what happened to your hand?”
I pulled my wrist from his grasp and knelt down on the floor to pick up my clothes. “It’s nothing.”
“That’s not nothing. What happened?”
I sat on my heels and stared at the pink sweater lying on top of the heap. “When I was running down the stairs, one of the bullets hit the banister near my hand. The splinters of wood cut it. That’s all.”
“That’s all. That’s all.” Andrew turned and walked away from me, then turned back and stared at me kneeling on the floor, the clothes piled in front of me. There was a long silence, and then he suddenly sat down cross-legged on the floor as if the strength had suddenly just blown out of him.
“You can’t know,” he said softly after a long silence. “You can’t know what it was like to be sitting on the floor in that lab, and see that gun rising up and pointing at me, and then to hear your shout, calling him a son-of-a-bitch, daring him to come after you. And I watched that gun move away from me and go after you.”
I looked over at Andrew. He stared down at his hands. “And I couldn’t do anything. I knew that even if I could get past J.P., that I didn’t have the strength to help you, and you were going to die trying to save me.” I saw a tear trickle down his cheek and land on the back of his hand and I felt such a wrenching, such a tearing pain that I had to get away, had to get out.
I snatched up the clothes and headed for the door.
“Melanie.”
I shook my head and kept walking.
“Melanie.”
I stopped.
There was a long silence, then his voice, low and harsh. “Why did you leave me, Melanie? Why did you leave me there alone?”
“You weren’t alone,” I whispered. “Caren was there.”
“Caren.”
I walked through the doorway.
“Don’t go, please.”
“I’ve got to go,” I said lightly, my voice tightly controlled. “It’s no longer the second Friday of the month. It’s now the third Thursday. I discover the meaning of life every third Thursday.” I took a step toward the front door.
“Damn it, Melanie. No! I won’t let you!” I heard him come up behind me.
“Don’t,” I said. “Don’t do this to me, Andrew.”
“What?” he whispered. His voice was just behind my left shoulder. I felt the tickle of his breath on my ear.
I hugged my clothes to me, pressing in, trying to stop the pain and the anger. “I won’t stand by, being your ‘friend,’ watching you with Caren, marrying her.”
“I’m not going to marry her.”
I heard the birds out back, the faint rumble of traffic out front, the blood pounding in my ears as my heart hammered in my throat. “What?” I whispered.
“I’m not going to marry her. I only said that at the hospital so as not to embarrass her. She’ll announce in a couple of days that she’s broken off the engagement.”
I pressed harder on the clothes. My breathing was quick and shallow, my heart beating so quickly I felt dizzy.
“Turn around,” Andrew whispered.
I shook my head.
He took hold of my arm. “Turn around,” he said.
I hugged my purse and clothes, making them a shield. I turned slowly. Andrew reached out and took hold of my chin and tilted my face up until my eyes met his. Harmonic, trembling, burning, healing. He began to smile. “I love you,” he said. “I don’t want you to go. I want you to stay with me.” His hand came up to cup my cheek. “I don’t love Caren,” he whispered. “I think now that I was going to marry her because I didn’t. I couldn’t risk loving someone and losing them. I loved someone--Beth--I loved Beth and lost her, and I loved you so much that it scared the living daylights out of me.”
“You…” I blinked, shook my head. The clothes dropped out of my hands. My purse thumped on the floor at our feet. “You love me?”
Andrew reached out with his other hand and gently brought my injured hand to his lips. He kissed the tips of my fingers where they came from the bandage. “You are the bravest most amazing woman I’ve ever met. Yes I love you.” He was looking directly at me, and I could see myself reflected in his eyes. He smiled. Everything he was feeling came out in that smile, and it seemed to fill the air, spreading out to engulf me and pull me in.
“I love you, too,” I said. “I love you, too.” And I began to smile and then to laugh…
…and we were in each other’s arms, pulling each other tighter, unable to get close enough. He kissed my hair, my face, my neck, and I his. We couldn’t seem to touch enough, kiss enough. He grabbed me suddenly around the waist and lifted me in the air.
“Andrew, your side!” I cried.
“Forget my side,” he laughed. “You love me!”
I laughed out loud. “Yes! Yes, I do.”
He set me back down and took my face in both his hands. His thumb stroked my lips gently, then he lowered his mouth to mine and as our lips touched I felt myself whirling up, as if I’d been caught up like Dorothy in the twister in the Wizard of Oz.
We parted and I smiled up at him. “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”
He laughed and hugged me, and then he pulled me over to the mattress and we sank down against the pillows. I lay on my back, Andrew on his side next to me, raised up on one elbow. He reached over and gently brushed the hair away from my eyes. “I’ve got one more thing to ask,” he said.
“What is it?” I asked, my heart once again knocking in my throat.
“You think you could stand being married to an old banged-up college professor like me?”
I laughed out loud and reached up to pull his face down to mine. “I think I could stand that just fine,” I whispered, and kissed him.
We were married three months later.
Maggie and Brian were there, and Andrew’s dad, and Uncle Marley and his wife, and Chuck, and Mr. Jackson from the bank, and of course Cheryl who, as maid of honor, did get to wear her pink silk dress.
It was Cheryl, too, who b
rought what turned out to be my favorite wedding present. It was a small needle point pillow. In the center were stitched the words, I Told You So.
Table of Contents
Edited by
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14