The Top Gun's Return
Page 23
Tristan shook his head, and there was a stubbornness in his jaw she knew very well. "No. What I did-it was unfair to you and Sammi June. Look what-"
"It was unfair," Jessie interrupted, shaking in earnest now. "And, dammit, I'm not gonna let you take the blame for that. You know what? Life is unfair. Sometimes it just plain sucks. You went to the Gulf because you had to, and you jumped into that lake today because you had to, and both times I wanted to kill you because of it. But at the same time, I know it's just part of you. Part of what makes me love you." And she was crying now.
"Do you?" he whispered, and finally asked it. "Do you love me?" The vulnerability in his eyes broke her heart.
She could barely get the words out. "Yes, I do. I always have. And I always will."
Tristan was gazing across the lake. And even through the haze in her own eyes she could see that there were tears on his cheeks. She caught her breath, bit back a cry, and he whispered, "Jess-I don't think I'm going to be able to do this by myself."
She brushed at her eyes, fierce and protective. "Do what? You don't have to-"
"I can't…find my way home. I've tried, I thought I could, but…" He shook his head and drew a breath, sounding overwhelmed by weariness. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to burden you. But I can't do it alone. And I want to…so bad." His voice broke at last. "I need you, Jess."
Strength and courage surged up in her like a well of healing waters. Stepping close to him, she put her hands on his waist, looked up at him and said calmly, "I was wondering when you were going to figure that out."
He seemed dazed as he lifted his hands to her shoulders. The look on his face…the way his fingers walked across her shoulders, as if she were a miracle he expected to vanish in a puff of smoke…reminded her of the very first moments of his reunion with her, in the guest house in Landstuhl. But this time when he folded her into his arms, she could feel his body quaking, as if a terrible battle were being waged inside him.
And why on earth, she wondered, exasperated, is it so hard for men to cry? His voice, when he spoke, was like something tearing. "Oh God, Jess…they beat me so badly. There were times…I couldn't stop screaming. I tried to stay strong…I tried…"
She stood silent and strong, steady and brave…holding her husband tightly, rubbing his back and absorbing his pain while he talked. Around them the last of the sunset's color faded into darkness and the stars began to appear in the springtime sky.
Epilogue
"Look," said Sammi June, "it's the Wishing Star-see it?" She lifted an arm to point, and Cory gently brought it back into the circle his arms had made around her.
"Hmm," he said, bumping the top of her head with his chin, "that looks like Venus, to me."
She lay her head back against his shoulder, shimmering inside, while the boat drifted on the quiet lake. "I told you…I used to wish on it, when I was little," she murmured, and after a while added hesitantly, testing her new-found happiness, "and…when I wasn't so little. Sometimes I still do."
"Tell me how you do that," he said softly, melting her heart. As if it weren't already totally mush.
"Okay. First, you say the poem, 'Starlight, star bright, first star I've seen tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.' Then you close your eyes, and…you make a wish."
"Okay, let's do it."
She squirmed around to look at him. "Are you serious?"
"Sure, why not?"
She smiled and settled herself once more against his chest. She could feel his heart beating against her back as she drew a careful breath and whispered the poem and heard his deep voice echoing the childish words. She closed her eyes and after a moment felt his warm breath tickle her ear.
"Okay, what'd you wish for?"
"Uh-uh," she whispered, tilting her face to his, "you're not supposed to tell. Otherwise it won't come true." Then he chuckled and touched her smile with his, and she knew it didn't matter because what she'd wished for was already hers.
"What did you wish for when you were a little girl?" Cory asked, sometime later. "Did those wishes come true, too?"
"Oh, I always wished for the same thing." Across the star-spangled waters of the lake, in the last of the twilight, she could see her mom and dad standing together on the dock, the two of them making one silhouette. Her chest quivered, and suddenly she could only whisper. "I guess it's okay to tell you, though. Because I think it's coming true…"
Holding her tightly, maybe because he felt her tremble, he bent his head and murmured gently in her ear, "Tell me."
Sammi June drew a quivering breath, and as tears slipped down her cheeks she smiled. "I wished my dad would come home."
KATHLEEN CREIGHTON
has roots deep in the California soil but has relocated to South Carolina. As a child, she enjoyed listening to old timers' tales, and her fascination with the past only deepened as she grew older. Today, she says she is interested in everything-art, music, gardening, zoology, anthropology and history-but people are at the top of her list. She also has a lifelong passion for writing, and now combines her two loves in romance novels.
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