“I love you Lissy,” he said using a nickname that he had tagged Alyssa with just a few days earlier. “But I have to go,”
Alyssa smiled at Toby threw unshed tears and said simply, “I know.”
7
The grand opening and subsequent weeks of “Seafarer’s Cove” was a great success. Scott’s seafood bill of fare combined with a Pacific Rim fusion influence kept the reservation book filled seven nights a week. Toby helped out as a part time server, part time prep cook, and part time Jack of all trades.
Toby and Alyssa kept in touch through phone calls and social media but neither was satisfied with the arrangement. They missed the physical presence, the touches, and the kisses. Toby loved his job, and indeed most of what his life had become. A year earlier he had been inmate #06-73452 in bunk 42, Tank 2D, Pierce County Jail. Now he was part of the team of a successful restaurant. He supposed that this was the tradeoff that growing up was all about. Gradually Toby’s calls to Alyssa went from every night to five nights a week to three.
Four months after Toby moved to Bellingham, Alyssa was kneeling on the front lawn of the Boylan home. She was working in the flower bed that bordered the sidewalk. She heard a car pull up in front of the house but didn’t bother to look up. She sensed rather than heard a car door close and footsteps come toward her.
“Lissy?” Toby said quietly.
Alyssa gasped. She looked up and saw Toby’s face wreathed in a smile. She jumped to her feet and met him with a hug, caring not a whit that she was covered in Miracle Gro. If anything Toby cared less about the mess than did Alyssa. He lifted Alyssa’s chin with his index finger and kissed her, thoroughly and at great length. Finally she broke away.
“Toby, I’ve missed you so much. I thought when you didn’t call as often…” Alyssa’s voice trailed away as she searched Toby’s face for the answer to unspoken questions.
Toby held Alyssa’s face between his two hands. He drank in the color and shine of her eyes, and the roses in her cheeks. Her voice was music, the wind in her hair… magic.
“I couldn’t, baby. I just couldn’t. It was breaking me in two to hear your voice and not be able to see you. So I stopped calling. Maybe it was cowardly but I couldn’t put myself through that.”
“You’re not a coward, Toby.”
“Alyssa, your Dad told me about people being brought together for a reason a…”
Alyssa smiled and rolled her eyes a bit before finishing Toby’s sentence. “A season or a lifetime. Yes, he has told people that for years. It’s one of his favorites. In fact,” she said as she turned her head away from Toby and looked toward the house. “I think he’s in there writing a sermon for the jail that says that very thing.”
Alyssa turned back toward Toby only to discover that he wasn’t there. She looked down to find Toby on one knee holding a small box toward her in both hands.
“Alyssa Andrea Boylan, you are my forever. Tell me that I’m yours too.”
Alyssa’s mouth fell open. In 21 years, 11 months and four days, she had seldom been rendered speechless. Until now. She swallowed and swallowed again, before saying simply,
“Forever”
The Chaplain's Daughter Page 9