As always, the crowd in the corridor parted to make way for him. They didn't know him, but they'd singled him out for a lousy rap he hadn't earned—unless keeping to himself was a sin.
He had to get to the lot before Bliss drove away.
Bliss, Bliss, Bliss. He could close his eyes and see her face. Hell, he saw her face every moment, awake and asleep. How could all these jerks have missed what a babe she was, how terrific-looking she was?
His good luck they had missed the signs, not that any of them was her type.
And he was?
Yeah, he was. Bliss said so, and it was true.
He shoved open an orange door leading from a corridor beside the little theater to athletic fields and the parking lots.
The sky was a pale, steel gray—clear, swept free of clouds by the steady wind that bent soldier-precise lines of firs between parking strips.
Wearing her puffy red parka, Bliss hurried toward her car.
"Hold up." Sebastian ran down the steps from the back of the building. "Hey, Bliss! Wait for me!"
She heard him and spun around, and stood still.
He knew, even before he drew close enough to see, that she'd be frowning, that she'd be worried something was wrong. They had an agreement never to draw attention to their relationship, not at school, not anywhere.
Sebastian broke into a run, lowered his head and pounded toward her.
"What is it?" He heard the panic in her voice. "Sebastian! What's happened?"
He reached her, caught her around the waist and lifted her off the ground. Into her neck he said, "Have I told you what a terrific kisser you are?"
She held absolutely still for a moment, then pummeled his shoulders with her fists. "You rotten, evil person. You low, wormy, sneaky, critter. You—"
"Ooh, I hate it when people swear."
Bliss thumped him again. "I didn't swear. You frightened me. And if someone sees us like this we'll never hear the last of it. Let me down. Now. D'you hear me? Let me down."
He dropped her as suddenly as he'd picked her up and she let out a strangled, "Oomph!" before grabbing at his sweatshirt to steady herself.
Sebastian held her hands against his chest. "First you don't want me to touch you. Then, when I let you go, you maul me. What's a guy to think?"
She drew her hands away as if they burned, but she smiled that sweet, soft smile that lighted up her blue eyes. He'd never known another girl with dark red hair and blue eyes. If the rest of those morons had taken the time to check behind her glasses, they'd have found out what they were missing.
"I'm going to make you wear sunglasses all the time, Bliss. Dark sunglasses. Very dark."
"Huh?" The palm of her right hand slid beneath his hair to feel his forehead. "Are you sick?"
"Nope. Ain't got no whee-heels," he sang, mimicking the heartbroken voice of a country singer. "Ain't got no whee-heels. I'd go to the lib-brar-ree wi' my girl, but I ain't got no whee-heels."
The crunch of approaching footsteps on gravel injected a shred of caution into his up mood. Smoothing his expression he looked over his shoulder and saw Chuck Rubber—who actually thought his name was macho!—and Crystal Moore. Pausing every few steps to perform mouth-to-mouth with enough
suction to syphon a fifty-gallon tank empty in about a second, they bore down on Bliss and Sebastian. Sebastian looked at Bliss and put a finger to his lips.
"Hey, you two," he said cheerfully. "Don't suppose you've got jumper cables?"
Chuck—the school's prize running back—leered at Sebastian and said, "Some of us don't need jumper cables, Plato." He gave Bliss far too long a look. "Hi, there, Chilly, baby. This guy putting the make on you?"
Sebastian took a step toward Rubber, only to experience a jab of pain when Bliss "accidentally," stomped on his foot.
"I've got cables," she said, sounding out of breath. "I expect that's what you were going to ask me about, Sebastian."
He read the plea in her eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, that was it." There wasn't time for these idiots anyway. "I'd appreciate borrowing them."
"Sure." Bliss turned on her heel and walked rapidly toward the BMW.
"Run along," Rubber said. "When the little rich girl calls, the big poor boy follows."
Crystal must finally have felt the approach of danger. She wrapped both hands through Chuck Rubber's arm and pulled. "Come on, Chuck," she wheedled. "You promised we'd have some fun. Come on."
Rubber looked down into her violet eyes, and lower, and Sebastian decided against any close examination of the guy's bodily reactions. He could almost feel the pressure inside Rubber's fly.
"Here they are," Bliss called. "I think."
Pawing mindlessly, Crystal and Chuck trotted away, climbed steps to another strip of cars, and hurried out of sight.
"That's enough time wasted," Sebastian said. "Let's go."
Bliss made him hide in the back seat while they drove from the campus. Once on the city streets, he sat up and leaned over her shoulder. "Hey, sweetheart. Don't drive so fast. I scare easily."
"Don't joke around. That was too close back there. Where's your truck?"
Sebastian whistled soundlessly before saying, "In the shop."
"How did you get to school?"
"Bus."
She laughed. "School bus? That must have been something. It's a wonder they let you on."
"Not the school bus, smarty. Metro bus."
The drive to the library took only minutes and, unbelievably, a parking space opened up as they arrived.
For the first time, Sebastian walked up the steps and into the building at Bliss's side. He felt waves of anxiety coming from her.
"Loosen up," he told her. "Nobody's taking any notice of us."
"I wouldn't care if they did. I'd like it if they did, except for the row I'd face if someone told my folks they saw me here with a guy."
Sebastian didn't tell her what he thought of her parents. "Newspapers. I need to look up something in yesterday's New York Times."
"Really?"
"Really. I'll tell you about it."
As soon as she was seated, with her books spread before her, Sebastian got his newspaper and sat opposite. He opened the paper, held it up, shook it a couple of times, and let it drop on top of the book Bliss was reading. He pored over a small article at the bottom of a page.
"Psst!"
"Hmm?" He controlled his desire to grin.
"Psssst!" Bliss hissed. "Sebastian."
Several, "Shushes," sounded around them.
Sebastian continued to read. He reached under the paper and sought Bliss's fingers. When he looked up, she was staring at him.
He smiled at her. God, he loved her. He really loved her.
Gradually her lips parted and her eyes widened.
Sebastian withdrew his hand, shook the paper mightily and folded it. "Ready to go?"
Her mouth remained open. "Sebastian!"
"Shush!"
She sent the irritated man to her right a dazed glance.
Sebastian got up, went around the table, and sat beside her. He put his mouth close to her ear and whispered, "Well, what d'you say?"
"How ... I mean, where did you get it? Oh, Sebastian, I don't know what to say."
On the ring finger of her left hand he'd placed a simple gold band with three small but pretty diamonds at its center. From his pocket he took the box. Flipping it open, he showed her what was inside. "This is the match. The wedding ring."
Tears slid silently down her cheeks.
"Hey." He rubbed them away with a thumb. "Did I make you unhappy?"
"No. Happy."
"Then you will marry me?"
"I want to."
"Listen. I know we'll have to wait till you're eighteen. That's about a month, right?"
She nodded. "My folks will—"
"Flip. Yeah, I know. So you won't be able to wear the ring when they might see it. I got this, too." He produced the gold chain he'd bought. "You'll only wear the ring on your f
inger when we're together—until we're married. You can put it on this around your neck for the rest of the time. Okay?"
He heard her swallow.
"I'm going to work, and go to college. Study business. We'll make it fine. Your folks will come around once we're married."
Bliss rested the ring against her lips and swiveled in her seat to face him. "Either they'll come around or they won't have a daughter. I get to choose who's most important in my life and I choose you."
He wanted to yell. Instead he hugged her—and ignored the tuts and shushes.
"Sebastian, I know I'm not supposed to ask, but how did you manage to buy the ring?"
"I stole it."
She jerked away, her mouth opening again.
He shook his head and chuckled. "No, I didn't. I bought it. And you shouldn't ask. We'd better get back to school before we're late. When we're in the car I'll put the chain on for you."
A little unsteady, Bliss got to her feet and started pushing her unread books back in her bag. She paused and looked at him. "What's wrong with the truck?"
He shrugged and returned the paper.
When he returned, Bliss caught his sleeve. "You always fix your own truck."
"Not this time." He offered her a downturned grimace. "Don't think the old jalopy's going to recover at all. Terminal, so the people in the shop said."
"Oh, Sebastian, you fibber. You sold it, didn't you?"
He took the book she held and tucked it into her bag. "We really have to hurry."
"Didn't you?" Her pointed chin jutted toward him. "You sold your truck."
Lies didn't belong between people who intended to spend a lifetime together. "It was old. It's good for me to walk more anyway."
"You sold that truck you love to buy the rings. Admit it."
Sebastian kissed the ring on her finger and looked into her eyes. "I sold the truck to buy rings for the girl I love more than anything in the world."
Evening hadn't taken all the sting out of the day's sultry late-June heat. Bliss wiped the back of a hand over her damp brow and opened the car window a crack.
Ahead of her, across Western Avenue, the homeless people
drifted into Victor Steinbrueck Park to stake their overnight claims to grassy beds with a water view. A few couples and families remained, stretching their Saturday outings.
The sun had begun to slide lower over Seattle's Elliott Bay. Already, on the far side of the bay, the Olympic Mountains showed in black outline against a sky turned the color of molten lava and ribbed with trailing scarves of purple cloud.
Bliss clutched the wheel and straightened her arms. This was the night. The night and the time. Tonight she and Sebastian would leave Seattle and they wouldn't come back until it was too late for anyone to challenge their marriage.
Marriage. They were going to be married. The ring she so loved, but had been forced to hide in the weeks since Sebastian gave it to her, was on her finger now. The few possessions she'd absolutely had to bring—not enough to be difficult to get out of the house without comment—were in the trunk.
She was frightened, but she wouldn't change a thing about what she was determined to do.
The clock on the dash was fast. Bliss always set it ten minutes ahead so she wouldn't be late. The clock showed 9:15 when it was only 9:05.
Silly habits.
Conforming was a habit. Not that she was ever likely to be wild.
And running away to get married without her parents' knowledge wasn't wild?
It was wild. Wonderfully wild. Bliss leaned her head against the rest and closed her eyes. As soon as school was out she and Sebastian had known they couldn't wait. As long as there'd been at least their daily meetings to look forward, they could bear the hours in between. With summer ahead and the threat of long separations, they'd decided to go to Reno.
"Excuse me, miss."
Bliss jumped so hard she banged her elbow on the door. She stared into the dusk-shadowed face of a motorcycle policeman.
He raised his helmet visor. "Something wrong, miss?"
"No! I mean, no. I'm waiting to pick someone up."
"You're sure? You've been here a long time."
She glanced at the clock again. Sebastian was twenty minutes late. But he had to rely on buses from his parents' home in Ballard. He'd chosen this spot for its anonymity and because they both knew exactly where it was. "I'm sure, officer," Bliss said, smiling. "It's okay, isn't it? To park here?"
"Yes, miss. Just making sure everything was okay. Good night, then."
"Good night." Bliss watched him start his cycle and make a slow U-turn to join another officer on the opposite side of the street. The two men looked toward her and she aimed her eyes straight ahead.
Sebastian wasn't close to his parents. He didn't say much, but he had told her that. And he was adopted, grateful for having been adopted, but not grateful that he'd never lived up to his father's expectations. He had a sister, Maryan, to whom he seemed close. Maryan was two years older, and the biological child of the Platos, who'd been unable to have more children after she was born. Sebastian had been selected to be the son they couldn't have.
He should be here by now.
A transient shuffled along the sidewalk. Swathed in a ragged plaid blanket, his sandy hair matted, he swayed for a moment, nearly lost his balance, then staggered against the side of Bliss's car.
She sat very still, praying he couldn't see her in the swiftly thickening darkness.
Tapping on the passenger window sent her heart flying. She leaned across the seat to open the door for Sebastian—and looked into the vacant, slow-blinking eyes of the man in the blanket.
Bliss pressed her fingers to her mouth, trapped a scream in her throat. She was jumpy, stupid. The poor thing couldn't open a locked door. And he was obviously too drunk to know what he was doing anyway. She pressed her head back again and squeezed her eyes shut
With her right hand, she covered her left and felt the coolness of the gold band, the shapes of the diamonds. Sebastian had sold his beloved truck to buy the ring, and then spent the rest of the school year catching buses.
When she opened her eyes again, the man was gone .. . And it was 9:45. Darkness had fallen completely. Streetlights cast a pale glow over the road and the park. Lights inside Angelica's cafe illuminated diners, and customers laughing in the bar.
Bliss wiped her palms on her jeans. She was shaking.
Where was Sebastian?
"Are you Bliss?"
She jumped again, this time at the sound of a woman's voice whispering her name urgently. Bliss glanced out of her window at a young woman with short, brown hair brushed forward in spikes around an angular face and said, "I'm Bliss. Who are you?"
The woman rubbed at the space between thin, arched brows. "Sebastian asked me to come."
Bliss's stomach fell sickeningly. "Who are you?" she repeated.
"Maryan Plato. Sebastian's sister. I've got to talk to you."
The shaking in Bliss's hands spread over her body. "Get in," she said, watching the other woman's loose-limbed walk as she went immediately to the passenger door. Bliss let her in and watched while she settled herself in the seat. "Has something happened to Sebastian?"
Maryan Plato leaned forward and gripped the dashboard with large hands. "I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find you. I promised Sebastian, see."
Bliss could scarcely breathe. "Is he sick?"
Maryan shook her head.
"What then? Tell me where he is. I'll go to him."
Maryan shook her head again.
"Tell me!" Bliss couldn't stop her voice from scaling upward.
"He had to get out of town."
"Out—" Bliss couldn't clear her brain enough to understand.
She almost blurted out that she knew Sebastian was leaving town, with her. "What do you mean?"
"He asked me to tell you he was sorry, but you've got to forget him."
"No," Bliss whispered. "I don't believe you. He didn'
t tell anyone about us. Neither of us did."
"Something happened."
"What?" Bliss almost screamed. "Please. You're frightening me.
"He . . . He's in trouble. He had to get out quickly."
"Without telling me? He wouldn't do that. I would have helped him."
Maryan turned to Bliss. "You can't help him. He's got to help himself now—and her. He's got to make it right."
Bliss shook her head. "Stop it! Stop it, do you hear me?"
"Listen to me." Maryan's big hands gripped Bliss's arms. "Calm down and listen. I can't change what's happened and neither can you."
"We're going to be married," Bliss said brokenly.
Maryan stared.
"He's coming to meet me and we're going to leave Seattle and get married."
"Jesus," Maryan said, half-under her breath. "He didn't tell me you thought that. I was supposed to say he couldn't make the date. Are you sure about the—"
"Of course I'm sure." Bliss held up her left hand. "We're engaged. We've been engaged for more than a month."
"Damn." Releasing Bliss, Maryan made fists and pounded her jean-clad thighs. "How could he have been so stupid? No wonder he did everything he could to get out of it."
Every mouthful of air Bliss swallowed made a choking sound.
"Okay." Maryan took a visibly deep breath and held it. "Okay, I'm just going to say it and we're both going to get on with our lives. Sebastian's in trouble."
"But—"
"He had to leave town in a hurry or face prosecution."
"Sebastian never did anything—"
"He left with a girl called Crystal Moore."
She was going to be sick. "He couldn't have. How do I know you're Sebastian's sister?"
The other woman turned dark eyes on her. "How many people knew you were coming here to meet him tonight?"
"Just Sebastian."
"Uh-huh." She switched on the dome light, reached into her pocket and took out a thin wallet. Opening it, she showed Bliss a picture of herself on a driver's license and pointed to the name, "Plato, Maryan, M. Is that good enough?"
True Bliss Page 2