Nathan
led her out of the library with the biggest grin on his face.
* * *
Sarah didn’t get much time to think about what happened in the library. The Red Valley Recreation Oasis was noisy and loaded with games and busloads of children. There were bumper cars, a rock climbing wall and enough arcade games to keep kids of all ages busy for days. The array of video games alone was overwhelming.
After Nathan gave her a quick tutorial, they played
pinball and then skeeball and air hockey.
At the air hockey table,
Nathan’s hand-eye coordination was incredible. By the time Sarah saw where the puck was, he’d already moved his paddle to block it. Then again, his teammates didn’t call him The Con Man for nothing.
“That’s not fair!”
Sarah complained. “You do this for a living.”
He laughed and she managed to hit the
puck into the slot while he was distracted. She cheered and celebrated the goal.
“
Aww!” He threw his hands up in the air. “I’m never gonna to live that down.”
They played and laughed until Sarah’s sides ached. It was exactly what she needed. Not having to think about work or money or
anything
for a little while. Just the thought of how Nathan’s hand felt when it held hers as they went from game to game.
When Nathan laughed, Sarah couldn’t help but smile at the sound. How amazing to hear genuine laughter!
It was an especially wonderful feeling because he didn’t laugh
at
her but
with
her.
At the basketball arcade game, Sarah had
much more luck. She managed to throw three consecutive balls into the net.
“See,
” Nathan said as he missed the net again. “I’m much better at keeping the ball
out
of the net than in. Just like hockey.”
S
arah stood on her tippy toes, carefully aimed the last ball and tossed it toward the net.
Sw
ish
.
The ball went into the net and Sarah squealed in delight.
Nathan hugged her and they spun around in celebration.
When t
ickets dispensed from the game console, Sarah asked what they were.
“Tickets you can turn in for a prize
,” Nathan told her.
“Oh, wow.” What an amazing place!
After a few more rounds of basketball, they decided to cash in their tickets before getting something to eat.
Sarah scanned the
wall of brightly colored prizes and tried to decide on just one. There was everything from stuffed animals to squirt guns to plastic jewelry.
“We should get something for Robbie, too,”
Sarah said and decided on a little stuffed rabbit for him.
“
What about for you?” Nathan asked. “We have enough tickets. Do you see anything you like?”
Next to a sparkly tiara, a
plastic charm bracelet caught her eye. “That one.” She pointed to the bracelet and the man behind the counter took it out from the case.
Nathan smiled.
“A bracelet to go with your necklace.”
“Yes.” There was even a plastic butterfly on the bracelet to match her necklace.
“Here, I’ll help you put it on.” Nathan slid the bracelet onto her wrist and Sarah thought for sure he’d notice her pulse pounding when he touched her.
She looked up at him and smiled. “Thank you for bringing me here, Nathan.”
“You’re welcome. It’s a bit different from the library,” he joked. “Let’s go get some lunch.”
Nathan bought them both corndogs and French fries and they sat at one of the brightly colored booths next to the snack bar
and ate.
“This place is really great,”
Sarah said as she watched the kids dart back and forth from the snack bar to the arcade.
“Yeah.
I bet Robbie would get a kick out of it here.”
“You’ll have to bring him here sometime.”
“We’ll have to come back someday
together
.”
Sarah liked the sound of that.
It was nice to hear Nathan make plans for the future. She dipped her corndog in mustard and took a bite. “This is so good,” she said, her eyes closed as she savored the taste. “So, how much sodium is in one of these?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye.
Nathan laughed. “You don’t want to know.”
He wolfed his corndog down in a few bit bites.
“What happened to your rigid meal plan?”
Sarah asked.
He shrugged. “I realized I need to go easier on myself. Have more fun.”
She raised her paper cup of soda and clinked it against his. “Here’s to having more fun.”
As Nathan and Sarah walked hand in hand toward the exit, they could see through the glass doors that it had started to rain. The storm clouds must have rolled in while they were playing because the sky was clear when they’d left the library.
“Sarah!” a gruff voice called
from behind them.
Sarah froze.
Slowly, she turned around to see a big, burly man yelling at a little girl. The girl had long black hair and her bottom lip puffed out as her eyes pooled with tears.
The
man was Dwight’s age and build and had that same angry look in his eyes. Sarah knew it well. As she watched in horror, the man grabbed hold of the little girl’s elbow and yanked as hard as he could. The little girl stumbled after him and out into the parking lot.
Sarah trembled.
If he was like that in public, how did he treat the little girl behind closed doors?
Outside, the sky cracked open and rain began to pour.
Thunder boomed and lightning flashed across the sky.
Nathan squeezed her hand.
“Come on, Sarah.”
Sarah couldn’t feel her legs. Everything had gone numb when she heard that familiar voice
say her name.
Nathan
tugged her outside and they dashed out to the truck. The plastic bracelet jangled on her wrist but it wasn’t enough to pull Sarah back into the present. Instead of climbing inside, she just stood there looking at the door handle.
She was so thin and frail
that Nathan was afraid she’d catch pneumonia from standing out in the rain. But she didn’t seem to care. She didn’t seem to notice the rain at all. It was like she just went blank in the blink of an eye.
Nathan helped
her into the truck and pulled a jacket out from behind the seat and put it around her shoulders. When her seatbelt was securely fastened, he got behind the wheel and started the truck.
“I hear the weather
in Red Valley is always unpredictable like this,” he said lightly. He glanced over and Sarah stared blankly out the window. “We’ll have to see if the fireplace works when we get home,” he said even though he knew she wasn’t listening.
Nathan didn’t say anything else on the ride home. The windshield wipers slapped against the windshield and Sarah
just looked out of the passenger window.
Chapter Nineteen
Peaceful Flames
Sarah didn’t say a peep during the ride home. Nathan kept his eyes on the road and replayed the scene in his head. He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened. Maybe she knew the man or the little girl in the arcade. Or maybe they’d just reminded her of someone else. Maybe she had a child and something had happened to him or her. Nathan didn’t know because Sarah never talked about her past.
Obviously, the
little girl had triggered a memory and now she was riding out the aftershock in her happy place. So, he just let her be and drove through the rain.
Inside the house,
Nathan sat Sarah in front of the fireplace. He grabbed a throw blanket from the couch and draped it around her shoulders. Then he flicked the switch to bring the gas fireplace to life. “I’ll be right back,” he told her and hurried out of the room.
Sarah’s hair and clothes were damp but she didn’t notice or even care. She wanted to stay out in the rain where her tears would mix with the rain and no one would know the difference.
Her thoughts were with the frightened little girl at the arcade. The stern male voice calling
her name had paralyzed her. She hadn’t thought about Dwight in days and then when she heard that gruff voice bark her name, she’d been instantly transported back to that run-down little house in southern California.
S
arah realized then that she would always panic and look over her shoulder when someone said her name. No matter how long she spent away from her old life she’d never have freedom from Dwight. He would always follow her like a shadow.
In the kitchen, Nathan found a note from Kayla saying she’d be home late. It wasn’t any surprise as she had been making herself scarce lately.
When
he returned to the living room with two mugs of steaming coffee, Sarah was staring into the flames. When she looked up at him and smiled at least she had lost that faraway look. She didn’t look through him but at him and smiled apologetically.
Nathan smiled back and handed her a mug.
Robbie’s toys were scattered across the floor so he picked up the scattered toys and tried to find a neutral topic. “Sorry about the mess.” Great, now she had
him
apologizing about everything.
“I don’t mind. Robbie is adorable.”
“Pretty soon there won’t be so many toys around,” Nathan said and sat down next to her. “Kayla has been looking at houses with a real estate agent and she’s determined to buy a house.”
Sarah nodded but didn’t say anything.
“What about you, Sarah? Do you want kids?”
She
stared wistfully into the fire and thought about it. Finally, she nodded. “Yes. Someday. I’d like to give a child a safe home with loving parents.”
“Like you didn’t have.”
She shifted uncomfortably. “I’d rather not talk about it, Nathan.”
“I hope you can trust me enough to tell me someday.”
Someday
.
Sarah looked into the flames and sighed. “It’s beautiful.”
“It’s fake,” he replied, letting bitterness seep into his tone.
“I can still appreciate it for what it is.”
“And what’s that?”
“Peace.”
They sat in silence for a minute before he said, “I don’t have a lot of that lately.”
“Do you want to know what I do when I need peace? When I’m stressed or frustrated or I want to claw someone’s eyes out?”
“Sarah!” he exclaimed, not able to hold back his reaction.
“What?”
“I just can’t picture you ever wanting to claw someone’s eyes out.”
“Sorry.”
She looked down at her hands.
“Don’t be sorry. Who has ever made you that angry?”
She shrugged and fiddled with the hem of her pants.
“Will you tell me about it?”
“Someday,” she said softly.
“So what’s your trick for summoning peace?” he prompted.
She shook her head. “You don’t want to know. It’s silly.”
“I
do
want to know. Tell me.”
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
“I picture myself on an island. It’s just me sitting on the sand with no one around for miles. I imagine how the sun would feel on my shoulders, warm and tingly. How the sand would feel when I wiggle my toes in it, cool and grainy. The sound of the ocean lapping at the shore and the seagulls squawking. I block out everything else but that island.”
“Wow
,” he said after a minute. “I’ll have to try that sometime.” But not now because when he was with her, he didn’t want to be anywhere else. Not even a beautiful tropical island.
“Thank you for today
,” she said and started to get up. “I had fun.”
“Did you?”
She knew what he was really asking but brushed him off. “I should get going. There’s a motel on Second Street close by the salon…”
“Stay here, Sarah.”
She shook her head.
“I can’t even begin to repay you for what you’ve already done for me.”
“You still owe me a haircut.”
She blinked. “Oh, yeah, of course. Uh, just stop into the salon whenever you want or I could schedule you an appointment.”
“How about right now?”
“Um…
here
?”
“Yeah.
Why not?”
“Okay,” she said reluctantly.
“I’m sure I can find a pair of scissors somewhere.”
“
I, uh, I actually have all of my tools with me.”