The crowd hadn’t had such a good time since the neighborhood party, and they laughed raucously as the children remembered and forgot their lines. Aaron, Luke, and Joey played some of David’s brothers.
Logan played David, and Jeff was Goliath. Deni knew they would never live down their mediocre acting debuts.
The play was over in less than thirty minutes, and as the children came out and bowed and Beth took her curtsy, the crowd went wild. Deni and Mark erupted out of their chairs in a standing ovation.
“You go, girl!” Deni cried. “That’s my sister up there. Wheeew!”
It was Beth’s shining moment, and little Sarah’s too. In fact, everyone on the stage was a star tonight. The Gatlin boys smiled like heroes, and Sarah pranced for the crowd. It was too bad their mother wasn’t here to see it.
As the applause died down and the crowd broke up, she heard her name called behind her.
“Deni!”
She turned and saw Chris walking toward her in her nurse’s scrubs. Behind her, the setting sun was sending its last blast of glory. Deni had to shield her eyes.
“Chris, did you see the play?”
“No, I was working. Deni, I have a surprise for you.”
There was someone walking behind her, but Deni couldn’t see who it was. They grew closer … she squinted into the sun …
And there he was.
“Hey, babe, it’s me!”
Craig stood there in all his glory, grinning like Harrison Ford when he found the Holy Grail.
“Craig!” Deni froze.
Then reality took hold, and she realized that he had come. She ran and threw herself into Craig’s arms.
C
RAIG HAD CHANGED
.
He’d had an athlete’s build before — he was a runner. Now he looked downright skinny. His hair was longer than she’d ever seen it, and he’d grown a beard. His clothes looked rumpled and worn, unlike the expensive Van Heusen shirts and pressed slacks he’d always worn before. More often than not, he’d worn a coat and tie as naturally as someone else might have worn a T-shirt and jeans.
But he looked so good. “I can’t believe you came!”
He let her go and looked her over. “You look great. A sight for sore eyes.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You do. I mean, really great. I’ve never seen you look better.”
Her eyes glistened as she took that in. She could see in his eyes that he meant it. She had wanted so badly to hear that from him.
“How did you get here?”
“Train,” he said. “I was so frustrated when you weren’t home. You have no idea what it took for me to get here. I’ve been on a train for what seems like days, and it must have been a hundred degrees on that thing. And when I got here, I didn’t know how to find your neighborhood. I got lost and had to find someone who could point me in the right direction.”
“Did you walk from the station?”
“No, I brought my bike,” he said. “They let passengers bring them aboard the train now, since that’s the only way anyone has of getting around once they get to their destinations. But a lot of good it did me. Not like I could look your address up on MapQuest. Took me hours to find this place.”
“I was checking on Miss Eloise,” Chris said, “and I ran across him sitting in your front yard.”
Deni hugged him again. “We were down here at the play. If I’d known you were coming, I would have met you at the station. I really never thought you’d come.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I could tell that by your letter. Come on, Deni. What’s with the Dear John? How could you think I don’t love you?”
She glanced back at Chris and Mark. Mark stood looking at the ground with his hands in his pockets.
She turned back to Craig. “I was hurt that you hadn’t come.”
“Well, I’m here now.” He glanced at Mark, and Deni followed his gaze.
“Uh … Craig, this is Mark Green. He’s a neighbor and an old friend from high school.”
Mark planted a smile on his face and reached out to shake his hand.
Craig hesitated. “Green. The murderer’s son?”
Mark pulled his hand back.
Deni caught her breath, stunned that he would say something so cold. She came to his rescue. “His father was the one, but he’s not — ”
“It’s okay, Deni,” Mark cut in. “Nice to meet you, Craig.”
Craig shook hands, but as he did he looked Mark over. Deni wondered if Craig sensed the chemistry between them. She doubted it. It wouldn’t make any sense to him.
He raked his hand through his disheveled hair. “I’m dying of thirst. I could guzzle that whole lake.”
“Well, you don’t have to,” she said. “We have well water.”
He wiped his perspiring face on the sleeve of his shirt. “Take me to it. I’m ready.”
She slipped her arm through his and started to lead him to the well, but her mother’s voice stopped her.
“Craig? Is that you?”
He smiled. “It’s me, all right.”
Her parents came toward them. Their smiles were strained, and she knew they weren’t happy to see him. Still, her father shook his hand.
“Good to see you, Craig. You’ve come a long way.”
“I had no idea how long,” he said, “but I made it.”
Deni thought of her own harrowing journey trying to get to him. She would have killed for a train. Beth came running up, unaware of his presence.
“Well, what did you guys think? Was that a success or what?”
Her mother swept her into a hug. “It was fabulous, honey! I’m so proud of you. I had no idea how talented you were, and everything went perfectly.”
“Did you see when Sarah forgot her lines?”
“It was so cute.”
Beth laughed. “Yeah, I was trying to whisper her lines to her from backstage. I know everybody heard me.”
“My favorite part was when little Evie tripped over her costume and Leah Ward helped her up and made it into a big laugh so she wouldn’t get embarrassed,” Doug said. “I loved that.”
“Excuse me,” Craig cut in.
They all turned back to him.
“Hate to interrupt, but I’m dying of thirst. We were going to the well, Deni?”
Beth stopped gushing and looked up at him without recognition. Suddenly she realized who he was. “Craig?”
Deni grinned. “It’s him, all right.”
“What are you doing here?”
Deni’s smile was triumphant. “He came just for the play.”
“Huh-uh.” Beth grinned. “You didn’t know about the play, did you?”
He laughed. “No, but I wish I had. If only I’d gotten here a few minutes earlier.”
Deni winked at her. “You did a great job, sweetie. I’m going to take him to get some water now.”
As they started away, she glanced at Mark. He had turned his back and was high-fiving the kids coming off the stage. He seemed to have forgotten her, already.
Maybe that was best. Now that Craig was here, she supposed things would get back to normal. His coming had changed everything.
As they walked, he grinned down at her. “I wasn’t kidding, you know. You look great.”
“Guess the emaciated look becomes me. Dr. Atkins has nothing on the Pulses, does he? And there’s nothing like constant perspiration to moisten your face.”
“Nice tan,” he said. “What do you do, sunbathe every afternoon?”
“Sunbathe?” She laughed out loud. “No way. My dad’s a slave driver. I’m busy working out in the garden or hauling water to and from the house or sorting through garbage or riding my bike on errands.”
His suggestion that all she had to do was lounge around stung her slightly, but she supposed it wasn’t his fault. That was the kind of girl she’d been before the outage. Those days seemed like an eternity ago.
“So are your parents going to let me stay at your house?”
“Of course. You didn’t think they’d put you out on the street, did you?”
“I didn’t know. I don’t think they like me all that much, and they probably worry we’ll be sneaking around the hallways at night. You gotta admit they’re a little rigid.”
That irritated her, but she swallowed it. “They would never turn you away,” she said. “They’re not as rigid as you think.”
Deni used the pulley to bring up a pail of water. He cupped it with his hands and drank it, then took another.
“Great water.”
“Yeah, my dad and brother helped dig the well. Until then we got it from the lake.”
He splashed it on his face and rubbed it around on his neck. “Man, I’d love to just dive in. Do you guys have a pool?”
“No. And I was really bummed about it at first, because it seemed like the families with the pools had it made. They could swim and get cool, and they could wash and had clean water to drink. But now all those pools are full of fungus and algae. Talk about gross. And the ones with the pools have less yard to plow. So I guess it’s good that we don’t have one.” She raised up on tiptoe and kissed him again. His beard felt scratchy against her face. “I never thought I’d see you unshaven.”
“I figured, why fight it?” he said. “Didn’t have anyplace to plug my electric razor in and I ran out of razor blades and shaving cream.”
“I thought you always said that a person who worked in politics could never have a beard. That people didn’t trust politicians with hair on their faces.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not running for anything,” he said, “at least not yet. I’ll shave before I make a run for Senator Crawford’s job.”
They walked back home and stepped into the darkness of the house. Heat assaulted them. It seemed so thick at the end of the day. Deni fixed him another tall glass of well water. He drank it, then collapsed on the couch.
“I have so much to tell you,” he said, “but before I do, we need to talk about us.”
She sat next to him. He picked up her hand and saw that she wasn’t wearing her ring. “You know, this really bugs me. I’m sitting in Washington working my tail off trying to help run the affairs of this country at a critical time, stressing out about getting food and water and cash and electricity to the people, and I get this Dear John letter that knocks me off my feet. You have some kind of timing.”
It warmed her that it had affected him that much. “I told you why I did it.”
“Yeah, but it was unfair. I mean, it wasn’t like I could just drop everything and take off after you. I’m a little more logical than that, and you know it.”
“Your letters were so cold, Craig. Even after I told you what I’d been through trying to get to you.”
“I was in a hurry when I answered it. I had a lot to do. The weight of the whole country is on us in Washington.”
“How hard would it have been to say something sweet or kind to me? You sure had time to give me a travelogue.”
He dropped his head back on the couch. “Again, unfair. I was simply trying to communicate. That’s what you love so much, isn’t it? Communication. I thought you’d want to know what was going on with me.”
“It’s the
way
you communicated that bothered me.”
“See? There you go.” He sat up straighter, mocking. “So let me get this straight. I should have written you poetry, drawn you pictures of little flowers and kissy-kissies all over it, and droned on about how much I missed you?”
She pulled her hand back.
“You’re telling me that would have made things different? Better somehow? I thought you were bigger than that, Deni.”
She got up and moved to a chair. “You know, I really don’t know why you came.”
“Okay, here we go.” He sounded so battle-weary, so henpecked. She couldn’t believe he saw her this way. He got up and took her hand, pulled her to her feet.
“I came because I love you, and I’m going to marry you. I won’t let you break up with me.”
It was that no-holds-barred determination that had first attracted her to him, and it served him well now.
He pressed his forehead against hers and lifted her left hand. Her heart sped up.
“So you might as well go put that ring back on. I’m not taking no for an answer. I’ve come too far, and I’m not in a good mood.”
His take-charge mood sent a thrill through her. That slow grin crept back to her lips. Maybe he did love her, after all.
When he bent down to kiss her, her heart melted and all the anger of the past few weeks vaporized. He was here for her, and that was what mattered. She could get over the weeks that had passed and the letters that weren’t warm enough. She could forget all the angry thoughts and feelings she’d had toward him.
He was here now.
She stroked his beard and broke the kiss. “I’m glad you came.”
“Then you’ll put the ring back on?”
She wished he didn’t look so smug. “You knew I would when you came.”
“It was a gamble, but I figured it was worth it.” He hugged her so hard that he lifted her off her feet.
All that exhilaration she used to feel with him flooded back like the gates had burst.
“How long can you stay?”
“Long enough to marry you,” he said. “Then I’ll take you back with me.”
D
ENI AND
C
RAIG WERE SITTING ON THE PORCH SWING THE
next afternoon when Mark drove his buggy — a VW pulled by two horses — to the Brannings’ house. It was packed full of props from last night’s play. Beth bounced out to unload it. Her parents followed her to the car.
Mark offered Deni and Craig a wave as he got out and opened the trunk. “How’s it going?”
Craig didn’t make a move to get up. “Pretty good,” he said.
Deni went down the steps to help, but by the time she reached the car, the trunk was unloaded. She went to one of the horses and stroked his mane. “Wish I had something to feed you, boy, but I’m fresh out.”
Mark seemed to ignore her for a moment as he handed the props to Beth. “Did a great job last night, kiddo. I expect great things from you.”
“Thanks,” Beth said. “I’m so glad it’s over. It was chaos.”
“But you’re already thinking of the next one, right?”
She giggled. “I was thinking of doing Snow White.”
“Well, next time, you have to play the lead,” Mark said. “You’re a Renaissance woman, you know that?”
“Is that good?”
“It’s good,” Deni said.
Her parents and Beth carried the stuff into the house, and Deni glanced up at the porch. Craig was swinging gently back and forth, engrossed in a book of Chinese philosophy he’d brought with him.