Woodlands (19 page)

A block away from the Dairy Queen, Leah pulled to the side of the road where tall grass rose from an irrigation ditch in front of an automotive store. “Do you need to get out?”

Seth had broken into a sweat and had closed his eyes. “No,” he said after a moment. “I think I’m okay. Could you put on the air? It seems pretty hot all of a sudden.”

Leah turned on the air conditioner and left the window down on his side, just in case. “Do you want to try drinking any of this?” She handed him the shake that she had jammed
into the cup holder before her maniac exit from the Dairy Queen.

“Sure. It might help.” He took the shake and drank slowly, turning his face to the stream of cool, blowing air. “Oh, yeah,” he said a moment later. “This is much better.”

“Good. Do you think it’s okay if I drive now? Or would it help to sit for a few more minutes?”

“I’m fine,” Seth said. “We can go.” He drank some more of his shake. “Boy, this is a good shake. It tastes really, really good.”

Leah pulled back onto the road and drove slowly toward Edgefield.

“So where are we going?” Seth asked.

“I’m taking you home. You need to rest.”

“I feel much better now. This is a really good shake.”

“So you said.”

“I was pretty hungry.”

“I can imagine.”

“This is awful nice of you to take me home.”

“No problem.”

“You know what I think?”

“No, what do you think?”

“I think you’re beautiful.”

Leah wasn’t ready for that statement. She glanced at him and then turned her attention back to the road. His expression was sincere. He was no longer perspiring. He looked normal.

“I mean it,” Seth said. “I thought you were beautiful from the very first time I saw you. You were in that little hot dog shack, and you were cheering your heart out for those guys on the …” he paused. “What’s the name of their team?”

“The Rangers.”

“Yeah, that’s right. The Rangers. You were in there cheering
for those Rangers, and the sun was coming through the side of that hot dog shack, and it was shining on your face and making your hair look like the flame on a candle. All glowy and warm. And I looked at you, and I said to myself, ‘Now, there is one beautiful woman.’ ”

Leah could barely breathe. The tears rushed to her eyes, and she blinked quickly to hold them back.

“Oh,” Seth said tenderly, touching her shoulder. “Are you okay? You look like you’re crying.”

Leah blinked and wiped her cheek under her right eye. “Just washing the windows of my soul. I seem to be doing that a lot lately.” She glanced at Seth. His expression remained one of concern, and he didn’t seem to recognize his own line about washing the windows of the soul.

“You know what?” Leah said. “You’re not going to remember this conversation tomorrow so I’m going to tell you something. The reason I’m crying is because no one ever,” she drew in a breath and repeated the word with emphasis, “ever, has told me I was beautiful. You’re the first one. And it doesn’t really matter if you mean it or not. I’m going to take your compliment and hold it in my heart always.”

“But I do mean it,” Seth said, reaching over and fingering the ends of her wispy, blond hair. “Your hair is like honey. Like fine strands of pure honey spun into gold. And your face is open and honest and clean.”

Leah found herself laughing nervously at his description. “Clean?” she repeated, as he touched her round, blushing cheek with his work-worn fingers.

“Yeah, clean. It’s like you look the same up close as you do from a distance. There are no surprises.”

Seth withdrew his hand and went back to drinking more of his shake, as if he were caught up in serious contemplation.
Leah took the moment to calm herself and to banish any more of her relentless tears. She was glad she had driven this route to Edgefield so many times. Because she could drive it in her sleep, she had the freedom to process what was happening with Seth.

The guy is on drugs
, she reminded herself.
He doesn’t know what he’s saying
.

“I wanted something to work out between us, but I guess that’s not how you felt.” Seth sounded as if he were talking to himself. He was looking straight ahead. The breeze from the air conditioner ruffled his hair in the front. “Could you turn this down?” he asked. “It’s getting cold in here.”

Leah adjusted the temperature and went back to his previous statement. “Why did you say that’s not how I felt?”

“Hmm?” Seth asked, looking at her with the shake straw in his mouth.

“You said you wanted something to work out between us. What did you mean by that?”

Seth put down the shake. “I thought it was obvious. I’m attracted to you. I feel connected somehow. I like you. I want to spend time with you. My great-uncle Franklin … oh, yeah, you know him. Franklin. Franklin said you were the key to what I was looking for. But you obviously don’t feel the same way about me, and I can’t do anything to change that, I don’t think.”

“What do you mean I don’t feel the same way? I do! I was attracted to you from the beginning, too. I just didn’t think you could ever be interested in me.”

Seth stared at her with his eyebrows pushed together in an expression of disbelief. “How did you ever get that idea?”

“I don’t know,” Leah said in an effort to drop the subject. This conversation was becoming painful. If she let herself believe what Seth was saying, it would change her whole life.
But how could she be sure he would remember any of it? She felt sneaky. It was as if unsuspecting Seth had been injected with truth serum, and she was extracting as much information as she could before the effects wore off. It didn’t seem fair to either of them. He wouldn’t remember what he had said in the morning, and she wouldn’t be able to forget.

“I’m serious, here!” Seth said, raising his voice. “You are essential to my future happiness.”

Leah smiled at his flowery words and the depth of his sincerity. Yet something in her cautioned her to pull back. She couldn’t tell if it was the old recordings, reminding her that she wasn’t worthy of such a man. Or if it was the new, gentle persistence of her heavenly Father who had been making it clear that he wanted Leah to delight herself in him, not in the tantalizing possibilities of a romance.

All she knew was that she couldn’t continue this conversation. “Can we put this topic on hold? If it comes up another time, I think it would be better.” She didn’t want to mention that he was euphoric and vulnerable at the moment and that it had been too easy for her to plunder the feelings of his heart.

Seth pressed his head against the headrest and closed his eyes. “That’s okay. We can talk another time. I’d like to talk another time. I think it would be good to talk with each other sometime. You and me.” His voice trailed off, and he seemed to drop off to sleep—or at least to shut down his amped-up system—for the last ten minutes of the ride to Edgefield.

Leah found the apartment using the address she had written down. She parked the car, and as soon as the motor stopped, Seth looked up. “Are we here?”

“Yes, we’re at your apartment.”

“Good, because I am really fried.”

“Your legs might feel wobbly so let me know if I can help you up the stairs.”

Seth slowly climbed out of the Blazer. The vim and vigor from half an hour ago at the Dairy Queen had dissipated. Leah went to his side and helped him up the stairs.

“My legs feel so heavy,” was all he said, as Leah propped him up by the front door and went through his plastic bag of personal belongings Shirley had turned over to Leah. She found the keys at the bottom, and as soon as she turned the doorknob, she could hear Bungee yelping with delight.

“Someone is glad you’re home,” Leah said.

“That’s Bungee. My Bungee. He’s my dog.”

“Yes, I know,” Leah said, helping Seth through the front door. She shouldn’t have been surprised by the sparseness of Seth’s apartment, but she was. If he hadn’t gotten the couch from Brad and Alissa, which now filled the wall on the right, the only piece of furniture in the living room would have been a folding beach chair.

“Do you want to go to the couch or to your bed?” Leah asked.

“The couch,” Seth said, lowering himself with a grimace.

Leah guessed the painkillers were wearing off.

“Why don’t you make yourself comfortable?” Leah suggested. “What can I get you? A blanket? Some water?” She pulled the list of instructions from the bag along with the prescription painkillers. “It says here every four hours on the medicine. Shirley wrote down the time she gave you the first one and,” Leah checked her watch. “Yep, you’re ready for another one.”

Seth stretched out on the couch and called to Bungee, who was barricaded in the kitchen where Leah noticed he had had an accident on the linoleum floor.

“I’ll take care of Bungee,” Leah said. “You settle yourself on the couch, okay?”

With her usual flare for jumping in and organizing things, Leah took care of Bungee and Seth. She found only one blanket
in the whole apartment and that was on Seth’s “bed,” which was an inflatable air mattress. He had one brightly colored beach towel in the bathroom and no sheets. Now she understood why Seth had thought her house was pretty special. It made even more sense that he had been overwhelmed with Kyle and Jessica’s mansion. The guy had been living with bare minimum for a long time. No wonder he was enamored with the idea of owning a house and a hammock at the same time.

“I’m going to go now,” Leah said after she had fixed him a mug of soup from the meager supply of cans she found in the kitchen cupboard. She found more food to choose from in the refrigerator but only brought him juice and water. The phone was on the floor in front of the couch, and she pulled the kitchen trashcan near, just in case he felt sick.

“Thanks so much for doing all this,” Seth said with a woozy slur to his words.

Bungee kept barking sharp, staccato yelps. Leah couldn’t imagine how Seth could get any sleep.

“How about if I take Bungee home with me? He needs some attention, and you need some rest.”

“Okay,” Seth said, without opening his eyes.

Leah had to smile. For the first time, she saw a slight resemblance between Seth and Franklin when they had their eyes closed and were about to fall asleep. They both maintained beguiling little grins, even when they were nearly unconscious.

She couldn’t help it; she had to lean over and kiss Seth good-bye the way she kissed Franklin. Seth didn’t stir.

“Bye,” she whispered, tiptoeing over to the kitchen where she reached down and picked up the hyper ball of fluff. “Come on, Bungee. You’re coming with me.”

To show his appreciation, Bungee lunged toward her and slobbered a big kiss on her cheek.

“Oh, you little Romeo, you. You know the way to a girl’s heart, don’t you?” she murmured.

Just as Leah was about to close the apartment door behind her, she heard Seth call out, “Good night, Bungee. Good night, George.”

A
nd then he called me ‘George,’ ” Leah told Jessica when they saw each other the next morning before the May Day event began. They were working quickly to arrange all the cut flowers in vases for the tables in Camp Heather Brook’s dining room.

“How did you react to that?” Jessica asked, snipping the end of the deep purple iris that Leah had cut at Ida’s earlier that morning.

“I didn’t say anything. I left.” If they had had more time, Leah would have liked to keep the conversation going. But just then Shelly entered the dining room with her mom and sister. Leah and Jessica greeted them, and Leah thought pretty, energetic Meredith didn’t look as if she were pregnant. The three new arrivals had their arms full of food trays, and Shelly and Meredith’s mom was fussing at Meredith about carrying too much.

“I can help carry stuff in,” Leah said. “Jess and I were almost finished with the flowers.”

“Good,” Shelly said. “Genevieve needs all kinds of help bringing in the food. She’s running behind because her electricity went out this morning. If you can carry the rest in, I’ll fire up the ovens.”

Leah hurried out to help Genevieve unload the food, and from that moment on, she ran all morning doing what she did best—helping. Despite Genevieve’s electricity failure, the food was ready right on time, and it was a big hit with the 237 women and girls who showed up for the event.

As usual, the maypole dance was a favorite with the little girls. Shelly had arranged for Christian praise music to play while each girl took a vinyl ribbon and danced around the maypole in the meadow outside the camp dining room. The clouds that had covered the sky earlier that morning blew away. The gentle breeze, which had cleared the way for the sun to attend this gala event, decided to stick around as well, creating an afternoon of perfect weather.

Leah and Ida stayed to help clean up. As they were clearing the tables, Leah decided to gather the flowers into several big buckets. She had planned to stop at Franklin’s on her way home with a bouquet of May Day flowers from the grocery store, but a bucket of flowers was better. Two buckets on his doorstep would be grand!