Kissed by an Angel

Элизабет Чандлер Kissed by an Angel

For Pat and Dennis,

October 15, 1994

Chapter 1

'I never knew how romantic a backseat could be,' Ivy said, resting against it, smiling at Tristan.

Then she looked past him at the pile of junk on the car floor. 'Maybe you should pull your tie out of that old Burger King cup.'

Tristan reached down and grimaced. He tossed the dripping thing into the front of the car, then sat back next to Ivy.

'Ow!' The smell of crushed flowers filled the air.

Ivy laughed out loud.

'What's so funny?' Tristan asked, pulling the smashed roses from behind him, but he was laughing, too.

'What if someone had come along and seen your father's Clergy sticker on the bumper?'

Tristan tossed the flowers into the front seat and pulled her toward him again. He traced the silk strap of her dress, then tenderly kissed her shoulder. 'I'd have told them I was with an angel.'

'Oh, what a line!'

'Ivy, I love you,' Tristan said, his face suddenly serious.

She stared back at him, then bit her lip.

'This isn't some kind of game for me. I love you, Ivy Lyons, and one day you're going to believe me.'

She put her arms around him and held him tightly. 'Love you, Tristan Carruthers,' she whispered into his neck. Ivy did believe him, and she trusted him as she trusted no one else. One day she'd have the nerve to say it, all of the words out loud. I love you, Tristan. She'd shout it out the windows. She'd string a banner straight across the school pool.

It took a few minutes to straighten themselves up. Ivy started laughing again. Tristan smiled and watched her try to tame her gold tumbleweed of hair-a useless effort. Then he started the car, urging it over the ruts and stones and onto the narrow road.

'Last glimpse of the river,' he said as the road made a sharp turn away from it.

The June sun, dropping over the west ridge of the Connecticut countryside, shafted light on the very tops of the trees, flaking them with gold. The winding road slipped into a tunnel of maples, poplars, and oaks. Ivy felt as if she were sliding under the waves with Tristan, the setting sun glittering on top, the two of them moving together through a chasm of blue, purple, and deep green. Tristan flicked on his headlights.

'You really don't have to hurry,' said Ivy. 'I'm not hungry anymore.'

'I ruined your appetite?'

She shook her head. 'I guess I'm all filled up with happiness,' she said softly.

The car sped along and took a curve sharply.

'I said, we don't have to hurry.'

'That's funny,' Tristan murmured. 'I wonder what's-' He glanced down at his feet. 'This doesn't feel…'

'Slow down, okay? It doesn't matter if we're a little late- Oh!' Ivy pointed straight ahead.

'Tristan!'

Something had plunged through the bushes and into the roadway. She hadn't seen what it was, just the flicker of motion among the deep shadows. Then the deer stopped. It turned its head, its eyes drawn to the car's bright headlights.

'Tristan!'

They were rushing toward the shining eyes.

'Tristan, don't you see it?'

Rushing still.

'Ivy, something's-' 'A deer!' she exclaimed.

The animal's eyes blazed. Then light came from behind it, a bright burst around its dark shape. A car was coming from the opposite direction. Trees walled them in. There was no room to veer left or right.

'Stop!' she shouted. '1' m-' 'Stop, why don't you stop?' she pleaded. 'Tristan, stop!'

The windshield exploded.

For days after, all Ivy could remember was the waterfall of glass.

At the sound of the gun, Ivy jumped. She hated pools, especially indoor pools. Even though she and her friends were ten feet from the edge, she felt as if she were swimming. The air itself seemed dark, a dank mist, bluish green, heavy with the smell of chlorine. Everything echoed-the gun, the shouts of the crowd, the explosion of swimmers in the water. When Ivy had first entered the domed pool area, she'd gulped for breath. She wished she were outside in the bright and windy March day.

'Tell me again,' she said. 'Which one is he?'

Suzanne Goldstein looked at Beth Van Dyke. Beth looked back at Suzanne. They both shook their heads, sighing.

'Well, how am I supposed to be able to tell?' Ivy asked. 'They're hairless, every one of them, with shaved arms, shaved legs, and shaved chests-a team of bald guys in rubber caps and goggles. They're wearing our school colors, but for all I know, they could be a shipload of aliens.'

'If those are aliens,' Beth said, rapidly clicking her ballpoint pen, 'I'm moving to that planet.'

Suzanne took the pen away from Beth and said in a husky voice, 'God, I love swim meets!'

'But you don't watch the swimmers once they're in the water,' Ivy observed.

'Because she's checking out the group coming up to the blocks,' Beth explained.

'Tristan is the one in the center lane,' said Suzanne. 'The best swimmers always race in the center lanes.'

'He's our flyer,' Beth added. 'The best at the butterfly stroke. Best in the state, in fact.'

Ivy already knew that. The swim team poster was all over school: Tristan surging up out of the water, his shoulders rushing forward at you, his powerful arms pulled back like wings.

The person in charge of publicity knew what she was doing when she selected that photo. She had produced numerous copies, which was a good thing, for the taped-up posters of Tristan were continually disappearing-into girls' lockers.

Sometime during this poster craze, Beth and Suzanne had begun to think that Tristan was interested in Ivy. Two collisions in the hall in one week was all that it took to convince Beth, an imaginative writer who had read a library of Harlequin romances.

'But, Beth, I've walked into you plenty of times,' Ivy argued with her. 'You know how I am.'

'We do,' Suzanne said. 'Head in the clouds. Three miles above earth. Angel zone. But still, I think Beth is onto something. Remember, he walked into you.'

'Maybe he's clumsy when he's outside the water. Like a frog,' Ivy had added, knowing all the while there was nothing clumsy about Tristan Carruthers.

He had been pointed out to her in January, that first, snowy day when she had arrived at Stonehill High School. A cheerleader had been assigned as a guide to Ivy and was leading her through a crowded cafeteria.

'You're probably checking out the jocks,' the cheerleader said.

Actually, Ivy was busy trying to figure out what the stringy green stuff was that her new school was serving to its students.

'At your school in Norwalk, the girls probably dream about football stars. But a lot of girls at Stonehill-' Dream about him, Ivy thought as she followed the cheerleader's glance toward Tristan.

'Actually, I prefer a guy with a brain,' Ivy told the fluffy redhead.