a sharp upthrusting stab of love pressed beneath his heart and suddenly everything seemed right again.
'I've missed you,' he breathed, closing his
eyes, lying flat on his back across the bed.
'And I've missed you. I looked for you all day today.'
'I'm sorry I couldn't make it, but it appears we have one problem I hadn't counted on.'
'It's Beth, isn't it?'
He rubbed the corners of his eyes. 'God, is it ever. She acts as if she doesn't want me out of her sight for a minute. She wasn't exactly happy to see me getting home in the middle of Saturday morning and wanted to know where I'd been.'
'Did you tell her?'
'She guessed.' He scowled at the ceiling.
'She guessed?… But how?'
'She called you `the woman on the church steps.`'
'Ahh… of course.'
'Was I that obvious when I looked at you?'
Rachel's soft laugh came over the wire. 'Was I?' He pictured her as she'd been Friday night, soft, pliant, smelling sweeter than anything nature had ever conjured up. He felt his body nudging toward arousal
at the mental images. 369
'All I've thought about since walking out of your house is you. While I was chauffeuring Beth all over Muscle Shoals, and driving a speedboat full of shrieking teenagers, I wanted to be only one place.'
'Where?' she murmured in a soft, seductive voice. It was not the words that mattered, rather the subtle nuances of two lovers infatuated with the mere act of listening to each other breathe.
'In your bed. In you.'
Her breath again seemed to brush his ear. 'Tommy Lee, I want to see you tonight. Can't you come over?'
'I'm tempted, darlin', but if I did I'd never come back home, and I promised Beth I'd be spending nights here from now on.'
She sighed in disappointment, and he pictured her curling into a ball in the middle of her bed. 'When will I see you again?'
'Tomorrow afternoon. I'll pick you up as soon as you close the store.'
'I'll have my own car there. Meet me at the house instead.'
'Do you think we can hang in there till then?'
'I don't know. We have a lot of lost time to make up for, don't we?'
His voice held a tremor as he declared, 'But we will, babe, we will.'
'I can't wait. Can you stay for supper tomorrow?'
No matter how much he wanted to, he answered, 'I'm afraid not. Beth's got something special planned for the two of us. She's doing the cooking.'
'Well, next time, then.'
'Next time for sure.' Tommy Lee stifled a yawn-he hadn't had much sleep all weekend. 'Rachel, I'm exhausted. I've been on the water all day.'
But she wasn't ready to give him up yet. 'Are you in the bedroom?' she asked.
'Yes, staring at the ceiling and picturing you as you were Friday night.'
'Our bedroom?' she inquired softly.
'Yes… our bedroom.'
'What's it like?'
'It's carpeted in blue to match the lake. The whole west wall is glass, and it's the only room in the house with draperies-they're the color of the sand on the beach. There's a king-size
bed with a spread that's striped and kind of 371 soft.'
'What's it made of?'
'Made of?' He rolled his head to check it out, smiling at the questions women came up with. 'Hell, I don't know. It's got stitches all over it.'
'It's quilted, you mean?'
'I guess so.'
'Well, if I'm going to sleep there I have to know these things. Go on. Tell me more.'
As teenagers, late at night after curfew, they used to talk on the phone like this-lazy inanities, unimportant chatter meant to do nothing more than delay the inevitable goodbye. Tommy Lee smiled, assessed the room, and imagined her entering it for the first time. 'Across from the foot of the bed is a fireplace smaller than the one downstairs and with an arched opening. And do you remember once years and years ago when you told me you liked rocking chairs?'
'No, did I?'
'Well, there are two of them, big fat things covered with some kind of fuzzy blue stuff, one on either side of the fireplace. There's a
walk-in closet big enough to put your whole store into.' She chuckled appreciatively and he went on. 'And beside the closet door is a valet chair with nothing on it at all right now. Everything's neatly put away.'
There wasn't even a hint of laughter as she sighed. 'Oh, Tommy Lee, I love you. I can't wait to live there with you.'
At her confession his heart cracked like a flag in high wind, and he experienced the renewed wonder of dreams coming true.
'Tell me again, Rachel-I still have trouble believing it.'
'I love you,' she whispered.
He closed his eyes, absently running his free hand over the quilted spread as if it were her skin. 'I want us to get married as soon as possible.'
'I do, too. Did you tell Beth we want to?'
His eyes opened to study the ceiling again, and the hand that had been stroking the spread rested with its wrist against his forehead. 'No, not yet.'
'So she really is upset about the other night?'
'I'm afraid so.'
'I should have thought of her. How selfish 373 of me to keep you here overnight.'
'You'd have played hell trying to get me to leave-don't you know that?' She laughed, but the sound was slightly strained. He drew a deep breath and went on, 'Don't worry about Beth. I'll tell her soon. Then I want the two of you to meet. Properly. Out here at the house where we're all going to make it as a family. We are, Rachel, I swear it,' he pledged intensely. Then, as if sealing a vow, he added prophetically, 'Tommy Lee and Rachel and Beth.'
'I'll hang on to that thought,' she promised. 'And I'll see you tomorrow at five.'
The clock seemed to crawl as the following afternoon waned. Just before closing, Rachel stepped into the washroom to check her hair, dust her cheeks with blusher, touch a wisp of scent to her throat, and apply fresh rosy gloss to her lips.
In fifteen minutes I'll be with him again.
Her heart felt borne aloft by a bevy of butterflies. Life was a constant surprise. Who ever would have said one week ago that she would be
experiencing this resurgent zest that lit her eyes, put a lilt in her step, and made her press a hand to her heart, as if to hold it captive within her body? And all this at the mere thought of Tommy Lee Gentry.
It was uncanny how one could revert to self-indulgent daydreaming when smitten by love, no matter what one's age. All day long she'd been wondering what he'd be wearing, what he'd say when he first saw her, fantasizing about their first kiss, making love, and following it up with an intimate talk, snuggled close in a nest of pillows.
His Blazer was in the driveway when she pulled around the corner and depressed the activator for the automatic garage door. He got out and stood with his hands on his hips, watching her drive past him into the garage. He was dressed in tight tan jeans, white leather tennis shoes and a sporty baby-blue pullover with a V-
