Mardi fixed her big eyes on me. “You don't know Sarah Spencer,” she said quietly. “I'm scared. She won't let you go as easily as that.”
I grinned at her. “Don't you worry your head,” I said. “No dame's goin' to rush me into somethin' I ain't keen about.”
“Please don't....” She looked so scared that I got up and went over to sit on the bed.
“Now take it easy,” I said, putting my hand on hers. “Just take it easy.”
She said, “But you don't know her. She's dangerous. She won't stop at anything.”
I liked the feel of her hand in mine. I took each finger in turn between my finger and thumb and gently pressed her nails. “Suppose we wait an' see,” I said. “It's no good getting steamed up before anythin' starts. Now forget about it, honey, we got other things to think about. I've gotta make plans. What are we goin' to do with you?”
She was quite content to leave her hand in mine. We sat there looking at each other, and when she saw I wasn't worrying she relaxed and smiled at me.
“You're good to have around, Nick,” she said. “I guess I'd be in a bad spot without you.”
“I'd like you to be around always.”
She shook her head. “Don't say that,” she said, taking her hand away. “You don't have to say it.”
“I know. I wouldn't say it if I didn't meant it. I've tried to get you out of my system, but you stick. I guess this sounds cock-eyed to you, but I want to go on with you.” I stopped because I just couldn't get the words out.
She saw what I meant all right. She said very softly, “What about me? Do you think—”
“I'm thinking about you. I wouldn't've started this if I hadn't've been thinking about you. It's because of you that I want you and me to go on. I think you and I could go on—”
I got up. It was no use. I couldn't put it over. I guess I regretted being what I was for the first time in my life. I regretted all the other dames. I regretted almost everything.
I went over to the window and looked out. The silence in the room made me think of a church. Then she said, “Nick....” She Was crying.
I went over to her and put my arms round her. I didn't say anything. I just put my arms round her and held her. She cried against my silk dressing-gown. I could feel her body trembling.
“Be kind to me,” she said. “We are going to have a strange life together.”
When she said that, I felt good. It was like coming through a bad storm, shutting the door on the wind and the rain and knowing that it was quiet inside.
I shifted my position so that I lay beside her, and she put her head on my shoulder. Her soft hair touched my face and I held both her hands in mine.
When she had stopped crying and was quite calm again, I said, “Suppose we go an' get married quick? Would you like that?”
She stayed so still, after I had said that, that I thought she had not heard me, but I just waited, wondering how it would all come out and if she really wanted me. She sighed then, and relaxed.
“Would you say a thing like that if you didn't really mean it?” she said at last, leaning away from me so that she could look up at my face. Her eyes were very bright and her lips were parted, and behind the brightness of her eyes I could see she was scared.
I said, “No, I wouldn't. It's how I want it to be.”
She shook her head. “You're crazy, Nick. You don't want to marry me.”
“I know why you say that. You think I'm just like the rest. You don't know me yet.”
“No—I do know you.' It's not because of you, it's because of me. What do you know of me? How can you—”
I grinned down at her. “I know you're swell an' I want you. Let's be nice to each other, honey—we'll get along.”
She gripped my hands hard. “You mean you'll marry me? You'll marry me?”
“What is it, baby?” I didn't get her angle. She seemed scared that Td change my mind. This was crazy to me, because I thought I was the one to be getting scared.
She smiled suddenly. “You haven't kissed me yet.”
“I will if you'll marry me.”
“Kiss me, then.”
And that's how it was.
It was over an hour after, when we got down to the first stage of making plans and wondering what we were going to do, that I remembered Kennedy. Why I hadn't remembered that guy before beat me. Right there I had the solution to everything.
I said, “I've got the place. You'll be tickled to death with it.”
She said, “Where?”
And I told her. She sat there, her eyes rather wide, not saying anything until I had finished. Then she shook her head. “No, Nick, we couldn't go there.”
I got off the bed. “You don't know the place,” I said. “You wait until you've seen it.”
