Page 110 of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
‘I’m scared,’ he said, and she could see the tears in his eyes, the hint that he wasn’t as strong as he looked sometimes. ‘I’m so scared about my life and what it’ll be like going home, the look on everyone’s faces when they see me like this. Half a man instead of the great pilot that left home.’ He sucked in a sharp breath and cleared his throat. ‘I’m scared of what kind of life I can even have.’
‘The people who care about you, they won’t see you as anything other than yourself,’ she told him. ‘They will only care that you’ve come home alive.’
‘Eva, you saved my life, and somewhere in between being a complete idiot to you and now, I fell in love with you.’
Eva froze.He’s in love with me?
‘You don’t have to worry about what to do after the war, Eva, because I want to look after you.’ He chuckled and gestured at where his leg should be. ‘I’m not a whole man—I know that—but I can still look after you. I can make sure you never have to see your father again. It’s time for me to look after you, for you to come home to Oregon withme.’
She blinked back her tears, but it was no use, and they fell anyway as Art raised a hand to her cheek, his palm warm against her skin.
‘I’ll be fine, Art. You don’t need to say that,’ she whispered, trying to be brave.
‘I’ve never wanted to look after someone so badly in my entire life, Eva,’ he whispered. ‘You’ve made me realize that I’m not completely useless. I might not be able to walk or fly again, but protecting you,caringfor you, that’s one thing I can still do.’
She laughed softly. ‘You have no idea how much it means to hear you say that, to see you finally understand how capable you are still.’
Art smiled back at her, his voice low when he finally spoke. ‘Eva, I want you to be my wife.’
She exhaled. ‘Your wife?’
‘Eva, will you marry me?’ he asked, taking her hand and holding out a crude ring made from grass tied together, which made her burst out laughing.
‘Art! You can’t. I mean—’
‘I can,’ he said firmly. ‘Eva, don’t leave me hanging—will you marry me?’
‘It’s not because you feel sorry for me? Or because you think you owe me?’ she asked, needing to know as she studied his face, searching for answers.
‘No,’ Art murmured. He lifted his face and tucked his fingers beneath her chin now, slowly bringing her mouth closer to his. She breathed in just as his lips touched hers, whispering against her as he kissed her again, then again, her skin tingling as his hand slid across and stroked her hair, so gentle that she could only just feel it.
‘I think I fell in love with you the day you saved me, Eva.’
‘You sure had a funny way of showing it,’ she muttered, laughing as she kissed him again, lost in the feeling of his lips against hers.
‘I’m only going to ask you one last time, Eva. Will you marry me?’
She smiled against his mouth as he slipped the ring on her finger. ‘Yes, Arthur. I will marry you.’
They both laughed, and the wheelchair tipped as she leaned too heavily into him. Eva leaped to her feet and corrected it before it fell, smiling down at the pretend ring on her finger and then at Art.
‘I want to make you happy, Eva. You deserve so much.’ He smiled. ‘You never, ever have to be frightened about seeing your father, ever again. I promise I’ll always look after you.’
She dropped carefully to his lap again, tucking her arms around his neck.
‘Thank you, Art,’ she whispered.
He chuckled as he claimed her mouth again. ‘You’re welcome.’
She pushed gently at his chest, stopping him. ‘Art, I need to tell you something.’
He frowned. ‘Don’t say you can’t marry me.’ Art laughed, but his face turned solemn again when she didn’t laugh back. ‘How bad is it?’
‘I just ... well, I’ve told you how hard it was for me losing Charlie, how much I loved him, and even though he’s not here anymore, I’ve never stopped loving him, and I don’t think I ever will. I need you to know that.’
Art’s hand was warm against her cheek as he smiled up at her. ‘You don’t have to forget your Charlie to marry me, Eva.’
‘Thank you,’ she whispered, her voice breaking as she stared into his eyes. ‘Thank you a hundred times over for understanding.’
