Page 34 of Love Story
Elizabeth nodded, but didn’t say a word. John took the picnic basket and blanket from the trunk and came around to help her out. He had the entire day planned, but first he needed her to trust him. He managed to carry the basket and blanket and still reach for her hand. Her fingers felt cold against his touch so he found a spot in the sun on the sandy shore.
Once he had spread out the blanket he turned to her. “Come here.”
For the first time since they left Ann Arbor, Elizabeth smiled. Not the smile from the dance or the way she’d looked when they kissed at his house. But a smile racked with anxiety.
Even so she did as he asked. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her head against his chest. “I’m so cold.”
“You’re scared.”
“Yes.” She lifted her eyes to his. “I love my parents, John. I just wish... I wish I could...”
He waited, but she didn’t seem to know what to say, how to finish her thought. “You wish you could tell them about me?”
Her eyes clouded with frustration. “Yes. Exactly. They’re nice people.”
John had a dozen reasons why they weren’t nice people. Anyone who would keep their daughter in a prison of threats and unreasonable rules and blame their behavior on God didn’t deserve a girl like Elizabeth. But he kept his thoughts to himself.
“You aren’t saying anything.” She blinked a few times. “They’re not terrible. I mean it.”
“I’ll meet them one day.” He stepped back and forced a lighter mood. He did one of his bows, the same kind he’d done when he taught her the twist. Then like a proper Englishman, he pretended to remove his top hat and dip it, grand gesture and all. “ ‘Hello, fine madam and sir,’ I’ll tell them. ‘If it meets your approval, I’d like to court your daughter.’ ” He winked.
Her ripple of laughter set the day’s course in a better direction.
“ ‘What’s that you say? How long would I expect to court her?’ ” John raised his hands and spun in a slow circle. “ ‘Fine madam and sir, for a very long time indeed. Till the moon and sun cease to shine... till the oceans become dry land.’ ” He came to her again and took her face in his hands. His words mixed with the slight breeze off the lake. “ ‘Until I take my last breath.’ ”
“John...” Her voice sounded like she had forgotten where they were or why she was afraid.
“I’ll tell them, Elizabeth.” His laughter faded. All that mattered was each other, and this single moment between them. “Just give me a chance.”
Then, like the evening in his kitchen, he kissed her. Here, there was no music. Only the wind in the trees that surrounded the park. To John, the sound might as well have been a symphony. The rest of the day was like something from a movie. They left the blanket and picnic basket and rented a canoe. Together they paddled around the shore of Independence Lake, laughing and talking and pretending the world was on their side. On the far shore, away from the people gathered along the beach, Elizabeth spotted a baby bear. He was standing on his hind legs, leaning against a pine tree, batting his oversized paws at something up the tree trunk.
Every sound, every image, every second of their time was like the greatest gift. The reality waiting back home seemed to fall away, and for that one Saturday, Elizabeth was completely his. After the canoe ride, they hiked the trails that wove their way around the outer edges of the lake, and at one point they stopped and sat on a bench, out of sight from anyone.
It felt like they were the only people in the world.
“Tell me your dreams, Elizabeth.” John couldn’t get enough of her. Sure, he wanted to kiss her. He wanted more than that, if he were honest. But beyond that he wanted to know her, to meld his heart with hers until it was impossible to know where one ended and the other began.
She tilted her face to the vast blue sky and breathed in the fresh air. “I don’t think we have enough time.”
John smiled at her. “Try me.”
Her eyes shone with a freedom she had clearly not felt earlier. “Okay... It’s a long list.” A raw, youthful anticipation lit her expression and she stood—the empty trail her stage. “I want to play the piano and sing. Not just everyday sort of singing, but in a room with people who pay to watch. I’d like to make a record. And I want to act, too. Shakespeare and musical theater. Or maybe star in a movie.”
He raised his brow. “Ambitious. I love it.”
“That’s not all.” She giggled. “I want to be a lawyer, and lock up the bad guys so no one has to worry about violent people who get out of prison too soon.”
“That’s important.” John slid to the edge of the bench, mesmerized by her. “What else?”
“Modeling. I’d love to be a model. With the prettiest dresses in all the land. And I’d like to be a teacher and a painter. Oh, and a doctor. So I can help people.” She grinned at him. “A doctor like you’re going to be, John. We can work at the same hospital.”
“We will. Absolutely.” He hung on her every word. There was no other girl like her.
She spread her arms out as far as she could reach. “And I want to have a big family. A house full of kids with laughter and love and music. Everyone will see me with all these children and they’ll say, ‘Why, there goes Elizabeth. She’s the best mother to those kids.’ ”
John couldn’t stop smiling. He was dizzy from her monologue. He stood and moved toward her. This time when he put his arm around her waist and pulled her close the motion felt as natural as breathing. He wanted to tell her they wouldn’t say,There goes Elizabeth. They’d say,There goes Elizabeth Baxter. But it was too soon. He couldn’t let his heart get ahead of him.
Couldn’t risk her running scared.
