Heavenstone 02 - Secret Whispers

married but who lost his or her spouse.”
    “Let’s not talk about it right now,” I said, maybe too sharply.
    He stopped talking, and we just walked until we came to the pool. As Daddy had said, everything was lit up. The water glistened.
    “This is beautiful,” Ethan said. “This looks like an Olympic-size pool.”
    “Almost.”
    “I was on the swimming team in high school, you know.”
    “No, you didn’t mention it, just like you didn’t mention your college award.”
    “Yeah, well, I kind of got caught up in my ambitions and chose not to join any teams at college. I didn’t want to take away from my work. I was determined to graduate with honors. How about we takea swim tomorrow before breakfast with your father and future stepmother?”
    I laughed at his enthusiasm. “Okay,” I said, “but Daddy gets up early.”
    “And Lucille?”
    “Often just as early.”
    “So, if we miss them, we miss them. We’ll see them when we go to Lexington,” he said. “I didn’t come here to spend time with them, anyway.”
    I was glad to hear that. For a few moments, I thought he was more intrigued with my father and Lucille and the Heaven-stone business than with me.
    He flopped onto a chaise and patted the space beside him for me to join him.
    “I could sleep out here under the stars tonight if you were with me,” he said. “Hey, that way, when we wake up, we could just undress and jump in the pool.”
    “You’re kidding, right?”
    “I can dream, can’t I?”
    He put his arm around me, and I relaxed with my head on his shoulder.
    “It’s so quiet here,” he said. “Where I live, there’s so much traffic noise, horns, brakes screeching, and clatter that you don’t even want to keep your windows open at night. I’m sure glad I made this trip.”
    “Me, too.”
    He turned to kiss me, and then he just stared a moment too long.
    “What?”
    “I’m really, really sorry for the way I behaved at the motel. It was just such a shock to hear aboutyour horrible experience, made even more horrible because of your sister’s involvement.”
    “It’s all right, Ethan. Please stop mentioning it.”
    “No, it’s not all right. It was immature of me, and selfish. I should have had more sympathy and understanding. How often does it come up? I mean, with your father?”
    “Never,” I said. “He acts as if it never happened.”
    “So, there’s really no contact . . . I mean, what you told me about those cousins and . . .”
    “No. They won’t even be invited to the wedding.”
    He nodded. “Well,” he said after a long moment. “Then that’s how I’ll treat it, too, like it never happened.”
    I know he was saying that to make me feel better, but it didn’t. If I told him how I celebrated my daughter’s birthday and how often I imagined her crying, he might think differently, but it wasn’t something I wanted to share with anyone, not yet and maybe not ever.
    We actually fell asleep in each other’s arms for a while at the pool, he because of the trip and me because of all the excitement. I also hoped it was because we were so comfortable wrapped up in each other, so comfortable and safe, that we had no fear just drifting from words to thoughts to dreams. He was awake before I was. When I opened my eyes, he was staring at me and smiling.
    “How long have you been awake?” I asked.
    “A while. I didn’t want to wake you. You looked so angelic.”
    I sat up and ran my fingers through my hair. The few clouds that had been loitering in the sky above had moved on and left the stars undressed.
    “It sure is a beautiful night,” Ethan said.
    “Angel eyes.”
    “Pardon?”
    “That’s what my mother called the stars.”
    “Very nice.”
    “We should probably go in. It’s late, and you have some wild idea about getting up early,” I said.
    He laughed, stood up, and took my hand.
    We walked back silently, and when we entered the house, it was quiet as well. The lights had been turned off in the den. Mrs. Dobson and Doris had long since cleaned up after dinner, and both had gone to bed. There were no lights on down the hallway coming from Daddy’s office, so he wasn’t up late catching up on some important business.
    “Everyone’s asleep,” I whispered.
    We practically tiptoed up the stairway. At my bedroom door, we paused, and Ethan kissed me good night, but he didn’t just kiss me and go off. He held me for a few long moments, embracing me as if we had been apart for years