Connections of the Mind (18 page)

Rebecca shrugged. After that was up to him.

“I’d like you to stay.” He stood next to her. “I love you, you know.”

Rebecca saw the desire in his eyes, and her heart leaped for joy. She smiled. Oh, she’d stay all right. For however long he wanted her. After all, it wasn’t just their minds that were connected.

Chapter Twenty-Four

“You okay?” Lester kept his eye on the curving, hilly road. Allison had been exceptionally quiet since they left Rebecca.

“Yeah. Just thinking.”

“About?”

“A lot of things. I can’t believe what happened with Rebecca and Jeremy. I mean, my God, they both could have been killed.”

Lester reached down, picked up Allison’s hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed it. “Let’s not think about it.”

“Hard not to. You know it’s weird, you had the same kind of intuition Rebecca has sometimes. I mean you knew something was wrong.”

“Yeah, that was strange. Can we talk about something else? I mean, we’re supposed to be on vacation, and I know what happened was bad. But Jeremy’s a cop. Sometimes bad things happen to cops.”

“I know. It’s just everything. Rebecca won’t be coming back to Cleveland, and it’s not going to be the same. I guess I’m a little sad.”

Lester pulled in front of the registration office. “Come on, let’s go register. Then we’ll go into town and pick up some groceries. Do you like to cook out?”

Allison waited for Lester to come around and open her door. “I love to eat out. I’m not much of a cook on the grill. My cooking is limited to the stove.”

“Okay, you do the stove cooking, and I’ll cook on the grill, deal.”

“Deal.”

After they registered, Lester drove down the hill and found their cabin. “Let’s get settled inside, and then we’ll go to the store.”

Allison followed Lester and waited while he unlocked the door. “Wow, not too shabby.” She looked around the cabin.

Lester followed her inside and set their suitcases down, let out a low whistle and put his arms around Allison. “I think we’re going to enjoy that fireplace. Come on, let’s check out the bedroom.”

“Very nice,” Allison said.

“Hmm, very nice indeed.” Lester bent down and kissed Allison.

Allison giggled. “Okay, we really do need to go to the grocery store. We can’t live on love.”

“Maybe not, but it would be fun trying.” Lester nibbled her ear. Nothing he’d like better right now than to try out the bed. But she was right; they needed to shop. Stores weren’t open all night in these small towns. Not like at home. In fact, he wasn’t sure they were even open late. Another quick kiss, and he pulled away. “I guess you’re right. We better shop. Should we make a list, or just pick up whatever we feel like?”

“Let’s be spontaneous. Whatever strikes our fancy.”

“Okay, but we’re picking up a couple good steaks for sure and don’t forget charcoal. That isn’t a gas grill outside.”

“Maybe we better make a list. My memory isn’t what it used to be.”

Later, Lester poured charcoal on the grill. Allison stood at the doorway and watched him. God, she loved watching him. Loved the way he moved with such care and precision. She smiled at the way he placed each lump of coal to form a pyramid. She loved everything about him. Always had. And he asked her to marry him. After all these years worshipping him from afar, she finally heard the words, “I love you.” She went back into the cabin to make a salad and put some potatoes in the microwave to bake. It was fun doing things together. Even shopping with him was fun.

“Oh crap,” Lester yelled.

Allison ran to the door. “What’s wrong?”

“Stay there. Don’t come out.” Lester backed up slowly toward the door.

“Lester, what’s wrong?”

“Skunk.”

“What?”

“Shh. Stay there and keep quiet.”

Allison opened the door and looked out. “Oh crap!”

With that, the skunk lifted his tail and sprayed. Lester made a beeline for the door, dived inside, and barely escaped getting hit. He closed the door against the disgusting odor and turned on the air conditioner. “I told you to stay here.” He ran around and closed the rest of the windows.

“Well, you could have told me why.”

“I told you it was a skunk. You should have seen him stomping his feet at me and hissing. I think it wouldn’t have sprayed if you hadn’t opened the door.”

“I’m sorry. I had no idea. I didn’t hear you say it was a skunk. I thought you burned yourself or something.”

“Yeah, well do you have any ideas for dinner? I’m not going back out there.”

“Why not? He’s probably gone.”

“Didn’t you smell it?”

Allison couldn’t control a giggle. “Honey, it even stinks in here.”

“True, but not as bad as out there.”

“So what, we’re going to stay in here the rest of the week?”

“Okay, I’ll go out long enough to make the steaks. But if he comes back, I’m out of here.”

Lester opened the door and stuck his head out. “Yuck! You got anything we can spray out here?”

“Only the spray I bought for the bathroom. You can try it.”

“Anything is better than that smell. Get it for me will you?”

Allison hurried to the bathroom and came back with the spray. “I don’t care how bad it smells, I’m getting hungry.” She had no idea Lester had such an aversion to smells. Although, why should that surprise her? He was immaculate about himself: the way he dressed, the way his hair looked. Everything about him reeked neatness. Lord, if he had gotten sprayed, he’d probably die. She stifled a giggle at the idea of Lester being sprayed by a skunk. Another second or two, and he might have been.

Lester put his arms around her and pulled her close. “Me, too, but not for food, and what are you grinning about?”

“Enough. I need to eat.” She didn’t dare tell him her thoughts. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings. He had no idea he was obsessive. “Come on, Les. Fix the steaks and hurry back. I want to talk to you about something.”

“What? It sounds serious.” Lester nibbled her ear.

“It is, sort of. Go make the steaks and we’ll talk after dinner.”

“Hey, you can’t start a subject like that and leave me hanging.”

“Okay, it’s about what you said, about getting married.”

Lester pulled away and looked at her. “You do want to marry me, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. I wasn’t sure you meant it.”

Lester ran his hand along her cheek. “Why wouldn’t you think I was serious?”

Allison shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought maybe you were caught up in the moment.”

“Don’t you know me better than that?”

“Well you have to admit, we really don’t know each other very well. I mean, we’ve only been together a few days.”

“Allie, Allie, Allie, I’ve been in love with you since the first day I saw you with Rebecca.”

Allison took a deep breath. “And I was supposed to know this how? I don’t have the gift your sister has. I can’t read minds, and I don’t have visions.”

“Okay, you have a point. But these last few days, I feel like we’ve been together forever.”

“Lester.”

“What?”

“I really am hungry. Can you make the steaks now, and we’ll talk more after dinner?”

Lester laughed and patted her butt. “Okay, but remember one thing. If I come back in here smelling like skunk, it’s your fault.”

Allison laughed and pushed him toward the door. “With that nice breeze, the smell is probably gone by now.”

After dinner, Lester helped Allison clear the table and do the dishes. “So,” Allison said, “can we talk about the wedding?”

Lester almost let out a groan. “I was thinking about eloping.”

“Eloping? Are you kidding?” Allison jumped up and stood with her hands on her hips. “You’d deprive me of a wedding with a white dress and your sister as maid of honor and deprive my father the privilege of walking me down the aisle.”

“Sorry, what was I thinking? Of course I wouldn’t deprive you of all that.”

“Good! But you’ll be happy to know, I want a very small, intimate wedding in my parents’ back yard. That’s been my dream ever since I was a little girl.”

“Hey, sounds good to me.” Lester pulled Allison down on his lap. “I was afraid you wanted something big and extravagant. I’m not good in crowds. To be honest, they terrify me, and I actually get sick.” He kissed her cheek and rubbed her back. “I don’t mean nervous, I mean really sick, vomiting and the whole bit.”

“You get sick? I find that hard to believe.”

“Ask Rebecca. At our parents’ funeral, I had to leave several times. I couldn’t even stay in church.”

“Okay, how are you in a crowd of say fifty people?”

“Fifty I can handle. I can probably handle seventy-five. Anything over that, and I’m in trouble. The bigger the crowd, the sicker I get.”

“Okay, fifty it is. When are you going to tell Rebecca?”

“Rebecca! I totally forgot about her. I’d rather tell her in person. It’s not something I want to tell her over the phone. Besides, I think we should tell her together, don’t you? After all, you’re her best friend.”

“Okay, we’ll tell her when we leave. She’s not going to be surprised, you know? In fact, she almost predicted it.”

“What do you mean, she predicted it. Don’t tell me she has physic powers, too.”

“No, thank goodness she doesn’t. The visions are enough. When we talked about us renting the cabin, she said maybe we’d come back engaged.” Allison laughed and kissed his cheek. “I told her that was rushing it a bit. Little does she know you proposed before we even came up here.”

“I should probably call her and see how her first day of classes went,” Lester said.

As if the thought conjured it up, his cellphone rang.

“Rebecca, we were just talking about you.”

“No wonder my ears were burning. So what were you saying? How much you missed me?”

Lester laughed and put the phone on speaker.

“Hey, Beck, how was your first day of classes?” Allison asked.

“Pretty good. Basically what was expected of us, what to expect of them, you know all that introductory type stuff.”

“So how’s Jeremy?”

“He’s good. I’m meeting him for dinner in a few minutes. I just wanted to check in with you, see how it was going. Jeremy wasn’t sure if you’d get a signal up there.”

“Well, we’re hearing you loud and clear,” Lester said.

“You should have been here, Beck. Your brother almost got sprayed by a skunk.” Allison ignored the look Lester threw her. She’d pay for it later, she was sure, but if she knew Lester, it would be in bed, and she could hardly wait.

“Oh, that would have been a sight to see. What happened?”

Allison related the whole scenario while Lester shook his head, pouting.

“Yuck. Did he make your steaks?”

“Yeah, eventually I made him go back out there. They were delicious, by the way. Your brother sure can cook.”

“Yeah, I know. Listen, I hate to cut this short, but I have to meet Jeremy. I wanted to let you know, I’ve got a new apartment.”

“An apartment?” Lester grabbed the phone. “That sounds permanent.”

“Not really. It’s a student lease for the eleven weeks.”

“Oh, okay. Isn’t it kind of late to be eating dinner?”

“Probably, but Jeremy had to work late, and I had shopping to do after classes. I have to run. Love you both. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Just like that Rebecca hung up. Lester looked at Allison. “She’s not coming home, is she?”

“We’ve talked about that, Les. I’m afraid not.”

Before she knew it, the week passed. Lester loaded the car, while Allison took a quick walk through the cabin to make sure everything was in order, and they hadn’t forgotten anything. Too bad they had to leave. The week here with Lester was the best week of her life. But part of her looked forward to going home to plan their wedding. They decided to get married in June. Lester wanted to get married sooner, but since she wanted the outdoor yard wedding, that wasn’t going to work. May was too iffy in Cleveland, Ohio. Heck, June was iffy, too. But June it was going to be, rain or shine. Her parents would order tents, so even if it rained they’d be okay.

“Hey, are you coming or what?” Lester yelled from the doorway.

“I’m coming. Just making sure we didn’t forget anything.” Allison hurried to the door, pulled it closed behind her, and locked it. “I kind of hate to leave.”

Lester took her hand. “I know what you mean. It was fun wasn’t it? Skunk and all.”

“Les, this is going to sound crazy, but can we come back here for our honeymoon?”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, unless you planned something else.”

“I really haven’t thought about it. I guess we can come here. Why not? It’s quiet, peaceful, and isolated.”