Fire, The (36 page)

"He gave you nothing, if I recall. That alone should tell you something."

"Then you don't know."

"Know what?"

"He gave me a hundred and six kisses when he came back that night. They were real kisses too – not chicken pecks or cousin kisses. We sat on the porch swing past midnight."

"Oh, my," Maude said with a chuckle. "It seems I
don't
know everything that happens under my roof."

"It's not just the kisses either. He likes spending time with me. He respects me. He asks my opinion on things he reads in the news. Even my father didn't do that," Sadie said. "I know he thinks of me as more than a friend. I know it. I know he has feelings for me. I just don't know what do to about it. I'm afraid if I leave now, I'll shut the door on any chance to find happiness."

"I seriously doubt that, dear," Maude said. "You're smart, kind, and pretty. You'll have men lining up to take you to dances and shows no matter where you go."

Sadie frowned.

"Even if you're right, none of them will be Kevin. I love him. I want to be with him."

Maude smiled and looked at Sadie like the daughter she never had.

"Then do something about it. If you still think he's worth fighting for, then fight for him. Tell him what you told me. Say your piece. If you do, and he still picks Sarah, then you will at least know that you tried. If you don't, then you'll spend the rest of your life burdened by regret."

Sadie took a deep breath, smiled, and grabbed Maude's hand.

"Thank you. That's just what I needed to hear. I'll speak to him and speak to him soon. I'll not let him go without a fight."

CHAPTER 62: SADIE

Monday, July 18, 1910

Sadie stared at her clock and then at her window as she rested, or tried to rest, atop her frilly double bed. At five to four, she knew it was only a matter of time before Kevin walked into the house and into a conversation she had planned all weekend.

She wanted to talk to him in the house because she wanted to be free of the irritating smoke and other outside distractions. She had waited until Monday afternoon because she knew that Andy would be at work and Maude would be out playing bridge.

Sadie had hoped to speak to Kevin shortly after lunch but didn't get the chance. He told her that he had to run a few errands but would be back by three thirty at the latest.

So after Andy, Maude, and Kevin left for their respective appointments, Sadie had cleared the dishes, taken a bath, and put on her best summer dress. She had brushed her hair and fixed her face and mentally prepared for the sales pitch of a lifetime.

Sadie didn't know how she would start. She would first gauge Kevin's mood, perhaps get him something to drink, and then go from there. She knew only that she would do as Maude had advised. She would open her heart and let it all out. She would hold nothing back and hope that everything she offered would be enough to change the mind of a determined young man.

Sadie looked at the clock again and saw the hands point to the twelve and the four. She got up from the bed and walked to her closed window just as she heard a door shut downstairs. When she heard footsteps on the stairs, she rushed back to her bed, took a deep breath, and waited for him to enter his room, where she had left a vase of freshly picked wildflowers.

When Kevin called her name and then Maude's, her heart raced. When he walked past the barely opened door to her room, her spirits soared. Then Sadie heard a second voice in the hallway and her spirits fell. Kevin had come back all right, but he hadn't come back alone.

"Are you sure no one's home," Sarah Thompson said in a voice barely above a whisper.

"I'm pretty sure," Kevin said. "If Sadie and Maude were here they would have answered. I think we have the place to ourselves."

Sarah giggled.

"I don't know if I like the sound of that, Mr. Johnson. If I didn't know better, I'd suspect you had something inappropriate in mind."

Kevin laughed.

"I usually do have something inappropriate in mind, but not today. Today I have something very appropriate in mind. I have something I want to show you."

Sadie tiptoed to her door and saw Kevin lead Sarah by the hand to the end of the hallway. When the couple entered Kevin's room, Sadie slipped into the corridor and proceeded quietly to a slightly opened door. She could see Kevin and Sarah sitting on his bed through the narrow opening but was reasonably certain they couldn't see her. The hallway was dark.

"Those are beautiful flowers," Sarah said. "Where did they come from?"

"I'm sure they came from Maude's garden," Kevin said. "Sadie probably picked them. She is always doing stuff like that."

"She is?"

"She is. Does that bother you, Miss Thompson?"

Sadie saw a smile vanish from Sarah's face.

"It does a little. I know Sadie's very fond of you, and I often wonder if the feeling is mutual."

"You have nothing to worry about," Kevin said.

"Are you sure about that?"

"I'm sure."

"You do like her though."

"Of course I like her."

"Do you love her?"

Sadie froze as she waited for a reply that would surely dictate her next move. She knew that Kevin liked her – and liked her a lot – but she didn't know whether his feelings for her crossed the line between affection and love.

Kevin didn't answer Sarah right away. He instead looked at her thoughtfully and put his hands on her shoulders.

"I'm hesitant to answer that question truthfully because I don't want to give you the wrong impression," he finally said.

Sadie held her breath.

"I'd still like the truth," Sarah said.

"OK. I'll give you the truth. The truth is that I do love her. Sadie is one of the best friends I've ever had. She's a lot like you. She's smart, kind, thoughtful, and, yes, beautiful. In any other situation, I wouldn't even consider someone else."

Sadie braced herself against a wall to keep from falling down. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Kevin raised his hands to Sarah's face.

"Sadie is special to me. She'll always be special to me," he said. He broke into a warm smile. "You're more than special. You're my first thought in the morning and my last at night. You're the woman I want to build my life around. You're the one I want to marry."

Sarah gasped.

Sadie's heart sank when she took in Kevin's words. She watched him closely as he opened the top drawer of his nightstand and retrieved a small velvet box. She knew what was coming.

Kevin opened the container. He pulled a diamond ring out of the box, grabbed Sarah's left hand, and placed the ring on the appropriate finger.

"I bought the ring this morning," he said. "I've been shopping around for weeks. I wanted to get you the best because you are the best. I love you, Sarah. I love you more than anything in the world. I want to be your husband and spend the rest of my life with you."

Sadie couldn't see Sarah's face, but she could tell that she was crying. She had twice wiped her cheeks with her hand.

"I love you too, Kevin. You know I do. I . . ."

"Don't say a thing," he said. "I don't need an answer now. In fact, I don't want an answer now. I want you to think it over for at least a few days."

"Why?" Sarah asked. "I don't need to think anything over."

"Oh, yes you do."

"I don't understand. Don't you want to get married?"

Kevin grabbed her hands and pulled her gently from the bed. When she got to her feet, he returned his hands to her face and kissed her sensitively.

"I do. I want nothing more. I want to marry you as soon as possible, but I can't until I've told you who I am and where I come from."

"Have you kept secrets from me?"

Kevin nodded.

"I've kept many secrets from you. It's not what you think though. There's no other woman in my life, not even Sadie. This is bigger, much bigger."

"Then tell me. What's this about?"

Kevin put a finger to Sarah's lips and gave her a patient smile. A moment later, he reached again into the top nightstand drawer and pulled out what looked like a leather-covered diary.

"What it's about is this."

He held out the item.

"It's about a book?" Sarah asked.

"It's about a book – and some gold coins and a rock shed and a hundred other things."

Sadie looked on in a teary daze as she tried to follow the conversation. She too wanted to know who he was and where he was from, but she knew now that the particulars didn't matter. They would never matter. Kevin could be a creature from a distant planet and it wouldn't change a thing. He had made a permanent commitment to someone else. He wanted Sarah, not her. That's what mattered. The game was over.

"You'll have to do better than that," Sarah said.

"I will. Believe me, I will."

"When?"

"Tonight. I'll explain everything at dinner. If we leave now, we can have the Placer Room mostly to ourselves."

"OK."

Sadie watched Kevin return the book and the ring box to the drawer, grab a flower from the vase, and give that flower, a flower she had cut and collected, to another woman. She put a hand to her stomach. It was all she could do to keep from throwing up.

She wanted to scream, pound on the walls, and protest the unfairness of it all, but she didn't. In the end, she quietly withdrew to her room, shut the door, and fell onto her bed. When she heard Kevin and Sarah talk and laugh as they walked out of his room and out of the house, she did something she hadn't expected to do on this sunny afternoon. She cried. She cried hard and didn't stop crying until the day turned to night.

CHAPTER 63: KEVIN

"Let me see if I understand you correctly. You're a time traveler from the year 2013 and you got here by walking through a rock shed. Is that right?"

"That's the sum of it," Kevin said.

Sarah laughed.

"Life with you won't be boring, will it?"

"You don't believe me."

"I don't believe you," she said. "I'm not a scientist, but I know enough about physics and technology to know that time travel is impossible. You, my dear Mr. Johnson, have been reading too much H.G. Wells."

Kevin smiled but didn't say a thing. He instead scanned the room to see if the four other diners were looking his way and then reached into his vest pocket.

"What are you doing?" Sarah asked.

"I'm making your day, Miss Thompson."

Kevin pulled out his digital camera and held it in front of his face.

"Say 'cheese.'"

"Say what?"

"Just look gorgeous. It shouldn't be hard."

Sarah didn't know time travel, but she sure as hell knew how to pose for a photo. She smiled warmly as she gazed at the photographer with admiring eyes.

Kevin snapped a picture.

"That's a camera?" she asked.

"It's a camera."

Kevin pushed the display button. Satisfied with the image on the 2.8-inch LCD screen, he handed the device to his de facto fiancée.

"Recognize that hottie?"

Sarah took the camera but glanced first at Kevin. She sighed and shook her head, as if to ask, "What am I going to do with you?" When she finally examined the high-resolution color image, she did so with widening eyes.

"How did you do that?"

"I didn't. The camera did."

"Where did you get this?"

"I got it from an electronics store in Delaware. I bought it online."

"You did what?"

"We have something called the Internet. I'll tell you about that later," he said. "First, I want you to do something."

Kevin retrieved the camera, changed a volume setting to low, and switched to movie mode. When he was ready to shoot a video, he pointed the lens at Sarah.

"Say something to Mr. Camera. Tell him why you love me and want to marry me."

"I can't talk to a camera," she whispered forcefully. "There are people in this room. They might think I'm crazy."

"They might. I concede it's a risk. Just say something short and sweet, like, 'Kevin Johnson is the smartest, most awesome dude I have ever met.'"

"All right," Sarah said with a hint of exasperation. She stared into the lens. "Kevin Johnson is a smart, awesome dude or whatever you just said."

"That's perfect," he said as he lowered the camera. "This is going on YouTube."

"It's going on what?"

Kevin glanced again at the two couples seated at distant tables to make sure they were minding their own business. Then he turned to Sarah with a smile. He pushed a button and handed his favorite teacher a movie in a box.

"Take a look at that."

Sarah stared at a tiny screen and watched a replay of a flirtatious exchange.

"This is amazing," she said.

"There's more."

Kevin took the camera and returned it to picture mode. A moment later, he held the device so Sarah could see the screen and flipped through photos he had taken in 1910 and 2013. He stopped at one he knew she would like.

"That's you," she said.

"That's me in Seattle the day I graduated."

Sarah glanced at Kevin.

"There's a strange tower in the background."

"It's not strange to me. It's the Space Needle."

"I've seen photographs of Seattle, Kevin, recent photographs. There's no 'Space Needle' there."

Kevin smiled.

"Let's look at more pictures."

He pushed a button three times to get the image he wanted.

"This is my family at Snoqualmie Falls. That's my dad, of course," Kevin said as he pointed to a man in the photo. "His name is Brian. My mom is Michelle, though everyone calls her Shelly. My sister is Irene. She's Sadie's age. I call her Rena when I'm happy with her and other things when I'm not. I'm the handsome guy on the right."

Sarah displayed her amusement with the narrator and returned to the camera. She studied the image for a few seconds and then took a long look at the man at her table.

"You take after your mother."

"That's what most people say."

"She's beautiful."