How Do I Love Thee (8 page)

rett walked up the hill of the cemetery in the heat of die sun, a book clutched under his arm. Shayla's parents had given it to him after her funeral. They had supposed it was his, probably because he'd once written his name and phone number in it. He was glad to have the book because it had belonged to Shayla, the only girl he had ever loved.

He'd been at school for weeks now, going through the motions of adjusting to a life without her. His friends had been kind to him, understanding, but Brett knew it would be a very long time before he was ready to merge into the mainstream of high school life.

At the crest of the hill, he searched the grave markers and found Shayla's in the brightest, sunniest spot on the hill. Despite his sadness, he smiled, knowing that her parents had chosen it on purpose. Now Shayla could rest in the rays of the sun for all time. No need to hide in the night ever again.

Brett sat cross-legged on the green grass. Soon autumn would be coming, then winter and snow. Being from the Florida Keys, he'd never seen snow, except in movies and on TV. He looked forward to the cold white winter because it would match the way his heart felt without her.

He opened the book to his favorite poem, began to read to Shayla, and got almost to the end before tears blurred the words and made them unreadable. He shut the book. No matter… he knew them by heart. He touched the hot bronze metal of Shayla's grave marker. Tracing the raised letters with his fingers, he finished the poem for her from memory. He said, “ ‘I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears of all my life!—and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.’”

BOOK TWO
Bobby's Girl

id I tell you that my brother Steve's coming home from college this weekend? “ Bobby Harrod asked.

Sitting across from him at the library table, Dana Tafoya, Bobby's girlfriend, felt her heartbeat accelerate. “No, you didn't. Why is he coming?”

“For medical tests.” Bobby tapped his pencil on his open hook.

Fear shot through Dana. “What's wrong with him?”

“Don't know. That's why he's coming home. Mom wants him to see a specialist she works with at the hospital.” Bobby gave Dana
a quizzical look. “You feel all right? You look pale.”

Dana forced a smile. “Taco regret from lunch,” she lied. She couldn't let on to Bobby how hard his news had hit her. She wasn't even supposed to know his stepbrother. But she did know him. Two years before, for one magical summer, she'd known Steve Harrod very well.

“What's his problem?”

“Bad headaches. Double vision. Dizzy spells. Steve kept quiet about it for as long as he could, but his coach started noticing that Steve's passing was off. He sent him to the team doc, who sent him in for tests at the hospital, but Mom wants him checked here. She says she trusts the doctors here more than in some city three hundred miles away.”

Steve Harrod was a football legend in their North Carolina town, where he'd played high school ball. He had been offered scholarships to colleges and universities all over the country, but he'd chosen Florida State in Tallahassee. Now, as a junior, he was a contender for die coveted Heisman Trophy.

Dana asked, “When's he arriving?”

“Mom and Dad are picking him up at the Charlotte airport Friday night about ten o'clock. I thought I'd go too. I know that messes up our plans for going to the game and dance. Do you mind?”

“Of course I don't mind.” Their high school's football team wasn't all that great anyway.

Bobby reached over and took her hand. “You want to come along for the ride?”

Dana's mind raced for an excuse not to go. “Um—no … I think this should be a family time.”

“I don't blame you … since Steve's a minor deity around our house, I doubt I'll even be noticed in the backseat.”

“You've always told me that you and Steve were tight.”

“Only when Dad's not around.”

Bobby sounded bitter, and Dana knew why. Although Bobby was his father's natural son, it was Steve who was the golden one of the family. Steve's natural father had died in a car accident when Steve was a baby. When his mother remarried, her new husband had adopted the
boy. Even after Bobby was born, Steve was Mr. Harrod's favorite. But then, Steve was an extraordinary athlete and Bobby wasn't.

People automatically took a liking to the friendly, outgoing Steve, and Bobby told Dana he couldn't compete, so Dana never mentioned that she had once tumbled for Steve herself. She had thought she wouldn't have to deal with the issue until Christmas break, but now that he was coming home, there might be no way to avoid him.

“I hope whatever's wrong with Steve isn't serious,” she ventured.

“Me too,” Bobby said with a sigh. “He's my favorite only brother.”

She smiled and squeezed his hand. “Your mom will see that he gets the best doctors.”

“Dad's pretty freaked. Says he doesn't want the papers to get hold of the story because it may hurt Steve's chances at the Heisman. You'll be careful who you tell, won't you? Actually, don't tell anybody.”

She hadn't considered that the news media would be interested in the story. “But won't it be noticed when Steve doesn't play Saturday?”

“The official story from FSU is that he has the flu and the sophomore quarterback will fill in for him. Fortunately, they're playing a weak team, so they should be able to keep their undefeated streak going until Steve gets back-on the field.”

Bobby shut his textbook. “Let's get out of here,” he said to Dana. “I can't concentrate.”

All the way out of the library and into the parking lot, Daña thought about seeing Steve again. What would it be like? Would he even remember her? When she'd met Steve Harrod two years before at a resort in Hilton Head, both were working. She was baby-sitting the three-year-old daughter of a business friend of her father's, and Steve was a lifeguard and recreational aide. Dana had just finished her freshman year. At sixteen, with an interest in music, she'd been a nonperson at their high school. Steve had graduated and was ready to go off to college and football camp. Her Job, which lasted six weeks, had been fun, but meeting Steve and dating him had been the highlight of her summer.

Now, walking hand in hand with Bobby, she
felt guilty because she'd never told him. But she and Bobby had only begun dating a month before, at die start of their senior year. She had known he was Steve's brother—everyone knew it—although Bobby went to lengths to distance himself at school from Steve's legacy. Dana hadn't expected the two of them to be so compatible, or to have such good times together. Bobby respected her, admired her talent, encouraged her dreams. She
liked
Bobby Harrod—a lot.

“He'll be all right,” she said, breaking the silence.

“Sure. I mean, nothing bad can happen to a god, can it?” Bobby opened die car door for Dana. “The one good thing about his coming home is that he'll get to meet you.”

“He'll probably be too busy with his testó and wanting to get back to school. Meeting him can wait.”

Bobby shut die door and leaned through die window, his face inches from hers. “No way. I
want
him to meet you, I want him to see that for once in his life he didn't get it all.”

Dana felt her face redden. “Now, Bobby…”

“No, it's true.” He kissed her quickly. “This
time I lucked out. This time Bobby got the pretty girl.”

After Bobby dropped her off at home, Dana went straight to the piano. Her parents were working late. Alone, she sat for an hour playing music that usually had the power to soothe her. She finally gave up, went to her room, and rummaged through her closet for the box that held the treasured memorabilia she'd been collecting ever since the first grade. She found the ribbon from her first piano competition, when she was six, and ticket stubs from when she'd gone to New York with her parents to hear Richard Goode, one of the world's greatest classical pianists, play at Carnegie Hall.

She dug out the manila envelope filled with keepsakes from that magic summer and examined each item tenderly—the torn ticket stubs from her movie dates with Steve, a candy wrapper he'd discarded and she'd retrieved, photos of the two of them building a sand castle on the beach and playing in the pool. Her favorite was the one of them with their arms around each other that a passerby had snapped for them. Steve's blond hair glinted in
die sunlight, and Dana's expression was one of pure joy.

She thought back to the day they met. She had discovered a piano in one of the banquet rooms, so during her free time, she practiced. On that particular rainy afternoon, she looked up and saw Steve standing at the doorway, listening. She ‘d recognized him immediately.

“Don't stop,” be said. “It's beautiful.”

She felt tongue-tied.

He came over and leaned his elbows on the top of the piano. “I'll bet you've played all your life.”

“Since I was four. I've always loved it.” Just being in Steve's presence caused her hands to tremble on the keys.

“You've got a gift. Do you mind if I listen? “

“I'm finished for today.” She explained about her sitter job and how she was expected back in her room before dinner.

“Will you play again tomorrow?”

“I have to. I want to attend Juilliard someday. Only the best get to go diere, so I practice all I can.” She felt as if she were babbling. Why should he care about her life story?

His grin looked like warm honey. “Bet you'll make it… I don't know your name.”

“Dana Marie,” she said, using her first and middle names only.

“I'm Steve. Until tomorrow, then.”

She smiled and left the room quickly, her heart banging against her chest.

True to his promise, he came the next day, and the day after that, until they were seeing each other every day and then every free minute. By the end of her vacation job, Dana had fallen madly, hopelessly in love with Steve Harrod, Bobby's only brother.