Sunny Says (17 page)

Her feeling was stupid, she told
herself. Kale loved her. And even though she hadn’t returned his words, she
loved him. She should be deliriously happy.

Then why did she feel
melancholy?

And the swirl in her solar plexus,
was it a weather signal or was it a building anxiety about the future? Or both?
She’d blithely vowed that she wasn’t going to worry about the reality that her
and Kale’s paths must diverge. But that was before.

*    *    *

Kale woke with a start and felt
for Sunny. When he found her missing, a momentary panic flashed over him. He’d
grown so accustomed to having her beside him that he felt as if a part of him
were missing. He threw off the covers and went to look for her.

The tension in his body ebbed
when he spotted her standing by her bedroom window. He went to her, put his
arms around her waist, and laid his cheek against her temple. “Why are you up
so early?”

“Just watching the sunrise and
thinking.”

“About anything profound?”

“About storms brewing. About
you. And me. And what’s to become of us.”

Kale knew that he shouldn’t have
told her that he loved her, but the words had simply slipped out of his mouth,
and he couldn’t take them back. Besides, dammit, he did love her. The thought
of leaving her was like a stake in his heart.

“What do you want to become of
us?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” She stroked his
arm and sighed. “I wish sometimes that you weren’t leaving in a few weeks for
Timbuktu
or
wherever.”

“Honey, it’s my job.”

“I understand. And I realize
that we’re going in two different directions. But still, I’ll miss you.”

A gut-wrenching pain grabbed
him, and his arms tightened around her. “It’s not as if I’ll never see you
again. I have leave between assignments, and—”

She turned and put her fingers
to his lips. “Let’s not think about the future and storms. Let’s enjoy the
moment.” She smiled, but the smile didn’t quite match her usual one. Her
dimples deepened, but her eyes didn’t flash with their normal sparkle. “We
still have several of Ravinia’s tiles yet to try as part of my education,” she
said, laughing.

Her laughter seemed forced,
bittersweet.  He ached to lighten her mood and boost his own spirits, but he
couldn’t think of a damned thing to do or say.

Finally he kissed her and lifted
her into his arms. “How ‘bout we try something on the third row from the
bottom?”

“Thank you, Roland.” She smiled
into Camera One. “Sunny says that I agree with your forecast of beautiful
weather for the weekend. A little windy, but great for sailing and kite flying.
I would caution that we should keep an eye on tropical storm Chloe that Roland
has been tracking for you for the past several days. I have a feeling that
Chloe is no gentle lady. She started as a disturbance off
Cape Verde
,
but look for her to intensify into a hurricane after she moves into the
Caribbean
on
Sunday.”

After a commercial break and the
final news story of the Friday evening broadcast, the team signed off.

When the floor director signaled
that they were off the air, Sunny glanced over to see Kale standing out of
camera range at the edge of the set. His brows were drawn together in what she
had come to call his “semi-scowl.” She got up and walked over to him.

“Something wrong?” she asked.

“Were you serious about that
hurricane business?”

“Of course I was serious. I
wouldn’t joke about something like that.”

He looked as if he were about to
say something, then hesitated.

“Something bothering you?”

“No, no, I was only trying to
figure out where we could go for dinner tonight. What sounds good?”

“Maybe we could send out for
pizza. I’d like to take a final look at the tape for the special.”

He smiled. “Sweetheart, given
how hard we’ve worked on it, that tape is as slick as it’s ever going to get.
Relax. You’re as nervous as a stage mother at her child’s first recital. Let’s
walk over to the Lighthouse for some oysters.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “You know
what they say about oysters, don’t you?”

He chuckled and took her hand. “Yep,
and I’ve got to keep up my strength.”

A few minutes later, they
crossed the wide boulevard that was
Shoreline
Drive
and walked down the T-Head that
extended out into the bay. The Lighthouse, a restaurant that sat at the end of
the T, was one of her favorite places. The view from the upstairs dining room,
with its circular wall of glass windows and doors, allowed them to watch the
boats breezing past, their billowed sails as colorful as tropical parrots.

They were seated in a quiet
area, and Kale ordered a dozen raw oysters. Sunny wrinkled her nose and ordered
a shrimp cocktail. “I don’t see how you can eat those slimy things,” she said.

“It’s one of the sacrifices I
make for love.”

She laughed. “Baloney. Your
virility doesn’t need a boost.”

“Keep you worn out, do I?” When
she didn’tanswer, he lifted her chin with his finger. “Are you blushing?”

“Certainly not.” She busied
herself spreading her napkin on her lap. “Do you really think the gang special
is good?”

“I think it’s excellent. And as
much as I hate to admit it, the footage on the cemetery fight and the shots of
the arrests were the perfect climax. I predict that after it airs Monday night,
you’ll be the toast of the town.”

“Aren’t you laying it on a
little thick?”

“It’s good, honey,” he said. “Really
good. You’ve interviewed school officials, a developmental psychologist, a
sociologist, and a member of the police department’s task force on gangs, as
well as the kids themselves. You’ve presented a well-balanced program
explaining that these kids band together out of a need for belonging, a normal
behavior except that they choose a destructive method to fulfill their needs.
You’ve shown the negative consequences of their behavior and have made a
provocative statement. I wouldn’t be surprised if you won a community-affairs
award with it.”

“Mostly thanks to you. Besides
all the story help and editing tips, you’re a superb cameraman. How did you
learn to be so good at filming?”

“Basically from Pete Fisher here
in Corpus. He was the best there was. When I spent summers here as a teenager,
I trailed after him and nearly drove him crazy with my questions, but I
learned. And in some of the field assignments I’ve had overseas, I often had to
be both cameraman and reporter.”

“Have you missed being on the
other side of the camera?”

“Missed it?” He looked pensive
for a moment.

“You know, I haven’t. And that
surprises me. I suppose I’ve been too busy with other things to miss it.”

A waiter brought their food, and
their conversation turned to other matters.

After dinner, they walked along
the seawall, avoiding roller skaters and pausing to explore one of the
thick-walled octagonal Miradores—or the “white gazebo thing,” as Kale called
it.

“We’d better enjoy the relative
quiet while we can,” she said. “The weekend after this is when the big festival
is scheduled. Tourists will be so thick around here that you won’t be able to
stir them with a stick.”

“A big deal, huh?”

“Very. Tents will be all along
Bayfront
Plaza
by the
museums, selling arts and crafts and everything under the sun. There will be
music and dancing and magic shows and plays, booths selling beer and cold
drinks and every kind of food you can imagine. During the days there’ll be a
regatta and an ‘Anything That Will Float but a Boat’ race—that’s always a
hoot—and at night there are splendid fireworks.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“It is. Will you buy me cotton
candy at the festival?”

“Sure. I’ll even throw in a hot
dog and some beer.”

Sunny leaned against the pink
marble atop the balustrade and gazed out over the water. “I love Corpus,” she
said, holding her face to the breeze. “Some people call it the Texas Riviera.
Have you ever been there? To the real
Riviera
, I mean.”

He nodded.

“I’ve never been much of
anywhere exotic. Was it beautiful?”

“It was okay, I guess.”

“Do they really have nude
beaches?”

“I never noticed.”

“Liar.” She laughed. “Where’s
the most beautiful place you’ve ever been?”

“Right here. Right now. With
you.” He rubbed the back of his index finger along the curve of her cheek.

She turned her head and nipped
his finger playfully. “Well said. But I mean a place besides here. Another
country.”

He rested his forearms next to
hers on the railing. “Oh, I don’t know.
Scotland
in the summer, maybe. Or
Greece
. I
suppose
Greece
is my favorite place in
Europe
. I think
you’d like it. Maybe we can go there sometime.”

“Oh, sure.” A lump rose in her
throat, but she swallowed it down and laughed to cover the sorrowful emotion
welling up inside her. “Look! Windsurfers.” She pointed to a distant pair
riding the surface of the water. “In many ways, I’ll hate to leave
Corpus Christi
and the bay area.”

She felt his arm tense. “Where
are you going?” he asked sharply.

“Nowhere immediately, but I hope
it won’t be too long until I find a spot in a more visible market. Eventually I’d
like to go to
Washington
. I’ve always been fascinated by national politics. I
graduated magna cum laude with a double major in communications and political
science. I’m not simply a Twinkie, you know.”

“A Twinkie? You mean one of
those bubble-heads who reads the news and smiles a lot to cover her
incompetence?”

“Right.”

“I never thought you were.”

She looked askance at him. “Your
nose is growing.” He had the good manners to look sheepish. She laughed and
hooked her arm in his. “Come on, Pinocchio, I have to get back to work.”

When they reached the door of
the
Parrish
Building
, Kale asked, “What would you like to do this weekend?
I think I could talk Foster into loaning us his sailboat if you’re interested.”

She thought for a moment. “That
might be nice for Sunday, but do you know what I’d like to do tomorrow? Go kite
flying. I haven’t done that in years, and it looks like such fun. Maybe we
could rent a four-wheel drive and go way down
Padre Island
.”

“Your wish is my command.” He
gave her a brief kiss. “I’ll see you at home at ten-thirty-five. I’ll have your
slippers and a martini waiting.”

“But I hate martinis.”

He waggled his hand. “A brandy,
then. Whatever.”

He kissed her again. It was
meant to be a quick kiss, but she could feel his lips change beneath hers. His
mouth became hungry, urgent, almost desperate. When he finally released her,
there was an odd, troubled look in his eyes.

*    *     *

As Kale drove down
Shoreline Drive
until it turned to
Ocean Drive
, parts of his conversation with Sunny replayed in his
head, troubling him, seriously troubling him. He’d never really loved anyone
before, not the deep kind of love he felt for Sunny. And he’d been so wrapped
up in loving her, delighting in her, that he’d refused to think about the
future. Now it was time for him to get his head out of the sand and consider
the situation because, for damn sure, he intended for them to be together. He
wasn’t about to let her go tooling off into the sunset by herself. Who would
look after her?

He loved her. She’d brought
sunshine back into his life, filled a dark hole he hadn’t even realized was
there. He couldn’t imagine returning to some godforsaken spot on the globe
alone. The thought of being without her sent cold chills over him.

Parking in the driveway, he
walked around to the swimming pool and stared at the water. He could almost
hear her laughter lilting across the blue expanse.

He’d think of something. He had
to.

*    *    *

His was black with a red-eyed
golden dragon and a long black tail; hers was yellow with a happy-faced orange
sun and a yellow streamer. “Mine is better than yours,” Sunny shrieked.

“That sissy thing? It is not.”

“It is too. It’s a hundred feet
higher.”

“A hundred feet?” Kale gave her
an oblique glance. “You have a serious distance-perception problem.” He let out
the string on his kite, and it soared higher, well beyond Sunny’s. “How about
them apples, Miss Smarty-Pants?”