Love at Last. Irene Brand

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СКАЧАТЬ not say we were college friends and let it go at that?”

      “That’s fine with me,” she said with a sinking heart, knowing that she’d long ago forfeited the right to be more than friends. “Seeing you was more than I bargained for when I came to Woodston.”

      “Maybe our meeting again is God’s plan for us. Have you considered that?”

      “Until I’ve atoned for my past sins, I can’t expect God to be concerned over my welfare.”

      Unspoken pain turned Perry’s eyes into inky, unfathomable orbs as he placed his hand over hers. “We don’t have to make restitution for our sins to have God love us. He loved us enough to send Jesus to make atonement for us. God knows our hearts, and He forgave us for making a wrong choice.” He paused, adding reminiscently, with some bitterness, “But it took a long time to forgive myself.”

      “Does that mean you’re sorry for—” she hesitated a few seconds “—the months we dated?”

      “We might be better off not to discuss what happened years ago, but since you’ve brought it up—you know as well as I do that I enjoyed all of our time together.”

      Remembering the outcome of their engagement revived a pain in Lorene’s heart she found hard to bear. Her fingers stirred in his grasp and he released her hand.

      “I’ll mention to Mr. Kincaid and Alma that we knew each other in college. We had a lot of good times together, and I don’t see why we can’t be friends. We can’t avoid each other while you’re here.”

      Perry’s offer of friendship was rather like offering a starving person a teaspoon of chicken broth. But after she’d deserted him once, without an explanation, she’d relinquished the right to expect anything more.

      When they returned to the car, Perry inserted his key in the ignition and started the engine. Memories of the past flashed through his mind, and he sat silently for a couple of minutes before he turned to Lorene.

      “I shouldn’t ask this, but I have to know. Why did you just drop me without an explanation? Why didn’t you answer my letters or return my telephone calls?”

      A startled gasp escaped her lips and she faced him quickly. She latched on to his second question, and he didn’t seem to notice that she avoided the first one. “What telephone calls? What letters? When did you write to me?”

      “I sent a dozen or so letters that summer I was in Mexico. Days would go by when we didn’t have any communication with the outside world, but I mailed you a letter when I could. We went to a town every two or three weeks, and I always telephoned, but I couldn’t contact you. Your parents told me you didn’t want to talk to me, but I kept calling, hoping you’d answer the phone.”

      Anger burned so fiercely in Lorene’s heart that her voice sounded harsh and raspy. “I had no idea you’d tried to get in touch with me. That’s why I allowed my father to convince me that you were glad to get rid of me.”

      “I should have known,” Perry muttered. Her words cut like a flesh wound. “Your father never did approve of our relationship, but I can’t understand why you wouldn’t have expected me to write and why you didn’t contact me.”

      “Our mail was delivered to a post-office box, and Dad always picked it up, so it was easy for them to intercept my messages. Perry, I’m so sorry. Leaving you was the worst mistake I’ve ever made, but I didn’t have your address in Mexico, and I didn’t want to take a chance on your parents mistakenly opening my mail. When I didn’t hear from you, I thought what we’d done had turned you against me—that you didn’t love me any longer.”

      “I gave you no reason to think that,” he said sharply.

      She steeled herself against the deep emotion in his voice. “I just can’t believe my parents treated me that way.”

      “You don’t believe me?”

      “Of course I believe you. But they’d have saved me a lot of heartache if they’d stayed out of our private affairs.”

      “I finished the job training in time to start my senior year at college. I came to your home, intending to force my way in to see you, only to learn your family had moved. If your neighbors knew where you’d gone, they wouldn’t tell me.”

      Lorene unconsciously twisted her slender hands together and leaned her head against the window. She held back tears of rage and disappointment. She remembered vividly the despair of the months following her separation from Perry. Though her parents told her persistently that he’d deceived her, only pretending to love her until he’d violated her purity, Lorene continued to believe they were wrong. She pored over each day’s mail, looking for a letter. Finally the day came when she no longer wanted to see Perry and lived in dread that he would come back to her. But she’d never forgotten how much she loved him, and her parents had never completely convinced Lorene that he hadn’t loved her.

      He tenderly caressed her cheek with a knuckle and stroked the long hair on her shoulder.

      “I’m sorry I’ve distressed you. It’s my fault. I should have known you wouldn’t walk out on me. It’s all right. Don’t let it ruin your evening.”

      Chapter Three

      Reluctant to part with Lorene for the night, Perry drove westward along the Ohio River. He stopped the car at a small park, took Lorene’s hand and they strolled to a shaded wooden bench facing the river and the setting sun.

      They sat, bodies touching, and Perry put his arm over her shoulder. She didn’t push him away, and his arm tightened slightly into an impersonal hug. His touch radiated an affection that drew her like a magnet, and it eased the pain in her heart, but she refrained from turning to him to experience again the comfort of his strong embrace.

      A cool breeze wafted from the river. Dark clouds hovered in the west, creating a sunset of vivid purple, red and yellow hues. They didn’t speak for a long while, content to bask in closeness, overcome with memories. Words couldn’t have expressed the comfort, the completeness, the rightness of the moment.

      Sighing deeply, Perry brushed windblown strands of hair from Lorene’s forehead. His fingers wended their way down the right side of her face as skillfully as a musician would tinkle the keys of a piano. He cupped her chin and slowly turned her face toward his.

      “Do you remember the day we met?” he asked, his mouth curved with gentleness.

      A hint of moisture lurked in Lorene’s eyes and her intimate smile set his pulse racing. “You always could read my mind. I’ve been thinking about our first meeting all evening.”

      “I can still see you,” he reminisced, “running out of the engineering building, with your book bag hanging open, scattering papers all over the steps.”

      “I was crying so hard I couldn’t see, missed the last step and tumbled into your arms. You picked up my things, helped me to my car and invited me to join you for a sandwich. If I hadn’t met you that day, I’d have dropped out of college. I’d just come from my adviser, who’d told me I wasn’t going to make it in engineering school.”

      Perry pulled her into a closer embrace while she wrestled with that terrible blow to her ego. “I didn’t know how I could possibly tell Dad. СКАЧАТЬ