Chapter Four

Savannah excused herself from the dinner table and went to the ladies’ room. She paced a bit in the parlor area and then perched on one of the oversized chairs. Got up and paced some more.

Noah had only told her a little, that much she was certain of.

What she took from Noah’s story was that he had fought for her. But his father had been too much. Too powerful.

The bottom line was that Noah had been forced to choose between her and his inheritance.

He had chosen his inheritance.

She had to respect him for that.

Didn’t she?

He could have talked to her about it. Explained that he needed to marry someone else or his father would disinherit him.

Savannah scoffed and put her head in her hands.

A woman, old enough to be her mother, placed a hand lightly on Savannah’s shoulder. “Are you all right, dear?”

Savannah looked at the older woman and forced herself to smile. “Yes. Thank you. I’m just trying to sort something out.”

The woman apologized for bothering her and left.

Noah knew that she never would have understood. The result would have been the same. Perhaps it was best that he hadn’t contacted her again.

She had looked for him.

Watched for him, even. Stayed home on the weekends, studying. Secretly waiting for the phone to ring.

He should have at least told me.

But he hadn’t.

And life had gone on.

She wanted to hear the rest of how he got to where he was now.

Checking her appearance in the mirror, deeming herself presentable, she went back out to the table where Noah was waiting for her. His expression anxious.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“I’m good. I just needed to take a moment.” She gulped the rest of her wine. “So, did you do it? Did you marry Claire?”

“I did. It was fast. Two weeks after I got back, I was married.” He lowered his gaze. “I couldn’t tell you. As long as I didn’t tell you, it wasn’t real. Any day, I thought, I would wake up and it would have all been a nightmare. And I was so ashamed. Ashamed that I had let my father decide who I was to marry.”

“I can see where you would be.”

“Yeah.” He ran a hand through his hair. Savannah could see the pain his eyes. After all this time it was still there. “I married her, but it was in name only.”

She watched him carefully.

“Anyway, we had separate bedrooms. The day we got back from the honeymoon, I told her I was going to work for the airline. She got mad, and it made avoiding her easier from there on out.”

“But you stayed married.”

“We did. We’ll be divorced soon, though.”

“Why now?”

“My father died eighteen months ago. My mother and I own everything now.”

“Rather ironic, isn’t it?”

“Hmm. I refused to spend any of his money while he lived.”

“You were really angry.”

“I never forgave him. He destroyed my relationship with you.”

“I am so sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. I made my choice.”

“You didn’t really have a choice.”

“Looking back, I think he was bluffing. I don’t think he would have disinherited me. But, I was young and couldn’t imagine living without the money I’d grown up with.”

“You made what seemed to be the best decision at the time.”

“You always were understanding. I knew that. But I didn’t think even you could handle what I was doing.”

“I don’t think I could have. The end result would have been the same. Except that I would have known what happened. I actually thought I did something wrong – something to make you stop loving me.”

“You were perfect. I would never do that to you now. I hope you can find your way around to forgiving me.”

She nodded. Did she forgive him? Even if she did, she couldn’t bring herself to say the words right now.

The server brought their meals, which lightened the mood somewhat. Savannah had liked it better before they’d dug into their pasts. Noah had been right to avoid the topic.

“You were right,” she told him.

“That’s always good to hear. What was I right about?”

“It was too soon to talk about all that.”

“It’s out there now,” he said. “Can I change the subject?”

“Please.”

“How do you like your tour of New York so far?”

That brought a smile to her face. “I like it very much.”

“Good. Does that mean you’re available for tomorrow?”

She nodded, taking a bite of fish.

“There is one requirement. You have to wear jeans and flat shoes that you can walk in.”

“I can do that,” she said.

They finished eating in silence. Now that Savannah had a little information regarding his past, her brain began to focus on the future. Was he going to just show her around New York and then disappear again? Was this his way of atoning for his past?

She still felt that pull toward him. That dangerous pull. Dangerous because the pull was at her heart.

It had always been there.

She allowed her mind to wander. He had filled out in the last twenty years. She’d always felt safe around him. That hadn’t changed. Last night when he’d held her against him, it had felt right.

He was keeping her at arm’s length, nonetheless. It would be so easy to slip back into that close physical relationship. What was holding him back? Was he no longer interested in her that way?

She watched him under her lashes. Longed to feel his lips against hers again.

In the year they had been together, they’d spent countless hours with their lips locked. They had never gone all the way, though. They had agreed that they should wait. She had only been a college freshman. If they had, would it have changed anything?

They hadn’t talked about marriage. They had just. . . been in the relationship. Savannah hadn’t questioned the future.

But now. . .

Now she wanted to know. She wanted to know how much to invest in him. It had been two days, and he hadn’t even tried to kiss her.

“Do you still like mint chocolate chip ice cream?”

Her jaw dropped. “You remember that?”

“I remember a lot of things,” he said, placing a hand over hers, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

“I haven’t had it in so long, I really don’t know,” she said, her thoughts scattered with the feel of his hand over hers.

“There’s an ice cream parlor around the corner, if you’d like to find out.”

“OK,” she said simply.

He paid the check and they got on the elevator to go downstairs.”

Since it wasn’t far to the ice cream shop, they walked along the sidewalk. Steam from the subways drifted up, creating a unique urban fog.

It reminded Savannah of their long walks along Lake Martin after the rains.

“Do you remember,” she asked, “when you had me out on the lake hunting for frogs?”

He stopped. Looked at her and broke out into a deep male laugh. “What on earth made you remember that? While walking downtown New York?”

“The fog,” she said, and he laughed harder. “What?”

“Fog,” he said, bent over now.

“Steam. Whatever,” she said, biting her lip to try to keep from laughing with him. It wasn’t long before they were both walking hand in hand down the sidewalk laughing at a joke only the two of them could fathom.

“It wasn’t my idea,” he said. “Johnny Ray told me that girls were impressed by guys who could catch frogs.”

“What? Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“Scout’s honor,” he held up his hand.

“I’m not concerned about what he told you. I’m concerned about the fact that you believed him.”

“I didn’t know. He said it was an Alabama thing. I was from Fort Worth. It seemed possible at the time.”

“Do I look like the kind of girl who would be impressed by her boyfriend catching frogs?”

“Well, no, not now.”

“I think you should have just said no and let it go at that.”

“I didn’t know you all that well at the time.”

“Oh my. I can’t believe you were trying to impress me. I thought you were just some country guy dragging me out to look for frogs.”

“I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t find one.”

“Probably. Especially if you thought I’d know what to do with it.”

“He said you’d know.”

“Johnny Ray was an idiot.”

“He’s an attorney now.”

“No way! You stayed in touch with him?”

“Sort of. He calls about once a year.”

“Well, you can tell him, attorney or no, he’s an idiot.”

“Turns out he’s not a bad attorney.”

“I never would have guessed that.”

They arrived at the ice cream parlor and stood in line. They were the oldest ones there. The clientele consisted mostly of young couples.

“We used to be like that,” she said, without thinking.

He put his arm around her and pulled her close. “We still are. Actually, we’re better. We can take any one of these couples.”

“Take them how?”

He squeezed her close. “I don’t know. It just sounds good.”

“One scoop or two?” he asked when they got to the counter.

“One,” she said.

He ordered her a scoop of mint chocolate chip and he ordered two scoops of vanilla fudge swirl for himself.

They found a bench and sat side by side.

“Is it as good as you remember?” he asked.

“It’s even better,” she said, licking her spoon.

“Mine, too.” he said. “Here, try a bite.”

Without even thinking, she allowed him to feed her a bite of his ice cream. “That’s good, too,” she said, holding her spoon out to him to try hers.

“Not bad.”

She was reminded that they had shared pretty much everything. She couldn’t imagine that there were two other people more attached at the hip than they had been back in college.

She gazed at him. He smiled.

It was as though a piece of her had been missing all those twenty years.

And here was the missing piece.

She’d been hurt. There was no denying that. But in that moment, sitting outside a New York ice cream parlor surrounded by young people, many of whom were the same age they had been, she realized that she forgave him.

They were different people now. Yet they were the same. It was odd how after twenty years, they still fit together so well, despite the changes each had undergone.

She smiled back at him. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for showing me the fun side of New York.”

“It is my honor,” he said. His lips cold from the ice cream, he bent over and kissed her cheek, only a fraction from the corner of her mouth.

Her nerve endings went on edge. And she craved more. She wanted more. She wanted to feel his lips against hers. Instead, she settled for another bite of ice cream.

And wondered.

After all this time, when would the time be right to begin again?

 

Sunday in the park.

Although Savannah knew the lyrics to the Chicago song were actually “Saturday in the park,” she changed the words around to fit Sunday in her head as she sang silently to herself.

They’d started off with a hot dog from the hot dog stand and then boarded the Staten Island Ferry.

The sky was clear. The breeze was perfect.

The day was perfect.

They had to wait in line after a long walk to the Statue. Thank goodness for flat ballerina shoes.

“She’s so. . . big,” Savannah said, looking up at Lady Liberty.

“The tall buildings of New York make her look small, but in her day, she was huge.”

“From where I’m standing, she still is.”

There was a middle-aged couple in line in front of them. The woman turned around and smiled at them. “Make sure you go up to the crown,” the woman said. “We come here every year, and until last year we never remembered to get advance tickets. You can’t go without advance tickets. And there’s always a long line. But last year, we remembered and decided to wait it out. It was so worth it.”

“How long is the wait?”

“It was what, honey, about two hours?”

“I don’t know,” the man said. “I just remember we missed lunch. So we made sure we ate before we came out today. And it’s really strenuous.”

“Oh, yes,” she added. “You only want to wear comfortable shoes.”

“You come every year?” Savannah asked. “Where are you from?”

“We live in Pittsburgh.”

“I’ve been there. It’s a really pretty city.”

The woman nodded. “You know, honey,” she said to her husband. “Would you go get me a bottle of water?” She turned to Savannah. “I’m diabetic, so I have to keep hydrated.”

The man looked at Noah. “Want to come with me to get water?”

Noah looked questioningly at Savannah. “Do you want some water?”

“Actually, yes, I really do.”

“You’ll be OK here?”

“Sure,” she said, waving her hand.

While Noah was gone to get water, Savannah learned that Sue and Mike were not originally from Pittsburgh. Sue was from Iowa, and Mike was from Arizona. They’d met while in school at the University of Pittsburgh, and then they had decided to stay.

“But enough about us,” Sue said as the line inched painfully forward. Savannah could see Noah in line at the concession stand.

“Where are you two from?”

“Birmingham,” Savannah said, keeping things simple.

“You’re such a cute couple. How long have you been married?”

“Oh, we’re not,” Savannah said, relieved to see that Noah and Mike were on their way back

“Really?”

“No. But we’ve known each other forever, since college, actually.”

“That’s the best way to start a relationship – as friends.”

Savannah wanted to say that she and Noah had never been friends. Instead, she smiled and nodded.

But the thought startled her a little.

Noah had been it for her since the day they met.

Being with him like this, now.

This uncertainty.

Was dangerous territory for her.

A few minutes later, when she and Noah had a moment of privacy, Noah took the tickets out of his pocket and handed them to her.

They had advance tickets to go up to the Statue of Liberty’s crown.

Dangerous territory indeed.