chapter SEVEN
Curtis had never felt this much raw emotion before. Not even when he’d found out his old man was dead. Then again, he’d never felt anything like the love he felt for Lorrie. It was physical in the sense he was consumed by it. His chest always felt full, as though his feelings were too much to fit inside him, growing bigger every time he saw her, until now, when he thought his chest might actually explode.
As he stood in the trees, listening to the sound of the wind through the dry branches combined with Lorrie’s ragged breathing, he was consumed by everything.
Love.
Anger.
Desire.
Fear.
It swirled inside of him until he wasn’t sure which was most prevalent.
The anger was directed at Lorrie’s father for putting them in this position. Marrying this girl wasn’t the problem. He would marry her tomorrow if she would say yes. But he wasn’t sure she would say yes, and that was what terrified him. If he asked her now, she would think he was only doing it because her father had forced him to. And that was partly true. He was willing to do whatever he had to in order to make sure Lorrie wasn’t taken from him.
“I don’t understand,” Lorrie said in a rush. “Why would he do that?”
Reaching for her, Curtis pulled her back into his arms, not wanting to let her go. He loved the smell of her hair, the smoothness of her fingers when they snuck up the back of his shirt, the crush of her breasts against his chest. He wanted to kiss her, to lay her down on the ground right here and show her how much he loved her, how much she meant to him. He wanted to make love to her a million times, to let her feel every part of him and know that there wasn’t an inch of him that wasn’t in love with her.
Cradling the back of her head, he held her against him, briefly wondering if she could hear the erratic beat of his heart. The fear was making his blood pump harder.
Fear that she wouldn’t believe that he wanted to marry her and not because of her father.
Fear that he would never see her again.
Fear that if he didn’t marry her, she would move on and end up falling in love with someone else.
The last thought was what had him tightening his hold on her, his palm cradling the back of her head perfectly as he held it to his chest.
“I love you,” he whispered. “God, Lorrie. I love you more than anything. I need you. I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”
“Daddy can’t keep us apart,” she said adamantly. “He just can’t do it.”
But he could, and that was what terrified Curtis. “I’ll be eighteen in a coupla months, Lorrie. Technically, he can keep us apart then. I’m not willin’ to take that chance.”
Lorrie pulled back enough to look up at him. “What are you saying?”
It was now or never.
“I’m sayin’ I wanna marry you.”
When she started to pull away, he kept his arms banded around her.
“Wait,” he pleaded. “Let me explain.”
Lorrie shook her head. “There’s nothin’ to explain. We’re too young to get married, Curtis. And I don’t want you to marry me ’cause my daddy told you to.”
Curtis released her but cupped her face with his hands, forcing her to look up at him. “From the day I met you, I knew you would be my girl, Lorrie. You captivated me with your pretty blue eyes and your sassy little mouth. Even though you irritated me at the same time, it was the greatest feeling in the world. I knew you would be my girl forever and a day.” He took a breath. “No man is gonna force me to do anything I don’t wanna do. But more than that, no man is gonna take you away from me. You hear me? Do you understand what I’m tellin’ you? I love you. With every breath I take. I would be honored if you’d be my wife.”
Her blue eyes were wide as a tear trickled down her cheek. Curtis knew she was having a hard time believing him, but he needed her to. He needed her to know that he would go to the ends of the earth for her.
“Before your old man came over to my house, I’d thought about marryin’ you, sure. I don’t know what tomorrow’s gonna bring. You’ve seen the newspapers. Bad things are happenin’. We’re at war. My brother’s over there fightin’, and we don’t even know if he’ll ever come back. That could be me, Lorrie. When I turn eighteen, I’ll be expected to go over there. It’s all so messed up. I know that. You know that. But that don’t mean I don’t think about marryin’ you all the damn time.”
“I’m only fifteen, Curtis.”
“That doesn’t make a damn bit of difference to me.” Although it really did. Curtis knew Lorrie wasn’t ready for marriage. She wasn’t ready to be in his bed, to sleep by his side, to allow him to slide inside her body. He needed that to quench his desperation for her, but he could and would wait for her.
What he wouldn’t do was sit back and let anyone take her away from him.
Lorrie couldn’t keep the tears back. They were streaming down her face in rivers. Curtis’s words had pierced her heart and broken the dam. It was no wonder she loved him so much. She knew in her heart that she would never find a man who would love her the way that Curtis did. Never find a man who would protect her, keep her safe. She could feel it deep inside, knew that he wasn’t simply telling her these words because they sounded good.
Although he wasn’t her lover yet, he was her best friend, the person she confided in, shared her hopes and dreams with. She couldn’t imagine herself with any other man. Ever.
“I love you, Curtis Walker,” she said between sobs.
“Then marry me. Be my wife. We’ll go tomorrow. To the justice of the peace. I heard that Billy Elks did that. He went to the courthouse, and they married him that same day. He wasn’t even eighteen, either. I don’t wanna wait, Lorrie. I don’t wanna spend another second away from you.”
Lorrie wanted to tell him yes, but she wasn’t sure she could. What would she do about school? Where would they live? She was only in high school. Neither of them were finished yet. They couldn’t just quit going. She didn’t want to quit going.
Curtis’s thumbs brushed away the tears on her cheeks as he continued to cup her face and stare down at her.
“Whatever your worries, we’ll work them out together. We can do this, Lorrie.”
She forced a smile.
“I’ve always believed for every person there was only one love that would last a lifetime. I never understood quite what it meant until I met you, though. You’re it for me, Lorrie. You are my love that lasts a lifetime.”
Lorrie felt her chest tighten, and more tears began to fall.
How she’d ever gotten this lucky, she wasn’t sure. Finding a man like Curtis, one who knew what to say to ease her mind, one who didn’t make promises he didn’t keep… It was a dream come true. She could consider herself blessed beyond measure if she could spend the rest of her life with him.
She wrapped her arms around Curtis and held him tightly as he hugged her back. She was scared, she couldn’t deny that. Just like Curtis said, they didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, but she knew that if her daddy tried to keep her away from Curtis, the only thing she’d have would be a broken heart.
At fifteen, she wasn’t naïve. Even though she lived in a small town, didn’t know a whole lot about what was going on outside of Granite Creek, her heart knew what it wanted. She had always dreamed about marrying a good man, a strong man. Settling down, raising children, laughing, loving. Curtis Walker could and would give her that, of that she had no doubt.
“I don’t wanna quit school,” she mumbled against his chest. Her mother had quit school to marry her daddy, and she didn’t want to end up like her.
“You don’t have to quit.”
“Where will we live? We can’t stay with your mother.”
Technically they could, she knew, but she was grateful when he agreed they probably shouldn’t.
“Where then?” she asked.
“We’ll work it all out, darlin’. Me and you.”
Lorrie nodded against his chest. “I’ll marry you.”
Curtis pulled back, cupping her head in his big hands once again. When she looked up into his face, he was grinning from ear to ear. It was that radiant smile that made her laugh, made her tears dry up as she realized what they were about to do.
Married.
Holy cow.
Lorrie was going to spend the rest of her life with him. They would get married, have babies, and spend a lifetime together, loving one another. It was as simple and as complicated as that.
“It’s gonna be perfect, Lorrie. You wait and see.”
“It already is,” she whispered back.
It already is.