Page 92 of No Kind of Hero
“I think so too,” Beth said. She hugged Angela back and said, sounding as fierce as Beth Schaefer was ever going to be, “You must be a good mom to have such a good son. Thank you for him.”
“See, now,” Angela said to Evan when Beth let go, “that’s what makes her a keeper. I’ll see you two tomorrow.”
Evan watched her put Gracie in the car, and then he took Beth’s hand and pulled her down to sit on the steps with him. “We need a porch swing,” he said. “Maybe a bigger porch, too. Before your flagstone patio, or after it?”
“I don’t know,” Beth said. His arm was around her, her head was on his shoulder, and it was just about perfect. “I don’t care. Both, sometime. Will you really make my patio? With the roses? And the . . .”
“Pergola? You bet I will. You bet. If you want this house. If you want to stay here.”
She started to laugh, then. Pressure relief, and happiness. Both. He could tell. And he was smiling like a loon. Like a guy who didn’t have to be careful anymore, a guy who could go ahead and feel it. There was nothing bad about this, and nobody was going to take it away from him. She said, “I’d better want it. I quit my job. I walked out. I can’t believe I did that. And it was like . . . no choice. You know? No choice.”
“Yep,” he said. “I know exactly. Because in all that talking, did you stop to wonder why my mom was here?”
“What?” She looked confused. “No. What?”
“I was coming. I told you that, remember? You had to try, and so did I. I thought, Portland has trees. Portland has some older neighborhoods, some houses you can fix up, and I know they need painters, too. I could get used to the freeway again. Time to give it another try, I thought. Time to go for it.”
“Is that what you want?” she asked. “Because I told you. I quit.”
“No.Hell,no. Are you kidding? I want you here. I want younow.But first, we need to do something else. As soon as I make you a sandwich, and you get changed.”
She looked down at herself, seeming to see the state of her clothes for the first time. “Oh. Nothing to change into. I just . . . left.” She laughed. “I can’t believe that. I didn’t think a bit. I walked out, I went home and got my car, and Ileft.Wow. I guess Idoneed to do something else, and soon. I need to go clothes shopping. Or go home and pack up my condo. Or something.”
“Nope,” he said, pulling her up. “Not right now, you don’t. Right now, I’m making you a sandwich, and we’re going by Russell’s and grabbing that key from under the mat so you can change into some of Dakota’s things. And then we’re going to do something I’ve needed to do for almost ten years.”
She thought they must be going to the lake. She thought he’d take her to see dragonflies, or . . . something. She didn’t care what. She’d come, and she’d been right. She was never sure, but she was sure now.
When Evan pulled into her parents’ driveway, she said, “You’re kidding. This is it?”
“Yep,” he said, and smiled at her. Not that half-smile, the crooked little thing. Arealsmile. A smile that let her know he was happy, because she was here. “Trust me, OK?”
“Always,” she said, and he put a hand up, scrubbed it over the lower half of his face, and said, “All right. That got me a little bit. Come on.”
There was a car in the driveway. A Mercedes. She said, “Uh, Evan. Maybe we should have called first. That’s the Farnsworths.”
“Nope.” He had her by the hand, was pulling her to the door. She opened it to a fusillade of happy barking and a wagging, ecstatic bundle of Henry. The dog galloped up to them and plopped down onto his butt at the last second, panting with excitement, his whip of a tail sweeping the floor.
Beth crouched down, scrubbed him around his silky ears, and said, “Hey, boy. Did you miss me? I came back, though. See? I came back.”
She looked up, and there was her mother. And her dad. And behind them, Candy and Rob Farnsworth. Whom she hadn’t seen since that unfortunate dinner.Thisshould be interesting.
Her dad got to her first. “Hi, honey,” he said, his smile huge. He hugged her tight, and she hugged him back and thought,Yes.
Her mom was kissing her then, but she could see, out of the corner of her eye, that her dad was shaking hands with Evan, and surely that was good.
“Why didn’t youtellus you were coming home for the long weekend?” her mother said. “But you just went back. Did you fly into Spokane? And, oh.” She gave Evan a kiss, which was progress, surely. “Hello, Evan. Did you just pick her up?”
“No,” Evan said. “I didn’t. She drove. From Portland.”
“Youdrove?”Michelle’s eyes were darting between the two of them. “But it’s barely eight. How could you have driven back? We were just finishing dinner. Come out on the deck and tell us, and have a glass of wine. Goodness.” She laughed, then said, “Henry. Down.” Henry was, indeed, still trying to snuggle between Beth and Evan, his tail whapping furiously against Beth’s bare legs. “Don, go get a couple more wine glasses, would you?”
“That’d be good,” Evan said. “We have something to tell you. Something I should have said a long time ago.”
Michelle’s hand flew to her chest. “Oh, my goodness. You’re pregnant.”
Beth laughed. She was giddy. Flying. “No, Mom.No.I don’t know what all this is about, but Evan said we had to come, so here we are.”
“We’ll go on,” Candy said, “and let you have your family time. But call me tomorrow and tell me,” she said to Michelle. “It’s nice to see you, Beth,” she said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “And Evan, of course.” Civility maintained. Beth was sure she wasn’t forgiven, but she didn’t care.
