Page 42 of Ten Years and Then…
“Something really rude and stupid,” Jeannette said. “Ignore him, Daniel. You already know Phil has the manners of a rabid squirrel.”
“It’s fine,” Daniel said, looking into Nora’s eyes, willing her to think it was fine, too.
“Yeah,” she said, after a moment, the fear in her face shifting to a mischievous expression. “And if we ever do get married, I’ll ask you to be a bridesmaid, Phil, since you’re the first one to suggest it. You’d look great in pink taffeta.”
If he hadn’t already loved Nora, that remark by itself would have been enough to capture his heart.
Nora, three hours later
They were back in her room. It felt a little strange. Daniel had been in her room before, of course, but he’d never been in her room. It wasn’t intentional; they’d only come here instead of his dorm because it was a shorter walk from the Whitman building, and she really should have worn a coat tonight.
He was sitting on her bed, bouncing up and down. “I forgot how thin the mattresses were in Morris Hall. I can’t believe I slept on one of these for a whole year.” She glared at him, and it took him a moment to realize why. “Oh. Sorry.” Then he grinned. “Please tell me you’re not just dating me to get access to my mattress.”
She grabbed her pillow and hit him with it. “Very funny, Keller.” It was kind of funny, though. She teased him enough, she could take a joke now and then. She sat next to him, and felt the mattress sag noticeably. It really wasn’t meant for two people. “I wonder if they purposely bought crummy mattresses so freshmen wouldn’t try to sleep together.”
Daniel turned to her, kissed her. “It’s not working.” And then his hands were on her, all over her. Exactly what she wanted. It only took a moment of his touch, everywhere she needed it, and all conscious thought was gone—there was only feeling. Only him. Only right now.
Daniel, the next morning
“I just remembered,” Nora said. “I had clothes in the dryer yesterday, and I never got them. You mind waiting up here for a minute?” Of course Daniel didn’t mind. There was nowhere else he’d rather be. “And if the phone rings, pick it up. Tammy was going to call this morning to pick a time to study later.”
It rang about fifteen seconds after she left. He answered it, and it wasn’t Tammy on the line.
“Good morning, Pumpkin!”
It was Nora’s father. He took a deep breath. He could do this. Nora had put up with being interrogated by his whole family for hours. The least he could do was to talk to her father for five minutes.
“Uh—this is Daniel, Mr. Langley.”
Oh, God.
He wasn’t just talking to Nora’s father. He was in Nora’s dorm room, before eight o’clock on a Saturday morning, talking to her father. He might as well have said “I slept with your daughter last night, how are you this morning?”
But luck—or something—was with him, because there was a little chuckle on the line. “The Daniel? The one my daughter is in love with?”
He didn’t know Nora had told her father that. “Yes, sir.” What else was there to say?
Another chuckle. “You can skip the sir, and the Mr. Langley. Call me Richard. And where is Nora, by the way?”
“Down in the laundry room. She left her clothes in the dryer yesterday.” Well, it was true.
“That sounds like her. She probably gets that from me.” There was a pause. “She got a lot from me, Daniel. Good and bad.”
“Sir? Uh—I mean, Richard? I don’t understand.”
Another pause. “That’s a good sign. Maybe she doesn’t take after me as much as I thought. Maybe she learned what not to do.”
Daniel had no idea what the man was trying to say, and he wasn’t at all sure he really wanted to know. “Uh … okay?”
“It’s fine, Daniel. Forget everything I just said. Just—take good care of her. She deserves—she needs love. More than she even knows, I think. She needs somebody she can believe in, no matter what. If it’s you, I can’t ask more than that.”
“I love her. And all I want to do is take care of her,” he said, and Nora picked that moment to come back, so—thank God—he didn’t need to say anything more. He took the laundry basket out of her arms with one hand, and gave her the phone with the other. “It’s your father,” he told her.
She looked like she couldn’t decide whether to laugh, cry or scream. He didn’t blame her one bit.
Chapter 13
Daniel’s 20th birthday—Albion College
