Page 386 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

She did neither.

He repeated: "You can't just go."

"What else am I going to do?"

"Talk to Walli. Tell him to get a new nursemaid. Come and live here with me."

Beep shook her head.

"I met you a decade ago," Dave said. "We've been lovers. We were engaged to get married. I think I know you."

"So?"

"You're fond of Walli, you care for him, you want him to be okay. But you rarely have sex with him and, what's even more telling, you don't mind that. Which tells me you don't love him."

Once again she did not confirm or deny what he said.

Dave said: "I think you love me."

She looked into her empty coffee cup, as if she might see answers there in the dregs.

"Shall we get married?" Dave said. "Is that why you're hesitating--you want me to propose? Then I will. Marry me, Beep. I love you. I loved you when we were thirteen years old and I don't think I ever stopped."

"What, not even when you were in bed with Mandy Love?"

He smiled ruefully. "I might have forgotten about you just for a few moments now and again."

She grinned. "Now I believe you."

"What about children? Would you like to have kids? I would."

She said nothing.

Dave said: "I'm pouring my heart out here, and I'm getting nothing back. What's going on in your head?"

She looked up, and he saw that she was crying. She said: "If I leave Walli, he'll die."

"I don't believe he will," Dave said.

Beep held up a hand to silence him. "You asked me what's going on in my head. If you really want to know, don't contradict what I say."

Dave shut up.

"I've done a lot of selfish bad things in my life. Some you know about, but there are more."

Dave could believe that. But he wanted to tell her that she had also brought joy and laughter into many people's lives, including his own. However, she had asked him just to listen, so he did.

"I hold Walli's life in my hands."

Dave bit back a retort, but Beep said what had been on the tip of his tongue. "Okay, it's not my fault he's a junkie, I'm not his mother, I don't have to save him."

Dave thought Walli might be tougher than Beep reckoned. On the other hand Jimi Hendrix had died, Janis Joplin had died, Jim Morrison had died . . .

"I want to change," Beep said. "More, I want to make up for my mistakes. It's time for me to do something that isn't just what grabs me at the moment. It's time for me to do something good. So I'm going to stay with Walli."

"Is that your last word?"

"Yes."

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