Love at Last

Reluctant to part with Lorene for the night, Perry drove westward along the Ohio River. He stopped the car at a small park, took Lorene’s hand and they strolled to a shaded wooden bench facing the river and the setting sun.

They sat, bodies touching, and Perry put his arm over her shoulder. She didn’t push him away, and his arm tightened slightly into an impersonal hug. His touch radiated an affection that drew her like a magnet, and it eased the pain in her heart, but she refrained from turning to him to experience again the comfort of his strong embrace.

A cool breeze wafted from the river. Dark clouds hovered in the west, creating a sunset of vivid purple, red and yellow hues. They didn’t speak for a long while, content to bask in closeness, overcome with memories. Words couldn’t have expressed the comfort, the completeness, the rightness of the moment.

Sighing deeply, Perry brushed windblown strands of hair from Lorene’s forehead. His fingers wended their way down the right side of her face as skillfully as a musician would tinkle the keys of a piano. He cupped her chin and slowly turned her face toward his.

“Do you remember the day we met?” he asked, his mouth curved with gentleness.

A hint of moisture lurked in Lorene’s eyes and her intimate smile set his pulse racing. “You always could read my mind. I’ve been thinking about our first meeting all evening.”

“I can still see you,” he reminisced, “running out of the engineering building, with your book bag hanging open, scattering papers all over the steps.”

“I was crying so hard I couldn’t see, missed the last step and tumbled into your arms. You picked up my things, helped me to my car and invited me to join you for a sandwich. If I hadn’t met you that day, I’d have dropped out of college. I’d just come from my adviser, who’d told me I wasn’t going to make it in engineering school.”

Perry pulled her into a closer embrace while she wrestled with that terrible blow to her ego. “I didn’t know how I could possibly tell Dad. Since he didn’t have a son, he’d insisted that I was the one to follow in his steps as an engineer. With your help, I did pass that semester, but by then I knew the adviser was right. Engineering wasn’t for me.”

“But you did great when you enrolled in a media-related curriculum. See where you are today!”

“I couldn’t have done it without your help. You went home with me for moral support when I finally got the courage to tell my parents I’d changed my course of study. Just by being there, you kept Dad from bullying me into doing what he wanted.”

“Your father blamed me for your change of plans, but I didn’t mind. I’m happy I was there to help you. What are friends for, anyway?”

In the silence that followed, Lorene thought it might have been better if they’d continued as friends. But she couldn’t be sorry for those weeks after she and Perry had known it was love rather than friendship that had created the infinite bond between them. His expression grew serious, his eyes wistful, and she wondered if he, too, remembered that evening when one intense kiss had suddenly changed their friendship to love.

It was the night before Easter break, and Perry had walked with her to the apartment. Her roommate had already left for the holidays, and Perry came inside with her. They’d often studied together in the apartment, but while she heated milk for hot chocolate, Perry roamed restlessly around the room picking up items and looking at them as if he hadn’t seen them before.

He leaned against the table where they’d worked, and their eyes met across the snack bar when she poured the steaming cups of chocolate. An undeniable magnetism flared between them, and as Perry’s eyes searched her face and captured her eyes, for the first time she was conscious of Perry as a man. An electric spark couldn’t have startled her more.

Their gazes held as he slowly circled the divider and reached hungry arms for her. His eagerness excited her and she cuddled into the circle of his arms. His mouth caressed hers, gentle as a raindrop, before she sensed the strength of his lips. When Perry released her, his black eyes brightened with pleasure.

“How long has this been here and we’ve overlooked it? How many weeks have we wasted being friends?”

Lorene had rested her head on his shoulder, knowing that they’d just taken a giant leap in their relationship. Even as she’d welcomed the change, she’d slowly mourned the days when they’d been best friends. If she recalled correctly, they never did drink the chocolate.

Pushing memories aside, Lorene wondered if they were embarking now on a third phase of their relationship. Was it possible to go from friends to lovers and back to friends again? After they’d experienced a satisfying, comfortable love, could they ever be content with anything less?

They returned to Riverview Ridge in silence, reliving the emotional toll the years of separation had brought. She invited him to come in, but he refused. He shook hands with her at the door, promising to contact her the next day. Lorene entered the apartment feeling strangely bereft. She consoled herself with the fact that he’d loved her once with all the vigor of youth. She was almost forty, and Perry was two years older, so was it reasonable to expect him to feel the same as he once had?

Still, when she lay down for the night, unbidden memories entered her mind as she recalled the contentment of being held against his strong body. That’s all over, she told herself as she fluffed the pillows and tried to go to sleep. It’s all over! You came here on business, and you’ll have less to regret if you don’t expect too much. Concentrate on your assigned duties, then cut your ties with Woodston and Perry Saunders.

Perry wasn’t as indifferent to Lorene’s physical allure as he seemed. He’d settled for a warm handshake when he’d wanted to gather her in his arms and bury his face in the soft curve of her shoulder. For more than a year they’d been inseparable, except on the few occasions when they’d gone to visit their parents. After twenty years it was inconceivable that he still remembered so much about Lorene.

Why hadn’t she married? His tumultuous thoughts kept him awake most of the night.

In spite of her lack of sleep, Lorene awakened at six o’clock as usual. She pulled back the curtain beside her bed and peered out. Fog hovered over the river valley, and she decided to skip her usual morning run. She’d scout the area today to find a place where she could continue her daily exercise. Dottie could tell her if there was a trail from the house to the river.

The kitchen in the apartment was very small, but it was adequate for her needs. Breakfast was probably the only meal she’d eat here, but she’d have to buy a few groceries today. Dottie had provided an electric pot for heating water, tea bags, packages of decaffeinated coffee and sugar packets. While the water heated, Lorene unwrapped the two bran muffins she’d bought the day before and placed them in the small microwave.

While she ate, she flipped on the portable television conveniently placed on the kitchen counter. The news didn’t pique her interest, and she hurried with her breakfast.

After showering, she dressed in shorts and a knit shirt and set up her laptop on a small desk in the bedroom. She checked the e-mail and answered a few messages that needed immediate attention. She picked up the file she’d gotten from Alma yesterday, but she was too restless to study it. The thought she’d been trying to stifle since she’d awakened finally thrust itself to the forefront of her mind.

Had she and Perry been given a second chance?

There was no use trying to follow her usual routine as if nothing had happened. As if the foundation of the secure life she’d spent years building hadn’t trembled yesterday when Perry had suddenly reentered her life. It had taken years for her to get over Perry. Not that she’d ever forgotten him and the love they’d shared, but she had reached the place when she didn’t think about him first thing when she opened her eyes in the morning. Sometimes several days could pass and she didn’t wonder where he was, and dreams about him had become less and less frequent.

What would their lives be like today if she hadn’t left Perry, or if she’d gone back to him and they’d married? Considering the wonderful man Perry had become, she believed he would have been a fine husband. If they’d gotten married, they could have had children now—children who would be starting college.

Lorene jumped when the phone rang. She leaned over and picked up the phone from the nightstand. Probably her parents checking on her, she thought, but it was Perry.

“Am I calling too early?” he asked.

“I’ve been up a long time. Remember, I’m a working woman—no sleeping in for me.”

“Mr. Kincaid has scheduled the meeting for seven o’clock in the commission’s office at the bank.”

“How many people are on the commission?”

“A dozen or so—usually only five or six show up for the meetings.”

“It’s way too late for me to take on this promotion deal. We should have been working with the commission for at least a year.”

Perry’s laugh was deep and warm. Lorene envisioned his eyes crinkling from mirth and his lips curving with humor. She groaned inwardly, remembering the laughter they’d once shared together.

“Remember you’re in small-town America now. Somebody comes up with a new idea every time we meet, and it was only two months ago that Mr. Kincaid decided to obtain professional promotion to put Woodston on the map. You can expect new ideas right up to the day of the celebration.”

She feigned a groan. “I’ll do the best I can, but I hope no one expects miracles.”

“What are your plans for today? I have some free time this afternoon if you want me to show you around town.”

Lorene hesitated. If she spent a lot of time with Perry, it would be more difficult for her when she left Woodston. She well remembered when she couldn’t get enough of his company and wanted to be with him all the time, but wasn’t she mature enough now to control her emotions? After all, she thought, I’m middle-aged! I certainly won’t be carried away like I was before.

“I’ll study the file Alma gave me this morning and check out the town after lunch. It would be a big help if you came along.”

Perry had noticed her hesitation and understood her reluctance, for he felt the same way. If he saw her frequently—and how could they avoid it when they’d be associated so closely?—they might be tempted to revisit painful emotional paths. But in the long hours of the night, when he’d reviewed the past and contemplated the future, he’d made up his mind that he couldn’t ask anything from Lorene except friendship.

“I’ll pick you up around two o’clock.”

Lorene laid the phone aside wondering how she could concentrate on her work responsibilities if she saw Perry every day. But she hadn’t become successful in the business world without exerting personal discipline, so she picked up the file folder and forced herself to read and study every plan the commission had in mind for Heritage Week—the culmination of Woodston’s celebration the last week in September.

Lorene had learned quite a lot about Woodston from her reading, but as Perry drove through the business district, he gave a running commentary of the town’s history.

“Woodston was founded two hundred years ago this month when western Kentucky was still a frontier. At first there wasn’t anything except a fort and a few outlying farmsteads, but after steamboats revolutionized river transportation, the town became an important shipping center. The Native Americans, the Shawnees, in particular, moved westward and Woodston started to grow. After the Civil War, the economy plummeted for years, but during World War II the town took on new life.”

Lorene held a small tape recorder in her palm and she pushed the off button. “You like it here, don’t you?”

“Very much. My childhood was spent in small towns—we moved several times as a boy. Father was a preacher in Iowa, so big-city life isn’t for me. I love working with the young people at college.” He didn’t add that association with the students eased his pain over the children he’d never had.