OCR Text |
Show house/ 452 it would be a l l r i g h t ." He stared into his coffee cup. "You're going to l e t her do i t , a r e n ' t you. You're going to let her make our child i l l e g i t i m a t e too!" He looked up, s t a r t l e d . Then his mouth hardened. "This was just a game, wasn't i t ? You knew i f things got too involved your mother would come through for you." "Sure," he said s a r c a s t i c a l l y . "Just what a wanted. A repeat performance of my own misbegotten l i f e ." "I just want to know one thing: Was i t my family that made you change your mind? Or was i t me?" He gazed at me for a long moment, his eyes searing into mine. "Jeannie..." He swallowed, shaking his head. "What do you want me to do?" He paused. "Look, if we're married in our hearts, does i t r e a l l y matter if we wait a year for a piece of paper? If i t ' s supposed to happen, i t ' l l happen." I shook my head vigorously. "How can you say that? You, of all people. You know i t ' s more than a piece of paper. Oh, how we've both suffered for the lack of that l i t t l e piece of paper. No. Things don't ' j u s t happen.' A year will blow it away. We have to chase i t down and make i t right or forget the whole thing. " I looked down at my blurred fish-eyed reflection in the coffee cup. "What i f . . .what i f you don't come back?" for And I remembered that t h i sW^S the reason for the rush,Hhe gales of emotion that &safe nearly toppled my a b i l i t y to think, to fend for myself. |