“What was it like?”
“Oh no! I’m not telling you anymore.”
“How am I supposed to help you figure out what to do if you won’t tell me everything?”
“That kiss was personal. Besides, no one can help me now. You heard him, he practically jumped at the chance to go to Rancho Sausalito with Captain Prescott. He looked as if he couldn’t get away fast enough.” Hallie stood and slipped on her nightgown. “I doubt if I’ll have the chance to see him again soon. That’s why tonight was so important to me. I foolishly thought that maybe I could make him care for me. I wonder now if he ever can.”
“He kissed you, didn’t he?”
“Yes, he kissed me.” Hallie unconsciously touched her mouth. Some moments, like now, she wondered herself if that kiss really happened.
“Were his lips all wet?”
“Duggie!”
“Were they?”
“Well, no. They were kind of dry—”
“Oh yuck!” came Liv’s disgusted voice from beneath a lump on the bed in the opposite corner.
“Go to sleep, Liv!” Both Hallie and Dagny said in unison.
“How is a person supposed to sleep with you two yak, yak, yakking?You sound like a gaggle of geese.”
“Here!” Dagny pulled a pillow from behind her and flung it at Liv. “Cover your big ears with this!”
“All right, I will.” There was a long pause. “But then I can’t tell Hallie whatIsaw. And it had to do with Mr. Kissy Drylips too.”
“What did you see, Liv?”
“He stared right at you, Hallie, like Gunnar and Knut when they’re looking at licorice ropes.”
“He did?” Hallie perked up.
“Yup. And when he came out from under the table and put those dishes down, he looked real strange.”
Dagny looked at Hallie. “Liv’s right. He looked kind of dumbstruck.”
Dumbstruck was mild for what Hallie had felt. Branded in her memory was that moment they had shared under the table. It was the only positive thing that had happened tonight. “He looked dumbstruck?”
“Um-hm,” Dagny answered thoughtfully. “You know what else?”
“What?”
“His ears got red,” Dagny stated, as if those four words unlocked all the mysteries that existed between man and woman.
“Red ears? What on God’s green earth are you talking about?”
“When Mama was alive and Da would come home, he’d look at her in this special way and his ears would get red. I always wanted a man to look at me and get red ears,” Dagny added dreamily.
Hallie felt a little better.He had red ears?She pondered that until she noticed Liv’s nosy little face, toothy grin and all, gleaming from under a blanket in the corner. Sometimes it was as if her nine-year-old sister could read her mind.
“Time for some sleep. Morning will be here all too quickly.” Hallie turned down the wick in the bedside lamp and lay back in the bed.
Don’t get your hopes up.
But some little ray of hope, deep within her mind’s eye, tried desperately to picture Kit Howland with bright red ears.
