She hung up.
October rolled into Hearts Bend with crisp mornings and sunny afternoons. It felt good to bid so long to the summer heat. After September’s heavy rains, the burnt area of Cheatham WMA sprouted signs of life.
This afternoon, Ryder headed to Ella’s for a late lunch and an optimistic order of fifty chicken baskets. Since the fire, the TWRA wanted all departments to focus on fire-safety education. Ryder was teaching at the Kids Theater every Wednesday after school.
As he circled Gardenia Park, he heard music coming from the small amphitheater. Buck Mathews, home from a summer tour, was playing tonight for his hometown.
Last time he was in the park, Ryder had just ordered chicken baskets from Ella’s and stared into Elizabeth Dorsey’s blue eyes. But he’d put those days and memories behind him.
Dad’s advice to go with his gut was a bust. Granted, a voicemail marriage proposal might have been a bit much, but Elizabeth never responded until about a month ago.
She’d called at midnight. When he answered, she hung up. He tried to call back, but her voicemail picked up. He tried a few more times, but again, voicemail. So, he left it alone. Took the hint.
Inside Ella’s, a late lunch crowd conversation buzzed around the dining room. Ryder sat at the counter, ordering a sandwich for himself and chicken baskets for the fire-safety class.
He was reviewing his notes when Tina came from the kitchen with his lunch and her iPad. When he’d signed for the chicken basket order, she passed over the mustard and ketchup.
“So,” she said, “have you heard from Elizabeth?”
“Nope.”
“No one else has heard from her either.” Tina gave him one of those arched-brow, how-do-you-like-them-apples looks.
“What do you mean, no one else?”
“Betty, Matt. Her cousins. Me. I mean, I know school is important and she has a lot on her plate, but surely she has a moment to say hello. You hear stories about people losing it in grad school, but I didn’t think she’d be one.”
“She’s moved on, Tina.” Ryder bit into his sandwich. It needed some mustard. He didn’t want to talk about Elizabeth Dorsey. She was the past. “We should too.”
“Betty called her parents, who said—” Tina gasped, staring toward the door. “Sake’s alive, I don’t believe it.”
Ryder glanced over his shoulder to see Elizabeth standing in the light falling through large-pane windows. She wore jeans, sneakers, and a puff jacket. Soft strands of curls escaped the loose knot atop her head.
“Ryder Donovan.” She all but shouted. “I need to talk to you.”
Ryder led her through the kitchen, out to the small parking lot behind Ella’s. Elizabeth felt like she might implode. There were moments on the drive from Philadelphia to Hearts Bend she couldn’t remember, only that she’d arrived with her heart and her head barely following.
She shouldn’t have left school. But she did because she couldn’t stay. She was a woman with an overwhelming dilemma. No one could help her. The answer was within.
When the exit door to the kitchen closed, she turned to Ryder. “I can’t eat. Think. Sleep. I’ve tried to put it out of my mind, but I can’t.”
“Elizabeth, what are you doing here?”
“What do you think I’m doing here? Your message, Ryder. Your message. ‘Will you marry me?’ Remember? Did you mean it? Were you of sound mind?”
“Yes, I meant it. Yes, I was of sound mind. But?—”
“You’ve changed your mind?” The air in the parking lot behind the diner was warm with the stench of a car engine and an overflowing dumpster. But she’d rather be here than anywhere else. “I’m too late?”
“Beth, you hung up on me. Never answered my calls.”
“I know, I know. Because I was scared.” They circled each other, fighters in a ring.
“Of me?”
“Of my answer.” She glanced toward a noise to see Tina, Lucy, and D’Angelo stacked up, watching through a crack in the door. “So,” she said to Ryder, “did you mean it?”
“Of course I meant it,” he said. “Is that why you’re here?”
