He twined a long strand of her hair around his finger and gave a light tug.“You’re looking pretty, Pam.”
John had said the same words to her not so long ago, and in the echo of the words he had looked at her breasts.She suddenly wondered if Cutter had noticed she was getting bigger there.Maybe he’d even felt her breasts when he hugged her.
Her cheeks grew warm.“Thank you.”Her eyes couldn’t quite hold his.They angled off, then returned.“You’re looking pretty good yourself.”It occurred to her that what with his height and his laborer’s build and his long, light brown hair that never seemed dirty but was always mussed, he was more handsome than anyone she knew at home.“How’ve you been?”
“Not bad.Arguin’ with Simon.Stickin’ up for a thirty-minute lunch hour.Steerin’ clear of John.How ’bout you?”
“Pretty much the same as you.Not bad.”
But he was studying her closely.“You look tired,” hedecided, and she knew then why she’d felt such a dire need to see him.He cared in a way that no one else did.He was a haven she could run to when she was lonely and discouraged.He knew her, understood her.He gave her his full attention.
In no time they were sitting side by side on the rocks and she was spilling the whole story about her grades and John and the trip that was up in the air.She also told him that John knew they were seeing each other.
“He must have someone up here, Cutter.You joked about it once, but I think it’s true.He knows I spend more time with you than I do with the others.”
Cutter’s features had hardened the way they always did when John’s name came up.“Is he taking it out on you?”
“Not yet.But he’s holding it over my head.”
“Typical.”
“Who do you think is watching us?”
He stared at a spot across the stream for so long that Pam looked that way, wondering if someone was there.The trees were in full bloom, fresh and lush in a June sort of way, so that though sundown was a ways off yet, the shadows were deep.She couldn’t see a thing.
“I’m not sure,” he said at last and looked back at her.“You came anyway.”
“Of course.”
He gave her the smallest smile, a tiny twitch of the lips that told of his pleasure.“Does he know you’re here now?”
“He’ll know when he gets home from work and finds my note.I was going to tell him I’d gone to a friend’s house, but I figured someone would see me up hereanyway.If John catches me in a lie at this point, I can forget that trip.”
“When’s the trip?”
“Next Thursday.”
“And you really want to go?”
“I really want to spend the summer up here, but John won’t hear of that.”Tucking her hands between her knees, she gritted her teeth and threw back her head.“I’m so tired of this, Cutter.He’s impossible.He decides what’s important, forgets about what isn’t, and takes everything that is as seriously as if it’s the end of the world.He’s such a prig!”
Cutter flattened a hand on the rock behind her hips.“I won’t argue with you there.”He looked down at her more gently.“How long can you stay here?”
“Not long.I said I’d be back later tonight.”
“You can’t just turn around and drive another three hours alone.”
“Want to come along for the ride?”she teased, then her grin vanished, her eyes grew wide, and she grabbed his arm.“Do, Cutter.Come back with me.You could stay across the Common at the Parker House.I’d love to show you the city.You’ve never been there, and I know everything there is to see.It’s five days before I’m going away—if John lets me go; and if he doesn’t, that gives us even more time.It would be such fun.I mean, like there’s nothing else I’d want to do more than that.I wouldn’t even mind not going on the trip if you came to Boston.”
She felt the flex of a steely muscle in his arm even before she heard the hardness in his voice.“Wouldn’t John just love that.”
“John wouldn’t know!”She hurried on, “Don’t you see, Boston’s so much bigger than Timiny Cove that he wouldn’t ever know you were there.We’d be lost in the crowd.It happens all the time.He doesn’t know half of what I do, and since he wouldn’t be expecting—”
“Not a good idea, Pam.”
She dropped her hand from his arm.“Why not?”
“First, because I have a job to do.”
