Fireworks Over Toccoa Read Online Free PDF Page B

don’t?”
    “He’s a smart kid, and a born leader, that’s why I hired him.”
    “If there’s war, I don’t want him on the front lines, Walter.”
    “I’ll find a position for him in support, maybe doing something for the company.”
    “What about Jonathan?”
    “Jonathan has to make his own way in the world, Honey.”
    “I don’t want my son jumping out of airplanes! Talk to him.”
    “I’ll try again. You know I will.”
    Walter always knew how to speak to Honey in a way that calmed her. They sipped their drinks, watching Lily and Paul in the distance.
    “I like this boy. I think he’s good for her. I think he’s exactly what Lily needs.”
    “Okay.”
    “You think she’s too young.”
    “I think she’s…Lily.”
    Walter put his arm around Honey, who didn’t ask what he meant because she didn’t really care. Her mind was made up about Paul, and Walter knew it. While he loved his little girl, Walter was a man who rarely interfered in her life. To be sure, they had wonderful easy times together when he was in town, but when it came to parenting, Honey was CEO.
    A few months later
    With Lily in the passenger seat of his massive 1940 Cadillac 90 town car—the company car—Paul pulled up to the front of the beautiful white 1901 Queen Anne–style house with the big wraparound porch, parked, ran around to the passenger side, and let out a surprised-looking Lily. Hair cut very short, Paul wore an Army officer’s uniform.
    “Why are we stopping?” asked Lily, a bit giddy.
    “Come on.” Paul grabbed her hand and ran her up the front walkway.
    Out of breath, they stood together on the front porch, Lily looking wide-eyed at the house and the view of sky over the foothills from the front porch.
    “What do you think?” said Paul.
    “I think…I’m wondering whose house this is,” said Lily, unable to contain a smile.
    Paul produced a small box and handed it to her, and her smile grew until she was covering it to try to hold in the anxious laughter. Hands shaking, she took the box and then opened it. Inside was a key.
    “It’s my house, Lily. I bought it. And I’m hoping that it’ll be your house, too.” Paul stuck his hand in his pocket, pulled it out fist closed, then took one of her hands to his fist, which he opened, revealing a two-carat colorless cushion-cut diamond solitaire on a platinum band, the most beautiful engagement ring a girl could ever imagine.
    Lily gasped.
    Then Paul got down on one knee as he knew men are to do at these sorts of times. “I know I’m leaving here in just a few weeks, but I’ll be back, and I want to have you and this house to come back to. I love you and—”
    “Yes!” she said, and she dropped down to her knees and embraced him and kissed him and they stayed like that on the front porch of their house for quite a long time.
    A few weeks later
    Just before sunrise, Lily lay in a big brand-new four-poster bed upstairs in the master bedroom of the house, asleep. In his uniform, hat under his arm, duffel bag by his side, Paul stood over her and watched her sleeping. He told himself to take the image of her like this into the far reaches of his mind. When he had done so, he took a deep breath, picked up his bag, turned, and very quietly left the room.
    Downstairs, bag in hand, he opened the front door, walked out, and closed it slowly behind him. As he made his way across the front porch, suddenly the front door opened and Lily, in a bathrobe, ran out and threw herself into her husband’s arms. He dropped the bag and his hat and embraced her.
    After a moment, he kissed her, let her go, and walked down the front porch steps and down the walkway to a taxi waiting in the street.
    Lily stood there in her robe, the sun rising, watching him go.
    1945
    Lily stood on her front porch looking out where the firework had been, remembering how she felt that day Paul left, different from how she felt now. She looked at her ring as she so often did. A symbol of her