IF YOU WANTED THE MOON (19 page)

Ethan stood up. “Where could she be?” he asked, this time with an edge of desperation in his voice.

“She could be a whole lot of places.”

“Name one?”

“Her apartment, for instance.”

“She’s moved out. Where else?”

“Moved out?”

“Yes, where else?”

Sheila looked at him, at the desperation in his eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe her parents house—”

“Where do they live,” Ethan asked quickly.

“In Arlington Heights. On Kennicott Drive I think. But why do you need—,” Sheila started asking but Ethan was wel on his way. She shook her head. Tori had al the luck, she thought.

Ethan found the accurate street with help from his Saab’s GPS system, and he found the house because Tori was in the front yard putting a box onto the back of a U-Haul truck. By the time his Saab

puled up in front of the house, she was back inside.

He got out and walked slowly up the steep walkway, pass one car in the yard, pass the U-Haul truck. When he got to the half-opened front door, he could hear what seemed to be the voice of an older

woman say: “I don’t see why we got to pack up and leave.”

Then Tori’s voice: “You know why, mama. I told you why. The house has got to be sold.”

“But it ain’t sold yet,” another voice, this one male, piped in.

“It’s got to be staged,” Tori said as if she’d said it a thousand times. “So that it wil sale faster. Macy’s been kind enough to let us stay with her for a while, until I can work some things out, so please.

Ma, Dad, please. Let’s just get this done.”

Then the door opened, and an older woman, a handsome, smal-framed older woman, was face to face with Ethan. “May I help you?” she asked with more ice than warmth in her voice.

“Yes,” Ethan said, caught off guard. He cleared his throat. “I was looking, that is, I am looking for Tori.”

The woman looked him up and down and then yeled, without looking away from him, “Victoria! Some white man here to see you!”

The door was taken from the old lady’s grasp and opened wider by Macy, who seemed more anxious than anyone to see just who this white man was. Then Tori appeared in the frame. Ethan’s heart

soared. “Ethan Chandler?” Macy said, looking at him. “You got some nerve coming here.”

“Helo, Tori,” Ethan said, his eyes on Tori only, his ears careful to hear what she had to say about it. She, however, was stil staring at him.

“I want you to know, Mr. Chandler,” Macy went on, “Tori had nothing to do with what went on at that company of yours. Sheila was stealing that information al on her own. She was always excusing

herself to go into Tori’s bedroom and that’s what she was doing. Tori had nothing to do with it.”

“I know,” Ethan said, stil staring at Tori.

“How could you fire a person who had nothing . . . You know? What you mean you know?”

“May I speak with you, Tori,” he asked, although it sounded more like a plea.

Macy looked back at Tori, and so did her confused mother. And Tori caved. It wasn’t as if she had anything else to lose.

She took the miniature statues- what her mother referred to as ‘what-nots’- and placed them back on a book shelf. Then she walked out of the nice-sized livingroom. Ethan’s heart began to pound as

she walked pass him and began walking down the driveway. He hurried up beside her and they ended up walking down the street of the long, winding neighborhood. Her arms were folded and her eyes, it seemed to Ethan, appeared distant, as if she understood that al hopeful times were fleeting and she wasn’t about to put much stock in this one.

“What do you want, Ethan?” she said, not bitterly, but almost matter-of-factly.

“How have you been?” he asked and that alone stopped Tori in her tracks. She turned and looked at him.

“How have I been? How do you think? I get fired from my job. Can’t get another one, at least not in my profession, because word has gotten around that I’m some sort of espionage queen, some sort

of thief! I lose my apartment. As soon as my savings dry up my parents wil lose their home. The only job I can get so far, although I have applications al over town, is the night shift at Micky D’s. And you ask me how I’ve been?” She shook her head and began walking again. Ethan, heartbroken, keeps pace with her.

“I’m so sorry, Tori.”

“Save it.”

“I was wrong to accuse you. I knew deep down that it wasn’t true, that it couldn’t be true, but I—”

“But you were wiling to believe anything negative about me. About this black woman.”

“But you were wiling to believe anything negative about me. About this black woman.”

Ethan angrily and immediately turned Tori toward him. His face was not only furious, but hurt. “How could you say something like that? I’m not like that. I wasn’t trying to believe the negative about you. I was trying
not
to believe it! But the evidence. . . Oh, Tori, you don’t know how sorry I am. I know the truth. I know what that doctor friend of yours was up to. But you’ve got to forgive me, Tori.

I’l die if you don’t forgive me!”

Tori stared into his so intense eyes. And hers began to fil with tears. “I would never do anything like that, Ethan. Never!”

“I know. Oh, how I know. I’m just so angry with myself for not listening to my heart. But if you forgive me, Tori, if you give me another chance, I promise you I’l never doubt you again.”

“Another chance?” Tori said, now dazed and almost giddy.

“Yes! And this time I’l earn your love. I’l make you so happy, so complete, that you won’t ever doubt my love for you. Because I do love you, Tori. I love you so much!”

Tori covered her face. It was like a dream. Only when she removed her hands, Ethan was stil there and was puling her into his arms. “Say you forgive me, darling. Please say it!”

The tears that were in Tori’s eyes began to rol down her cheeks. “I forgive you, Ethan,” she said. “I forgave you a long time ago.”

Ethan puled her back and looked at her, the sincerity in his bright blue eyes startling her. “But do you love me?” he asked her with unbridled desperation in his voice.

Tori hesitated. Afraid. But she could not lie. “I do,” she said. “I love you.”

Ethan’s face transformed with a smile to brighten a dreary day. He puled her in his arms again, kissing her silky hair. “I promise to love, honor, and believe you from this day onward,” he said and Tori laughed. “I promise to marry you and to give you babies.” Tori smiled. “And I promise to get you out of the middle of this street,” he said, moving her toward the curb, “before we get hit by a car.”

Tori laughed and alowed him to lead her. When they stopped hugging, she nodded her head. “It’s about time,” she said and Ethan laughed. Then he grabbed her hand and began moving quickly.

“Come on,” he said.

“Come on where?” she asked.

“Back to your parents’ home. We’ve got boxes to unpack. My soon-to-be-wife’s parents aren’t about to be forced to move anywhere. Their future son-in-law’s a milionaire, you know.”

Tori laughed, relief washing over her like a sunshiny day. And that was exactly how she felt, as she moved to Ethan’s pul, as she alowed al of the horror of those past weeks to dissipate into brightness.

Into sunshine. Into a light she always knew would reassert itself through the dark.