The Rain Began to Fall (23 page)

“You don’t look so
hot, girl,” she said. “How are you doing?”

“Okay,” Leigh
replied. “Not sleeping very well.”

“So where did you
take off to Saturday night?” Leigh simply stared at her.

“I think you
already know the answer to that, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do,” she replied.
“Leigh, I really think you should...”, but Leigh held her hand up to stop her.

“There’s nothing
we need to talk about, remember?” she responded, “no matter what you’ve heard.”

“Okay,” she
replied reluctantly.

In the next
breath, Mindy told Leigh that Rob had proposed and she had accepted.

“So we’re
engaged!”

“What?” Leigh
exclaimed, totally flabbergasted by her announcement.

“Aren’t you happy
for me?” Mindy asked
,
searching her friend’s shocked
face. Leigh’s paralysis finally broke.

“Good lord yes!”
Leigh exclaimed, charging and hugging her friend’s neck fiercely, tears welling
in her eyes. After releasing her, they both wiped their eyes. “Girl, details!
Tell me all about it!”

Mindy did, and as
Leigh watched her and listened to her story, she reflected on the change that
had occurred in her friend, of the difference love had made in her life. She
was so happy, so content!

And isn’t that
really all that matters in the end
? Leigh thought now, as she brushed her
teeth furiously. She spit in the sink and stared in the mirror. “What are you
going to do?” she asked her reflection. Although she had ignored his calls, and
attempted to dismiss Kyle from her thoughts, she couldn’t program her dreams,
and he’d made an appearance every night that week. His parting words had echoed
daily through her mind, and when she looked in the mirror this morning, she saw
dark circles under her eyes. She had to do something about her turmoil.

She finished
brushing her teeth and dressed, then plopped down on the edge of her bed,
thinking hard. After a couple of minutes, she decided her course of action. Her
wedding was only three weeks away, and she needed to resolve this once and for
all. They had been through something together, something she had her part in
encouraging from the start. It wasn’t going to just go away. She would meet
with him one more time face to face; over the phone, any other way, was not an
option. He deserved more than that - and so did she.

She left to work,
knowing just what she had to do.

# # #

Leigh now lay on
her bed at 7:00 pm on Friday evening. Gene had just hung up with her, angry and
disappointed. He had informed her last week he was taking an early flight on
Saturday to visit the New York firm, and she had agreed to accompany him. He
had started the conversation in his usual busy manner, talking about the places
they would visit on their weekend there. She had finally interrupted him and
told him she wouldn’t be going.

“But why?” he had
responded. “Isn’t all of the wedding stuff wrapped up?”

“Yes,
it is,” she replied. “I just need some alone time, okay? It’s no big deal,
really.”

But it was a big
deal to him.

“Leigh, I need you
with me on this trip to meet some people! You know this is the future for us!”

“Please try to
understand,” she replied. “There’ll be another opportunity. I’m not going,
okay? I’m simply not up to it.”

He tried a couple
of more times to convince her, but ultimately hung up defeated. She hated
keeping things secret from him; but then, it wouldn’t be the first time, would
it? None of it was right, but with Gene out of town, it would be the perfect
opportunity to arrange a meeting with Kyle; get him behind her, end something
that should have never started, and move on. It would be best for everyone.

She had the stereo
on, and it was playing low as she sat up and flipped her phone open. She
punched Kyle’s number, and on the third ring, he answered.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Kyle, it’s
Leigh,” she said, lying back on her pillow.

“Well… how are you?”
he asked evenly enough, though internally he was thrilled beyond words to hear
from her. He had been very confident after the party, sure that she would
recoil somewhat from the events of that night, but positive she would come
around. Her heart, her feelings for him had come to the fore, and he didn’t
believe she could deny it any longer. But with each passing day that she had
refused his calls, he had grown doubtful.

“We have to talk,”
she said flatly, drawing in a breath.

“Okay," he
replied carefully. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Kyle, I…I’ve had
my part in this,” she stammered, “and I need to explain. I’m sorry that I’ve…”

“You don’t have
anything to be sorry about, Leigh,” he interrupted.

“I don’t want to
do this over the phone!”

You don’t want
to do what, exactly
?
Give me the “Dear John” treatment
?  He had
expected, perhaps foolishly, that if he ever heard from her again she would be
calling to say she loved him and couldn’t live without him. To the contrary, it
sounded as though she was intending to drop the curtain and close the show.

“Alright,” he
replied. “What do you propose?”

“That we… meet
somewhere tomorrow,” she said haltingly.
Why did this feel so dangerous
?
“I don’t have anywhere in particular in mind. What do you suggest?”

“Well. . . I don’t
know,” he responded at first. Then a place came to mind. If it was going to be
his waterloo, he would at least have it somewhere that was advantageous to him.
“Hmm…yeah I do,” he said. “Remember that dirt road I led you to, last Saturday
night?”

“Yes,” she replied
hesitantly. “What about it?”

“Well, a little
further down that road ends,” he explained. “I checked it out this past week.
There’s a trail there that leads back into the woods. It’s about a hundred
yards, and comes out on a big clearing at the top of a hill. You’ve got to see
that view, if you never have.”

“Why not a nice
restaurant?” she replied.

“No, you’ve got to
see this spot.
Really.”

She thought about
it for a moment. The location he was suggesting sounded too secluded. But if
she was sure of her feelings, what did it matter? Shouldn’t she be able to
handle him anytime, anywhere if her heart and mind were made up, if she was
truly committed? No more running from anything. She had to prove herself.

“Alright,” she
responded. “I think I can find that. How about 3:00pm?”

“You’re on,” he
said.

“Okay, I’ll see
you there,” she responded.

They hung up, and
she flopped back on her pillow
. Do you really want to put yourself through
this, Leigh
?
she
agonized, placing the back of her
hand to her forehead.
Can you really trust yourself
? There was no ready
answer to those questions, but she would find out tomorrow. For better or
worse, the truth would shine.

Kyle sat down at
his kitchen table after the call, jangling his keys. He was amazed, after not
hearing from her in the past week, that she wanted to meet with him alone, and
was willing to do it at his place of his choosing. Just to tell him again it
was over and they had no chance? It didn’t gel. Why would she subject
herself to such temptation? He had no idea, but he knew what she was planning.

He clenched his
teeth and stood.
She can plan all she wants
, he thought, his eyes
steeled and jaw set.
She has her plans…and I have mine
.

Leigh, rising from
her bed, went over to her closet to change clothes. As she removed her blouse,
Bryan Adams sounded out of her
stereo.
. .
Look into
my eyes, you will see, what you mean to me.
. .

She went over and
turned it off.

The cool warm spring
breeze, which was steadily becoming a stronger wind with the incoming clouds,
played with her long hair, blowing it off her shoulders and across her face.
She brushed her hair back with a delicate stroke of her hand as she stood
staring, from her vantage point on the hill, across the expansive field before
her. Kyle was certainly right about how beautiful the view was here. Leigh had
lived here all of her life and had never known about this location.

As her eyes
scanned the scene before her she saw four majestic, old oak trees in various
locations, from the foreground into the distance, standing tall and strong
amidst the waist high grass. She was at the edge of a clearing that was roughly
sixty yards in circumference. At the bottom of the hill where she stood, the
field began and stretched out about five hundred yards before descending, and
the rolling hills beyond that seemed to go on forever. She had arrived at 3:00
pm, but that had been ten minutes ago. He was running late.

She watched heavy
gray clouds coming in from the west, and felt the wind picking up. No lightning
so far, but those clouds looked full of rain to her; spring rain, and to be
expected in mid May. The temperature on this fine Saturday was seventy-eight
degrees.

Standing there
amid natural surroundings, Leigh Thompson would be beautiful by anyone’s
standards. She was wearing blue jeans and a tee shirt, and her clothes were
just tight enough to show off her blessed femininity.
He’ll like me in these
clothes
, popped involuntarily into her mind.
All right, Leigh, we’ll
have none of that today
. She had to keep her thoughts in check and both
feet on the ground if she was going to have a chance at relaying her message to
Kyle; a message that would be hard to deliver, but it had to be done. She had
spent a good deal of time last night and this morning pondering the last couple
of months; her actions with Kyle and her feelings, real or imagined. In the
end, regardless of her attraction to Kyle, she couldn’t begin to entertain the
idea that she would abandon her almost lifelong relationship with Gene, and her
impending wedding, in favor of a brief, flirtatious fantasy, no matter how hot
it was. Who did that? It may play in a Harlequin romance, but not in the real
world.

The wind was
blowing stronger, and she saw the leading edge of the clouds beginning to drift
overhead.
Just a fantasy Leigh
?
Is that all?
Really?
She knew that voice. It was the annoying one that had spoke up when she first
met Kyle, the one she had spent all this time trying to drown out. She refused
to give it credence now.
Yes, a fantasy.
I‘ve known the
Sykes family all my life.
What would it do to them?
And
Gene?
How could I tell him it’s over, kaput, no wedding, sorry Charlie!
 
And
w
ho needs convincing here anyway
? She wrung her hands
in frustration. She would say what she must say, because that’s what grown-ups
did; they faced the truth, and measured everything by it, lived by it, if they
meant to live honest lives.

The truth,
however, somehow got lost every time she was around Kyle. She couldn’t remember
to be a responsible adult, couldn’t remember there was a real life beyond her
father, one he had blessed before he had left this world. But was it really
truth that every emotion she felt regarding Kyle was imaginary? She touched a
hand to her forehead.
No. No it wasn’t
.  When she was with him, she
felt something she had never known. That was her ultimate confusion. Why
wouldn’t she be curious about where it might lead?

With Kyle there
was a wild, spontaneous element, so unlike the structure of Leigh’s life with
Gene, so planned and arranged from such an early age. She had grown accustomed
to a certain formality in a relationship. Even her first kiss with Gene, while
exciting enough as a first, had lacked the fireworks, seeming as though she was
just going through the motions. Kyle was a different story altogether; his
eyes, his touch, told her without reserve, without a blueprint, how badly he
wanted her. Her will to resist in those moments she was around him was practically
nonexistent, and she lost touch with everything.
Do I really have such deep
feelings for him
?
she
wondered, still unsettled in
her heart and mind. She shook her head, fighting the renegade emotions.

Listen to
yourself! You don’t even need him here to break your will! You’re doing just
fine all by
yours
….

“Hello, Leigh,”
Kyle spoke behind her, and she whirled around quickly, startled in the midst of
her thoughts.  As she had spun, he watched her long blonde hair fly out
from her shoulders, and her beautiful blue eyes open wide. Her legs had crossed
up as she turned, and for a moment, she looked like a graceful ballerina
executing a pirouette.

He had not been
late arriving for their appointment. He had walked up to the entrance of the
clearing and saw her standing at the edge of the hill. He almost stepped out
and greeted her at first; but then he stopped and watched her for awhile,
taking in the view of the woman he longed for with all he was; one he might
lose today, but would give every effort to have.

Until Leigh, Kyle
had simply not made his heart available to anyone. The sign read “Closed”, and
his reluctance to open the store had resulted in several failed relationships.
But when he walked into her office for orientation that first day, he had wanted
her like no other. It had dawned on him soon after that he was feeling
something new, that it was love, and it was Leigh. She was the one he wanted by
his side for the rest of his life. He knew today she was planning to end any
chance of that once and for all.

He walked toward
her, and she helplessly observed him with an appreciative eye. He wore snug
fitting Levi jeans, and a white, button down oxford shirt with the sleeves
rolled up. His eyes were as beautiful and intense as ever, and his thick, brown
hair blew in the wind.
I can’t
, she thought resignedly as she looked
into his dazzling eyes.
I’m not strong enough. What was I thinking?