I Promise (13 page)

Christy knew Todd was referring to something they had discussed months ago. Because it had been difficult for them to hold back when they wanted to physically express their affection for each other, they had come up with the image of each of them having a piggy bank. Whenever they wanted to give the other a kiss, they could stop and evaluate if they truly wanted to spend that kiss at that moment or to save it in the piggy bank. They knew that if they saved most of their physical expressions and spent only a tiny portion now, they both would enter their marriage wealthy in saved-up physical expressions.

“And that night after we went caroling, and you said we were at a red light—that helped me a lot,” Christy said.

“It's getting more difficult, though, isn't it?” Todd asked.

Christy had a pretty good idea she knew what he was talking about, but she felt too shy to actually say it.

Todd leaned across the small corner table where they sat by the window. “It's getting more difficult, but we have to wait another 135 days.”

Christy felt little bubbles of anticipation rise in her heart. “Is that how long until May twenty-second?
Only 135 more days?” She sat up straighter. “Well, then, we better get going on this list. We have a lot to do in the next 135 days.”

Todd reached across the table and grasped Christy's hand before she could pick up the pen. “Come on, Kilikina, stop with the list for just a moment. Tell me, haven't you thought about it? Us becoming one? Giving ourselves to each other?”

As Christy looked into Todd's wide eyes, she was surprised she didn't feel herself blushing. This was the man she was going to marry. In 135 days, she would give herself completely to him. And they would enjoy each other for the rest of their lives. She wasn't embarrassed to think about that or to talk about it with him. It made her think of the account in Genesis that said Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed.

Moving her chair next to Todd's, leaning close and choosing her words carefully, Christy said, “Todd, with all my heart I long to be yours. I know that I'm going to love you so completely and with so much passion that I promise you, Todd Spencer, you're going to be the happiest man who ever lived.”

Todd appeared surprised and delighted with her words. Tears glistened in the corners of his eyes. He wrapped both his arms around Christy and pulled her close. Burying his face in her neck, Todd whispered into her long hair, “And I will make you the happiest woman who ever lived, my Kilikina. I promise.”

As they drew apart, Christy's heart pounded so
hard it seemed to reverberate in her throat and in her ears.

“You know what? I don't think we should dream aloud about that part of our future again,” Todd said in a husky voice.

Christy nodded.

“Or at least not until after we stand under our trellis in the meadow 135 days from now,” Todd said firmly. He pulled back and looked at his unfinished breakfast as if he had forgotten what scrambled eggs looked like.

Christy scooted her chair back to her side of the table and took a sip of her orange juice. She doodled a flower-laced trellis at the top of the list. Their wedding arch was becoming a symbol of the passing from one stage of life into another for Todd and her.

Both of them had held on to the symbolism of a certain bridge in Hawaii that had represented life passages for them. She wondered if their wedding arch could be covered with vines and tropical flowers the way the bridge at Kipahulu had been. Todd would like that.

“Hi, kids, am I interrupting anything here?” Katie pulled up a chair to their small table. “I'll leave if you two want to be alone.”

“Yeah, we want to be alone more than you can guess,” Todd said. “But we'll wait 135 more days for that.”

“Oh-kay.” Katie glanced at Christy. “I don't think I want to know what you two were just talking about,
but I have a pretty good idea.”

“Have you been to our room yet?” Christy asked.

“No, I just got back on campus. I have a class in twenty minutes. I told my new boss I'd come to work early, so you probably won't see me again until after eleven tonight.”

“Is today your first day at The Dove's Nest?” Todd asked.

“Yep.” Katie reached for half a bagel on the corner of Todd's plate. “Are you going to eat that?”

“Help yourself. You want me to get you some eggs?” Todd offered.

Katie grinned. “Would you? You are such a sweetheart, Todd. You should have seen him in Mexico, Chris. He was Mr. Servant of All.”

“Rick and you were the real heroes,” Todd said, rising from his chair. “We couldn't have pulled it off if it weren't for the way you two ran the kitchen.”

He walked away, and Katie turned to Christy. “What he's really saying is that it took two of us to do your job, Christy. We all missed you so much. You should have heard your honey. He talked about you constantly. All the girls in the youth group wanted to know if you were going to invite them to your wedding.”

Then, glancing over her shoulder as if to make sure they were alone, Katie lowered her voice. “I have to talk to you.”

Christy waited.

“Not here. Not now. Do you have any time open today before I go to work?”

“I only have two classes this morning, and I don't have to be at work in the bookstore until two.”

Katie twisted her mouth in a perplexed expression. “I don't think it's going to work with my schedule. I'll just talk to you when I get back to our room tonight.” Todd returned with eggs for Katie and another bagel for himself. They chatted about how great the Mexico trip was and all the people they had met at the orphanage. Christy wished she could have gone, but she was glad for the time she had with her mom and all the planning she had done.

“I gotta fly,” Katie said. “See you guys later.” As she stood up, she knocked Christy's wedding notebook to the floor.

Todd and I sure didn't get very far on our to-do list.

Exactly ten hours later, Todd and Christy were seated again at their table by the window in the cafeteria. Todd was about to dig into one of his favorite handcrafted salads that resembled a green volcano with an eruption of peas flowing down the side in rivers of white ranch dressing.

“Well, I called my mom,” Christy announced right after they prayed.

Todd raised an eyebrow. “What did she say?”

“She thought May twenty-second was a good choice, and she was sure Dad would agree. But when I told her we could use the meadow for the ceremony and the reception, she got real quiet.”

“My dad thought it sounded great,” Todd said.

“You called him already?”

Todd nodded. “I couldn't wait. I called my mom, too. I had to leave a message on her cell phone.”

“Did you tell her about your graduation the end of this month? I mean, she's coming for that, too, isn't she?”

“I gave her the dates for both the graduation and the wedding. I hope it works out with her schedule.”

Christy caught an edge of hurt in his words. She couldn't imagine what it must have been like for him to grow up without his mom's involvement in his life. His mother had remarried years ago and had settled with her new husband and family on the East Coast. Todd had lived with them for a short time. He rarely talked about his mother, and when he did, it was briefly and with the explanation that she had been too young when she had Todd to know how to be a mother.

“I hope she can come to both your graduation and our wedding,” Christy said.

“Me too.” Todd quickly moved to other topics. “What about your aunt and uncle? Did you call them?”

“No, my mom said she wanted to talk to Aunt Marti about the wedding and reception being held here. I think she felt she could commiserate with her sister since they both wanted something other than what you and I decided.”

“It's our wedding,” Todd said.

“I know. And I really think the meadow is the right location for us.”

“It's the right location, and May twenty-second is the right date. We have a plan.” Todd grinned. “So what else do you have on that check-off list of yours?”

“Would this be a good time to show you the ideas I came up with for a ring?”

“Sure.”

Christy pulled the wedding planner from her backpack and turned to the pages on which she had pasted the pictures of rings and drawn a few rough sketches.

“This is the blue opal.” Christy pointed to the angled, wave-like setting in the middle of a narrow gold ring.

“And it's inset, right?”

“Yes. I'd like it to be smooth with nothing raised up. On both sides, these angled insets are three tiny diamonds with three more over here.” With a sense of delight she said, “See, the blue opal is like an ocean wave. The diamonds on this side are like the sand, and these are like the stars. Whenever I look at it, I'll think of how we met at the beach and how we fell in love while counting stars and walking barefoot in the sand.”

Todd stared at her sketch and didn't say anything.

“What do you think?”

He looked up. “You're amazing, Kilikina. This is beautiful.”

“You like it?”

“I love it. It's exactly what I would want you to
have. You've managed to fit a world of meaning into a simple band. You made it uniquely yours.”

“Uniquely
ours
,” Christy corrected him. “Yes, it's uniquely ours. Should we have Mr. Frank make it for us, or do you know another jeweler you'd like to go to?”

“I think Mr. Frank would be fine. Just make sure he uses one of those deep aqua blue Australian opals with the purple and green flecks. Not the light ivory opals. I like the ones that look like the ocean.”

“Got it.” Todd reached for the notebook. “Mind if I take this? I can go out to Carlsbad tomorrow.”

“No!” Christy grabbed the planner. “This is my brain; you can't take it from me. And you can't see the pages with my dress design on them. I'll make a copy of the ring pages and give them to you in the morning.”

“Do you want to go to Carlsbad with me?” Todd asked. “You can explain your idea to Mr. Frank in person, if you want.”

Christy was about to say yes because she wanted to go and she knew it would be easier for Todd if she went. But her day was already packed.

“I have to work five hours tomorrow starting at noon. I don't think I'd have time to drive to Carlsbad and be back after my eight-o'clock class. I'll write out notes for you.”

“If you know what you want for your wedding band, we could have that made at the same time,” Todd suggested.

“That's easy. See this picture? I cut it out of a magazine. I would like a gold band like this that's the same width as the engagement ring. What about you? What kind of wedding ring do you want?”

Todd shrugged. “I've never worn any rings. What do you think would be good?”

Christy thought a minute. She knew Todd would settle for a plain gold band and never think twice about it. But she wanted him to have something special. “How do you feel about wearing a larger version of my engagement ring?”

“Wouldn't that look kind of girly?”

“Girly?”

“Yeah, girly.” Todd studied the sketches. “You know, what about having three little diamonds inset in your wedding band? Or maybe six diamonds all across the front here.” He made six tiny dots with Christy's pen.

“That would be beautiful,” Christy said. “But it also would be more expensive.”

“That's okay.”

“Would you like inset diamond chips in your band?” Christy asked.

“Nah, just a gold band would suit me.”

As Christy crawled into bed that night, she thought of how easily pleased Todd was. His tastes were simple; his expectations were reasonable. He was pretty wonderful in every way. The anxiety she had experienced a few weeks ago, when she realized how poorly they communicated, seemed to be alleviated. The more
time they had to sit and talk, the more helpful it was for both of them.

She glanced at the clock—11:35, and Katie wasn't back yet. Christy was more than ready to go to sleep. She had worked on embroidering her wedding gown's bodice for two hours straight before taking a shower and washing her hair. If it weren't for how eager she was to hear what Katie had to tell her, Christy would have turned out the light and crashed.

I'm sure what Katie has to tell me has something to do with Rick. Rick . . . That reminds me, Rick's letter. I never read his letter.

Climbing out of bed, Christy pulled her suitcase from the back of her closet and ran her hand through the inside pockets. She found the crumpled envelope. Instead of returning to her warm bed, she coaxed herself over to the surfboard sofa and attempted to make friends with the beast by sitting down and leaning against the cold backrest. She tucked her feet underneath her and tried to get comfortable.

Opening the envelope, Christy pulled out two folded pieces of stationery. A hundred-dollar bill floated to her lap. Her surprised eyes quickly scanned the handwritten letter.