Christy turned right, and Gus rolled into the parking lot at the Carl"s Jr. fast-food restaurant. She parked the van and turned off the engine, proud of herself for getting them there without incident.
"Looks like Gus recognizes an old friend when he sees one. He doesn"t perform that well for just anyone. I hope you know." Todd said as they approached the cash register and placed their orders for two Sunrise Breakfasts.
They soon brought the food to their booth and sat down, and Todd reached over to hold Christy"s hand while he prayed.
"So what was the deal with your aunt and uncle?" Todd asked.
Christy gave him a summary of what had happened after he left last night, including the part about Marti asking why he hadn"t kissed her good-bye.
Todd looked thoughtful then, and leaning closer to Christy, he said in a low voice, "It"s not that I don"t want to kiss you anymore. You know that, don"t you?"
Christy felt her cheeks blush. She hoped no one else in the restaurant had heard him.
"There"s a time for everything." Todd still kept his voice low. "It"s kind of my agreement with G.o.d, to keep my life balanced by doing only what I"m supposed to do when He says it"s time to do it. I"m not saying it"s easy."
Christy sipped her orange juice and kept her eyes fixed on Todd. His silver-blue eyes were only inches away as he leaned closer. "There"s something I"ve wanted to tell you. Christy. I hope you"ll take this the right way. One of the things I really appreciate about you is that you don"t come on to me. Do you know what I mean?"
"I"m not sure." Christy"s eyes still locked on to his.
"You let me make the first moves, and that really helps."
Christy nodded, not exactly sure what he was saying, but agreeing that she did let him make the first moves.
"Girls have no idea what they do to a guy when they come on to him. Not only by touching him but also by what they wear. I love the way you dress. You always look good. Really good. Yet you don"t try to show off or, you know, tease a guy."
Christy felt like she was getting an education into the way guys think, and although she had heard some of this before, hearing it from Todd made it real and personal.
"I want you to know," Todd continued, "that you"ve been helping make our relationship what it is by letting me be the initiator and by having so much...dignity is the only word I can think of. You treat yourself like a gift. A treasure. And that comes across. It makes you so absolutely beautiful, Christy. You have no idea."
You"re right. I have no idea what you"re saying. I"m only being myself. I can"t believe you"re sitting here telling me I"m beautiful. This is a dream come true.
Christy felt the same way now with Todd as she had on the phone last night with her parents. Many times in the past she had wanted to run ahead of Todd and speed up their relationship. Now she was glad she had let everything develop at its own pace and in its right time. If she hadn"t been patient, Todd might not be saying these things to her right now.
They ate for a few minutes in comfortable silence. It almost seemed to Christy that the air around them had turned fragrant. There was no mistaking a sweetness lingering in her heart after Todd"s words.
"I have something else I"ve been wanting to ask you for a long time," Todd said as they returned to the van. "I keep going back and forth because I"m not sure it"s my place to ask."
"You can ask me anything." Christy climbed up into the pa.s.senger seat.
"Is it still wet?"
Christy touched the seat before sitting down. The sun had baked that side of the vehicle while they ate. "No, it"s dry enough. It"s fine."
Todd started the engine and drove out of the parking lot. "I thought we"d go over to Balboa Island. Is that okay with you?"
"Sure. What was it you wanted to ask me?"
"I guess I should just come out and say it."
"Yes, you should."
"Christy, I know it probably shouldn"t bother me, but I"ve wanted to ask you about Rick. When you were dating, what actually went on between you two? I"ve tried not to let it bother me, but Rick said some things when we were rooming together last year that didn"t sound like the Christy I know. I wanted to hear it from you. If you don"t feel comfortable talking about it, I understand. I probably shouldn"t even be asking."
"Of course you should. There"s not much to tell. We went out a few times, I broke up with him. It wasn"t the best of relationships. I got closer to G.o.d after we broke up. Why? What was Rick saying?"
Todd hesitated and then let out a heavy sigh. "Rick said you were easy. That you did whatever he wanted you to."
"That is a lie!" Christy raised her voice. "Rick said that about me? He is such a jerk! How could you believe him? Todd! I can"t believe you thought-"
"Hey, relax. I didn"t say I believed him. I know you. Like I said, it"s been bothering me, so I wanted to talk with you about it."
"Todd," Christy began with a lower, calmer voice, "Rick is the kind of guy who seems to get whatever he wants. For some reason, he decided he wanted me. It"s all a lot clearer to me now that I know what kind of guy he is, but at the time I have to admit I was a little misty-minded. I thought he really liked me just because I was me. He has a way with words. I know now that some guys can manipulate girls by what they say. At the time, I don"t know, I guess I really wanted a boyfriend. I thought I needed one. You were leaving for Hawaii, and Rick was so nice to me..."
"Hey, you don"t have to apologize for anything, Christy. I"m not asking you to give me an account of your relationship with Rick. That"s between G.o.d and you. I guess I needed to hear from you that he didn"t take advantage of you."
"He tried more than once. We kissed a few times, but I always pulled away. I know it made him mad. It just didn"t feel right to me."
"That"s all, then? Some kissing?"
"And a few hugs," Christy said. "Nothing else. I can"t believe he made it sound like more than that."
"I"m sure with some other girls it has been. Maybe it sort of bent his ego out of shape since it wasn"t more than that with you," Todd said.
They had reached the ramp to the Balboa Island Ferry, and Gus"s tires clanged loudly up the metal incline. Todd stopped the engine and suggested they climb out for the short ride across to Balboa Island.
Christy stood by the side, gazing out at the blue water in the bay. The October morning breeze chilled her, and she crossed her arms to keep warm. Todd came and stood behind her, wrapping his big arms around her and burying his nose in her hair.
A sudden flash of a memory came to her of a time when Rick had held her like this and whispered sweet words in her ear. Now it made her mad that she had ever gone out with Rick. If only she had waited, she could have shared all these boyfriend-girlfriend moments and feelings with just Todd.
"Hey," Todd said softly. "Why are you all tensed up?"
"I"m mad. Mad that I ever went out with Rick. Mad at myself for not waiting for you. And before you say that this anger is bleeding out of love that"s been cut, it"s not! Love was not even a part of my relationship with Rick. Not real love."
"Christy, you"re being too hard on yourself. Think back on when you were with Rick. There were some good times too, weren"t there? A few fragrant memories?"
Todd was right. There had been some special moments with Rick-on the swings at the park, flying kites at the beach, their first date at the fancy Villa Nova Restaurant.
"Yes, there were some good times. It wasn"t all bad, and he didn"t do anything to ruin my life forever."
"Here." Todd let go of Christy and came around to face her with his hands cupped together in front of her. "Put all your regrets in here."
"What?"
"In my hands. Put all those regrets and bad feelings in here. Sort out the good stuff, and keep that part in your heart. Put the rest in here."
Christy gave Todd a wary look. Then playing along, she held her fingers over his hands and pretended to be sprinkling all the bad stuff into his open palms. "There. Now what are you going to do with my little pile of ashes?"
"Same thing G.o.d says He does with all our sins." Todd pretended to toss the handful of regrets into the wind and out to the ocean. "He separates them from us as far as the east is from the west, and He buries them in the deepest sea."
Then looking into Christy"s eyes, Todd"s silver-blues shot straight to her heart as he said confidently, "G.o.d doesn"t hold this against you. I don"t hold this against you. Why should you hold it against yourself? It"s all gone, Christy. Choose to remember only the good parts, okay?"
Christy drew in a deep breath of the chill morning air. "Okay."
Todd smiled, and she could see the dimple in his right cheek. "G.o.d likes giving us beauty for our ashes when we let Him," he said.
The ferry motored into the harbor, and the two cars behind Gus started up their engines. "Time to go," Todd said as he opened the door for Christy to get in. They drove off the ferry and down the narrow street. On the second corner to the left, a fun-looking yard sale was in progress.
"Let"s stop," Christy said. "Is there any place to park?"
"Looks pretty tight. Why don"t you hop out, and I"ll circle the block."
Christy did, and the first thing she saw was an old bookshelf. The sticker said five dollars. Before she had a chance to change her mind, Christy reached in her purse for a five-dollar bill and bought the bookshelf. Todd turned the corner, and she flagged him down, proudly pointing to her purchase. He double-parked Gus, popped open the back, and slid in the bookshelf. Then they jumped back in Gus and sputtered down the street.
"Isn"t it cute! I needed something in my room for all my junk. This will be perfect. Of course, it needs some paint. You want to help me paint it?"
Todd had a wide grin across his face. "That had to be the fastest shopping spree on record! Sure, I"ll help you. We can stop by the paint store and paint it today so it"ll be dry enough to take home tomorrow."
"Perfect!" Christy said excitedly. "It"s so cute. Don"t you think it"s cute?"
"If you say so," Todd said, the grin still flickering across his face.
"How"s it going?" Todd asked when he stepped out to the front of Marti"s house, where Christy had her bookshelf balanced on a carpet of newspapers. Uncle Bob had sanded it down for her with his electric sander, and now it was ready for the paint.
Christy had been stirring the paint while Todd was inside making sandwiches. He handed her a paper plate with a huge turkey sandwich and a mound of potato chips.
"You must think I"m going to work up a pretty big appet.i.te." Christy said.
"I figured whatever you didn"t eat I would." Todd chomped into his equally large sandwich. "Marti said she made reservations somewhere for the four of us for dinner. That"s several hours away though."
"Well, I"m ready to start painting," Christy said. "If you want some of my sandwich, go ahead. Leave me about three bites."
"I can do that." Todd sat on the steps and took another bite of sandwich. "You work; I"ll supervise."
Christy dipped the brush into the bucket of paint and started with the inside.
"Good thinking doing the inside first," Todd praised. "Don"t forget to do the undersides of the shelves too."
"Todd, do you think white is the best color? I"m wondering if I should have done it in a soft yellow or maybe a real faint dusty rose."
"White is good."
"No, really, don"t you think we should have picked something a little more exciting? Maybe a pale sky blue."
"White is good."
Christy turned to face Todd and waved the wet paintbrush at him. "You don"t really care, do you?"
"I think white is good." He bit into his sandwich. "Goes with everything, it"s easy to, ah...match with anything. White is good."
Christy gave him a little smirk and went back to work. "I really like this bookshelf, I hope you know. It"s going to be a new home for a lot of old mementos. Most of them from you."
"From me? All I ever gave you was a bracelet. Oh. and maybe that coconut I mailed you from Oahu."
"Keep thinking," Christy said. "Remember the flowers you gave me?"
"Oh, yeah. Those little white ones when you were leaving to go back to Wisconsin."
"Carnations, Todd. They were carnations. I dried them and saved them in a Folgers coffee can. It was all I could find to put them in when we moved out here to California. I still have them."
"Amazing." Todd stuffed in the last bite. "That had to be like three summers ago."
"Yep. The same summer we went to Disneyland, and you bought me the stuffed Winnie the Pooh. Remember?"
"Oh, yeah. Disneyland. I remember." Todd leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. "I wanted to impress you so much that I let you think I was paying for everything. Then when I gave you back your aunt"s money at the end of the night, I thought you were going to kill me!" Todd laughed. "Didn"t you throw your shoes at me or something?"
Christy laughed. "Yes, can you believe it? Here I thought you were going to kiss me good night, and instead, you hand me this wad of money and tell me the only reason you took me was because my aunt talked you into it."
"You thought I was going to kiss you?" Todd looked surprised.
"Of course I did!"
"No way, man, I was too chicken! I"d never kissed a girl before. I have to admit that I thought about it all day, but when the moment came, there was no way."
"Do you remember the first time you did kiss me?" Christy asked.
"Of course. I"ll never forget it," Todd said. "It was only two days later, but everything had changed. Tracy told me you"d given your heart to the Lord and that you were leaving to go back to Wisconsin. So when I caught up with you at our intersection, I remember thinking. Okay, Todd, it"s now or never." He looked so content as he said it. "And it was now. I"ll never forget it."
"Me neither," Christy said. She painted a bit more on the inside. "So are you going to help me with the rest of this?"
"Sure. Hand me a brush. You want me to do the front or the back?"
"Whatever you want. "
Todd squatted down right behind Christy and put his arm out next to hers. "How about if we do it side by side? I"ll come along and clean up all your mistakes."
"Oh. getting a bit overly confident of ourselves, aren"t we?" Christy teased. "And what makes you so sure I"m going to make any boo-boos?"
"Just a precaution," Todd said.
She loved feeling him this close, with his broad shoulders hovering over her. Christy tilted her head back and leaned gently against his chest. "Now this is what I call teamwork." she said.
Just then Christy heard a familiar but not so favorite sound-a camera clicking. This time it was Bob, not Fred, who hid behind the lens.
"Thought I"d see how the camera was working," Bob said, his merry eyes twinkling. "Don"t let me bother you two."
"Christy was just asking me how I thought she"d look with a bit of paint on her nose, and I was about to show her." Todd lifted his paintbrush and playfully prepared to make his mark.
"Fine, fine," Bob said, positioning the camera closer. "Don"t let me stop you."