her, and the knowledge that he couldn't, not here where they might be seen. "Janey, you're beautiful."
Her face, already flushed from the heat became radiant with his words. She took a tentative step toward him. With a barely perceptible frown of disapproval, he nodded toward the car. "Take your things to the car, Love. I'll wait here for a while and join you later. Did you write your note?"
"Yes, I mailed it after school." Janey bit her lower lip as he watched her decide to tell her next secret in a whisper he had to strain to hear. "Nicky, I think I heard it hit the bottom when I dropped it. I... I couldn't... It was too deep to reach to get it back."
"Have you changed your mind then?"
"No! No, I just... I'm a little afraid is all. And I forgot...I forgot to say I love you to my grandpa."
"Janey, we can wait. We can do this later."
"No, please! I don't want to wait. I don't want to be there when he dies. I can't bear it. He is the only one who... who ever loved me, and he doesn't even know who I am now. I can't watch anymore. I can't!"
"I love you, Janey." His voice was steady and confident, past the heart-stopping uncertainty she had thrown him with her doubts.
Janey halted her tears with a determined intake of breath and bent to gather her things, glancing up twice to catch his smile.
"That's my girl! Now, don't look back. Be patient and I'll be along shortly."
He heard the car door slam, and he crushed his cigarette into the dirt. Janey did not like him to smoke. She played his little mother when they were together, fussing and fretting over him. So much pent up love within her that he looked forward to drowning in it.
Nicholas noticed with annoyance at his carelessness that he had parked under a street lamp. His car was awash in its pool of light, Janey's halo of dark curls catching the glint of it as she kept her eyes obediently forward, not looking back. Luckily, he had remembered to obscure his license plate with a rag trapped under his trunk lid, and the car was nondescript enough that observers would have difficulty recalling its details. And anyway, Janey had sent the letter explaining why she was running away. She had ample reason. And she was of an age that, with such evidence as the letter, the police would be content to ignore her disappearance, or give it only cursory attention, if her neglectful mother even took enough notice to report it. Janey would be safe with him.
Nicholas roused himself, shrugging off the dredges of his dream. Why Janey? Why now when he worried what had become of her and would probably never know? Would the years bring similar troubling dreams of Trissa?
Not if he didn't go back.
Not if he fell asleep and let the darkness take over. Or if, when more dreams came, they were of the man who called himself Cole Baker.
*****
Dr. Edmonds warmed his stethoscope in the palm of his hand then loosened Trissa's gown to listen to her heart. "Breathe in deeply and hold it. That's good, let it out slowly. Okay, now in and out normally."
Trissa chewed her lower lip all during Edmonds examination, her eyes flitting to the door each time footsteps sounded in the hall.
"Where is your friend this afternoon?" he asked.
"Friend? You mean Nicholas? He went for lunch, they said. He was gone when I woke up."
Edmonds made a few notes on his chart. "I saw him downstairs when I came in," he said. "Is there anything else you want to tell me about your accident while he's not here, Trissa?"
"While he's not..." Was there a hint of suspicion in his tone? "Oh, no, you don't think he had anything to do with my fall, do you? No, no, that's all wrong! He was the one who saved me. It's just that... uh... I was running and I wasn't looking and I ran onto the tr -- I stumbled and--" Her voice constricted. She didn't dare tell the whole truth, yet her clumsy explanations seemed all wrong as the words sputtered out.
"And I tried to catch her before she fell, but we both tumbled over the embankment."
"Nicholas!"
Nicholas leaned over and kissed her lightly on the forehead. "Hi, Sweetheart. You look much better. Did you have a good nap?"