kept circling back to the fact that Miss Janie had left him the house, so it was legally his. He could do what he wanted with it, and that included telling her to go somewhere else.
The drive to the Dairy Queen took less than three minutes. She went inside and headed to the booth that she and Noah had chosen as their favorite. The next few minutes went by so slow that she wondered if the big Coca-Cola clock on the wall had stopped.
Finally, the door opened and Noah walked in. He looked every bit as miserable as she felt, and it broke her heart to see him like that.
He went straight to the counter and ordered something. How could he be hungry? Her stomach was tied up in knots with worry about what they were about to say or do. He paid with a bill, stuffed the change into the pocket of his jeans, and took his own good easy time getting back to the booth.
“We need to talk,” he said. “Why didn’t you bring Queenie? I said we could eat outside.”
“She’s sensitive,” Teresa said. “She doesn’t need to hear you yell or see me cry.”
“All right.” He nodded. “Now let’s talk.”
“You already said that,” she told him. “You go first.”
“I don’t care if that silly dog sleeps in the house,” he said.
She looked him right in the eye and didn’t blink. “I don’t care if you put her in the screened porch.”
“Then what are we fighting about?” he asked.
“Where have you been?” she threw back without answering his question.
“I went to a bar and ordered a double shot of Jameson on the rocks. I stared at it for an hour, but I didn’t drink it. An old guy sat down beside me and made me listen to a song on the jukebox, and then he threw my whiskey back and I left,” Noah answered. “After I listened to the words of the song, I didn’t want a drink. I just wanted to come home to you.”
“Play it for me,” she said.
He glanced around the room. “There’s no jukebox in here.”
“You’ve got a phone,” she reminded him.
He found what he was looking for, adjusted the volume, and laid the phone on the table between them. The song came up, and Teresa recognized Miranda’s voice right away. Storms never last, the lyrics said, and bad times could pass right along with the wind. Teresa looked out the window and watched the wind blowing the leaves from the trees. Could this storm she and Noah had faced be blown away like that? Would they be all right when they got to the root of their problem?
“We had our first fight. What we do now is what will define our relationship. The dog isn’t what’s wrong with us right now, is it?” he said.
“What do you think our problem is?” she asked.
“Trust,” he answered with one word. “You don’t trust me. You’re measuring me by Luis, and I’m not like him at all. I’m not going to cheat on you, and I think I proved tonight that I won’t be going back to my old drinking ways. I love you, Teresa, but I can’t live with you if Luis is still in your life. I want more than us just living together. I want us to be together forever. I want children and to grow old with you.”
“Luis has been out of my life for more than a year,” she declared.
“I know that, and I don’t think you still love him, but until you can trust me with all your heart, he’s still right there between us,” Noah said. “You told me you want to live with me for a year. I feel like we’re wasting time that we could spend being totally committed to each other. I don’t want to rush you, but darlin’, I want the world to know that you are my wife, not my girlfriend.”
The lady brought a banana split with two spoons stuck in the top and set it between them. “Y’all enjoy. I’ll bring your coffee when you finish. That way it won’t get cold,” she said, then went back to wait on a group who were pushing their way inside.
“Thank you,” Noah called after her. He picked up one of the spoons and laid it to the side, then picked up the other one. “This is our life here between us, darlin’. One spoon. One banana split.” He dipped into the ice cream and the