Page 132 of It Happened on the Lake

“Oh? What’s he doing?”

“Paperwork, it looks like.” She straightened suddenly. “I—I don’t want to spy on him. That’s not my thing. Lots of wives, they want to know what their guy is doing every second of the day, but that’s not the way it is with us.”

“So what is your deal?” Harper asked. “I mean, I didn’t even know you were dating, and suddenly you were married.”

“That works two ways, you know,” Beth said. “I hadn’t even heard of Joel Prescott, and then suddenly you’d eloped.”

“I was pregnant,” Harper said matter-of-factly. Why try to hide the obvious? “But you knew that.”

“I can count,” she said. “So your daughter? Is she Chase’s?”

“Joel is Dawn’s father,” Harper said firmly, not wanting to go into details. She held her friend’s gaze, and the room seemed to close in on them.

“That’s what Dawn thinks?”

“She’s never asked.”

Beth raised a knowing eyebrow. “And when she does?”

“I guess we’ll cross that bridge when it starts crumbling.”

Beth let out a low whistle.

“But what about you?” Harper asked, changing the worrisome course of the conversation. “Why Craig?”

“Because he asked,” she said, and a sadness stole over her face. “And because the boy I loved killed himself.”

1967

Chapter 32

“Ilove you,” Chase whispered against her ear again.

“I love you, too.” Cuddling closer to him on the small beach of the island, Harper gazed up at the stars, glittering like diamonds in the sky overhead. She heard the quiet chirp of crickets over the sough of a warm breeze as it ruffled the dark water, and somewhere not far away a bullfrog was croaking in the quiet summer night.

Across the lake a few lights burned in the windows of houses near the shore, but tonight the Hunt house was dark.

She was just getting her breath back, Chase lying beside her, an arm around her shoulders as they lay naked on the sand.

“I want you to know that I’m serious.” He levered up on an elbow, his pale hair falling over his eyes. “When I get through college, and you do, too? We’ll get married.”

“Is this a proposal?” she asked, hardly believing his words. Chase wanted to marry her? “Really?”

“No, no, no. Not yet. But a promise.” He kissed her cheek. “Okay?”

She smiled at the thought of it. “Okay.” She was gonna be Mrs. Chase Hunt. Someday. They would be married and happy forever!

He asked, “You’ll wait for me?”

“If you wait for me,” she teased, ruffling his hair.

“I will,” he vowed, and kissed her between her breasts, on her skin just below where the cold diamond lay. “You’re okay? I mean. I, uh. I didn’t hurt you?”

“No, no, I’m good.” That was a bit of a lie. She felt a slight burn between her legs, but she kinda loved it.

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah. I’m sure.” What she couldn’t tell him was that it was a good hurt, a stinging but worth it. Some people said a person “lost” their virginity. She hadn’t lost hers; she’d given it willingly. Eagerly. To the only boy she would ever love. “I’m fine.” She pushed herself up so that her face was close to his and kissed him, softly at first, and then with more urgency.