“You’re missing a trick-or-treat bag though.”
“Never did bother with them,” Toto admitted. “Just ate as I went. Saved a lot of time and trouble.”
“Ah,” Jed said with a nod. “A man of efficiency.”
“The Scarecrow will be played by Scarecrow number 22,” Karin went on.
Toto could feel Jed’s mood change and his attention shift to the stage.
“She’s a mighty fine woman, isn’t she?” Jed said quietly.
Toto nodded. “One of the best.” Not Dorothy, but then no one else was or would be for him.
“Why the hell did she do all this? We had a fight. I didn’t mean to, but I really hurt her. So why was she willing to fix it so we could stay?”
Toto didn’t like to get involved with other people’s relationships. He figured he had enough trouble making sense of his heart, without trying to understand someone else’s. Still, there was something in Jed’s voice that said the question needed answering.
“Guess she forgave you,” Toto said.
Jed stared at him as if he’d spoken in a foreign language. Maybe Toto had made a mistake. Maybe Jed hadn’t wanted honesty, however apparent it was. Maybe he’d wanted a joke or some kind of guy ribbing that didn’t say anything at all. Toto glanced at Jed’s new, white athletic shoes.
“Maybe she wanted to see if she could get you to wear something else on your feet,” Toto said with a quick laugh. “You know, see if she could change you from a cowboy to something else.”
But his joke didn’t bring the smile that Toto had been hoping for. Instead, Jed just stared down at his feet.
“I’m not a cowboy anymore, am I?” he muttered.
“Sure you are. You just aren’t wearing boots.” Jeez, everything he was saying came out wrong today. He looked up at the stage in relief. “Hey, Karin’s done announcing the cast for the final scene. I’ve got to move everybody over to the last set. I’ll see you over there.”
“Yeah, sure.”
Jed’s voice was distracted, but Toto just nodded and went to work, directing the crowd to Glinda’s castle set in the schoolyard. The flatbed truck moved slowly along and once in place, then the audience gathered around it while the cast assembled. Toto took his place at one side to help maintain order, but turned to watch the production.
Funny, Dorothy was playing Dorothy in the scene. It wasn’t the first time her number had been picked for a scene, but there was something bothersome about her playing the part in this particular one, the one where Dorothy finds the way to leave Oz and go back home.
While Mickey explained the background for the scene, Dorothy, Karin and a few other townsfolk arranged themselves on the stage. Then Mickey stepped back to let the characters tell the story.
Dorothy and her friends arrived at Glinda’s castle, making small talk among themselves. Nothing exciting, but it generated a few laughs from the audience. Toto smiled too. Then some teenage boy, playing a castle guard, asked the travelers to state their business.
“I want to find my way home,” Dorothy proclaimed.
The words nipped at Toto’s heart, but nothing he couldn’t handle. He did turn slightly though so that he was watching the crowd more. That’s what he was supposed to be doing anyway, not ogling Dorothy.
“But don’t you like it in Oz?” Glinda asked Dorothy, up on the stage.
Dorothy shrugged. “It’s nice, but it’s not where I belong.”
Toto turned completely away. He didn’t need to hear this. He knew that she felt she didn’t belong in Chesterton, he didn’t need to hear her say it to hundreds of people.
“But isn’t it more exciting here?” Glinda persisted.
“Excitement isn’t everything,” Dorothy said, her voice sounding puzzled as if Karin was straying from the normal line of conversation. “Kansas is home. Can’t you help me get back there?”
Toto twisted his lips as he looked at the crowd. He didn’t need to be here at all. This was crazy. There were other officers around working crowd control. He should go over to the security headquarters and see if there was something else he should be doing. See if there were any reports of trouble around. He started to work his way through the crowd.
“Thomas Tollinger, come back here!” Karin ordered from up on the stage.
He turned. The play had apparently stopped. Karin was at the front of the stage, arms akimbo, as she glared down at him. Everyone, both on the stage and off, was staring at her. Or staring at him.
“I have to go check in at the security tent,” he told her.
“You do not,” she snapped. “You’re running away again. Every time Dorothy starts talking about how unhappy she is in Paris, you run away.”
“I never said that!” Dorothy cried.
“Hey, she loves it in Paris,” a teenage Dorothy in the audience argued.
“It’s wonderful,” another cried.
“Magical.”
Karin frowned at them all, looking like a schoolmarm with a classful of juvenile delinquents. A schoolmarm in pink ruffles with a glittery crown and a magic wand, but still a schoolmarm.
“She does not,” Karin said, slowly and carefully. “It may be a wonderful, magical place to visit, but it’s not home.” She turned to include the real Dorothy in her glare. “Right?”
Dorothy shrugged uneasily. “I probably haven’t given it enough time,” she said. “I’m expecting too much too fast.”
“Maybe you miss your friends,” Karin suggested.
“I can still keep in touch, and I can make new ones,” Dorothy said.
But there was something in her voice that Toto hadn’t heard before. An uncertainty. He took a step forward.
“I’ve met lots of really nice people there,” Dorothy went on.
“It still might not be where you belong,” Karin said more softly.
Dorothy’s chin went up in what Toto knew was a sign of embarrassment. “I saved for years to go.”
“She was following her dreams,” an audience Dorothy called out.
“Dreams can take you all sorts of places and bring you back again,” Karin said. “Dreams can change. Maybe it’s time she followed her heart.” She gave Dorothy a hug before looking back out at the audience. At Toto. “Maybe it’s time someone else followed his heart, too.”
But Toto was barely listening to her. His feet were taking him up to the stage steps though he didn’t remember telling them to. All he could see, all he could think about was Dorothy and that uncertainty in her voice. Suddenly a million little things had new meanings, wonderful new meanings. Maybe he and Junior didn’t have to live alone.
Then he was on the stage and Dorothy was there facing him. He felt as if his heart had climbed into his mouth, and he’d never be able to speak. But she held out her hand, just a little, ever so tentatively, and he went forward to take it. And then, since he had her hand anyway, he pulled all the rest of her into his embrace.
“Don’t go back to Paris, Dorothy,” he said. “Stay here. I love you. I’ve loved you for years. I can make you happier than Paris can.”
“Toto!” she cried and threw her arms around his neck.
Their kiss was an explosion of love and longing and passion too long denied. His arms could not hold her tight enough, his lips could not taste her deeply enough. There were years of loneliness to erase and years of love ahead and every moment with her in his arms was a pledge of that.
Karin laughed. “I think Dorothy’s found her way back home.”
The audience laughed, then clapped, and Toto slowly loosened his hold on Dorothy. But only slightly. He was not letting go of her again.
“Come on, Susie. Mavis. Jeremy. Get in closer to Glinda,” the woman said from behind her camera.
Karin held her smile in place as the little kids crowded in closer around the thronelike chair she was sitting in. This was the last event of the day—the chance for the kids to come talk to her and have their picture taken with Glinda. She didn’t mind it really, but
she did wish it was time to go home. All this smiling was wearing her out. This wonderful heart that she’d recently discovered she had was pretty weary and wanted to be alone.
“Now, thank Glinda, children,” the woman said.
“Thanks,” the kids said in unison. “Thanks a lot.”
“Sure,” she told them.
They hurried off with their mother to get in line to be photographed with Elmer as the Wizard. Karin smiled at the next group of kids coming up into the Emerald City set at the train station. Night had fallen so it was dark all around the set, but lights had beenplaced to shine on the platforms for the pictures. It made it as bright as day up here, but she had no idea how many more people were waiting in line.
“Can I interest you in a glass of lemonade?” someone said behind her.
Karin turned. “Penny!” she cried and jumped to her feet to hug her friend tightly. “How was the honeymoon? When did you get back?”
“Great and this morning.” Penny gingerly extricated herself, and handed Karin the glass of lemonade. “We couldn’t miss your moment of glory. Where’s Jed?”
Karin’s excitement vanished in the blink of an eye. She took the glass with concentrated interest, and had a long sip of the lemonade. “Oh, he’s around someplace.” She turned to smile at the two little boys waiting their turn and handed the glass back to Penny without really looking her way. “Hi, kids. Want to have your picture taken?”
The boys stood on either side of her while their dad took the picture. He took forever to focus the camera and then didn’t like the way the kids were arranged, but Karin didn’t care. The longer, the better, as far as she was concerned. She was in no hurry to explain this whole crazy week to Penny.
And as for where Jed was, Karin had no idea. She had seen him briefly during the play and not at all since then. The place was filled with Jed look-alikes, but she hadn’t been fooled for a second by them. Maybe the reporter hadn’t either. Maybe it had been a stupid idea and Jed and Lissa had had to leave anyway. Or maybe Jed chose to leave, tired of the whole mess. She hadn’t seen Lissa for ages either. The girl had never had the chance to ask Glinda her big question.
The picture was finally taken and the boys stepped away. “Thanks,” the father said and led his two off the platform. Karin sighed and adjusted her crown. It felt as if it was slipping.
“I heard about your make-believe relationship with Jed,” Penny said. “Your plan was just brilliant. I always knew you were. That’s why I always wanted you to skip school with us. You would have figured out ways to insure we were never caught.”
“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Karin said, turning to talk to her friend. “The way things go for me—”
“Oops, this is where I go find someone else to talk to,” Penny said.
Karin turned back, expecting to see another group of kids coming up to have their picture taken. Instead, she saw Jed. Her heart took a leap upward, but he looked so serious that it came crashing back down.
Maybe he was coming to tell her it was over—but it had never started, so how could that be?
Maybe he was coming to tell her that he and Lissa were leaving—but they had already said goodbye so that was hardly necessary.
Maybe he was coming to tell her that he loved her and never wanted to go. Yeah, right, and once she got done hearing that, she was going to go write a letter to the Easter Bunny.
She realized he had a small box in his hand and her heart sank even further. He was bringing her a hostess gift. A duty present to the person who gave you room and board for the week. She would have rather he’d left in anger than treated her with cool and distant courtesy.
Though her knees felt wobbly, she got to her feet. Bad news was better taken standing.
“Hello, Jed.”
He stopped in front of her. “Hello, darlin’,” he said softly.
Her knees went even wobblier, if that was possible, but her head told her not to be an idiot. This “darlin‘” was no different from any other “darlin”’ he’d called her over the past week. She was letting her imagination run wild.
“Did the reporter ever find you and Lissa?” She could hear the buzz of people walking around below her and saw the flash of cameras, and told herself she could do this. She could talk to Jed calmly and quietly, and not give her feelings away. This was just part of playing Glinda.
“Nope, your plan worked just fine,” he said. “I saw the newspaper people leaving town after the Munchkin dinner, so we should be safe.”
“I’m so glad,” she said. Her voice quivered a bit this time. Maybe her control wasn’t quite as strong. She clutched her magic wand a little tighter and remembered people were watching her. “You must be happy.”
He pushed his hat back on his head. “No, darlin’, actually I’m not,” he said. “I have to say I’m about as far from happy as I’ve been for a long time.”
Her stomach tightened with worry. Had she done something? What in the world could he be upset about? But she was facing into the lights so his face was in the shadows. She couldn’t see his eyes to read anything in them.
“I’m sorry. I’d hoped you would enjoy your stay in town.”
“Well, the truth is, I’ve lost a few things and it’s made my stay kind of unsatisfying.”
He lost some things? This wasn’t what she expected at all. Somehow the mundaneness of the idea caused the ache in her heart to double. Her throat hurt and talking was agony. Or was it just being near him and not having him care that hurt so?
“Have you checked with Toto?” she asked. “They keep a lost and found at the police station.”
He shook his head slowly. “These aren’t exactly things I put down someplace by mistake,” he said. “Though I was hoping that you could help me get one of the things back.”
“Me? Of course, whatever I can do.”
He took off his hat then, slipping the package he was holding under his arm so that he could hold his hat in both hands before him. She still couldn’t see his eyes, but she could feel something change in the air around them. Her nerves were suddenly on edge with a fragile hope.
“You can make an honest man of me.”
She was confused. “I can what?”
“Make an honest man of me.” He took a deep breath and went on. “You see, a cowboy doesn’t lie. He’s a man of honor. Yet this whole week I’ve been living a lie.”
Her hope was drying up. “I’m not sure I understand.” Her voice was raw. “You want me to confess to the town that I made up our engagement?”
“Not at all, darlin’,” he said. “I’d like for you to marry me.”
The words seemed to echo around them, hovering there to mock and torment. Her heart stopped, went totally dead, and she just stared at him. She couldn’t have heard him right, and if she did, he had to mean something other than what she thought.
“Marry you?” she whispered.
He nodded. “That way it won’t have been a lie, you see. I can be a real cowboy again and not one living with dishonor.”
Her heart was in no hurry to start again, not when his reasons were as dumb as that. “This sounds like some stupid macho thing,” she said. She was desperately in love and he was talking about cowboy honor. “You don’t marry someone just because you told a lie earlier.”
“No, not normally,” he agreed. “But that brings me to the other thing I lost this weekend. My heart.”
She stopped, her mouth partially open as she was ready to fight some more, to lash out at him for mocking her dreams. But his gentle voice froze her. She couldn’t breathe and her eyes filled with tears. Putting her hands to her face as if that could hold in the fears and hopes and wonderful dreams that wanted to spill out into her voice, she looked at him.
“What are you saying?” Her voice sounded strangled and tight.
He let go of his hat with one hand and took her right hand down from her face, holding it tightly. “I’m saying I love you. I know you don’t think you have a heart, but
you do. You’ve got mine. And I’m quite happy to let you have it, if you would just let me stay here with you.”
“But...but...” She didn’t know what to say. Tears spilled over her cheeks. “But you can’t love me.”
He pulled her into his arms, wrapping her up tightly in a promise that he would never let her go. “Oh, but I do. I love you so much that it hurts. I love you so much that I was willing to wear these yuppie shoes instead of my boots just so I could stay here a little while longer.”
They both looked down at his athletic shoes, then back at each other. She felt the smile in her heart move to her lips.
“That’s quite a sacrifice,” she said. “A real proof of love, but if the reporter left hours ago, you could have changed back.”
He shook his head. “I was busy looking for these.” He handed her the small box he’d brought with him.
She didn’t want to let go of him, but had to open the box. Hands trembling, she untied the golden ribbon keeping it closed and took off the lid. Inside was a pair of cowboy boots. A pair of baby-sized cowboy boots. She stared at them, wondering how her heart could feel as if it was breaking when she was so happy.
“Oh, Jed,” she said with a sigh.
“They’re for our baby,” he said and put his hand possessively over her stomach. His other arm was still around her shoulders. “Girl or boy, it’s going to be a little cowpoke.”
“They’re wonderful.”
“Does this mean you’re going to marry me?” He tightened his hold on her.
Happy as she was, she still had worries crowding in. Had he really thought this through? “Where will we live?” she asked.
“What’s wrong with right here?”
“But what about Lissa’s career?”
He turned her to face him, both his arms encircling her. “I can take her to Los Angeles for ads, or they’ve got photographers in Chicago, too. She’s thinking of giving it up though, so I don’t think it’s going to be an issue.”
Slowly her worries were being eased away and happiness was sprouting up strong and tall. A smile crept into her voice. “Will you let me buy you a horse farm?”
Pregnant & Practically Married (The Bridal Circle #3) Page 20
