Part 40 (2/2)
”And he flew the coop. Useless creep.”
”He didn't fly the coop, fly the coop, Henry.” Henry.”
He grabbed Mary Jane's left hand and held it up, her pale, unadorned fingers fanned out against the background of the flowering branches.
”Where's the wedding ring?” Henry asked.
She laughed. ”You're so conventional, Henry.”
”Please.”
”Did it ever occur to you that I I didn't want to marry him? Maybe I like him just coming and going.” didn't want to marry him? Maybe I like him just coming and going.”
”I wouldn't go,” Henry said huskily, and Mary Jane burst out laughing, a little too forcefully, as if her laughter would be able to keep his evident purpose in check.
”I mean it,” he told her.
She laughed again. ”Are you out of your tiny mind?”
”You find this laughable?” Henry asked.
She looked at her wrist.w.a.tch.
”Don't let me keep you,” he said acidly.
”The babysitter's only staying till six.”
”I'M GLAD YOU LEFT THAT PEACE GIRL, anyway,” Mary Jane said as they walked back to her house.
”You only met her for two minutes,” Henry said.
”True. But you've never met George, and you've already called him a worthless creep.”
”Actually, I said a useless useless creep.” creep.”
”Same difference.”
”Where is he, anyway?” Henry asked.
She turned the key in the front door, ignoring his question completely. Within seconds she was a.s.saulted by the toddler at her knees.
The little girl was wearing red Keds, blue jeans, and a red T-s.h.i.+rt. On another child, the outfit would have looked boyish, but the delicacy of her features and her winsome eyes made her utterly little-girlish.
”Haley, say h.e.l.lo,” Mary Jane said.
Henry bent down and looked into both her eyes-her two undamaged, perfect blue eyes-and realized that this was what looking at Mary Jane must have been like, years before.
”Hi, Haley,” he said.
He started to extend his hand in greeting, but Haley instead used one hand to spread two fingers on her other into a tiny, perfect peace sign. Henry followed suit, then pressed his two fingers onto hers.
”Hi,” she said.
”Hi.”
Mary Jane asked the babysitter to stay while she started dinner.
THE KITCHEN WAS A MESS. Toy pots and pans vied for counter s.p.a.ce with the real items, as did toy plates, cups, and one well-smudged wooden toaster.
”She's beautiful,” Henry said.
Mary Jane tried to hide her smile by opening the refrigerator door.
”She looks exactly like you,” Henry said.
Mary Jane handed Henry four potatoes.
”See, I know that,” Henry said, ”because I knew you when you were just a little older than she is now.”
”Potatoes,” Mary Jane directed, handing Henry a potato peeler.
”I'm serious, you know,” Henry said.
”I know.”
”We grew up together. Think of everything.”
”Just because we have a past doesn't mean we have a future.”
”But it should,” Henry said.
He embraced her. It was as tender a moment as any he'd had with Annie, as pa.s.sionate as any he'd had with Peace. He had a hand on either side of Mary Jane's face, and he wanted her to feel completely encompa.s.sed, held and met and lifted up. He kissed her, watching till her one eye closed, and then he closed his own.
Then she took his right hand in hers and kissed the back of it, emphatically, three times.
”No,” she said, and then repeated it when she saw the expression on his face.
Henry looked at her, shaking his head. Mary Jane sent him to the living room.
”Not now, Henry,” she said, which he chose to interpret as meaning ”maybe someday.”
”Go be with the other kids,” she told him, laughing.
”SIT?” HALEY ASKED HIM after the babysitter had left.
She was sitting at a low wooden play table.
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