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“But you were already planning on leaving that night.”
Forrest nodded, and closed his eyes for a moment, pulling forth a memory he’d suppressed long ago. “When I came home from college, the day of my graduation party, Galen had a graduation gift for me. A young Asian girl. She was in my room, naked. Her body was bruised and her face stained with tears. I’d seen girls like her before, the third floor was full of them, and for years Galen had goaded me to sample them. I’d refused, said I’d never fall to his level. I told the girl in my room to leave, but she said she couldn’t. That they’d kill her. I told her that wouldn’t happen, but when I opened my bedroom door, one of Galen’s men entered, with a gun.”
Twyla gasped.
It was such an ugly tale, one he’d tried to completely erase from his memory, yet he knew it played a significant role in making Twyla understand how he’d always loved her, but had to leave—for her sake. “I told the man to go ahead and shoot me because I wasn’t going to touch her. Eventually he yelled for Galen. When Galen came in the room, he held the gun on the girl and said he’d kill her before my eyes if I didn’t take her. I was afraid he might, but I still refused. And then I grabbed her hand, threw a blanket over her shoulders and walked her out the door. I took her to Gloria Kasper’s house. I have no idea what became of her.” Forrest took her hand and squeezed it. “I didn’t want to return, but I had to, when my party started. I remember watching you walk through the door. You were wearing a blue dress, the same color as your eyes, and your hair was long, past your shoulders. I remember that very moment, because that’s when I knew I had to leave. Not even stay the summer as I’d planned. You’d grown up that year, and I knew if I stayed, something would happen between you and me, and you’d be hurt. Galen would find a way to hurt you. When Norma Rose asked me to drive her home, I agreed because it would give me time to tell her I was leaving.” Forrest withheld the part about how Galen had threatened to kidnap the Nightingale girls.
Twyla lifted his hand and kissed his palm. “I knew Galen was evil, but I had no idea.”
“I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want anyone to know,” he said. “But your father did, and I knew he’d never let Galen harm you girls. Years before, when I was little and you might just have been a baby, my mother and I were at your house and Galen came and forced us to go home. That night your father literally kicked the front door of the Plantation in. That’s all I remember, but from then on, Galen never refused to let my mother visit yours. I held that memory close the entire time I was gone. Hoping and praying your father would keep you girls protected.”
“Of course he kept us safe,” Twyla said. “Daddy’s a force to reckon with. He’d never have let your father harm us.” She kissed his chin. “Just like you never let him harm us. And now he’s in jail. Forever.”
Forrest caught her under the chin with a knuckle. “Thanks to you. For finding that suitcase and driving the getaway car. I have no doubt that if I’d been on the driver’s side of that car, I’d have been driving and you shooting—whether you knew how to or not.”
“That’s how it always was between us, wasn’t it?”
“Still is,” he said.
She nodded, but then glanced out to the lake before gazing up at him again. “So, where do we go from here? Now that Galen’s locked up forever, you’ll start your airmail business, and I’ll...” She shook her head.
He knew whatever else they had to work out would happen naturally, as it always had between him and her, but needed to reassure her of that. “Well.” He attempted to sound thoughtful. “I know this gorgeous, vivacious woman who throws spectacular parties.”
Her frown was immense. “You do?”
Smoothing out the little point between her brows with his fingertip, he said, “Yes, I do, and she has planned quite an extravagant Fourth of July party. The entire town will be in attendance, probably half the state and beyond. There’s going to be a pilot there, too.”
She laughed, now following his line of teasing. “A flyboy, you mean.”
“Yes, a flyboy, and I probably could convince him to give that gorgeous woman a night flight.”
“What’s a night flight?”
“Flying at night, of course.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Not if the pi—flyboy knows what he’s doing.”
Her eyes were twinkling and Twyla, showing enthusiasm in a way only she could, scooted closer to him. “And why would that gorgeous woman want to go flying at night?”
