The Lucky One (15 page)

“Gee, I never would have known,” she said with a faint smile. They retraced their steps to the house, and when they reached the gravel drive, Beth pulled a hand out of her jeans pocket and gave a small wave.

“Thanks for the walk, Logan.”

She expected him to correct her the way he had with Ben—to tell her again he was called Thibault—but he didn’t. Instead, he raised his chin slightly and grinned.

“You too, Elizabeth.”

She knew the storm wouldn’t last long, though they desperately needed the rain. It had been a hot, dry summer, and it seemed like the heat would never break. As she sat listening to the last drops of rain falling on the tin roof, she found herself thinking about her brother.

Before Drake left, he’d told her that the sound of rain on their roof was the sound he would miss most of all. She wondered if he often dreamed of these North Carolina summer storms in the dry land where he ended up. The thought made her feel hollow and sad all over again.

Nana was in her room packing for her trip, as excited as she’d been in years. Ben, on the other hand, was becoming more and more subdued, which meant he was thinking about the fact that he’d have to spend a big chunk of the weekend with his father. Which also meant she’d have a weekend alone at home, her first solo weekend in a long, long time.

Except for Logan.

She could understand why both Nana and Ben had been drawn to him. He possessed a quiet confidence that seemed rare these days. It was only after she got back to the house that she realized she’d learned little about him that he hadn’t already told her during their initial interview. She wondered whether he’d always been so private or if it stemmed from his time in Iraq.

He’d been there, she’d decided. No, he hadn’t said as much, but she’d seen something in his expression when she’d mentioned her parents—his simple response hinted at a familiarity with tragedy and an acceptance of it as an unavoidable aspect of life.

She didn’t know whether that made her feel better or worse about him. Like Drake, he was a marine. But Logan was here, and Drake was gone, and for that reason as well as more complicated ones, she wasn’t sure that she could ever look at Logan with fairness in her heart.

Gazing up at the stars that had emerged between the storm clouds, she felt the loss of Drake like a newly reopened wound. After their parents had died, they had been inseparable, even sleeping in the same bed for a year. He was only a year younger than her, and she distinctly remembered walking to school with him on the first day of kindergarten. To stop his tears, she had promised that he’d make lots of friends and that she’d wait by the swing set to walk him home. Unlike many siblings, they had never been rivals. She was his biggest cheerleader, and he was her unwavering supporter. Throughout high school, she went to every football, basketball, and baseball game he played and tutored him when he needed it. For his part, he was the only one who remained unfazed by her dizzying teenage mood swings. The only disagreement they’d ever had concerned Keith, but unlike Nana, Drake kept his feelings largely to himself. But she knew how he felt, and when she and Keith separated, it was Drake she turned to for support as she tried to find her footing as a newly single mother. And it was Drake, she knew, who kept Keith from pounding on her door late at night in the months immediately afterward. Drake had been the one person she’d ever known that Keith was afraid to cross.

By that point, he’d matured. Not only had he been an excellent athlete in virtually every sport, but he’d taken up boxing when he was twelve. By eighteen, he’d won the Golden Gloves in North Carolina three times, and he sparred regularly with troops stationed at Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune. It was the hours he spent with them that first made Drake consider enlisting.

He’d never been a great student, and he lasted only a year at a community college before deciding it wasn’t for him. She’d been the only one he’d talked to about enlisting. She had been proud of his decision to serve his country, her heart bursting with love and admiration the first time she saw him outfitted in his dress blues. Though she had been scared when he was posted to Kuwait and, later, Iraq, she couldn’t help but believe that he was going to make it. But Drake Green never did make it home.

She could barely recall the days immediately after she’d learned that her brother had died, and she didn’t like to think of them now. His death had left her with an emptiness that she knew would never fill completely. But time had lessened the pain. In the immediacy of his loss, she never would have believed it possible, but she couldn’t deny that when she thought of Drake these days, it was usually the happier times she remembered. Even when she visited the cemetery to talk to him, she no longer experienced the agony those visits once aroused. Nowadays, her sadness felt less visceral than her anger.

But it felt real right now, in the wake of the realization that she—like Nana and Ben—was drawn to Thibault, too, if only because she felt an ease with him that she hadn’t known with anyone since losing Drake.

And there was this: Only Drake had ever called her by her given name. Neither her parents nor Nana, nor Grandpa, nor any of her friends growing up had ever called her anything but Beth. Keith hadn’t, either; to be honest, she wasn’t sure he even knew her real name. Only Drake had called her Elizabeth, and only when they were alone. It was their secret, a secret meant for just the two of them, and she’d never been able to imagine how it would sound coming from someone else.

But, somehow, Logan made it sound just right.

11

Thibault

I
n the fall of 2007, a year after getting out of the Marine Corps, Thibault arranged to meet Victor in Minnesota, a place neither of them had ever been. For both of them, it couldn’t have come at a better time. Victor had been married for six months, and Thibault had stood beside him as best man. That had been the only time they’d seen each other since they’d been discharged. When Thibault had called to suggest the trip, he’d suspected that time alone was exactly what Victor needed.

On the first day, as they sat in a small rowboat on the lake, it was Victor who broke the silence.

“Have you been having nightmares?” his friend asked.

Thibault shook his head. “No. Have you?”

“Yes,” Victor said.

The air was typically crisp for autumn, and a light morning mist floated just above the water. But the sky was cloudless, and Thibault knew the temperature would rise, making for a gorgeous afternoon.

“The same as before?” Thibault asked.

“Worse,” he said. He reeled in his line and cast again. “I see dead people.” He gave a wry half-smile, fatigue written into the lines of his face. “Like in that movie with Bruce Willis?
The Sixth Sense?
”

Thibault nodded.

“Kind of like that.” He paused, somber now. “In my dreams, I relive everything we went through, except there are changes. In most of them, I get shot, and I scream for help, but no one comes, and I realize everyone else has been shot as well. And I can feel myself dying little by little.” He rubbed his eyes before going on. “As hard as that is, it’s worse when I see them during the day—the ones who died, I mean. I’ll be at the store, and I’ll see them all, standing there blocking the aisle. Or they’re on the ground bleeding as medics work on them. But they never make a sound. All they do is stare at me, like it’s my fault they were wounded, or my fault that they’re dying. And then I blink and take a deep breath and they’re gone.” He stopped. “It makes me think I’m going crazy.”

“Have you talked to anyone about it?” Thibault asked.

“No one. Except for my wife, I mean, but when I say those things to her, she gets frightened and starts to cry. So I don’t talk to her about it anymore.”

Thibault said nothing.

“She’s pregnant, you know,” Victor went on.

Thibault smiled, grasping at this ray of hope. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you. It’s a boy. I’m going to name him Logan.”

Thibault sat up straight and nodded at Victor. “I’m honored.”

“It frightens me sometimes—the thought of having a son. I’m worried I won’t be a good father.” He stared out over the water.

“You’ll be a great dad,” Thibault assured him.

“Maybe.”

Thibault waited.

“I have no patience anymore. So many things make me angry. Little things, things that shouldn’t mean anything, but for some reason they do. And even though I try to push the anger back down, it sometimes comes out anyway. It hasn’t caused me any problems yet, but I wonder how long I can keep pushing it down before it gets away from me.” He adjusted the line with his fishing rod. “This happens to you, too?”

“Sometimes,” Thibault admitted.

“But not too often?”

“No.”

“I didn’t think so. I forgot that things are different for you. Because of the picture, I mean.”

Thibault shook his head. “That’s not true. It hasn’t been easy for me, either. I can’t walk down the street without looking over my shoulder or scanning the windows above to make sure no one has a gun pointed at me. And half the time, it’s like I don’t remember how to have an ordinary conversation with people. I can’t relate to most of their concerns. Who works where and how much they earn, or what’s on television, or who’s dating who. I feel like asking, Who cares?”

“You never were any good at making small talk,” Victor snorted.

“Thanks.”

“But as for looking over your shoulder, that’s normal. I do that, too.”

“Yeah?”

“But so far, no guns.”

Thibault laughed under his breath. “Good thing, huh?” Then, because he wanted to change the subject, he asked, “How do you like roofing?”

“It’s hot in the summer.”

“Like Iraq?”

“No. Nothing is hot like Iraq. But hot enough.” He smiled. “I got a promotion. I’m a crew leader now.”

“Good for you. How’s Maria?”

“Getting bigger, but she’s happy. And she is my life. I am so lucky to have married her.” He shook his head in wonder.

“I’m glad.”

“There is nothing like love. You should try it.”

Thibault shrugged. “Maybe one day.”

Elizabeth.

He’d seen something cross her face when he’d called her Elizabeth, some emotion he couldn’t identify. The name captured her essence far more than plain and simple “Beth.” There was an elegance to it that matched the graceful way she moved, and though he hadn’t planned on calling her that, the syllables had rolled off his tongue as if he’d had no choice.

On his walk back home, he found himself replaying their conversation and recalling how natural it felt to sit beside her. She was more relaxed than he’d imagined, but he could sense that, like Nana, she wasn’t sure what to think of him. Later, as he lay in bed at night staring at the ceiling, he wondered what she thought of him.

On Friday morning, Thibault made sure everything was taken care of before driving Nana to Greensboro in Elizabeth’s car. Zeus rode in the backseat with his head out the window for most of the trip, his ears blown back, intrigued by the ever changing smells and scenery. Thibault hadn’t expected Nana to allow Zeus to ride along, but she’d waved the dog into the car. “Beth won’t care. And besides, my case will fit in the trunk.”

The drive back to Hampton seemed to go faster, and when he pulled in he was pleased to see Ben near the house, tossing a ball into the air. Zeus bounded toward him expectantly, and Ben sent the ball flying. Zeus zoomed after it, his ears back, tongue hanging out. As Thibault approached, he saw Elizabeth walk out onto the front porch and realized with sudden certainty that she was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen. Dressed in a summer blouse and shorts that revealed her shapely legs, she gave a friendly wave when she spotted them, and it was all he could do not to stare.

“Hey, Thibault!” Ben called from the yard. He was chasing after Zeus, who pranced with the ball in his mouth, proud of his ability to stay just a couple of steps ahead of Ben no matter how fast the boy ran.

“Hey, Ben! How was school?”

“Boring!” he shouted. “How was work?”

“Exciting!”

Ben kept running. “Yeah, right!”

Since Ben had started school, they’d shared pretty much the same exchange every day. Thibault shook his head in amusement just as Elizabeth stepped down from the porch.

“Hi, Logan.”

“Hello, Elizabeth.”

She leaned against the railing, a slight smile on her face. “How was the drive?”

“Not too bad.”

“Must have been strange, though.”

“How so?”

“When was the last time you drove for five hours?”

He scratched at the back of his neck. “I don’t know. It’s been a long time.”

“Nana said you were kind of fidgety as you drove, like you couldn’t get comfortable.” She motioned over her shoulder. “I just hung up the phone with her. She’s already called twice.”

“Bored?”

“No, the first time she called to talk to Ben. To see how school went.”

“And?”

“He told her it was boring.”

“At least he’s consistent.”

“Sure, but I wish he would say something different. Like, ‘I learned a lot and have so much fun doing it.’” She smiled. “Every mother’s dream, right?”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Are you thirsty?” she asked. “Nana left some lemonade in a pitcher. She made it before she left this morning.”

“I’d love some. But I should probably check on the dogs’ water first.”

“Already done.” She turned and went to the door. She held it open for him. “Come on in. I’ll be just a minute, okay?”

He went up the steps, paused to wipe his feet, and stepped inside. Taking in the room, he noted the antique furniture and original paintings that hung on the wall. Like a country parlor, he thought, which wasn’t what he had pictured.

“Your home is lovely,” he called out.

“Thank you.” Her head poked out from the kitchen. “Haven’t you seen it before?”

“No.”

“I just assumed you had. Feel free to take a look around.”

She vanished from view, and Thibault wandered around the room, noting the collection of Hummels displayed on the shelves of the dining room hutch. He smiled. He’d always liked those things.