Head Over Heels by Elizabeth Harbison

Author:Elizabeth Harbison [Harbison, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781460378182
Publisher: MIRA Books
Published: 2014-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Epilogue

A month after the ball, they were sitting on the porch swing on Grace’s mother’s veranda. The harvest moon shone overhead like a great big night-light, casting a silvery glow over the landscape and throwing tall shadows from the trees onto the lawn.

“I have something for you,” Luke said. He seemed nervous. It might have been her imagination, but he was talking a little faster than normal, and when he took her hands his appeared to be shaking.

Maybe he’d just had coffee with dinner and it was the caffeine.

Luke had been in meetings all day with financial advisers and the board of directors, but he’d called her late in the morning to arrange to see her. He said it was important, and that he wanted her to wait up even though he couldn’t get there before about ten o’clock.

Staying up was easy. Waiting, however, was more difficult. Grace wondered all day what he had to say to her, especially on the heels of an all-day board extravaganza. Was it good news…like she was getting a raise?

Or bad…like she was fired?

Did he have an actual pink slip to give her?

“What’s going on, Luke?” she asked. “Is this good or bad?”

“It’s good. I mean, I hope you’ll think it’s good.” He cleared his throat and reached into his pocket.

Grace’s breath caught in her throat.

He pulled out a small black velvet box. “This is for you. I hope you’ll accept it.”

This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. She hadn’t expected it at all, yet nothing had ever come as a more welcome surprise. “Luke, is this…?” She took the box and opened it.

But when she looked in, she nearly started in surprise. Then she gave a shout of laughter. The cardboard insert had been taken out of the box to make the inside roomy enough to hold a gleaming silver key. “Now I really don’t know what to say. What is this?”

“Come and see,” he said, standing up and leading her off the porch. They stepped down into the darkness of the front yard, and Grace realized that Luke’s car wasn’t parked in the usual spot on the driveway.

“Where did you park?”

“Shh!” He led her around the side of the house and stood back. “Voilà!”

There, under the light of her father’s shed, was a brand-new shining yellow school bus.

She looked at it wryly and chuckled. “I guess I’m not fired, then.”

“Why would you be fired? You’re the best bus driver we’ve ever had. Apart from me, that is.”

She smiled and shook her head. “High praise indeed.” A tiny disappointment wormed its way around her stomach, but she tried not to let it show. “Wow. Too bad Jimmy’s already asleep. This is something.”

“Got it today,” Luke said proudly. “As you can see, we haven’t even had time to have the school name painted on the side.”

“It’s…great.”

“You bet it is. It even has air-conditioning.” He led her to the door. “Go inside. Check it out.”

She opened the door and climbed aboard, with Luke close behind. The interior smelled of new vinyl.

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