1.

Rigg had a headache. His mother was expecting him for dinner, but tonight he was just not up to it. He stood next to the phone in the kitchen, one hand rubbing his temple, and dialed his folks' number.

"h.e.l.lo," Virginia said into the receiver.

"Hey, Mom, I don't think I'm going to make it."

"Are you not feeling well, Donovan?"

"Just a headache. I think I'd better stay home."

"Why don't you come by long enough to fill a plate?"

"No, I think-"

"Lorraine, why don't we put that milk pitcher on the table now," Virginia said, barely moving the phone from her face. "What were you saying, dear?"

"Mother," Rigg's voice had dropped. "Who were you just talking to?"

"Me?" Virginia could have accepted the Academy Award then and there. "I wasn't talking to anyone."

The silence lasted only a moment.

325.

325.

"I'll be right over," Rigg said into the phone, not even giving his mother a chance to say goodbye.

Virginia had just replaced the receiver when Lorri poked her head around the corner.

"Did you say something to me, Mrs. Riggs?"

"No, dear. I was just on the phone."

Virginia smiled when Lorri nodded and went back to setting the table. Right now she thought she could smile for the rest of her life.

Much as Rigg's heart told him to run, he walked. He knew his mother would not play games with him. If Lorri wasn't there, she would have admitted it to him, but Rigg couldn't quite get his mind around the fact that he was going to see her in just a moment.

Slipping in the back door as he always did, Rigg stepped into the dining room and found her setting the table with his brother. Mitch was the first to spot him. He set down the cup he was holding and waited. Lorri saw that action and looked up.

"Hi," she said, loving that she was in the same room with him.

"h.e.l.lo, yourself," Rigg said, just wanting to drink in the sight of her. He glanced around but didn't see her family. "How did you get here?"

"The bus."

"Is Max here with you?"

"No." Lorri began to smile.

"Your mother?"

"No."

Rigg could feel his heart beginning to pound.

326.

"You came alone?"

Lorri just nodded, and Rigg came toward her, took her hand, and led her toward the back hall where he'd just come in.

"If you'll excuse us for just a moment" he said to his family, who had all stood watching with unabashed curiosity. Once in the hall, he turned and took Lorri in his arms.

"Please tell me you're here to say yes to my question."

"I am," Lorri told him and watched Rigg's eyes shut, his forehead coming to rest on hers.

Lorri smiled up at him and waited for him to look at her.

"I love you so much," he said.

"I love you too." They had said it in letters; it felt so good to say it again in person. "I came on the bus to tell you."

Rigg wanted nothing more than to kiss her, but his family was waiting. Still holding her hand, Rigg went back to the dining room.

"Dad, Mom, Mitch, I want you to meet the future Mrs. Donovan Riggs."

As might have been expected, dinner was a little late.

327TtOCHtfttufy "When will you marry me?" Rigg asked. He and Lorri had offered to do the dishes. It gave them a chance to be alone.

"Well, I'm going to Minnesota with Grandpa and my mother at the end of September. We'll be gone for about three weeks. I can marry you any time after that."

Rigg smiled at her pragmatic tone, but he actually had tougher questions he needed to have answered.

"What changed for you? Why did you come?"

Lorri dried a dish and thought about how to answer.

"I was afraid, but I couldn't see that. I thought I just needed to be near my family because of all the changes in the last year, but it was fear."

"Of what?"

"Fear that they'll die when I'm away, like Josie did for them. Fear that I won't see them again on this earth."

"Is the fear gone now?"

"Not all of it, but I'm fighting it. I'm trying not to let it control me."

328.

Rigg didn't want to keep his distance any longer. He came close enough to kiss her but just looked into her eyes.

"I was coming to see you this weekend. Did I tell you that?"

"No, but I hadn't seen you since the weekend you proposed, and I thought you might come down. I was afraid we'd pa.s.s each other on the road. That's why I came on a Thursday."

"I'm not going to want to go to work tomorrow."

"But we have all day Sat.u.r.day."

"And Sunday."

"No, Rigg, I have to be on the morning bus in order to get home by evening."

Rigg shook his head. "I'll take you home."

Lorri frowned. "Do you have Monday off?"

"No, but we'll leave early like the bus would have; we'll make much better time than the bus does; and I'll get back when I get back."

"That's an awful lot of driving."

Rigg got a little closer. "Ask me if I mind."

Lorri smiled, and Rigg wasn't willing to wait any more. He kissed her. Not a long, pa.s.sionate kiss, but one that still left them a little breathless.

"What day did you say you would marry me?" Rigg asked comically, giving Lorri the giggles.

Del was headed to the kitchen from the living room. He wanted a gla.s.s of water, but the sound of Lord's quiet laughter stopped him. They had so little time together before Lorri would have to go back. Del knew the drink could wait.

329.

329.

"Okay, have you got the calendar?" Rigg asked. It was early Sunday morning, and they had been on the road for all of ten minutes.

"I have it."

"Okay, mark the dates you're gone on your trip."

Lorri turned to the end of September and circled the date her mother had written on the calendar at home. She paged ahead three weeks later and circled that day.

"When will you be back?"

"Around the twentieth of October."

"Okay. How much time will you need after that?"

"For what?"

"Oh, you know, finding a dress and such."

"My mother will make my dress."

"Does she sew that well?"

"She sews so well that you don't realize she's made many of the things we wear."

"I had no idea."

Lorri only smiled but didn't look back at the calendar. Rigg knew he was excited to find a date and wondered why she wasn't. He asked her.

"I am excited," she told him, "but it's just occurred to me that I don't know all that goes into this. I want things to be simple. Is that going to be all right with you?"

"Are you asking me about simple? I'm the one who wanted to suggest elopement to you all weekend."

Lorri loved this. She laughed and looked over at him behind the wheel. Rigg glanced her way several times.

"Don't you want to scoot over here and sit in the middle of the seat?"

330.

"I do, as a matter of fact," Lorri told him but held her place.

Rigg had to smile. "You're a smart girl, Lorraine Archer."

"I might be, but I think mostly you've just remembered that my grandpa was an admiral."

It was Rigg's turn to laugh, and Lorri hoped they would do just that all the way home.

The family was very pleased to see Lorri earlier than expected, a ring on her hand and Rigg in the bargain. Lorri, however, knew that Rigg had to get back on the road and didn't take long to call a business meeting-wedding business.

"So what's a good time, Mother?" she asked the woman she thought would have all the answers to such things. "How much time do we need after the trip?"

"Well, do you want something fancy and grand?"

"No," Rigg and Lorri said together, causing Dean to chuckle.

"Have you considered eloping?" Dean asked, and it was Ruth's turn to say no.

"We want something simple," Lorri told her. "I don't want a fancy gown or an elaborate reception."