He summoned up his courage. "I love you, Meg."
"Whatever. Can I go now?"
He tilted his head toward the statue. "The most important event of my childhood happened over there."
"Yeah, I remember. Your youthful act of vandalism."
"Right." He swallowed. "And it seems fitting that the most important event of my manhood should happen there, too."
"Wouldn't that have been when you lost your virginity? What were you? Twelve?"
"Listen to me, Meg. I love you."
She couldn't have been less interested. "You should get therapy. Seriously. Your sense of responsibility has gotten way out of control." She patted his arm. "It's over, Ted. Throw away all that guilt. I've moved on and, frankly, you're starting to seem a little pathetic."
He wouldn't let her get to him. "The truth is, I wanted to have this conversation out there on Liberty Island. Unfortunately, I was banned for life, so that's not possible. Being banned didn't seem like such a big deal when I was nine, but it sure as hell feels like one now."
"Do you think you could wind this up? I have some paperwork I need to get done tonight."
"What kind of paperwork?"
"My admission papers. I'm starting classes at NYU in January."
His gut churned. This was definitely not something he wanted to hear. "You're going back to school?"
She nodded. "I finally figured out what I want to do with my life."
"I thought you were designing jewelry?"
"That's paying the bills. Most of them, anyway. But it's not what satisfies me."
He wanted to be what satisfied her.
She finally started to talk without being prodded. Unfortunately, it wasn't about the two of them. "I'll be able to finish my bachelor's degree in environmental science by summer and go right into a master's program."
"That's . . . great." Not great at all. "Then what?"
"Maybe work for the National Park Service or something like the Nature Conservancy. I might be able to manage a land protection program. There are a lot of options. Waste management, for example. Most people don't see that as a glamorous field, but the landfill fascinated me from the beginning. My dream job is- " Just like that, she broke off. "I'm getting cold. Let's go back."
"What about your dream job?" He prayed she'd say something along the line of being his wife and the mother of his children, but that didn't seem too realistic.
She spoke briskly, stranger to stranger. "Turning environmental wastelands into recreational areas is what I'd really like to do, and you can consider yourself responsible. Now this has been loads of fun, but I'm out of here. And this time, don't try to stop me."
She turned her back and began to walk away, a grim, humorless, red-haired woman who was tough as nails and no longer wanted him in her life.
He panicked. "Meg! I love you! I want to marry you!"
"That's weird," she said without stopping. "Only six weeks ago, you were telling me all about how Lucy broke your heart."
"I was wrong. Lucy broke my brain."
That finally stopped her. "Your brain?" She looked back at him.
"That's right," he said more quietly. "When Lucy ran out on me, she broke my brain. But when you left . . ." To his dismay, his voice cracked. "When you left, you broke my heart."
He finally had her full attention, not that she looked at all dreamy-eyed or even close to being ready to throw herself into his arms, but at least she was listening.
He collapsed the umbrella, took a step forward, then stopped himself. "Lucy and I fit together so perfectly in my head. We had everything in common, and what she did made no sense. I had the whole town lining up feeling sorry for me, and I was damned if I was going to let anybody know how miserable I was. I-I couldn't get my bearings. And there you were in the middle of it, this beautiful thorn in my side, making me feel like myself again. Except . . ." He hunched his shoulders, and a trickle of rainwater ran down his collar. "Sometimes logic can be an enemy. If I was so wrong about Lucy, how could I trust the way I felt about you?"
She stood there, not saying a word, just listening.
"I wish I could say I realized how much I loved you as soon as you left town, but I was too busy being mad at you for bailing on me. I don't have a lot of practice being mad, so it took me a while to understand that the person I was really mad at was myself. I was so pigheaded and stupid. And afraid. Everything has always come so easy for me, but nothing about you was easy. The things you made me feel. The way you forced me to look at myself." He could barely breathe. "I love you, Meg. I want to marry you. I want to sleep with you every night, make love with you, have kids. I want to fight together and work together and-just be together. Now are you going to keep standing there, staring at me, or could you put me out of my misery and say you still love me, at least a little?"