Dawn's Light (17 page)

That was just one of the things the Pulses had clarified for her.

She heard Craig's voice downstairs, and she stepped out into the hall as he came up. He looked tired and distracted. “Hey, are you coming to the party?”

He smiled at the sight of her. “What party?”

“Chris's party, remember?”

He hit his forehead. “Oh, yeah. I've been so busy, I forgot. Yeah, I'll come for a little while, but then I have to go back to the office. I was just taking a break.”

“I was about to leave.” She had run out of lip gloss, so she took some Vaseline and slicked it on her lips. It would have to do.

He leaned in the bathroom doorway, watching her. The intimacy in that struck her, and she turned away from the mirror.

“You look pretty,” he said.

“Thank you.” She moved to the door, but he didn't step out of the way. She looked up at him. “I … need to get to my purse.”

Finally, he moved aside. “Wait a minute and I'll come with you.”

She went into her bedroom and stared down at her purse, wondering if she should tell him she'd rather go without him. The last thing she wanted was for anyone to think she was his date. But since they were both going to the same place, it would be absurd to make him wait ten minutes and walk there alone.

She waited for him downstairs, and in a few minutes he was ready. “Wanna take my car?”

She glanced at it as they stepped outside. “I thought you were supposed to conserve gas.”

“I am, but it's not that far.”

“We can walk.”

“Sure? It's been a long time since you've ridden in one.”

“Not really. Mark drives a patrol car. He gives me rides sometimes.”

He smirked. “Good ole Mark.”

She breathed a laugh.

“Are you ready to get started Monday?” he asked as they walked.

“More than ready. I can't wait. But I felt bad when I told my editor. She really depends a lot on me.”

“Then she should pay you better.”

“She pays me what she can afford.”

“Then she can't afford you.”

Deni looked up at him. “The job wasn't about money, you know. I loved what I was doing. I did it for free before she hired me.”

“Yeah, but labors of love don't help you climb the employment ladder. You need some résumé enhancers. Some real work with real pay.”

She didn't like the mercenary way that sounded, but she let it go. “So how are things going? Made any progress?”

“We're still hiring, trying to build our workforce so we can get the circuits repaired in the power substations. We've made some progress toward getting the refineries powered. I'm guessing some of them will have electricity in the next few days, if everything stays on schedule.”

“And if they work, then we'll be able to get fuel?”

“That's right. It's the domino effect. You can't do one thing without the other.”

Her excitement waxed again. She would be in on all of this. Participating in the recovery. Making things happen.

Chris's front door was wide open, and Deni heard laughter and voices inside. She led Craig in, smiling at the transformation the house had undergone in just the last hour. It glowed with candlelight, and Chris greeted everyone at the door. Her blonde curls were loosely pulled into a striking updo that gave her a look of sophistication and elegance. She looked polished and lovely. Deni was impressed.

As they walked into the living room, she felt Craig's proprietary hand on her back. She tried to walk faster, to put some distance between them, but he kept pace. She looked around, hoping Mark was there so she could quickly put to rest any appearance that she was with Craig. But Mark hadn't yet arrived.

Jeff, Deni's brother, was already there, playing guitar with his friend Zach, providing a nice musical ambience.

People stood in clusters, talking and laughing. Deni saw Amber, her next-door neighbor. She sometimes forgot that Amber wasn't much older than she. Raising three preschoolers alone made her seem so much older. She sat on a barstool talking to Will Truman and George Mason, two of the town's paramedics. Will had a girl with him that Deni didn't recognize, but George had his eyes on Chris as she flitted around greeting her guests.

Deni decided to see what she could do to help that along. She got a cup of water and held it like a cocktail as she joined them. “You guys clean up nice. Amber, I love your blouse.”

Amber looked down at herself, as if she couldn't believe someone would compliment her. She was beautiful when she fixed herself up, but she still had that sad glint to her eyes that reminded Deni she wasn't finished grieving over her marriage.

“This is great, isn't it? Doesn't Chris look beautiful?”

George grinned. “Does she? I hadn't noticed.”

“Liar,” Will said. “You can't keep your eyes off her.”

“If you're interested,” Deni said, “you'd better snap her up. There are other eligible bachelors here.”

Amber bit into an apple slice. “Are you back with that guy?”

Deni glanced back at Craig. Chris was introducing him around as though he were a celebrity. “No, I'm still with Mark. Craig's just a friend now.”

“Must be weird having him staying with you when you two were engaged.”

Deni sighed and lowered her voice. “It is, frankly. But it's just temporary.”

Amber sighed. “Just be careful. You don't want to choose the wrong guy and wind up like me.”

Deni winced. “Have you heard from Mike since the banks opened?”

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “He served me with divorce papers. He's trying to get the courts on his side about the money. But Brad hooked me up with a pro bono attorney, so we'll make sure they know about his girlfriend—and the abandonment.” Her eyes welled as she looked down at her glass. “Thing is, I really don't want a divorce.”

“I know.”

“But what can you do, if they just leave?” Amber drew in a breath and dabbed at her eyes. Looking through the crowd, she nodded toward Derek and Cathy Morton. “Hope someone can save
that
marriage.”

Deni's gaze drifted through the crowd to Derek Morton, the doctor who lived in the neighborhood, and his wife Cathy. Cathy looked flashy in a gold lamé blouse. Deni had rarely seen her without her baby since it was born seven months before, but her eyes darted to and fro as if trying to catch another woman meeting Derek's eyes. The problem was, his eyes did rove. Hopefully no one here would return his interest.

Deni heard a knock at the door and turned to see Mark coming in. Her heart fluttered at the sight of him in a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt with a picture of a globe on it and an arrow that said, “You are here”—a stark contrast to the khakis and button-down dress shirt Craig wore. A smile lifted her face as she waited for him to meet her eyes.

Finally, they connected. He winked, and she went toward him, forgetting all about Craig. She took his hand and reached up to kiss him, and saw the pleasure in his eyes. “Where've you been? I thought you'd never get here.”

“Hey, I had to make my entrance.” He glanced across and found Craig, surrounded by people bending his ear about the recovery. “Seriously, I didn't want to come in uniform, so I went home to change.” He leaned down to her ear and said, “What's with you coming with Craig? My mother said she saw you walking over.”

“He was there and I was there, and we were coming at the same time. But don't worry. I'm with you. I'll make sure everyone knows it.”

He checked out her face, and she hoped he saw the sincerity there. He was tanned dark, and his black hair was a little shaggier than normal. She loved it like that.

“You look great,” he whispered against her hair. “Smell good, too.”

The hairs on her neck rose. “Want a water cocktail?” she asked.

He grinned. “Make it a double.”

“
And
apple hors d'oeuvres, which I helped make.”

“And very skillfully from what I can see.”

She took his hand and led him to the kitchen.

L
ATER THAT NIGHT
, D
ENI MANAGED TO PULL
M
ARK AWAY FROM THE
others, and they sat outside on a bench at the back of the yard—now a vegetable garden. It wasn't as pretty as it had been in the pre-outage days, but it was quiet and more private than the noisy house.

“Finally alone,” he said, sliding his arm around her and stroking her hair. “I was beginning to lose hope that would ever happen again.”

“Nothing's changed.”

“Everything's changed,” he said. “Mr. Government Official rides back into town, bent on taking you back, and moves into your house.”

“He really isn't there much. My mom has started cleaning up Eloise's house for him. He'll move soon.”

“Won't happen.”

Deni frowned. “Why not?”

“Because where he is, he has immediate access to you at all times, he can watch what you're doing, and he can undermine our relationship.”

She sighed. “Mark, he has a lot more on his mind than me. Hey, you never told me how your Bible study with him went.”

He breathed a laugh. “It was more like a chess match, if you want to know the truth.”

“Chess? What do you mean? Did you two butt heads over the Bible?”

“No, we butted heads over you. He accused me of asking him to do this Bible study just to make him look bad to you.”

She tilted her head. “
Is
that the reason?”

“No. I honestly thought it would be the right thing to do. But frankly, I don't like the idea of you—” He raised his fingers in air quotes—“
helping
him go over the book of John. I didn't intend for this to be more of a bonding time for you two.”

“Mark, what would you have expected me to do? He was studying the Bible and he didn't understand it. This was all your idea, you know.”

“I know. I've been kicking myself ever since.”

“And here I thought you really wanted to disciple him.”

“Oh, he doesn't need discipling,” Mark said. “That would make me superior, and he can't let that happen.”

“So you're not meeting again?”

“Next week.”

She couldn't help laughing. “I don't get you two. If you hate each other, why are you doing it again?”

“We don't hate each other, Deni. We're just very competitive about you. The stakes are very high.”

On some absurd level, she thought that was sweet. “Well, you don't have to be. I didn't pull
him
away from the party, did I? I've been missing you like crazy. I haven't seen enough of you lately.”

“You just saw me a few hours ago.”

“For half an hour.” She leaned into him. “Not enough.”

He wet his lips and looked down at her, and she saw the twinkle in his eyes, as if her words had done him good. She slid her hand down his face, and he took it and kissed her fingertips. “You give me goose bumps,” he said.

His words delighted her. A soft breeze whispered through the leaves, and from the house she could hear the soft thrum of guitar chords. She could sit here like this for hours.

He kissed her, and she forgot about Craig and the infrastructure of the country, the Pulses, and the struggles. Instead she savored the feeling of perfect security, certain love, and the joy of Mark's arms around her.

W
HEN THEY WENT BACK IN, THE DYNAMIC OF THE PARTY HAD
changed. Craig sat in the easy chair usually occupied by Chris's father, and all attention was turned on him.

Chris sat on the floor at his feet, looking up at him with rapt attention.

“The third-world countries will probably have telephone service before we will,” Craig was saying. “They used to get our outdated technology, so a lot of them are still using mechanical switches. The Pulses didn't affect those. Most of ours were converted to solid-state switches years ago. Those were all fried.”

“What about the small towns that haven't been updated?” Max Lamb asked. “Some of them still have mechanical switches.”

“Right,” Craig said. “Those may actually have local phone service before we do here.”

“What about long-distance service? I'd love to call my parents in Tuscaloosa,” Amber said.

“I'm afraid long distance is going to take much longer than local service. And if any of you have those antique hand-cranked phones in your attic somewhere, you might want to get them down. Those will work well with a switchboard, and you'll have phone service faster. And rotary phones will be back faster than push-button phones.”

“How do you keep up with all this?” Cathy Morton asked.

“With lots of help,” he said. “No kidding. We have to hire thousands of people.”

“Are you hiring nurses?” Chris teased.

“You laugh,” he said. “But I'll need liaisons with the hospitals when we get to that point.”

“We already have physical plant directors for that sort of thing,” she said. “I would think you'd be working more with them. Not nurses.”

“Once our workforce is up and running, we'll need an infirmary. Seriously, stop by and talk to us.”

Chris shrugged. “I don't know. I think I'm probably best used where I am.”

Deni was proud of her for not being seduced by Craig's sales pitch—even though Deni had been herself. She noticed a look pass between Chris and George Mason. The paramedic seemed to feel the same way. They were both called to do what they did, and they were sorely needed.

“So you don't want to get on the ground floor of serving your country in such an important way?” Craig pressed.

Chris had a playful look on her face as she looked up at him. “I am serving my country. I've been serving them throughout the whole thing.”

“Well, yeah. But they don't pay you enough.”

“Hey,” she said, getting to her feet. “Last week, I got paid with four jars of honey. The week before, I brought home a goat. So I don't know what you're talking about, mister. I'm doing just fine.”

Everyone laughed, and Chris changed the subject. “Anybody want pie?”

thirty-seven

D
ENI WAS INITIATED INTO THE RECOVERY TEAM ON
FEMA Disbursement Day, after several days of preparation and training. She'd been given guidelines on what kinds of people they were looking to hire at that event, and she was among the staff that would take applications. Those with experience could be hired on the spot—others would need interviews. Coordinating the starting dates was one of her jobs. It would be impossible to process a thousand new employees on the same day, so the starting dates had to be staggered to best accommodate the needs of the teams.