Sarah and Kevin 50

"What the hell is going on?" Kevin yelled. She flinched and buried her head in her arms.

"Nothing now," said Peter from the bedroom.

Kevin stepped past her. The thud of a body being forced into the wall made Sarah flinch again.

"What did you do to her now?" Kevin shouted.

Sarah felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Tom offering his hand to help her up.

"You know what she said tonight? 'There'll never be another Kevin.' She really loves you." Peter's voice sounded tired and sad.

Sarah took Tom's hand and got up from the floor. She tried to walk to her door, but he pulled her into his bedroom and made her sit down on Kevin's bed.

"Answer my question!" Kevin ordered.

"Button your shirt," Tom said. Sarah did and tucked it in. She lifted her skirt and looked at her knees. Rug burns on both of them.

"I didn't do anything to her." Peter said calmly. "I almost had her convinced that she should sleep with me and then she heard your voice and ran."

"Wait here," Tom said. When he returned he had the first aid kit from the bathroom with him.

"She loves you, Kevin. So much that she wants to make you hate her so that you will come with us to California and not think twice." Peter continued.

Tom cleaned and bandaged her knees. Sarah didn't even try to breathe through the pain. She felt she deserved it.

"I told her that if you caught us in bed together you would let her go."

"You told her that?" Kevin sounded like he was beside himself. "I love her and you're trying to sleep with her!" Another thud.

"Nothing happened!" Peter yelled.

"What the hell, Peter? Why would you do that? Can't you see how miserable they've both been?" Scott asked.

"What? Does he have some divine right to her? Look at what I did to her and how I treated her. Instead of kicking me out, she got me to go get help. No other woman has ever done that for me. So, yeah, I was willing to play dirty to get her." Peter took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Kev."

"Just shut up!" Kevin slammed Peter into the wall one more time.

Tom pulled her skirt down to cover her knees and stood up. Through the doorway, she saw Kevin come and into the hall and look for her. He tried to open her door.

"God damn it," Kevin said and put his forehead against the door.

"Kevin" Tom said. He turned around and saw Sarah. He rushed in and dropped to his knees in front of her. Tom left and closed the door behind him as Kevin wrapped his arms around Sarah. She didn't hug him back.

Kevin sighed. "I can't take this shit. If you love me, tell me."

Sarah looked at him, tears pouring down her face. "I don't want you to be fifty years old looking back on your life and saying, 'I really could have been something if it hadn't been for that Sarah bitch'." she wailed.

"Do you love me?" Kevin asked.

"I don't want to hold you back."

"Do you love me or not?"

"Kevin, why are you making this so hard? You have a chance to do what you've always wanted to do; what you were born to do. I'm not going to stand in your way."

Kevin took her face in his hands. She could feel him shaking. He kissed her softly. She felt the barbed wire around her heart fall away.

"Do you love me or don't you?" he asked, his face inches from hers.

"Yes. I love you," she said and started sobbing. He stood up and laid down on the bed, pulling her down next to him. He handed her some tissues and held her until she was cried out.

"I thought you would just come with me." he said quietly.

Sarah felt her heart flip. She looked over at him.

"But what about my job? And my house?"

"They make laptop computers, you know." he teased. "And we'd still need a place to live when we weren't on the road."

Sarah sighed. "I don't know. I need a shower and some time to think. Go practice. I'll see you when you're done."

"Don't lock me out again, please."

"Here" she handed him her key. "Now I can't."


Harvest Time

"Hi Mom,
Sarah and I are together again. I'm trying to convince her to come with me when we go to record.
We cut a deal for 5 CD's with tours for each one.
If Sarah agrees to come with me, my life will be perfect.
Love,
Kevin"

Kevin went into his room and opened the top drawer in his night stand. He pulled out his mother's engagement ring and looked at it again. He took a deep breath. It's time. He swallowed hard, clenched the box in his fist and went into the kitchen.

Sarah was at the sink, washing some salad greens. He stood in the doorway and watched her. She carefully cleaned the leaves, discarding some and tearing others into pieces before putting them on the kitchen towel. She was dressed in black as usual. Her long hair was twisted up into a bun with little strands of it sticking out all over. Her feet were bare and he noticed that her toenails were painted pink today. You are beautiful and I love you. She gathered the corners of the towel and turned to walk outside.

"Oh" she said, startled. And then she smiled at him. "Hey. I didn't see you there. What are you up to?"

Kevin shook his head. "Nothing. Just watching you."

"Well, I'm going to go out and spin this salad." She said.

"OK" he said and walked over to his usual Sarah viewing chair and sat down. He set the box on the table and folded his hands around it. Sarah went out and spun the towel with the greens in it a few times. He watched her out the window. She walked back in and dumped the greens into a bowl.

"Sarah, can I talk to you?" he asked quietly. She turned to face him with a frightened look in her eyes.

"Sure," she said.

"Can you come here and sit down?" he asked, pointing to the chair next to him. She pulled the chair out and sat down.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing. You know that I love you and I want you to come with me when we leave, right?"

"Yes. We have a lot of details we need to work out on that still." she replied.

"I know. That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Kevin slid out of his chair and knelt down on one knee in front of Sarah. He opened the ring box and offered it to her. "Will you marry me?" He looked up at her.

Kevin had never seen so many emotions move over one face so quickly. There was disbelief, joy, fear, embarrassment, adoration and several others he couldn't place. Sarah blinked like she had just come out into bright sunlight and then she looked at Kevin. For a moment, he felt like she was staring straight into his soul. Without removing her gaze, she clasped his hand, ring box and all in both of hers.

"I would be honored to be your wife," she whispered.