"They'll probably wilt," he told her.
"We can stick them in a water glass at the restaurant."
Tristan smiled. "That will show the maitre d' what kind of class we have."
"They're beautiful!"
"Yeah," he said softly. His eyes ran all over her, as if he were memorizing her. Then he kissed her on the forehead and held the roses while she got in the car.
As they drove they talked about their plans for the summer. Ivy was glad Tristan took the old routes rather than the highway. The trees were cool and musky with June. Light dappled their branches like gold coins slipping through angels' fingers. Tristan drove the winding roads with one hand on the steering wheel, the other reaching out for hers, as if she might slip away.
"I want to go to Juniper Lake," Ivy said. "I'm going to float out there in the deepest part, float for an hour, with the sun shooting sparkles at my fingers and toes-" "Till along comes a big fish," Tristan teased.
"I'll float in the moonlight too," she went on.
"The moonlight? You'd swim in the dark?"
"With you I would. We could skinny-dip."
He glanced over at her and their eyes held for a moment.
"Better not look at you and drive at the same time," he said.
"Then stop driving," she replied quietly.
He glanced quickly at her, and she put her hand over her mouth. The words had escaped, and she suddenly felt shy and embarrassed. Couples dressed up and on their way to expensive restaurants didn't pull over to make out.
"We'll be late for our reservation," she said. "You should keep going."
Tristan eased the car off the road.
"There's the river," he said. "Do you want to walk down to it?"
"Yes."
She laid the roses in the back of the car. Tristan came around to open Ivy's door "Are you going to be able to walk in those shoes?" Tristan asked, glancing down at Ivy's high heels.
She stood up. Both heels sank straight down in the mud.
Ivy laughed, and Tristan picked her up. "I'll give you a lift," he said.
"No, you'll drop me in the mud!"
"Not till we get there," he said, and hoisted her up higher till he held her legs, letting the top half of her fall over his shoulder as if he were carrying a sack.
Ivy laughed and pounded him on the back. Her hair was coming out of its pins. "My hair! My hair! Let me down!"
He pulled her back, and she slid down the front of him, her skirt riding up, her hair tumbling down.
"Ivy."
He held her so tightly against him, she could feel the trembling up and down his body.
"Ivy?" he whispered.
She opened her mouth and pressed it against his neck.
At the same time, they both reached for the handle and pulled open the car's back door.
"I never knew how romantic a backseat could be," Ivy joked a while later. She rested against the seat, smiling at Tristan. Then she looked past him at the pile of junk on the car floor. "Maybe you should pull your tie out of that old Burger King cup."
Tristan reached down and grimaced. He tossed the dripping thing into the front of the car, then sat back next to Ivy.
"Ow!" The smell of crushed flowers filled the air.
Ivy laughed out loud.
"What's so funny?" Tristan asked, pulling from behind him the smashed roses, but he was laughing, too.
"What if someone had come along and seen your father's Clergy sticker on the bumper?"
Tristan tossed the flowers in the front seat and pulled her toward him again. He traced the silk strap of her dress, then tenderly kissed her shoulder. "I'd have told then I was with an angel."
"Oh, what a line!"
"Ivy, I love you!" Tristan said, his face suddenly serious.
She stared back at him, then bit her lip.
"This isn't some kind of game for me. I love you, Ivy, and one day you're going to believe me."
She put her arms around him and held him tightly. "Love you" she whispered into his neck. Ivy did believe him, and she trusted him as she trusted no one else. One day she'd have the nerve to say it, all of the words out loud. I love you, Tristan. She'd shout it out the windows. She'd string a banner straight across the school pool.
It took a few minutes to straighten themselves up. Ivy started laughing again. Tristan smiled and watched her try to tame her gold tumbleweed of hair-a useless effort. Then he started the car, urging it over the ruts and stones and onto the narrow road.
"Last glimpse of the river," he said as the road made a sharp turn away from it.
The June sun, dropping over the west ridge of the Connecticut countryside, shafted light on the very tops of the trees, flaking them with gold. The winding road slipped below, into a tunnel of maples, poplars, and oaks. Ivy felt as if she were sliding under the waves with Tristan, the setting sun glittering on top, the two of them moving together through a chasm of blue, purple, and deep green. Tristan flicked on his headlights.
"You really don't have to hurry," said Ivy. "I'm not hungry anymore."
"I ruined your appetite?"
She shook her head. "I guess I'm all filled up with happiness," she said softly.
The car sped along and took a curve sharply.
"I said, we don't have to hurry."
"That's funny," Tristan murmured. "I wonder what's-" He glanced down at his feet. "This doesn't feel…"
"Slow down, okay? It doesn't matter if we're a little late- Oh!" Ivy pointed straight ahead.
"Tristan!"
Something had plunged through the bushes and into the roadway. She hadn't seen what it was, just the flicker of motion among the deep shadows. Then the deer stopped. It turned its head, its eyes drawn to the car's bright headlights.
"Tristan!"
They were rushing toward the shining eyes.
"Tristan, don't you see it?"
Rushing still.
"Ivy, something's-" "A deer!" she exclaimed.
The animal's eyes blazed. Then light came from behind it, a bright burst around its dark shape. A car was coming from the opposite direction. Trees walled them in. There was no room to veer left or right.
"Stop!" she shouted. "1' m-" "Stop, why don't you stop?" she pleaded. "Tristan, stop!"
It was dazzling: the eye of the deer like a dark tunnel, the center of it bursting with light. Tristan braked and braked, but nothing would stop the rushing, nothing could keep him from speeding through the long funnel of darkness into an explosion of light.
For a moment he felt a tremendous weight, as if the trees and sky had collapsed on him. Then, with the explosion of light, the weight was lifted. Somehow he had gotten free.
She needs you.
"Ivy!" he called out.
The darkness swirled in again, the road around him like a Twirl-a-paint, black spinning with red, night swirling with the pulsing light of an ambulance.
She needs you.
He did not hear it, but he understood it. Did the others? "Ivy! Where's Ivy? You have to help Ivy!"
She was lying still. Bathed in red.
"Somebody help her! You've got to save her!"
But he could not hold on to the paramedic, could not even pull on his sleeve.
"No pulse," a woman said. "No chance."
"Help her!"
The swirling ran long and streaky now. Ribbons of light and dark rushed past him horizontally.
Was she with him? The siren wailed: I-veee. I-veee.
Then he was in a square room. It was day there, or as bright as. People were rushing around.
Hospital, he thought. Something was laid over his face, and the light was blocked out. He wasn't sure how long it was out.
Someone leaned over him. "Tristan." The voice broke.
"Dad?"
"Oh, my God, why did you let this happen?"
"Dad, where's Ivy? Is she okay?"