Daughters of the Lake(18)
“Okay, I made that stuff up about the new kid buying drinks,” Kevin confessed with a grin. “I really wanted to get to know you better, and I wasn’t sure you’d come if it was just the two of us. Will you stay?”
Kate slid into the chair next to him. “Only if you’re buying the drinks,” she said.
“Fair enough,” he said, motioning for the waiter.
Kate smiled. Her new job had just gotten that much more interesting. The conversation between them that evening wound its way from the safe and shallow waters of what Kate might expect on the job, to favorite movies and restaurants, to deeper subjects like their childhoods and transformative college experiences. Kate was fond of saying she had fallen in love with Kevin during that first evening together, somewhere between his hilarious story about a prom night in which his car had ended up at the bottom of the Sandy River and her tale of a college escapade in which she and her friends had stolen lawn ornaments from all over town—plastic deer and ducks and flamingos—and planted them in her then-boyfriend’s front lawn. But in her heart, Kate knew she had fallen in love with Kevin the moment she saw him sitting alone at the table. There was just something about the sight of him there, waiting for her. As though he had been waiting his whole life for her to walk through the door. She confessed it to Simon the next day.
“I saw him and instantly knew I was going to marry him,” she’d sighed on the phone to her cousin. “I’ve just met my future husband. Mark my words.”
Kevin and Kate didn’t tell anyone else they were dating. Office romances were frowned upon at the paper, and both of them were relatively new on the job. Kate, in fact, was just beginning the three-month probationary period, customary at many workplaces, and neither she nor Kevin wanted to muddy the waters of their employment with rumors of an affair. At work, they were cool, cordial coworkers. Nobody guessed that their friendly, though somewhat formal, demeanor with each other concealed a great fire. Kevin was a master at masking his feelings; he was so good, in fact, that early on, Kate spent many days at work wondering if she had misinterpreted his ardor that first night.
They would leave the office separately, each talking loudly about hitting the gym or doing some shopping, only to meet later at her house. At that time, Kate was renting a small cottage on a lake a few miles outside of town. When she chose the house for its old-fashioned charm and its lake view, she had no idea that its remote location would make it a very convenient place to conduct a clandestine romance. Nobody would come to her house unannounced and find them together or drive by and see his car parked in her driveway.
Those early days, the first sweet, solitary, secretive weeks, Kate felt as though she were living in a dream world. She had the job she always wanted—ever since she had discovered her love of journalism during her days writing for the high school newspaper, she had dreamed of growing up and working at the Gazette. And now it was a reality. She loved her job and soon became known as an outstanding writer, earning praise from everyone who read her work.
Only she and Kevin knew that another dream of Kate’s had come true as well, falling head over heels in love. Kate couldn’t believe her good luck. She was happier than she had ever been.
When their relationship was forbidden and taboo, sharing the secret of their affair was exciting. Kevin and Kate made a game out of seeing who could break the other’s composure at work, whispering seemingly innocent words that referenced a secret intimacy. Kevin started this game by putting a note on Kate’s desk that simply said, “Canoe.” Kate knew what he was referring to. The night before, they had canoed to a small island just across the bay from Kate’s house. They hadn’t secured the canoe well enough on shore. Kate looked up from the blanket they had laid on the ground to see her canoe floating freely in the middle of the lake. When they stopped laughing, Kevin had to swim out to retrieve it.
The first time Kevin told Kate he loved her, they were at the office. It was a month or so after their relationship had begun, and Kevin walked by Kate’s desk to drop off a stack of papers. As he bent down, he whispered into her ear, “I love you.” He ran a finger down her forearm and walked away casually, as though nothing had been said at all. It sent a jolt of electricity through Kate’s body. She’d been in love with him since their first night together at the Tavern and was relieved that he had finally gotten around to admitting he felt the same way. Later, that small act, him running his finger quickly down her forearm, came to mean “I love you” between them. It became their secret way of expressing love in a public place.
Because they didn’t go out together, except for the nights when the whole gang from work would stop by the Tavern for a drink, Kate and Kevin spent the majority of their time alone, playing house. They quickly settled into a routine like an old married couple, making dinner together at her place, talking about the happenings in the office, perhaps watching a movie or a television show before tumbling into bed together.
Sometimes on weekends Kevin would stay for the night, but most often, Kate would wake up and find him gone. The empty side of the bed always left her feeling cold and deserted, but she shrugged it off—he had to shower and change for the workday, after all.
Three months after that first night at the Tavern, Kevin proposed to Kate. They were sitting on the dock in front of her house on a lazy, sunny Saturday afternoon, dangling their feet in the cool water. He pulled the ring out of his pocket and said, nervously, “This was my mother’s. I can’t imagine anyone else but you wearing it. Will you . . . I guess what I’m saying is, will you marry me?”