Banjo Man by Sally Goldenbaum Read Free Book Online Page A

plan to escort you home.”
    “But I’d have to ride back with whoever brought me; that wouldn’t be polite.”
    “Polite? I’m dyin’ here, woman, just trying to figure out how to get you alone for a while, and you’re worried about etiquette. You sure know how to make it tough for a guy!”
    Honest contrition washed over her face. “But I don’t mean to,” she answered softly.
    Rick felt the breath tighten in his chest. “I was only teasin’, Laurie. Just try to come tonight. If you can. Promise?”
    Laurie nodded, saved from any further answer by the sudden and welcome appearance of the waiter. In the center of the table he placed a serving platter filled with steaming dumplings. And then, with the care of an artist, he decorated the table with a myriad of tiny bowls, the dipping sauces that transformed the dumplings from sweet to spicy to pungent to piquant.
    Wordlessly Rick picked up one set of chopsticks, and deftly demonstrated the proper way to dip and nibble the delicious morsels. A smile of pure ecstasy spread across his face.
    Her stomach suddenly rumbling with hunger, Laurie lifted the chopsticks and fished for the first dumpling. It slid halfway across the platter, eluding capture. Frowning, she attacked again, and the dumpling leaped from the table onto her lap.
    Rick’s rich laughter died beneath Laurie’s withering glance. Pulling his upper lip down over his grin, he reached across the table and carefully positioned the chopsticks in her hand, guided her to the platter, tightened the pressure around the tender dumpling, and lifted. The morsel made it halfway to her open mouth before sliding off the end of the chopsticks and across the tabletop.
    “Don’t laugh,” she warned, her gray eyes dancingwith silent humor. “I’d like to see what you could do with a string of rosary beads!”
    And with that she grabbed a fork and ate her way quickly through a good two-thirds of their lunch.
    Rick watched her, his enjoyment of Laurie’s nearness almost as sharp a sense as the different tastes on his tongue. When he couldn’t resist any longer, he narrowed his dark eyes and broke the easy silence. “Laurie, may I ask you a question?”
    Her skin tightened, knowing what was coming, but she nodded, carefully keeping her face empty. “Sure, Rick. What do you want to know?”
    “Why did you become a nun?”
    She lifted one shoulder, a little-girl gesture that tugged at Rick’s heart. “It’s not easy to explain now. But then it was so simple. It was expected.”
    She put down her fork and looked right into his dark, shining eyes, wanting him to understand. “You see, I have three aunts who are in the convent. One, my Aunt Dorothy, is only six years older than I am, and she’d come visit and tell us all—there are five of us kids; I’m the oldest—well, she’d tell us all how wonderful it was, having a life dedicated to God, filled with purpose. She’s so good, so … so contented, and she’d look at me and say how I reminded her of herself when she was younger, and how she knew I’d love the holy life.…” She closed her eyes, silent for a moment, lost in her own thoughts. “My younger sister Katy—well, she was never put in this position; Katy somehow managed to be unmanageable from infancy! And no one ever thought of little Maggie as having a vocation—so that left
me
, Laurie to fulfill those hopes. Anyway, it made my mother and father so happy. So proud. And I thought my own—” The words stopped, trapped behind her white-edged lips.
    “Laurie, I’m sorry. If this is too hard, don’t—”
    “No,” she breathed. “It’s important that I try to explain. If only to myself.” Straightening her shoulders, she continued, “What I started to say was that I thought my own desires and feelings and … dreams were wrong and foolish. How could they measure up to this plan everyone seemed to have for me? How dared I say no, when I obviously was being selfish and