” she raced on. “I’ve been thinking about it—a lot. I don’t want to go.”
“But why?”
“I’ve never been over. I don’t know any one—”
“That won’t take long. Why, they’ll be giving you a rush the day after you land. And there’s John for company if you get homesick.”
“Yes, I know. But”—she turned once more to the stripped hills, then back with something like terror in her eyes—“but it’s you I need, ’Dolph. I don’t want to be so far away from you.”
He got out of the chair that hugged his merry fire, went to her, laid a hand that trembled over hers.
[201]
] “Y’mean that, kiddo? After six years of me, do I honest-to-God matter as much as that?”
Her hand curled up and over his, holding it tight.
“Oh, ’Dolph, if you knew how much I need you! More now than ever before! Don’t send me away—don’t!”
Cleeburg’s eyes went up to hers. Hers went down before them.