Battle Cry - Leon Uris [87]
“I suppose I’ve picked up a lot of bad habits. I guess I’ve changed.”
“No, not really. Danny! Remember the night that you and me and Sally and Virg drove out this way and went swimming in the moonlight…gosh, I guess it was just last summer. Come on, let’s take a walk on the beach, it looks scrumptious.” She was out of the door before he could protest. They stepped on the sand and she reached down and kicked off her shoes and laughed. “I like to walk on sand.”
“Aw, for Christ sake, this is silly.”
“Go on, take off your shoes. It feels wonderful.”
“Don’t be a baby.”
“You know who you sound like?”
“No, who?”
“Danny.”
Funny, he thought, for the first time during the night she seemed like Kathy. First, the wrought-up, impassioned woman, then a scared little girl. She skipped through the sand and there was a happy ring to her voice. And at that moment there wasn’t any war or any Marines. He was Danny Forrester and she was his girl…like it used to be.
“Kathy, come on back here before I drop you.”
“Oh, yeah. Big football star, afraid of getting sand on his itsy bitsy feet?”
“Nuts.” He sat down and removed his shoes and ran up alongside her.
“I’m going in the water.” She ran along the surf’s edge where the sand was hard and made crazy little fading footprints. A trickle caught her feet and she jumped back. “It’s cold.” She held her skirt up and waded in. Danny sat on the beach and watched her.
“Aw, for Christ sake, act your age.”
“It’s wonderful, come on in.”
“Nuts.”
“Sissy.”
“Come out, will you? I’m not going to sit here all night.” He rolled up his pants’ legs and dashed to the water’s edge and jumped back as it splashed against him. Kathy laughed. “Water too cold for the big halfback?”
“I’ll show you.” He waded next to her; she kicked a splash up all over him. “I’m going to brain you! You messed up my uniform.”
“You’ll have to catch me first.”
She ran up the beach laughing. Then zigzagged breathlessly and finally bogged down in the sand. He tackled her from behind, gently, as he always did when they were playing.
“I’m going to make you eat sand.” She squirmed and tried to wrestle from his grip.
“Danny! Danny! Don’t…don’t…uncle…uncle!” she laughed.
He pinned her on her back till she was unable to move. Straddling her stomach, he held her down. “Now, one good handful of nice wet sand.”
“Danny—don’t.”
Then, their eyes met. They became motionless. Slowly he released his grip. No words were needed now. It was silent on the beach…each could hear only the other’s tense breathing. His eyes asked the question. She nodded and drew him down beside her.
Danny buckled up his trousers and walked to the car. He took a blanket from the trunk and made his way down the beach to where she lay. He knelt beside her and gazed. In the trickle of light from the stars her body looked like an ivory statue. Her skin had a dull, satiny look, her hair lay in long waves around her head. A soft wisp of a breeze passed. She stirred, sighed and moved slightly. He leaned over and touched her to make sure that she was real. Gently he spread the blanket over her.
“Yes, darling.”
She sighed once more and closed her eyes and opened her arms for him. She held his cheek against her breast and her fingers ran softly over his shoulder. She drew him close. “Oh, Kathy…Kathy.”
“Sweet.”
“There’s a little abandoned shack down the beach.”
“All right.”
“I’ll move the car off the road.”
The first rays of light caught his eye through the glassless window. Her head lay on his chest. He reached his arm down and with his finger traced the long, graceful line of her back. How wonderful she felt. He pressed her body against his and kissed her cheek. “Kathy,” he said softly.
She smiled and hugged him. “It’s almost daylight, Kathy. We’d better go now.”
She drew herself up, kneeling, and bent down to kiss his lips.
“You’re so beautiful. I just like looking at you.”
She blushed.
“Do you mind?”
“Not if it makes you happy,