Nick was getting comfortable in his seat aboard the train, and counting his blessings that he’d happened along at just the moment one was leaving for Milwaukee. He’d figure out how to get home from there; the important thing was, he wasn’t going to be hanging around Pine Rapids a minute longer than necessary. Then the man in the window seat elbowed him and said, snickering, “She doesn’t look half bad, for a drowned rat.”

Nick looked where the man pointed, then looked again. There, approaching the train across the platform, limping a little, her coat flapping open over her sweater and skirt, her hair flattened to her head by the rain, was the girl he’d been certain he would never see again. The expression on her face was one of bewilderment, exhaustion. And a lingering hope.

He leapt to his feet, grabbed his duffel off the floor, and rushed down the aisle, just as the train lurched and began to crawl forward.

“Soldier,” said the conductor, blocking the aisle. He had eyebrows like caterpillars. “Don’t even think about getting off this train.”

Nick pushed past him, and hurried to the door. In one motion, he tossed out his duffel, rushed down the two steps, and jumped. He landed on his hands and knees on the platform, and yelled from the pain in his knee.

He heard footsteps running toward him, and her voice: “Nick!” she cried.

He couldn’t help grinning when he looked up and saw her. She landed on her knees next to him and threw her arms around him. “Nick, are you all right?”

“I reckon that isn’t the most graceful thing you ever saw,” he said, as he put his arms around her and pulled her close. He could hear the train behind him, picking up speed. The whistle blew. Her rain-dampened hair felt like silk under his hand. “You’re all wet, sweetheart.”

She leaned back from him. “I ran all the way here,” she said. “Ty let me go and I ran all the way here. He knew that I loved you, Nick. He could tell just by looking at me.”

His heart beat in tandem with the train as it accelerated, pulling away from the station. He kissed her. When he leaned back from her briefly, the train was gone, and all was quiet, except for the gentle sound of the rain.

Shortly, hardly noticing the cold rain running down his collar, Nick reached into his pocket for the black velvet box. He opened it, extracted the ring. “Are you certain?” he said.

“Yes.”

So he slid the ring onto her finger, and took her in his arms and kissed her again. The rain on their faces and hands melded as they touched, and he couldn’t exactly tell where he ended and she began.