Jane couldn't believe it!
"Andy!" she exclaimed out loud again. She couldn't find the words! The change had been so dramatic all that fumbled out of her mouth was "Where are your glasses!?"
Walter burst out laughing as he saw his sister internally cringe at her exclamation. Andy tried to hide the smile but as he looked at her his smile upturned to show his little dimples in his cheeks. "The eye doctor at Yale examined me second year after I started getting headaches when I was wearing my glasses and discovered I didn't need them, did Walter not tell you I didn't wear them anymore?" he asked.
Jane looked at Andy wide eyed, his eyes playing as they always did with her. "I didn't recognise you." She said quietly. "You've changed."
"Have I?" he asked her not sure what she meant.
"You… you…" Jane tried then blurted again "You're wider!"
At this, it was time for Walter to continue laughing, he could feel the shock in Jane's system, she immediately snapped out of her daze and shoved Walter.
"Don't have a go at me!" he exclaimed in jest. "I don't care how tall dark and handsome my friends get." Walter teased her with a wink to Andy he jumped off the fence where he'd been sitting and ran up to the house as Jane turned several shades of pink right there.
Andy smiled his dimples showing before he said "Rowing."
"Sorry?" Jane asked him.
"Well I got wider when I was rowing, I was part of the rowing team remember?" he asked her.
"Oh yes!" Jane exclaimed. "of course."
"I prefer the phrase 'broader'" he responded.
"Broader!" she exclaimed. "Yes that's it that's the word I was looking for."
He chuckled "I've out worded a wordsmith?" he questioned her.
"Well, its that fancy Yale degree you have." She finally teased him "you leave us mere college graduates look bad."
He laughed "but they couldn't teach me to write as you do Jane." He said with a hint of admirability to his voice "somethings you just can't teach."
She smiled and blushed at the compliment. She finally was able to look him in the eye. "You've grown to be a very handsome young man." She told him.
It was his turn to smile shyly at the compliment. "Thank you." He said quietly.
"So, you got like this from rowing?" she asked him.
"Um, yeah. Well exercise and growing from a boy into a man" He said with a shrug. "Do you like it?" he flirted.
A feeling in Jane's stomach flipped and she breathed in deeply blushing. "Mr Watson." She said trying her best to avoid the schoolgirl giggle which was surfacing "When did you learn to flirt?"
He chuckled at her "well they say a good education is a well-rounded education." He shrugged.
She looked to him shocked "But Yale isn't coed?"
Andy laughed. "Well being part of a fraternity means occasionally women would show up, and you know we did go out into public every once in a while." He smiled standing closer to her deliberately before he raised his eyebrows playfully at her.
"Oh." She said shaking her head. "Of course."
He stood back and looked at her seriously again. "I'll confess now Jane, I am sorry." He told her.
"Sorry?" she asked him.
"About your fiancé, well, your fiancé this time last year." He said.
Jane shook her head. "No." she insisted, "truly" she told him. "He was a slimebag, I didn't see it."
He smiled "Slimebag?" he asked her.
"Yes, slimebag and I'd rather not talk about him."
"No." He agreed "But I bet you haven't really talked about how much it hurt you either."
She looked him in the eye. "I can't, Anne and Gil…" she whispered.
"I know." He nodded. "Walt filled me in." he said to her. "It hurt them, but I bet it hurt you too and you haven't said out of respect and love for them."
She took a breath as she looked away "It doesn't matter." She said quietly.
"It does to me." He said. "Tell you what…" he said to her looking up at the veranda and the small audience they seemed to have gathered "I'm going to go up and ask your mother if I can take you for a walk…" he smiled "…and then in the deepest darkest part of the wood you can tell me…" he continued then took her hand in his "…all of your secrets." He whispered.
Her heart leapt and she felt a flutter go through her as she nodded her head.
"So this makes this…?" Gilbert questioned Walt the following Saturday as he watched Andy and Jane 'go walking' again, this time he noticed down towards the harbour.
"the sixth time this week." Walter (Senior) said looking after them. A grin appeared on Gilbert's face at this.
"I think I'm going to have to let go of another one of my daughters." He said with a sad sigh.
"Your daughters choose well." Gilbert observed "Especially your eldest." He teased.
Walter laughed. "Yes I suppose they do have exceptional tastes." he said dryly. "What do you make of Andy?" Walter asked Gilbert.
Gilbert looked to Walter amazed. "We've known him since they were six years old, you know him just as well as I do. Better I think, since I've not lived here for a while."
"He worships Jane." Walter admitted quietly. "Or at least he did growing up," Walter took a deep breath "but I fear for him."
"Fear?!" Gilbert asked completely flummoxed by what Walter was saying.
"Yes, fear." Walter confirmed. "I fear that Jane's feelings, however fond of him she is, will one day realise that he may have got tall dark and handsome, but it is the same Andy underneath it. I'm scared her feelings will not match his and he will end up with a broken heart all over again."
Gilbert took a deep breath and looked at Walter. "What if her feelings run deeper than that? Have you seen the way she looks at him?"
"Looks!" Walter exclaimed. "Exactly."
"Walter!" Gilbert exclaimed "Come on its not like that."
"What if it is?" Walter asked. "Trev and Roy, she doesn't look very deep."
Gilbert swallowed and looked his father in law in the eye "I think she's learned her lesson." Gilbert said quietly.
Walter sighed "You're too soft on her Gilbert."
"And you're too hard." Gilbert objected quickly.
Walter nodded his head and looked at him "probably."