Free Summer of Dreams by Elizabeth Camden

now we are stringing them up inside greenhouses for fun. Engineers are in a race to see how we can use electricity to revolutionize the world, and I’m going to be a part of that race. I can take you with me. We can run this race together.”
    How desperately she wanted to let herself be carried away by the enthusiasm coiled in his voice. “How—how would it work?” she stammered. “Where would we go?”
    “Wherever the army sends me.”
    The tempting vision he was spinning for her collapsed. “Out West to build telegraph wires to nowhere? Why can’t you be an engineer for someone else, like Mr. Edison or Mr. Westinghouse? Why must it be the army?”
    “Because if I quit the army after taking an education from West Point, they’ll throw me in jail.” He dragged a hand through his short-cropped hair in frustration. “You want to design a perfect world and fill it with handpicked people in a controlled environment like in the greenhouse. Life doesn’t work that way. Sometimes you have to grab whatever opportunities are in your path and seize them, nurture them, make them grow and thrive. I can’t promise to deliver everything you want, but Evelyn! Give us a chance. We can do something amazing, don’t you know that?”
    It felt like her chest was splitting open. “All I know is that, aside from Romulus, you are the only real friend I’ve ever had, and I don’t want to lose that. Can’t we just go on like we have been?”
    “No, we can’t,” he burst out in frustration. “I’ve never learned how to give up, and I’m not going to start now. I care for you toomuch to keep going on as we are. I want to court you properly. If you don’t want that, tell me to go away, and I’ll try to accept it.”
    His eyes simmered with a combination of excitement and frustration. Could she risk joining her life with his? The world he painted seemed daring and adventurous, when all she wanted was a home with her own garden, her own bedroom, and children she could raise in a safe and permanent place.
    “Well?” he challenged. “If you let me court you, I’d be the happiest man on earth. Otherwise, tell me to go away, because I won’t waste time fighting a losing battle.”
    Her jaw dropped, completely unprepared by the gauntlet he’d just tossed down. Why did he have to be so insistent? Why did he have to keep pushing like this?
    Because that was who Clyde Brixton was. She’d known it since the day he’d arrived on her doorstep convinced he could solve anything. Maybe, just maybe, Clyde would be bold enough to figure out a way to make this work for both of them. She glanced at the isolated farmhouse, sad and lonely in the middle of a barley patch. “It will be hard to court a girl so far from campus.”
    He didn’t move a muscle, but his eyes lit with anticipation. “I don’t mind hard,” Clyde said. “I kind of specialize in it.”
    And he did. Already in his life he’d overcome insurmountable hurdles simply because he refused to give up.
    She took a step closer to him, leaned in, and kissed him on the mouth. Halfway into the kiss, he started grinning too much to kiss her back properly.
    “Is that your answer?” he said, still smiling.
    “That’s my answer. I hope we both don’t regret this.” Letting Clyde into her heart might be a huge and painful mistake, but cutting him out would hurt even worse. He was worth the risk.

6
    A utumn rolled forth in its traditional glory as the mountains around West Point were blanketed in shades of scarlet, orange, and yellow. October faded into November, and the leaves dried, curled, and dropped off to scatter across the damp earth.
    Evelyn had been right in predicting Clyde would figure out a way to court her. The greenhouse needed considerable preparation for winter, and it was the perfect spot for her to meet Clyde for a few stolen hours every Saturday. Plants that couldn’t survive a freeze were potted and brought indoors, while they mounded thick beds of mulch