Evan Hunter: Me and Mr. Stenner

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” I said.

“I know you didn’t,” he said. “Let’s talk about it, okay?”

“Okay,” I said. “And while we’re talking, could we also figure out something else to call you? Because if you love somebody, you just can’t go around calling him Mr. Stenner all the time. And I do love you. I wish you’d believe that. It makes me mad as hell when I tell you something, and you don’t believe it.”

“I believe it now,” he said.

“That was my secret,” I said. “Remember when I asked if you wanted to swap secrets? When you wouldn’t tell me what my present was? Well, that was my secret. That I love you.”

I stopped dead on the path, and looked up into his face. The cap was tilted low on my forehead, and my hair was blowing in the wind, sweeping across my face with each fresh gust. But I knew he could see my eyes clearly, and I only hoped he could read what was in them.

“I love you, too,” he said.

Evan Hunter is one of this country’s most successful and prolific writers. His first novel, the blackboard jungle, was published in 1954 to wide acclaim, and he has since written over a dozen novels, including STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET, MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, LAST SUMMER, and STREETS OF GOLD. As Ed McBain, he is responsible for thirty-some books in the well-known 87th Precinct series. Mr. Hunter was born in New York City and received a B. A. from Hunter College. He has lived in New York, Connecticut, and Florida, and has worked as a teacher of high school English, a lobster salesman, and a literary agent.