“Well, it sounds like you have quite unique lunch experiences, Thea.” Ellie turned the knob on the door handle. “Hold on. Isn’t Gina the one getting divorced for the sixth time and now dating a man from prison?”
“They are pen-pals,” Thea confirmed. “Gina is really hoping their relationship heats up by the time he is released.”
“I don’t know how to respond to that,” Ellie said with a mixture of bafflement and kindness. “So I’m just going to go in my office….”
“And just remember what I said,” Thea continued as she watched her boss ease through the office doors. “I don’t talk about you at lunch or any other time.”
“I appreciate that,” Ellie called. “Are we still on for poker tonight?”
“Of course,” Thea confirmed. “Our poker games are tradition. Plus Tutu is brining her awesome peach pie pops tonight, so I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Thea nearly licked her lips in anticipation. “You know how much I love peaches.”
“I just love how Tutu, who always claims she’s on a diet, can manage to bring her fattening desserts to poker night.” The irony of the situation made Ellie smile.
“That is also part of the tradition,” Thea chimed in with a wide grin. “Poker. Girl talk. Fattening desserts…and your sister will be there and never bet on one single hand of cards.”
“Tradition,” Ellie mussed. “Oh, I heard from Rae Rally last night. She will be coming home in a few months for a visit and I pressed her to join us for poker night.”
Just thinking of her old friend, caused Thea to smile. “Oh, that will be nice. I haven’t seen Rae in so long.”
“Neither have I,” Ellie readily agreed. “I haven’t seen her in at least a month of Sundays.”
“And there is that Southern sass coming out of you,” Thea said. “I just love it when you get all Southern on me and begin your sentences with “I’m fixin’ to… or “bless his heart…” and that Southern flare of yours really does add to your books.”
“Thanks,” came Ellie’s smooth reply. “I think. If I don’t see you before lunch, have an interesting time with Gina.”
“Speaking of lunch…” Thea peeked her head around the door once more, as another thought was on her mind. “I really don’t know what I would even say about you at lunch,” Thea said as if she were merely contemplating the idea. “Besides writing, all you do is work.”
Ellie paused in her tracks. She instinctively knew that Thea meant no harm by the innocent comment, but the words stung. Ellie slightly turned toward her doorway, noticed her assistant clicked the door shut, and then ventured further into her office.
All you do is work.
Ellie thought about the truth in that statement. After she placed the vanilla colored file folders on top of the desk, she walked to the large office window.
The sun was rising in the sky, casting a glow about the city. She did not look at the city below, but instead she gazed into the horizon. Various skyscrapers were clustered around the very prominent Carrie Corporation, nearly blocking the sunlight.
The Carrie Corporations…
The insurance business.
The make-up cosmetic empire.
The technology mecca.
The toy manufacturing.
There was so much more…
Would she be involved with these businesses if it were not for that one night three years ago? Ellie took a sip of her black coffee. She let her mind race to the one night that had changed her life forever.
Three years.
She had graduated college.
She worked for the Carrie Corporation.
She was still trying to locate the man who had only identified himself as John, and Ellie knew that was not even the man’s real name.
Before Ellie could completely gather her thoughts, her door burst open and she turned toward her twin. Damon Carrie swiftly kicked the door shut behind him, adjusted his bright red tie, and held a legal pad in one hand.
“Have you seen this bullshit, Ellie?” Damon asked. His unrelenting energy caused him to pace the room back and forth.
“Good morning to you too,” Ellie answered. Without asking any questions, she already knew what was on her brother’s mind. “I will take care of it.” That seemed to be her automatic response these days.
“You know what I’m talking about?” Damon asked. That surprised Ellie because the man rarely asked for clarification.
“You’re talking about the Snow project, correct?”
Damon swore under his breath and added, “Yes! So you can talk to the architects about the East wing?”
Ellie jotted a note to herself. “I will take care of it by the end of today and I will fill you in on the details once I have it completed.”
“Super. Thanks.” Damon appeared as if his day had just gotten better. He still continued to pace in front of her desk. “You look like something is on your mind.”
“That is what Thea told me,” Ellie confided. “Actually she just asked me if I was doing okay.”
“And are you?”
“Yes.” Ellie knew she was fine. Wasn’t she? “It’s just that, well, I’ve been thinking of John a little bit lately.” Which was a little bit of a white lie. Ellie thought of John at least once a day, but did not tell her brother that information. She suspected he already knew that anyway.
“I know why,” Damon said. He stopped long enough to critically eye his twin. “You want to know?”
Ellie played along. “Of course.”
“Because Grant Grantson is quite interested in you and well, you wonder what happened to the man named John who saved all of our lives three years ago.”
Some of that made sense and some of it didn’t. “What does Grant have to do with John?”
“You’re curious about the badass named John,” Damon explained with more emphasis. “You’re curious if John is ever going to come back into your life, so you’re…well, you’re kind of holding out.”
“Holding out?”
“Stalling.”
Ellie instantly denied that. “I’m not stalling on anything. I keep very busy and-”
“How many dates have you been on, Ellie?”
“That has nothing to do with anything, Damon,” Ellie told her twin as her voice rose higher. “I date when I feel like it.”
Which, Ellie silently acknowledged, wasn’t very often.
“What about Ethan Strat…you know the guy that you were dating three years ago? The guy, who was going to ask you to marry him…until you broke it off.”
Ellie did not want to hear this, not even from her twin. “Ethan did not propose to me all those years ago.” She felt it only right to correct her brother so she added, “And this-”
“Ethan didn’t propose because you had already dumped him, Ellie. I heard he was going to pop the question to you after we got back from that horrible freaking trip we were on.”
Damon felt it was only fair she knew exactly what Ethan had been preparing to do. “But you broke up with him, Ellie. I’m not saying this to hurt you, I’m telling you this so you can think about your life.”
Damon had seen that look cast upon his sister’s face before. He was witness to her headstrong attitude. He tried again, this time in a softer tone of voice.
“Look I’m not saying that you’re in love with some guy who saved our lives, and that you only knew for a short period of time,” Damon attempted to explain. He let out a breath of air, knowing that he could talk freely and openly with his sister. “I am pointing out that you felt a lot of emotions three years ago and I think when you go out on a date you might expect the same sort of adrenaline…and it’s just not there.”
Ellie had heard enough when she piped up and said, “I wasn’t aware that you had earned a psychology degree, Damon. I thought that was Cray’s department.”
In no way was Damon about to back down. “You’re holding out in the dating department until you can make sense of that horrible night three freaking years ago
!” he snapped.
“One thing has nothing to do with the other,” Ellie felt the urge to point out. She ran a hand through her curly, thick auburn hair. “I’m not interested in what happened with Ethan and I’m not interested in Grant. Grant just happens to be by my office sometimes.”
“Sometimes is turning into a lot,” Damon said. “Hell even I have noticed how much the man is hanging around and he’s a pretty boring person.”
“Damon!” Ellie could not help but chuckle. It was true. Grant was a very boring person, the man himself just didn’t know it. “This is so frustrating… I keep thinking of John and I know I have to stop.”
“You do need to stop,” Damon agreed. He set his legal pad on his sister’s desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “There’s something else you’re thinking about. Spill it.”
“What would our lives had been like if John had not rescued us? You know I don’t mean dead, I mean if dad had not gotten attacked? If we did not have to flee that horrendous country?” Ellie questioned. She took another sip of her coffee before adding, “What if none of that had happened and we just continued on with our lives?”
“You mean like if none of it had occurred and we had just stayed at the place like it was a regular vacation?”
“Yes.” Ellie now began to pace as her own energy bounded through her body. “Do you know what I mean?”
“I always know what you mean,” Damon announced. “I can tell you what would have happened. Brisa would still be an elementary teacher because she loves kids and likes to teach them all how to read and crap like that.”
Ellie knew that was true. Her sister, bless her, was a born teacher. Brisa tended to look at everything through rose-colored glasses and Ellie loved her for that.
Damon continued by saying, “Cray would still have completed that psychology crap and doing that therapy thing that he does. I would still be at the Carrie Corporation because I love business.” Damon shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah sometimes the stupid shit drives me crazy but that is why I talk to you. Now you, Ellie, you’re the one who has been most impacted by the man named John.”
“Damon…”
“It was you that helped take control that night, Ellie. It was you who he gave a nickname to, and it was you who was bold enough to talk to him when he was standing by the exit door on the plane.”
Ellie remained silent. Her thoughts were a completely jumbled mess that she wanted to confront and organize.
“Ellie, since the attack mom has created Wednesday night dinners so that all of us get together at least once a week for a meal. Dad has been purchasing more businesses and giving more back to the city of New York, as well as to Daffodil.” Damon paused and then added, “You know that is also why dad hired bodyguards for all of us…just for that extra precaution. None of us are in danger…but it eases dad’s mind to know that we’re being protected in some capacity.”
“This should not be so complicated right now,” Ellie told her dear twin and confidant. “Everyone in the family has adjusted to the attack. It’s been three years…and what have I done?”
“You graduated with a degree in English for yourself, and one in business to please our father,” Damon stated. He held up his hand when he noticed his sister was about to speak. “That’s not a bad thing, Ellie, it really isn’t, but I know for a fact that you would much, much rather be a creative best-selling author than a businesswoman who works herself nearly to death because you do not want people to think you got your job through nepotism.”
“Darn it, Damon,” Ellie whispered because she knew her brother was right. Sometimes she hated the truth. “It’s been three years and I keep thinking about it.”
“Because you want this man named John to show up and tell you that you’re leading a productive and well-meaning life.” Damon tilted his head to the side as he examined his sister. He acknowledged the certain amount of sympathy he had for his twin.
Damon needed his sister to understand the reality in which they found themselves, so he said, “John could very well be dead, Ellie. You will never see that man again.”
“I’ve been telling myself that for so long,” Ellie confided. Her voice was soft, aching with regret. “I’ve told myself that John is probably dead because he was the man who held a gun and didn’t mind using it.”
“John was in that country for a reason, Ellie,” Damon reminded his sibling. He shrugged his shoulders in a near helpless gesture. “For all we know he was a paid mercenary for some drug lord, and just happened to save our dad and then us.”
Damon thought for a moment as he watched his twin sister turn toward the office window and stare off into the distance. With some form of tiny compassion, Damon added, “Maybe John and his buddies were military or ex-military, but the point is that we’re never going to know, which is the part that you’re dying to understand.”
“Do you remember when Grandma Barbara died?” Ellie asked. “It was so unexpected and we were so emotionally unprepared.” Ellie recalled when their lively, vibrant grandmother had died so suddenly without warning, that it had left the family in pure chaotic shock.
Damon thought fondly of his grandmother and said, “I remember her funeral when Great Uncle Ted got drunk afterward and he started hitting on the catering staff.”
“Didn’t Uncle Ted marry the chef?”
“I think that was the ol’ man’s fifth wife.”
“No,” Ellie shook her head. “That was Ashley. Tiffany was the caterer so she had to be wife number…six?” Ellie mentally began to calculate her great uncle’s wives and then stopped. “We’re getting off topic here.”
Ellie smoothed a hand down her black and white graphic print dress and said, “I feel like not knowing what happened to John is very similar to a death. This emotion is similar to a mourning period. When grandma died I thought, it’s sad that grandma won’t be able to see me get married or have children…and I think about that to some degree with John.” Ellie thought for a moment and sadness shook her voice when she confided, “John will not see me get married or know that I have children and it’s like I won’t ever be able to tell him or show him that…well that we have all accomplished something with our lives so far. Because of what he did to give us those opportunities.”
“Ellie?” Again Damon tilted his head. “John and those other men saved us, but they have either moved on or they’re dead.”
“That is a little heartless,” Ellie said, but in her heart she knew her brother was being honest. “But I understand your rationale.”
“Look the entire family realizes what those men did for us. Each of them saved our lives, but to them…” Damon shook his head. “Those men probably thought nothing of it. They probably thought it was no big deal that we will all, you know, eventually move on from it.”
“Have you moved on?” Ellie was curious to know. She eyed her twin brother. “Do you still think of that night?”
“I think of that night, Ellie,” Damon confided in a deep voice. “I do think of that night and what might have been or could have been, but I also realize that in some way or another we all have to move on.”
The pair remained silent for a few moments, each thinking their own thoughts and coming to terms with that dire night that happened so long ago.
“I got a bouquet of flowers this morning,” Ellie said. She noticed that Damon raised his eyes to hers. “A very lovely floral arrangement of yellow daffodils.” Ellie crossed her arms. “No card. No note. Just a nice vase of flowers that I get every single time I am about to release a book. Only this time the flowers arrived and I’m not about to release my book for several weeks yet.” And that was baffling.
“Could it be from Ethan?”
“Damon, that was years ago. I hurt Ethan.” Even though she had desperately tried not too. “There is no way Ethan Strat would send me flowers.”
“Grant?” Damon asked although he really did not think the man from two stories up would have sent his sister those types of bl
ooms. “He seems more like a generic rose flower type of guy, but maybe…”
“No,” came Ellie’s swift reply. “I highly doubt Grant sent the flowers and he would have already arrived at my office by now telling me that he had purchased the flowers for me.”
“So that you could compliment him,” Damon guessed.
Ellie grinned, “Bingo. You know he would have had a twenty minute conversation about that.”
“So who are the flowers from, Ellie?” Damon questioned. “You must have some sort of idea.”
“When I was with John on the plane, standing next to him, I told him my name and said I was from Daffodil, Georgia.” Just remembering that scenario right now caused Ellie’s palms to become clammy. “I kept telling him my name and that I was from Daffodil…”
Damon knew where his sister was going with her thought process and he did not like it, so he stated, “The man you knew of as John is dead.” He did not mince words when he added, “You need to accept that Ellie and get on with your life.”
The brutality of his words were like a sword striking her over and over again…but the death never came. Just the pain. The tremendous amount of pain kept bubbling like a volcano ready to rupture.
“Do you think dad has accepted it, Damon?” It was an honest question and Damon realized that.
“I think dad has accepted as much as he can from this unique situation,” came Damon’s honest reply. “I think dad wakes up every morning, the same as you, thinks for a moment that he is thankful to be alive and then goes on about his day.”
Before Ellie could reply, the intercom buzzed, with Thea’s voice saying, “Your meeting begins in three minutes, Ellie.”
Damon retrieved his legal pad, turned toward the office door and said, “I’ll see you later. Let me know how the Snow project goes…and Ellie?”
“Yes, Damon?”
“I realize that nothing would please you more than to hear from John or that it was him that sent you the flowers,” Damon said. It was the seriousness of his tone that Ellie had recognized before.
Humping Her Hero Page 19
