“Her husband? But I thought...I mean, I didn’t know she was married.”
“I’m very sorry, Brian. My daughter should’ve told you.”
“It’s okay, Mrs. Germaine. It’s not your fault. Pretty stupid of me to think she’d come back for good, anyway. I even thought maybe she’d come back because... Dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I guess I’d better go. Um, would you like these? I got no use for them.” Brian pushed the flowers at Gaëlle.
“Thank you, Brian. Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer to give them to someone else, perhaps your mother?”
“Nah. Mom would think I smashed her truck or something if I gave her flowers out of the blue. Better you take them.”
“Then thank you. They’re lovely.”
Brian turned away. His shoulders were slumped as he went down the stairs to his pickup.
Gaëlle watched him drive off, then closed the door. She looked at Lee apologetically over the multi-coloured carnations. “I’m sorry I was so busy today. I hope you weren’t bored.”
“Not at all. Looks like Wally was right, eh?”
“He always is. I’d best put these in water.”
Lee followed Gaëlle to the kitchen and wondered if she should bring up Wally’s other prediction. Instead, she decided to follow Marika’s advice. “You must be hungry, Gaëlle. Would you allow me to take you out to dinner? As a thank-you for your wonderful hospitality. Is there any place in Donegal that is fancier than the Four Corners Café?”
“There is, but honestly the food at Four Corners is probably the best around.”
“Then Four Corners it is.”
An hour later, the women were seated in a booth at the café. Eileen was their waitress, and she filled their coffee cups the moment they sat down. “Hi there, hon. Heather Ann not with you tonight? Don’t tell me she’s hanging out with that no-brain, Brian. I heard he was prowling after Heather Ann last night at the Red Arrow, but that boy’s no good. Never has been.”
“Actually, Britten left last night. Her husband came to pick her up.”
“Her husband? Heather Ann is married? Well, tie me in a knot and toss me off the boat! When the hell did she get married? And why didn’t she tell any of us?”
“She got married about a year ago. Apparently, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing. They eloped while at an Italian villa on the Mediterranean. Britten said it was all very romantic.”
“Yeah? Sounds like a Vegas quickie to me. Probably last about as long, too. Anyway, you want your usual?”
“That sounds good.”
Eileen turned to Lee. “What about you, hon? And damn, what happened to your face? Did Heather Ann’s husband throw a haymaker at you or something?”
“Just an accident. Could I have a moment with the menu first?”
“Okay. I’ll be back in a few.” Eileen moved on to another table.
Gaëlle lowered her voice. “She’s wrong about Brian.”
“How’s that?”
“He’s not unintelligent, nor is he ‘no good’; he’s just one those people who crested in high school. He was very good-looking and a jock. Girls swarmed around and boys wanted to hang out with him. Nothing that came after graduation was ever going to compare. Brian did some foolish things trying to recover his glory days, but he’s more to be pitied than condemned. He’s one who should’ve left the town that knew him too well, to start over in anonymity. I think if he had, he’d have become a very different man.”
“From what I overheard last night, he and Britten were a couple before Britten left.”
“They were. Dating Bobby had given Britten status because he was older, out of school, and working. When he broke up with Britten and started dating Jill, Britten decided she was going after the hottest guy in school. She got him, but more to flaunt her success in Jill’s face than because she actually wanted Brian. Of course it didn’t work out.”
“Do you think Brian loved her?”
“To the best of his ability, yes. Sadly, Brian lacks self-love, which is a huge impediment to loving someone else.”
“Really? I’d have said Brian was quite infatuated with himself. Certainly the way he strutted across the bar last night, he appeared to think he was God’s gift to women.”
“Infatuation isn’t love, Lee. I think it will take a few more lifetimes before Brian learns to love himself.”
Eileen’s return forestalled Lee’s response. “So, what’ll you have, hon?”
Lee hadn’t looked at the menu yet. “Um, I’ll have what Gaëlle’s having.”
“Got it.” Eileen jotted a note on her pad and trotted off.
Lee leaned across the table. “What did I just order?”
“The Saturday night special—liver and onions.” Gaëlle laughed at Lee’s horrified expression. “No, I’m just joking. Actually, you’re having a lovely pasta dish with chicken and vegetables, and a side of garlic toast. You’ll like it, I promise.”
“Whew, you scared me there. Wil loves liver and onions, and it used to gross me out when he’d bring it for lunch. He’d reheat it in the microwave, and the whole office would stink for hours. Of course, that was back in the days when it was just Wil, me, and Ann in a one-room office.”
“So that’s Wil, as in Willem DeGroot of DeGroot and Glenn Security?”
“Yeah. You’ve heard of our company?”
“I confess that after Britten told me the firm she’d hired you from, I googled you. Your company has built an impressive record over the years.”
“We’ve worked hard. It was Willem’s initiative that had us expanding internationally. I’d have been happy for the two of us to keep gum-shoeing along in Calgary, but he had bigger dreams. Fortunately, he took me along for the ride.”
“I suspect you underplay your role. But how did the two of you get started?”
“By accident, actually. I was a military policewoman for years. I’d just gotten out of the service and wasn’t really sure what I was going to do. Willem’s cousin had foolishly angered some rather nasty men. Wil asked one of his friends with policing experience what to do. That friend happened to be my ex-commanding officer. Since it wasn’t a situation for official involvement, Marc put Willem in touch with me. I was able to negotiate an arrangement for Wil’s cousin to make amends to the guys he’d pissed off.”
“Amends?”
Lee laughed at Gaëlle’s expression. “I don’t mean he had to give up his first born or anything, but he did have to fork over some serious cash.”
“Well, that’s reassuring...I think, though I can’t help wondering about your negotiating style.”
“Aw, that was nothing. Remind me sometime to tell you about the time my best friend inadvertently got involved with a socialite slash snakehead boss. I ended up helping my friend and her later-to-be-wife go on the run from a Chinese assassin while I worked with my old military commander to bring down the head bitch’s whole organization. It’s a pretty good story.”
Gaëlle’s eyes widened. “You have lived a colourful life.”
“Occasionally, yes. Anyway, when circumstance threw Willem and me together, he was a rising star in the corporate world. The trouble was that he found the corporate world dull as dishwater. So about a week after I got his cousin out of the jam, Wil asked me to meet him. I thought he was just going to express his gratitude by buying me a drink, but he actually had a business proposal. He’d been impressed with how I resolved his cousin’s mess and wanted to go into business with me. He was willing to provide the start-up capital for what would become DeGroot and Glenn. He needed my policing expertise; I needed a job. The rest is history.”
“It sounds so exciting.”
“It can be, but most of the time it’s pretty routine. I once overheard an air traffic controller describe his job as long stretches of tedium broken by moments of sheer terror. I always thought that was an apt description of my job, too.”
“That would certainly describe guarding my daughter. Are you looking forward to the next assignment?
”
“Actually, it was pretty unusual for me to take this one. We have extremely capable staff that usually handles personal protection details.”
“That’s very interesting. So why did you take this one?”
Lee shot Gaëlle a wry look. “There was nothing mystical about it. Wil suggested that after a year’s inattention to our business, I get my feet wet slowly.”
“So when you return, having gotten your feet wet, you won’t take field work again? What will you be doing?”
Handling contracts, schmoozing with potential clients, setting up branch offices, overseeing employees, and balancing budgets... God, Wil was right. That stuff bores me to death.
“Lee?”
“Oh, sorry. Just thinking of something Wil said when he was coaxing me into coming here.”
Eileen returned and set their dinners in front of them. “Holler if you want anything else.”
Lee inhaled the delicious scent.
“Better than liver and onions?”
“So much better.” Lee dug into her food with relish.
Gaëlle followed suit at a slower pace. “You never did answer my question, Lee.”
“Question?”
“Yes. Are you looking forward to returning to work?”
Lee shook her head. “Honestly? Not all that much. Our company has evolved to the point where everyone else gets to do the fun stuff.”
“You don’t like being the boss?”
“Not when it has me stuck behind a desk from eight to five. Willem eats up the admin side, but I always liked the nuts and bolts—solving people’s problems, tripping up the bad guys, unravelling mysteries.”
“Perhaps you should look at another field.”
“That’s what Wil said. He doesn’t think I’m suited to the corporate grind. He says I need to find what gives me joy. I think he’s just worried that I’ll slip back into depression.”
Gaëlle smiled. “He obviously cares very much for you.”
“We care for each other. After twenty-five years together, he’s like the brother I never had. If he thinks I should explore options, then I have to respect his insight. Problem is, I have no idea what options to explore. I figure I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing until Eli’s wedding and make some sort of decision after that.”
“When is his wedding?”
“In July. I can’t remember the exact date, but around the middle.”
“So, a little over three months from now.”
“Sounds about right.”
“Lee, I have an idea. Would you hear me out before you say anything?”
“Sure. What’s on your mind?”
Gaëlle set her cutlery aside and regarded Lee seriously. “From what you’ve said, it’s your choice whether to continue on your current path or veer off, is that correct? Your company would not suffer from your absence?”
“No. Wil said it’s running like a well-oiled machine. Not exactly stroking my ego, but he’s right, and I get my partnership cut whether I’m there or not. This past year they learned to work very well without me. That’s why he urged me to take some time and think about what I want to do with the rest of my life. As he said, I could easily afford to retire, but I don’t really want to do that, either.”
“Let me offer you an option. Stay with me until it’s time to go home for the wedding. Help me finish my labyrinth. Look at it as an opportunity to do some contemplation on your direction, away from the distractions of the city and your business.”
Lee realized that at some level she wasn’t surprised at Gaëlle’s offer, nor was it an unwelcome proposal. “Won’t that be a huge imposition? What about when Dale gets home?”
Gaëlle reached across the table, patted Lee’s hand, and chuckled. “Did you miss the part where I was going to put you to work hauling stone? I figure that’s a fair trade for room and board in the luxurious Germaine resort. As for Dale, we’ll move you to the other room so he can have his back. Problem solved.”
“Yes.”
Gaëlle smiled broadly. “As easy as that?”
“Well, we may have to negotiate my working conditions. Head massages will have to be part of the contract. But, yes, as easy as that.”
Chapter 10
Lee straightened with a groan.
Gaëlle called from the other side of the rubble pile, “Are you okay, old woman?”
“Who you calling old, Ms. Soon-to-be-a-Senior-Citizen?” Lee twisted slowly and worked the kinks out of her lower back. “You know, I think we need to re-examine the terms of my contract.”
“We do, eh? I don’t know. It’s a pretty iron-clad document.”
“It’s a napkin.”
“But an iron-clad napkin.”
Lee laughed and stretched. “Well, Eileen did witness it. I’ll give you that.”
“Lee, I found it!”
Lee looked across the remains of the old barn to see Gaëlle wrestling something out from under a broken tress. She quickly clambered across the debris. “What have you found?”
“The stone for the threshold. I knew there would be one in here somewhere.”
In the last six weeks, Lee and Gaëlle had transported and laid enough of the old barn’s fieldstone to pave five of the labyrinth’s seven circuits. But Gaëlle had her heart set on finding what she deemed the perfect threshold, and nothing they’d found to date had measured up.
Lee eyed the stone dubiously. Aside from being much larger than most of the ones they’d transported, it didn’t look particularly outstanding to her. As she had discovered, however, Gaëlle had a precise vision of her labyrinth, so if her friend said this was perfect, so be it. “Okay. Then let’s see if we can get it on the cart.”
Lee retrieved the odd-looking cart from where they’d been loading it. The first day they’d begun sorting, hauling, and laying stone, they’d used Gaëlle’s garden cart, but they’d soon realized the sides were too high. Even working together, lifting fieldstones up over the sides had strained their muscles unnecessarily.
When they quit at the end of the first day and returned to the house, they found that Wally had solved their problem. He’d constructed a flat cart with a folding ramp. The cart ran on what appeared to be tricycle wheels. The cart bed was only six inches off the ground, so they didn’t have to lift very far, and it trundled over the rough terrain without difficulty. The ramp allowed them to roll larger stones onto the cart rather than lifting them.
Lee had been amused when she recognized various pieces of their new cart as things she’d seen on Wally’s junk wagon. But for a Rube Goldberg contraption, it served their purposes perfectly. They moved twice as many stones the next day and on subsequent days.
Lee rolled the cart into position and lowered the ramp, and they pushed, pulled, and rotated the stone into place for transport. Both were gasping for breath by the time they finished. Lee sank down on a pile of rubble and worked to catch her wind.
Gaëlle was bent at the waist, doing the same.
“Damn, I’m glad I quit smoking.”
“Me too.”
They grinned at each other, and Lee stood up. “I think we’ve got enough of a load for another trip.”
“Agreed.”
They grasped the long handle together and started pulling. By now they knew every metre of their route, where to ease to the left or right to avoid gopher holes, and when to put their backs into it to get up a rise. Lee enjoyed how harmoniously they worked together without any direction needed.
“So, I was thinking.”
Lee glanced at Gaëlle. “Yeah? About what?”
“I told you I need to go to Regina on Wednesday to meet Dale’s flight, right?”
“Do you think he’s really going to make it this time? He’s postponed twice just since I’ve been here.”
“I know. His heart is there, not here, but Dechontee told him last week that she needs to study for her exams and it was a good time for him to return to Canada.”
Lee chuckled. “Bas
ically she kicked him out of Guinea.”
“Pretty much. The point being, he will be on the Wednesday flight. Why don’t you come with me? We’ll go down a day early and have a bit of a break. The hotel I always stay at has a wonderful spa. We’ll treat ourselves royally—have a nice dinner, maybe take in a play or concert. We can even do some shopping if you like. You said you needed new work gloves and safety boots.”
“I do, but I could just pop into the Donegal Co-op for those. Still, I like the idea of a respite from our labours. Someone’s been working me like she’s an overseer on the pyramids.”
“I wasn’t an overseer. I was a stonecutter.”
Lee didn’t even flinch. Over the past month and a half, she’d grown accustomed to the odd things that came out of Gaëlle’s mouth. They’d long ceased to irritate or confuse her. Lee occasionally challenged Gaëlle, but mostly she simply accepted the statements for what they were—Gaëlle’s unconventional beliefs.
“Dragging you back on topic, a trip to Regina sounds good.”
Gaëlle clapped her hands in delight.“Wonderful. I’m so looking forward to this.”
“And, I imagine, to seeing Dale again.”
“Absolutely. I always miss that boy of mine, even if we do talk every second day.”
“I look forward to meeting him.”
“You two will get along well. You’re kindred spirits.”
“You mean he’s into hauling hundreds of kilos of rocks too?”
“Silly. No, I mean he’s also a strong, solid, dependable soul. He’s quieter than you, but you’ve both got the same staunch values, particularly love and loyalty toward friend and family.”
“Sounds like he’s a good man.”
“And you’re a good woman.”
They’d arrived at the labyrinth, so Lee was relieved not to have to respond. Gaëlle was not one to hide her affection, and Lee wasn’t always sure how to react.
Gaëlle was never flirtatious; she was simply straightforward. She was very fond of Lee and apparently saw no need to disguise that. Lee was accustomed to the love of her friends and family and returned it in great measure, but Gaëlle... Gaëlle didn’t fit neatly into any slots. She wasn’t lover or family, but she had rapidly become more than friend.
Walking the Labyrinth Page 13
