The Fortune Quilt

by Lani Diane Rich

  I sit in one of the cold metal chairs next to the porch table and stare up at the stars. I wonder what Will’s doing right now, and internally resolve that I will stop thinking about Will in the new year. I give myself two and a half more hours to indulge myself, and then, that’s it.

  I’m going cold turkey.

  “Care for some company?”

  I turn and see Mary standing behind me, holding two fleece throw blankets in her arms. She wraps one over my shoulders and puts the other over her own, then sits down across from me, staring up at the stars. We sit in silence for a long while before she starts talking.

  “When you were a little girl, about six years old or so,” she says, “you came into our room, really early in the morning. You tapped me on the shoulder and when I asked you what you wanted, you just put your finger to your lips and said ‘Shhhh.’ Then you took my hand and led me outside, to this very spot.” She looks at me and smiles. “It was snowing. It was amazing. It was like magic, because it was April. Right after Easter. I mean, you know it rarely ever snows here, but in April? It was crazy. We just stood out here together for a long time, catching the snow on our tongues. You looked so happy.” She lets out a small laugh. “Wow. I don’t know why I just remembered that. I haven’t thought about that day in ages.”

  I’m still staring at the sky when I hear her sniffle, and when I look at her, there are tears on her face. She swipes at them hastily.

  “I’m sorry,” she says. “I’ve obviously had too much champagne.” She straightens up in her seat, swipes at her face one last time, and smiles at me. “I’m sorry.”

  I look away. “Yeah. Me, too.”

  There’s a long moment of silence, and then she finally speaks. “You have nothing to be sorry about.”

  “That’s debatable,” I say, still not looking at her. “No matter what you did, the fact is, you came back to try and make it right. And that takes a lot of courage. I have to give you credit for that. I don’t know if I would have had that kind of courage.”

  “Maybe,” she says, leaning back in her chair and staring up at the sky. “But I don’t know if that counts for much with your sisters. At least you came out and told me how you felt. I can deal with that. Ella hides it all under this veneer of sunshine, and Five… Five’s just all over the place. She’s fine one minute and the next, I don’t know what I’m dealing with.”

  “Well,” I say, “the secret with Ella is to just get in her face and don’t let her pretend everything’s fine. She’ll resist for a while, but eventually she’ll blow up all over you and then you can start working it out. As for Five…” I shake my head. “She’s seventeen. My vote is, it’d be hell right now even if you’d been here all along. Just keep your liquor cabinet stocked and pray.”

  She lifts her glass and we toast. I watch her as she stares up into the sky and I feel a flash of genuine affection. It’s not much more than a flash, nowhere near total forgiveness, but it’s a promising place to start.

  “You know what I think we need?” I say finally. “A do-over.”

  She lets out a small laugh. “A what-over?”

  I open my mouth to explain when the back door creaks behind us and Five pokes her head out. “Carly, did you call a cab?”

  “Um, no. I don’t think so. Why?”

  She lets out a huff of frustrated air. “Oh, nothing. There’s a cab out front and the guy insists he was given this address and… whatever. I’ll just tell him to leave.”

  “Okay,” I say, but then take in a sharp breath of air as I hear Brandy’s voice in my head.

  Take the cab.

  “Oh, my God,” I say, putting my hand over my mouth. My heart starts to race.

  “Carly?” Mary says as I push up from my chair.

  Return the frog. Accept the book with the amber spine.

  Take the cab.

  “Wait, Five!” I can’t believe I’m doing this. “It’s mine. The cab is mine. Can you grab my coat and my purse for me, please?”

  “Um. Okay.” Five shrugs and disappears into the house. I turn to Mary.

  “I’m sorry. I need to go. I think. I think I need to go.”

  Mary stands up. “It’s not even midnight,” she says. “Where are you going?”

  I smile. “I’m not sure. But I think… I think the cab is for me. Does that sound crazy?”

  “You’re asking me about crazy?” she says.

  I take the throw off my shoulders and give it back to her. “Can we continue this next week, maybe? Have lunch or something? We’ll talk.”

  She nods. “Yeah. Sure. That’ll be nice.”

  We exchange a brief smile and I rush toward the back door, where Five is waiting with my coat and purse.

  “Where are you going?” she asks as she rushes behind me to the front door.

  “I don’t know.” I laugh and give her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Tell everyone Happy New Year for me, okay?”

  “Okay,” she says, eyeing my half-empty flute of champagne. “Can I have that?”

  I hand it to her. “Don’t tell Dad I gave it to you.”

  The cab is still waiting by the curb. I run toward it, shrugging into my coat as I go.

  “Where are we going?” the cabbie sighs, obviously annoyed, when I hop into the back seat.

  “I don’t know,” I say. “Didn’t they - I mean, I - give you a destination when I called?”

  He shoots a look over his shoulder that shows me he is definitely not amused. But I need a sign, I need him to give me a sign that this cab is actually for me. I was hoping that sign would be him taking me straight to Bilby, although, that is kind of ridiculous. I mean, coincidence is only going to take me so far, right? I feel my heart start to race and I take a deep breath.

  “How much for you to take me to Bilby?”

  He looks at me like I’m nuts. Which, arguably…

  “Bilby?” he says. “I’m not taking you to Bilby, lady. This cab is city limits only.”

  I sit back, deflated. This isn’t the way this is supposed to go. I was supposed to hop in the cab, and he was supposed to have my answer. He was supposed to take me to Bilby.

  He was supposed to take me to Will.

  “What if I paid you extra?” I say. “Do you take credit cards?”

  He reaches over and hits the button on his meter, printing out a receipt. “That’ll be four eighty-six.”

  “For what?” I say. “You didn’t take me anywhere.”

  “That’s the meter cost for making me sit here for nothing. Four dollars and eighty-six cents.”

  He hands me the receipt, and I look at it. Four dollars and eighty-six cents. The exact amount Mr. Trimble always paid for his charcoals.

  “It’s a sign,” I mumble.

  “What?” he says.

  “Oh, shut up. It could be a sign.” I dig into my purse and shove a twenty at him. “Keep the change.”

  He thanks me perfunctorily and takes the twenty. I hop out of the cab, watch him drive off, and glance at the receipt one more time before hopping into my own car.

  ***

  My car clock reads 11:38 when I arrive in front of Brandy’s house. Through the windows, I see James and Sebastian dancing. I see Janesse wearing a brilliant yellow dress and looking typically stunning. I watch for a while longer, catching flashes of Allegra’s pink hair, Brandy’s long ponytail, and Gladys’s and Mack’s matching holiday sweaters.

  No Will. He can’t be on assignment, can he? On New Year’s Eve?

  Maybe. I don’t know. And I won’t know until I get myself up out of this car and go find out. I step out of the car and stumble in my heels on the rock path that leads past Brandy’s house. After a few steps, I get my footing, although I’m pretty sure my ankles are going to hate me in the morning.

  I hug my coat around me as I walk through the foliage to the clearing. The night is crisp and clear, with the moon and the stars casting everything in a blue glow. My heart jumps in my chest as I see the light coming from Will’s w
indows.

  He’s home.

  I pause for a moment, take a deep breath and make my way to his cabin. My hand shakes as I knock on the door. Despite the two-hour drive, I have no idea what I’m going to say. It takes him a moment, but eventually the door opens, and there he is. His hair’s a mess, his shirt is splattered with paint, and he’s as gorgeous as ever.

  “Hey,” I say.

  He stares at me. It seems to take him a moment to form a response. Then he smiles. “Hey.”

  “I was just in the neighborhood,” I say. “I thought I’d stop in and say hi.”

  “Yeah.” He gives a confused little laugh. “Hi.”

  “Hi.”

  There’s a long moment in which we just look at each other, and then he gives his head a little shake and steps back, holding the door open to let me inside. “I’m sorry. Come in. You’ve gotta be freezing.”

  “I’m fine,” I say, but walk inside at his invitation. As he closes the door behind me, the room catches my attention. Well, not the room so much as what’s in it.

  Paintings. New ones. Everywhere. On the couch. On the floor, leaning against the walls, on the kitchen counter. What’s as interesting as the fact that there are so many new paintings is the subject matter.

  Quasitoado. Well, not all Quasitoado. There are two leaning against the wall that are definitely Quasi, all hunchbacked and mutant-faced and cute as hell. The rest seem to be Quasi evolving from an ugly sugar dish into a real frog. The settings around him are all familiar, though. I recognize Brandy’s couch, the counter at Art’s Desire, the mosaic table outside the Café. Individually, the paintings are neat. Quirky. But together, there’s something really touching about seeing fugly Quasi grow into a beautiful frog. A real frog.

  “Wow,” I say, unable to tear my eyes away from the paintings.

  “Yeah,” he says with a laugh. “I’ve been working out some issues, I think.”

  “So…” I work for a minute, trying to put my thoughts into words. “Quasi was your inspiration?”

  “Well…” He looks at his shoes, the paintings, the coffee table. Everything but me. “He kind of represented a lot for me.” He finally meets my eyes. “I, uh, I’ve been working on the last of the series. There’s a gallery in Tucson that might be interested, actually. I sent them some pictures, and they asked me to come up next week.”

  “That’s great!” I smile up at him. “Your work should be seen. It’s incredible.”

  “Thanks.” We just stand there, our eyes locked for a long moment, then Will breaks the silence. “So. Um. Happy New Year.”

  “Happy New Year.” I take a deep breath and laugh nervously. “You’re probably wondering what I’m doing here.”

  He keeps his eyes on mine. “Little bit.”

  I blink hard against the tears blurring my vision, and my breath comes out in a hitch. “I miss my frog.”

  His eyebrows knit. “You miss… what? Quasitoado?”

  I sniffle and nod. “The reading, that Brandy gave me? It said to accept the book, return the frog, take the cab. And I did it, I did everything just the way the reading told me. I tried to have faith, Will, I really tried, but you didn’t come back to me.” I swipe at my face. “I thought that if I did it all, my life would work out right, but it didn’t, because I don’t think it can be right without you. And maybe you don’t want me and maybe I’m just supposed to let you go. I don’t know. But if it comes down to having faith or knowing I did everything in my power to keep you in my life, then I’m just gonna have to be one of those people with no faith, because I don’t have it in me to want something this much and not try to make it work.”

  I keep my eyes on the floor, biting the inside of my cheek to stop the crying, but it’s useless. Then Will puts his fingers under my chin and raises my face up to look at him.

  “I was coming,” he says.

  I blink at him. “What?”

  He smiles and swipes a tear from my cheek. “My plan was to go to Tucson. Get the showing. Send you an invite. Then, when you showed up at the gallery, I was going to be all dressed up and smelling so good that you wouldn’t be able to tell me to get lost.”

  I laugh. “I wouldn’t tell you to get lost.”

  “Well,” he says, smiling dreamily down at me. Then he takes in a breath. “Oh, and I was going to ply you with wine. You know. Hedge my bets.”

  “Oh,” I say, my voice squeaky under the tears. “That would have been really nice.”

  He moves his hand to my shoulder and steps closer. “That’s okay. I like this way, too.”

  He leans down and kisses me, then pulls me into a hug. We start to sway to the muted music coming from Brandy’s house, and I rest my head against his chest, listening to his heart beat. It’s a good moment for me, one of my better ones, and I close my eyes to properly enjoy it.

  “I’m not giving up the frog, you know,” he says. I pull my head back and look up to see him smiling down at me. “We’re a package deal.”

  “I see.” I wrap my arms tighter around his waist. “So, what? Are we going to have to work out some shared custody deal?”

  “I’m thinking, maybe, you know, if things work out, I can find an apartment up in Tucson. You know, so Quasi doesn’t have to travel so far to see you. It’s really not good for him. He gets impatient.”

  I grin. “Yeah. I can understand that.”

  “Then…” He leans his face down and kisses my neck. “Maybe I can have him when I’m in town, and you can keep him when I’m on assignment.”

  “Mmmm,” I say as Will’s hands slide under my coat, slipping it off my shoulders. “Yeah, I think that would definitely be the best solution.”

  He puts one hand on my face and we kiss for a long time, only breaking when we hear an explosion of cheers coming from Brandy’s house.

  Will laughs. “So, are you ready to ring in the new year?”

  I take my coat from him and toss it over Quasi, who was watching us from his perch on the coffee table.

  “Now I am,” I say.

  The End

  Hi, you!

  Thanks for reading my book! If you enjoyed it, I have some others you might like:

  Time Off For Good Behavior

  Maybe Baby

  The Comeback Kiss

  A Little Ray Of Sunshine

  Ex And The Single Girl

  You can find them all on Amazon, or stop by my website at LaniDianeRich.com.

  Thanks again!

  - Lani