Along the Cane River: Books 1-5 in the Inspirational Cane River Romance Series

by Mary Jane Hathaway

  Alice stood up, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “I don’t know how you can sleep like that in public. I’d be afraid to ever shut my eyes.”

  He stood, holding the box in one hand. “I don’t usually. It was just so peaceful in here and this chair is heavenly.” He smiled. “I was up late talking to a friend.”

  As soon as the words left his mouth, Alice felt a sharp stab of jealousy. She turned to hide her expression as the words registered. It didn’t matter who he was talking to, friend or girlfriend. She shouldn’t even care.

  “Bix, let Paul show you what he brought.” She kept her voice carefully cheery.

  As Paul opened the box and turned on the e-reader, Alice went back to her desk. She felt totally exhausted, as if she’d run several miles. The conversation in the store barely reached her as she dropped into her chair. She’d just laughed until she cried, but now all she wanted to do was cry. Whether from stress or lack of sleep, her emotions were too close to the surface.

  She reached up to cradle her parents’ rings in her hand, but didn’t find them. She felt her body go cold. She stood up, reaching around her neck, frantically feeling for the chain. It was gone.

  She jumped from behind the desk and crouched down, peering at the area underneath. It had to be here somewhere. She leaped up, turning in a circle, scouring the store for a hint of gold.

  “Just press here to adjust the font and―” Paul broke off as she paced the floor. “Alice?”

  It was just her name but she felt her control start to slip at the concern in his voice. “My rings,” she said, her voice shaking. “They’re gone.”

  He walked toward her, leaving Bix holding the e-reader. “Did you leave them in your apartment?”

  “I never take them off. Ever.” Her eyes were swimming in tears. If it had been anything less important, she would have been embarrassed and wondered what he thought, but she didn’t care. Her entire focus narrowed to the only thing she’d inherited from her parents.

  “Where did you go today? Just the store? They have to be here.” He put his hands on her shoulders as if to keep her calm.

  Bix crossed the store, e-reader forgotten. “It won’t take us long to search down here. Can you remember which rooms you went into? Maybe they rolled under the ranges.”

  “I bet they’re in your bed,” Charlie said. “I lost a necklace and looked for a week before I found it under my pillow.”

  Alice looked up into Paul’s face. “I did leave the bookstore. I walked down to city hall today.”

  “And you had it this morning?” Paul wrapped an arm around her shoulders. His voice was confident but he looked as worried as she felt.

  She nodded. “I remember seeing them when I got dressed.”

  “Oh, boy. That’s at least a mile along the river walk.” Bix rubbed a hand over his white crew cut. “What were ya doin’ down there?”

  Alice didn’t want to say, wanted to have Paul find out some other way. She didn’t want to be there to see his reaction. She took a shuddery breath. “I was filing legal papers to stop construction on the new ScreenStop store.”

  She felt him freeze beside her and then he stepped back, eyebrows raised. A long silence stretched between them all.

  The lines of his mouth had gone tight. He inhaled slowly. “Okay, so we’ll search all the way from here to there.” He looked around. “Bix, why don’t we-- No, actually, Alice could use you better here. Charlie, do you want to walk with me to city hall? We’ll look along the boardwalk while y’all search the store.”

  “Sure!” Charlie jumped at the chance, her face lit up with eagerness.

  “I have a meeting at four,” Paul said, turning to Alice. “But we’ll search as long as we can and then we’ll regroup back here.”

  Alice nodded, a feeling of disbelief washing over her. That wasn’t the reaction she was expecting. Not a single comment about the papers. Maybe he was so confident that he didn’t feel threatened at all, but his expression said differently.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  Paul nodded. “Come on, Charlie,” he said. They walked out of the store, scanning the ground as they went. Or Paul scanned the ground while Charlie walked next to him, clearly in awe of getting to walk around town with her hero.

  There was a minute of silence and then Bix cleared his throat. “That’s a good man, right there. I know you two have your troubles.”

  Alice nodded, her throat closing around the words she wanted to say. Maybe she’d made a mistake. Maybe Paul wasn’t an arrogant, ruthless, business man trying to take over the city. But then again, sometimes people were personally very nice while running cut-throat companies. Except he was more than very nice. He was patient, kind, and faithful. Everything he had done showed his character to be noble, just like the heroes in all her favorite books.

  Bix seemed to understand she couldn’t even begin to discuss what was happening with Paul. “Well, let’s start at this end of the store and then work our way upstairs.” Bix gripped the counter and slowly lowered himself to a kneeling position on the hard tile.

  “Oh, don’t get on the ground, Bix.” Alice rushed forward to heave him up, but he waved a hand.

  “Sha, you know my eyesight. I’ll have to go inch by inch. And don’t you think twice about it. I know how much those rings mean to you.” He was already sweeping his hands back and forth, creeping toward the desk.

  Alice choked back a sudden wave of emotion. She didn’t deserve any of these people. She was petty and stubborn. She’d rather alienate someone who had made only a positive difference in their lives than admit she was wrong. Lord, I’ve gone so far down this path I don’t know how to turn around.

  She got to her knees, feeling the cold bite of the tile against her skin. She skimmed her palms along the floor, blinking back tears, just as blind as Bix.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Tweeting is like sending out cool telegrams to

  your friends once a week.—Tom Hanks

  “I can’t believe Miss Alice is trying to stop your store from opening. It’s totally unfair,” Charlie said. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her face was like thunder. “I just want you to know that even though I work there, I don’t agree with her at all. She’s totally obsessed with keeping technology away, like her lifestyle is more pure, or something.”

  Paul stopped walking and scanned the sidewalk. When Alice lost her necklace, it would have fallen inside her shirt, and then down, maybe bouncing off her leg as she walked. Or maybe it was outside her shirt and it fell directly to the sidewalk. He clenched his fists in frustration. How could two people find something so small in all this space? Charlie’s words filtered into his thoughts and he raised his head.

  “Don’t be too harsh on her. I get her point, in a way,” he said.

  “What? But you know that computers are the best thing ever!”

  “No, not really.” He turned, scanning the other direction. He could use a metal detector for the grassy areas. And more people. If Alice didn’t find it in the store, there would only be four of them out here looking. Bix’s eyesight was too poor, but he could get Andy to help. And his mother. Maybe they could put up flyers and offer a reward. “Computers aren’t the best thing ever. They’re a tool. And games are simply entertainment.”

  She made a sound of pure disbelief.

  “Listen,” he said, turning to face her. “I spent five hours a day playing Atari at my friend’s house when I was a teenager. I played more than that every day when I went to college. I was such a techno geek I worked three jobs so I could get the latest controllers and games and equipment. My dream vacation is a big comfy couch with a giant screen and a couple hot new releases of some game I didn’t design because knowing the cheats isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be.” He paused for breath. Pedestrians wandered by, sending curious glances at the two of them. “But technology is a tool and this stuff is just entertainment. What I do isn’t saving the world. Having a few million Twitter foll
owers doesn’t really mean anybody likes me.”

  “But we do!” Charlie shook her head. “You’re the very coolest guy ever!”

  “I mean,” he said, trying to find a way through to the teen girl, “you like who you think I am. You like what is presented to you, what you’ve been given as marketing.”

  She frowned at him. “So, you’re not like that at all? Going to Comic-Cons and cosplaying with fans and everything?”

  “I am.” He sighed. “It’s just… complicated. I guess I want to say I agree more with Alice than you might think I do. She understands that real life is more important than any game. People can take it all too seriously. I’ve heard about players dying because they won’t stop the game to get a drink of water or sleep. I hear about parents abusing their kids because they want more uninterrupted game time…. I get desperate tweets from people offering me all sorts of things they shouldn’t, just to get what their character needs.” He held up a hand. “Wait a minute.”

  Charlie looked around at the busy boardwalk. “What?”

  “Even if the building doesn’t open on time, we can still have the release day party for the new game in two weeks.”

  “Okay,” she obviously didn’t know how it was all connected. “You don’t think Alice can really stop the store from opening, do you?”

  “No, not really.” He shook his head. “But I was thinking. What if we make a scavenger hunt? There would be only one item, Alice’s rings. And the prize would be some sort of advanced pass for the new game.”

  “Like the passport? I bought that last time.”

  “No, like the rare-spawn that show up only every hundred times through the area. I’ve seen guys go through the same sequence a thousand times to see if they can catch the gear they wanted, but it never showed up.” Paul knew why. He designed the thing.

  Charlie gaped at him, eyes wide. “Wait! Back this train up and pick up some passengers you left behind, like Mr. What the Heck and Mrs. Why?” She leaned forward. “Not that I’m trying to talk you out of it.”

  He knew how much time and effort went into catching those one in a hundred bonus gifts. The person who had them all was treated like the president in the groups. Everyone wanted to friend them and go on raids together. They became as famous as any actor on TV, or more in the gaming world. “I’m sure we could create it so this person would catch them every time, no repeating the raids just to get what they wanted, hoping it would show up right when they passed by.”

  Charlie grabbed his arm. “Does that apply right now? I mean, if I find the rings right now would I get that?”

  For a moment, he wanted to remind Charlie that Alice was her friend and employer and that she should want to find the rings just to make her happy. But he also realized in that moment why his idea was a good one. There were thousands of people just like Charlie, who would be motivated by that prize. “Yeah, it sure does.”

  He looked at his watch. “We only have about an hour. Keep looking.”

  Charlie stopped talking and tied her hair back. She hunkered down and started walking slowly forward, her expression one of complete focus.

  Moving to the other side of the sidewalk, Paul searched for the tiniest glint of gold. He didn’t want to think of Alice watching him sleep, or the way his heart stopped when she laughed. When she’d realized her rings were missing, he had never seen anyone so devastated. And when she told him why she’d been at city hall, her expression was filled with sadness, fear, and regret. He was starting to understand why people wrote complicated poetry about love. He was so frustrated and angry, but at the same time he wanted to gather her close and tell her it was all going to be okay.

  He couldn’t be a business man right now, or BWK, or a game designer. He shut it all out and focused, praying for St. Anthony’s intercession as the patron saint of lost items. “And for us, too. Me and Alice,” he whispered. Whatever they had, it was surely lost now. You can’t ask out the girl who is suing you. No matter how much chemistry they had, or how they connected over email, it would never work. It would take a miracle to bring them together.

  ***

  Alice stood at the bathroom mirror, motionless. Outwardly, she looked just the same. Dark eyes, curly hair, maybe a little paler than usual, but nothing out of the ordinary. Only she knew that part of her was missing, lost somewhere on her mission to stop Paul Olivier and his company.

  She bent her head and willed herself not to cry. There were people who didn’t have food or shelter. She didn’t need to weep over a pair of rings. But they were all she had, even though she knew that they were just gold, just a shiny metal. That cold metal was once worn with love, warmed by her living parents, back in a time when they were happy and all together. The rings were more than sentimental, they were symbolic. Standing for everything she once had, and now everything she’d lost, the loss of those two rings had gutted her in a way that the lawsuit couldn’t.

  She looked up, into her own eyes. Today, she was going to be fire, like BWK had said. But it wasn’t to wage a campaign against Paul’s store. It was to simply get through the day.

  ***

  “Hey, what’s up with you?” Andy dropped into the overstuffed chair across from Paul. The living room was bright with late summer sunshine and the windows were open to the river breeze.

  “Nothing.” Paul straightened up. He’d been hunched over, staring at his shoes. Caught in mope mode.

  “Listen, Alice isn’t going to win. That injunction is plain stupid. The building is nearly finished. Just the minor cosmetics and it will be ready for opening day.”

  “I know.” Paul hadn’t talked to her since yesterday, when he swung back by the store to tell her that he and Charlie hadn’t been able to find her necklace. The look on her face haunted him.

  “Then why the sparkly vampire impression?” At Paul’s look of confusion Andy said, “You know, dead guy wants live girl, they can’t be together and so he exiles himself away from humanity.”

  Paul stood up. “I’m not in exile. I just get tired of being stopped everywhere I go and harassed.”

  “You didn’t mind it so much until she filed those papers.” Andy stretched out in the chair, hanging one leg over the arm.

  He shot him a look. “It just brought it home, that’s all. She’s serious about fighting the store even though I thought she might be softening up toward it.”

  “No, buddy. She was softening up toward you. Big difference,” Andy said. “You have to hand it to her. She stands by her convictions. Any of the other girls you’ve dated would have given up whatever hang-ups they had way before now.”

  Paul walked to the window and looked out at the river. “We’re not dating.”

  “Whatever it is. And please don’t call it hooking up.”

  “No worries. Not saying anything.”

  “Okay, you’re not a bad roommate, but I’ve got to get some gear in here.” Andy heaved a sigh. “I feel like I’m being forced into the life of a Luddite hermit, only with Southern food and a cranky hutmate.”

  “The cable’s being hooked up today.” He couldn’t resist a smile at Andy’s description. He wasn’t a social butterfly but he was a far cry from a hermit. They still had their laptops running from a mobile hotspot, but Andy needed his bandwidth. You just couldn’t run the big raids on a spotty connection.

  “Thank you,” Andy said, lifting his hands in the air. “I was about to book tickets home.

  I’d go commercial just to get somewhere that supports streaming bit torrents. Don’t worry, I’d come back for the opening.”

  Paul came back to the chair and said, “About the opening…”

  Sitting up, Andy fixed him with a look. “Oh, I don’t like that expression. Are you thinking of canceling all of this? Can your Chief Technical Officer remind you of how much we’ve invested in this project?”

  “No, don’t worry.” Paul frowned. He wouldn’t say it hadn’t occurred to him, but he still had a little bit of logic left in his brain. “I w
as thinking of a new strategy for the opening. A sort of scavenger hunt.”

  “Sure, okay. I’ve seen those before. People usually start a week ahead and go everywhere on the list, and then at the opening they show the pictures of themselves at the site, or bring something, and then get a special prize.” He grinned. “I actually like this idea. You’ve got all sorts of inside knowledge. You could send these people into some pretty weird places, like frog gigging, or whatever you were threatening me with.”

  “Right.” He cleared his throat. Those plans he’d made back in New York City seemed a lifetime away. “But I have an idea for the big granddaddy treasure.”

  “Catch a catfish with your bare hands?”

  “No, but that’s a good one. I was thinking of Alice’s necklace being the last on the list.”

  Andy sat back. He didn’t say anything for a moment. “The one she lost? How would that work?”

  “Look, we know that it’s somewhere between here and city hall. Think of all the people we could get looking for it. We went up and down the boardwalk a few times, but think of the hundreds of gamers that come to the opening.” Paul knew it sounded ridiculous.

  “Why not just offer money? We could offer a reward and half the town would be out there.”

  “No.” Paul remembered Charlie’s change of attitude. “Money is a good way to get attention, but to find this thing, we’re going to need some real detail-oriented people. We need them to show up, armed with treasure-hunting gear.”

  “All for a bonus pack and a free passport to the outer worlds? I can’t see that happening.” Unless you’re going to fly in bigger celebrities, which will be hard to get, last minute.”

  “I was thinking of offering an early-access pass to all the bonus prizes. The player wouldn’t have to repeat any raids because the rare-spawn would just drop right out of the wall. Any special gear or power, automatic.”

  His words dropped into the middle of the room like stones down a mine shaft. He watched Andy’s face go from amusement to incredulity and then worry. “You’re serious.”