She tapped her contact list. She needed to make a call. One that was going to alter her future. She took a deep breath and tapped Ian McKinley’s name.
“Hi, Ian,” she said when he answered. “Have you got a minute?”
“Aye. I’ve been expecting you to call.”
“Ian, I’m not coming back,” she shot the words out quickly as she re-routed her life. “It’s not that I don’t love you and everyone there, and working for McKinley Media was such a great experience, and I will always owe you for giving me such an opportunity—”
“Natalie, you don’t have to blubber on about it,” Ian cut in. He took a drag off his cigarette. “I always knew you wouldn’t come back when you left. And, to be honest, I’m happy for you.”
“I’m glad you understand.”
“I know this new job is going to be the dog’s bullocks.”
Natalie blinked, a little confused by what he meant. “Yeah, I think so. For now, it’s what I need.”
“You’re not gonna be a stranger, are you? Whenever you’re in London, you come by to see us. Don’t forget your old chums.”
“I won’t,” she promised, but she doubted she would be returning to London anytime soon. After her call to Ian ended, she used her phone to cancel her flight back to London on the twenty-eighth.
For a moment, she sat on the park bench. There was only one old man in the park, sitting on a bench, feeding a couple of squirrels. She looked at the sunlight sparkling across the grass and the flower beds of winter pansies flourishing. What a beautiful winter day. She remembered times past, when she was a child and her mother had brought her to this small park to play. She had raced along the walking path, pretending she was a bird in flight.
She tapped her fingers against her mouth. She had just given up a lot. She’d never win the Pulitzer. Her photographs wouldn’t grace the covers of news magazines and journalists’ blogs. Her work wouldn’t be featured in documentaries, and her salary would plummet. Her decision to become a small-time photographer had “slacker” stamped all over it.
Embrace who you are.
She had done just that. She tucked her phone deep in the pocket of her coat. She started toward the Camaro. Then she stopped. On impulse, she turned on the pathway, beckoned by an unseen force that originated inside her.
She ran through the park, her arms spread wide.
Sometimes you just had to spread your wings and fly.
The old man on the bench gave her a nod of approval.
Chapter 18
At the Castle House, Anna sat at her desk. “Hello, George,” she said as she spoke to the mayor over the telephone. “I wanted to invite you to a small reception I’m having at my house on Friday afternoon for Ted. I know he would like to see you.”
“Of course,” the mayor replied. “I’ll be there. And tell the senator I’m looking forward to seeing him.”
After she had hung up the phone, she marked the mayor’s name off the list on her desk. She glanced at Pharaoh, who was perched on top of his cat tree. “Everything has to be an event with Ted. I don’t know how I managed to raise such an opportunist.”
Her son had not directly asked her to have a reception for him, but he had slyly hinted at it when he had called earlier. “I’m looking forward to seeing everyone,” he said. “Especially you and Natalie.” Ted knew how to be a charmer. “And there are so many others I’d like to see and thank them for their support, but there won’t be enough time. I have to get back to Washington and finish up a few things before the Christmas break.”
Anna didn’t think they ever finished up anything in Congress, but being the intuitive and wonderful mother she was, she said to her son, “Darling, do you want me to host a reception for you on Friday afternoon? You could give me a list of who to invite over.”
He hesitated. “Mother, are you up to hosting a reception? I don’t want you to do it if you don’t feel like it, but that’s a terrific idea.”
“I’m feeling better than I’ve felt all year. Thanks to Doctor Harris. You must meet him. I think you’ll be quite impressed.”
“By all means. I’m looking forward to meeting him. Harry speaks highly of him, too.”
“Natalie is rather fond of him, and I’m very pleased with that,” Anna said, hoping her son understood the importance of Natalie’s happiness. Ted hardly paid any attention to anyone other than himself. “Natalie seems so happy now, and I want her to stay happy.”
“Of course, Mother, I do, too,” Ted said. “She’s my little girl, and I have a huge surprise for her. She’s going to be thrilled.”
Anna had tried to find out what Ted meant by that, but he was not talking. He said it would not do for his surprise to be leaked. She had reminded him that she was not Clara and didn’t blurt out things the way her sister did. She knew how to think before she spoke. Ted had still refused to reveal his surprise.
She looked at the next name on her list and groaned. “Walter Joslin.” She glanced at Pharaoh. “He has such tiny eyes I’ve always wondered how he could see. All I’ve ever heard him talk about is his portfolio and how big it is and how important it is. I started to ask him once if he carried it in his hand or between his legs.”
Pharaoh turned his head sharply as he saw a bird outside the study window. Being the smart cat he was, he didn’t bother moving. He knew there was glass between him and the bird.
“I’ll let you out later,” Anna said as she patted the small incision of the pacemaker pocket that Dr. Harris had created beneath her collarbone. Although the incision had healed nicely, it still itched occasionally.
“Nana?”
Anna looked up when she heard Natalie call her name. “I’m in my study.”
Natalie appeared in the doorway, and Anna saw a difference in her granddaughter. She was as lovely as always in an ivory sweater and slacks, but her face had a flush that looked nothing short of a glow. Her smile did Anna’s heart good.
“How are you feeling?” Natalie walked in the study.
“I’m feeling wonderful,” Anna said. “I’m arranging a reception for your father on Friday afternoon. Doctor Harris will be here, won’t he?”
“Yes.” Natalie pulled a rosewood side chair close to the front of Anna’s desk. She sat and rested her arm on the edge of the desk. “He said he was looking forward to meeting Dad.”
“I’m delighted to hear that.” Despite the lax rules in society nowadays, it was only proper that a young man should meet and seek the favor of a young lady’s father, and she was happy that Dr. Harris was not going to be a disappointment when it came to tradition, which she valued highly.
“I’m worried about Dad’s surprise,” Natalie said. “What do you think it is?”
“I have no idea. He’s very tight-lipped. But I think you’ll probably love it.”
Natalie shrugged. “I don’t understand why he’s making a special trip home now. Why not wait until Christmas? That’s only a week away.”
“Perhaps it’s something to wear or use on Christmas.”
“You think so?”
“I don’t know. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Natalie toyed with a silver-plated letter opener that lay on the desk. “I’ve been over at Bingham’s Bakery. I’m going to write an article about the bakery. Eldora told me the most beautiful story about her father and Grandpa Sam’s father, Sam Senior,” she said. “I’d like to know more about Sam Senior.”
“You can get to know all about him. He left behind several journals, and they are all upstairs in the master bedroom. You’ll find them in the bookcase along with a couple of photograph albums. He was a lively, good-humored man who never met a stranger. An inventor of sorts who had a lot of wild ideas, none of which worked, and a free spirit who followed his own star.”
“Embrace who you are and what you love,” Natalie said. “He said that.”
“Yes. I would say he definitely lived by that motto.”
Natalie looked out the window
; the winter sunlight was especially bright, and Anna considered how different Natalie looked after her facial surgery. When she had first seen Natalie, it had been like seeing a new person. Someone other than the granddaughter she remembered. Now Natalie’s face seemed like the only one she’d ever had. It was a face filled with love as she smiled at Anna.
“I’ve made a decision, Nana. I called Ian McKinley today and told him I wouldn’t be back,” she said. “Brett is always saying I belong here in Lafayette Falls, and I do like it here. These past few weeks have been so good. For now, the future is here.”
Anna pressed her hand to her heart. “That is such wonderful news, darling.”
“I can open a photography studio to generate some income,” Natalie said. “What I really want to do is put together a collection of stories like the one with Mozart and his sister and Bingham’s Bakery. You were right, Nana.” She reached across the desk and rested her hand on top of Anna’s. “It’s in the small stories that we find our truth. I don’t even know how to explain it, but I feel like I’m discovering the truth. Maybe about myself.”
Anna grasped Natalie’s hand. “I’m so happy! Welcome home, my dear.”
Pharaoh made a leap from the cat tree and landed on Anna’s desk, scattering her papers. “For heaven’s sake.” Anna blinked away the tears and grinned at Natalie. “Just like a man. Always needing to be the center of attention.”
Natalie stood. “I’m going to go upstairs and look at those journals.”
Anna rose and gave Natalie a hug. “We’ll have the most splendid Christmas ever this year. Our entire family will be home. I could not want for more.” Actually, she did hope that next Christmas the family would be larger. She smiled at Natalie. A great-grandchild would be wonderful, but she kept that to herself.
A little while later, Anna and Pharaoh walked to the kitchen, where Clara was busy decorating cupcakes with red and green icing. She wore a white fleece pullover that had a large festive Christmas tree appliqué on the front. The Christmas pullover had been one of those featured on a home-shopping network by a woman who had looked like a butterball in leggings. What had happened to good taste?
While Pharaoh made a pit stop at his food bowl, Anna told Clara she had spoken to the owner of the event-planning service that would be handling the reception for Ted. “She’s going to provide four servers and two parking valets. I told her you would get with her on the hors d’oeuvres.”
“I’ll email her a list.” Clara wiped her hands as she admired the cupcakes. “I love it when Ted comes home. He seems to bring excitement with him.”
“He does.” Anna opened the liquor cabinet. “Do we have any margarita mix left?”
Clara grinned. “I bought two bottles of mix yesterday. What are we celebrating?”
“Natalie has decided not to go back to London. She’s going to stay.”
“What?” Clara gasped. “Is she?”
“She said Doctor Harris had been urging her to stay.” Anna found the margarita mix and tequila. “The doctor didn’t let me down. I’m so pleased with him.”
Clara fetched two cocktail glasses. “I knew it. See. It worked out for the best that Indiana Jones was gay. Otherwise, you would have gotten rid of Doctor Harris, and that would have been a disaster.”
“I have to agree.” Anna was not above admitting when she was wrong. “Doctor Harris has more than proved himself. He won her over just like I wanted, and she’s so happy. She was practically glowing when she told me she was going to stay.”
“They’re in love,” Clara insisted as Anna poured tequila into the cocktail shaker. “That’s a lot of tequila, Anna.”
“It’ll be fine.” Once the drinks were made, Anna lifted her glass. “Let’s make a toast to young love.” She and Clara tipped their glasses together and drank.
“Do you think they’ll get married?” Clara asked.
“Let’s not rush things.”
“You can’t hurry love.” Clara snapped her fingers as she trotted across the kitchen. She turned on a wireless speaker that was synced with her smartphone. “How about the Supremes?”
“Perfect.” Anna poured another drink as the music filled the kitchen.
Upstairs, Natalie came out of the master bedroom, where she had been looking over her great-grandfather’s journals, and stopped at the top of the stairs. What was going on downstairs? She listened. It sounded like rock music.
She laughed as she headed down the stairs. Her uncle Harry had warned her that occasionally Anna and Clara had their own little party in the kitchen. I have to see this.
She stopped in the kitchen doorway. Decorated for Christmas, the spacious kitchen had a bouquet of poinsettia on the bar, holly garlands trimming the windows, and a trio of snowman cookie jars. A bottle of tequila and one of margarita mix stood on the kitchen island, and the Supremes sang “Someday We’ll Be Together.”
Clara and Anna were chugging around the island, singing along with the Supremes.
For a moment, Natalie wondered if she should step in like a parent. She took a subtle approach. “Look at you two.” She walked over to the island.
“Natalie.” Clara waved her hands. “I’ll get you a glass. You should drink with us.”
“Yes.” Anna lifted the cocktail shaker. “We have plenty.” She poured refills and filled the glass that Clara set on the island for Natalie.
“That’s good.” Natalie cleared her throat. “You don’t want to drink too much. You know, you might fall or something.”
“Natalie, darling, we’re not drunk.” Anna sniffed. “We know our limit.”
“Okay.” Natalie wasn’t certain about that. But she loved seeing the two of them enjoying life. She took a sip of the margarita and joined them, singing “Stop! In the Name of Love” with the Supremes. Standing side by side, they swayed to the music.
“What are we celebrating?” Natalie asked.
“The future,” Anna said. “You’ve given up that dreadful job of yours, and you’re staying here in Lafayette Falls. I couldn’t be happier.” She stifled a burp.
“No thanks to Indiana Jones.” Clara finished off her refill. “Anna thought Indy was the perfect man for you, but I kept telling her it was Doctor Harris.” She pointed at her older sister. “I was right all along. Admit it, Anna. Come on.”
“Indiana Jones?” Natalie tried to make sense of the conversation.
Clara nodded. “Anna wanted to fix you up with Indiana Jones, but then we found out he already had somebody, and he wouldn’t have been interested in you anyway. But I hate that we didn’t have the party we’d been planning. We were going to do an Egyptian theme with a sarcophagus centerpiece and I was going to make pita bread.”
Natalie’s eyes widened. “I think you two have reached your limit.” She put away the bottle of tequila.
“I was always betting on Doctor Harris,” Clara said.
“I had my doubts about him because, you know, he’s a doctor, and I knew why he was coming over here,” Anna admitted. “But once I met with him and explained that I wanted you to stay, he was more than willing to commit himself.”
Natalie closed the door to the liquor cabinet and looked at Anna and Clara. She frowned slightly. “You talked to Brett about me?” She shuffled through her memories. She remembered him joking about talking to her grandmother about her and that’s what she’d thought it had been. A joke.
“Yes, it was when you brought home the Indiana Jones movies. Darling, you know I love Indy, but, goodness, I’ve seen those movies several times, and I thought it was time to end the farce, so that was when I went to his office and settled things. He asked me to give him two weeks before I introduced you to someone else and now you’re going to stay. Just like I wanted.”
“I see.” Natalie saw things with great clarity now.
Clara switched the music from the Supremes to Christmas music. “Time for some holiday cheer,” she said as “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” started playing.
Anna
glanced at the liquor cabinet. “We’ll need to pick up a fifth of Jim Beam for the Christmas eggnog.”
“I’ve got it on my list,” Clara said as Natalie sipped on the margarita. She gave Natalie’s shoulder a squeeze. “Just think, this time next Christmas, you may be Mrs. Brett Harris. You might even have a baby.”
Natalie gulped down the rest of the drink and shook her head. “That is so not going to happen.”
Chapter 19
Thursday morning, on the top floor of the hospital, Brett unlocked the door and stepped inside the office reserved for the chief of cardiology. Doctor Collins’s nameplate had been removed from the door, and his personal effects were gone.
The room was an average office, with standard taupe walls, matching carpet, and vertical blinds covering the window. The plain office was nothing that would scream, “Holy shit, bro, you’ve made it,” but Brett had definitely made it.
Professionally, he was doing great. The year ahead would be a busy one, as there were a lot of improvements he wanted to make in the cardiology department. And with any luck, he’d be making a big change in his personal life, too.
He and Natalie had exchanged a few text messages last night when he finally got home from a long day at the satellite clinic. They hadn’t seen each other. She was busy working on her next article about the bakery, and he was exhausted. He had fallen asleep the moment his head hit the pillow, but he’d gone to sleep happy because in one of her messages, Natalie had told him she had decided to stay in Lafayette Falls.
He had never been more thrilled.
That trip to Kauai he had been considering might turn out to be a honeymoon, just like Marla suggested.
He opened the vertical blinds and let the winter sun grace the office, which he hoped would be his for a long time. The L-shaped walnut desk provided plenty of workspace. He took a seat in the new brown leather executive chair. “Nice,” he murmured as he leaned back in the chair with thick cushions. He gave the twenty-eight-inch computer monitor a nod of approval before he stood.
He would need desk accessories. Although he probably wouldn’t use them that much, the desk looked too bare. He walked over to the bookcases. Collins had taken his personal belongings, so what remained was hospital property, which included one bookcase devoted to the history of the cardiology department. On the shelves were a number of old books and artifacts that dated back to 1957, when Dr. Killingsworth established the first routine care orders for cardiac patients and a few years later, the first coronary care unit.
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