Inclusions

by Emily Duvall

  Luke sat on the edge of his desk and rubbed his chin. “Did you sleep well last night?”

  “I did.” She didn’t trust the hitch in his voice.

  “You slept with my brother,” he said without flinching.

  “You’re wrong.” There had to be another way to make him understand the mistake. “Please, give me time to explain.”

  Luke pointed at his chest. “I overheard you and Damon talking about your night ahead.” The once-over he gave her hurled cheapness at her. “I also saw you leave together to go to the beach.”

  “There’s more going on in this house than Damon’s wedding.” She took another step forward, refusing to let him win this match. “You honestly think I would be interested in sleeping with Damon?”

  “You already did.” Luke stood up, suddenly looking bored, and walked around his desk.

  “I didn’t sleep with Damon.”

  “Then why were the two of you making out on the third floor? I know what I heard. You didn’t even have the decency to wait until I’d gone to bed.”

  “I didn’t kiss Damon.”

  “I don’t care.”

  Her heart broke. She could change everything by telling him about Kendra, about the baby, and about Damon. The other half of the story caused her to squirm in place, because she would have to take a leap of faith and give up the possibility of helping her brother. Her brother or Luke, she had to choose one. Right this second, and Melanie balled her fists at her sides. She took a deep breath. One little leap of faith... “You have a right to know the truth.”

  “You’re fired,” he cut her off before she could say another word.

  This wasn’t expected. Melanie’s jaw dropped. She regrouped and tried again. “Listen to me.”

  “I’m not interested in anything you have to say. I want you off my property.”

  “You won’t even hear what I have to tell you.”

  Luke rounded the desk. His arm shot out and he pointed to the door. “Get out or I’ll throw you out.”

  Tears stormed out before she knew they were coming. “I’m trying to tell you what happened.”

  “I don’t want to know,” he shouted at her.

  Tears flooded her face. The air in her chest felt thick, like she couldn’t get in a full breath. She’d lost. Melanie started for the door with defeat hanging her shoulders down.

  “By the way,” he said in a cocky voice, “I won’t be writing your brother any sort of support letter. Our contract is void. You forfeited your right to that bonus because I terminated you. It’s all there in your contract.”

  She didn’t say anything. She walked out of Luke’s office in a smog of her own failure. She wasn’t welcome in his office or under this roof and the stretch of hallway between Luke’s office and her bedroom seemed to span ten miles away.

  “Melanie, hello,” Stevie said, meeting her at the top of the stairs and holding Vivian’s hand. “Vivian’s going to take a morning nap. She started to fall asleep on the floor. I—what happened? You’re crying.” She snuck a glance in the direction of Luke’s door.

  “He fired me. I’m going home.”

  “Fired you, why?” She put her hand on Melanie’s shoulder. “Why would he let you go?”

  “I don’t want to say.”

  “Perhaps I could talk to him.”

  “No. There’s nothing anyone can say. I’ll say good-bye once I’m packed and headed to the airport. Have you seen Kendra yet? I really need to talk to her.”

  “I don’t know when she’ll be back. I know Felicity has a gown fitting this morning and then they are meeting with the woman in charge of the decorations and flowers. They could be gone all day.” Stevie continued to guide Vivian over to her bedroom and they moved out of Melanie’s sight.

  Alone in the hallway, Melanie looked around. The fresh flowers, the open space with closed doors and muffled voices. A sense of hollowness seeped through at leaving this place. Everything felt like one big disaster and now, there was nothing left to stay for. No hope to ride on until the end of the summer. She could call Kendra, but it wouldn’t make a difference. The information from Kendra wouldn’t change anything. Twice now, she’d lost Luke over her brother, and at least this time, he gave her the courtesy of telling her to get out of his life himself. She opened the door to her bedroom with an arduous hand. She’d go home.

  * * * *

  The plane took off and Melanie watched through the window at her gate. She brought her knees to her chest, took the last drink of green tea out of the large to-go cup, and glanced at the clock again, noting little change in time. The ring of emptiness around her heart squeezed in a little more with each breath and a sharp pain behind her ribs made waiting even more miserable.

  A woman with a cheery voice announced over the PA that the flight to Los Angeles would be delayed another hour. One more hour spent stuck in a place she didn’t want to be. She wiped away a tear.

  Jessie’s number blazed through on the phone and Melanie picked it up on the first ring, relieved to talk to someone incapable of hurting her further. “Hi Jessie,” she said. “I miss you so much.”

  “I got your text. You’re at the airport?” she sounded hurried. “What’s wrong?”

  “Luke fired me and I’m waiting for my flight.” A family of four took the seats across from her, spreading out their luggage and bags of McDonald’s. The little girl kicked her brother and the mom shushed her and pushed a box of fries in her face. “Will you pick me up tonight?”

  “Yes, yes, of course, I’ll be there. I’m so sorry you’re heading home upset. We don’t have to go into the details this second. Give me your flight number and we’ll figure it out. Mom will be glad to see you. She’s been worried about you and so have I. You’ve been out of touch lately.”

  “I’ll be home soon.” Melanie passed on her flight number and provided Jessie with a general timeframe. “Have you heard from Mark by chance?”

  “I have. He called yesterday and sounded really upset. What did you say to him?”

  “I’ve been trying to figure out if I’m missing something about the night he got into a fight with Luke.” Melanie stopped herself cold. It didn’t matter anymore. “I’ve done what I could for Mark and there’s nothing more I can do to help him. He’ll have to rely on himself to get out early. Luke will not be writing Mark the letter. It’s done. It’s over.”

  “Mark understands this, really. I’m proud of you. We all are. I don’t know if I could have done what you’ve done. I’m not talking only about going to Maui, but everything. You’ve been Mark’s biggest supporter. You did a difficult thing, what you did for our brother. I think you should give yourself some credit for leaving your job, your family, and trying. Not many people would do the same.”

  The swamp of homesickness swallowed her up whole in the middle of the airport and Melanie began to cry. “I fell in love with him again.”

  “I know you did.”

  She sniffled loud. “Going home like this hurts more than I ever thought it could.”

  “You’ll be home soon, hang in there.”

  Melanie did hang in there, for the next several hours, three different flights, and a sky full of turbulence. The pilot landed the plane at the Fresno Airport, known as FAT, late in the evening thirteen hours later. The warm, dry evening hit Melanie’s skin and her body felt at home and she felt years away from Luke and Maui. The flight zapped her of her energy and she barreled into Jessie’s arms and hugged her sister in the baggage claim.

  The drive home, Melanie got caught up on Jessie’s life. The boyfriend, Carl, still hung around. Jessie crammed in her summer so far in a twenty-minute conversation leaving Melanie to think nothing much had changed while she was gone.

  Jessie drove the car up the driveway and turned off the engine. She didn’t unlock the door or take off her seat belt. “I haven’t told Mark about your coming home. I thought you should be the one to tell him.”

  “I will tell him. I’m planning to call th
e prison in the morning and try to get him on the phone. My guess is he’ll call soon, regardless.”

  “Don’t forget that we know Mark better than anyone, better than Luke thinks he knows him. He looked out for us. He’s been there for us, through the divorce, jerks in high school, disloyal friends. He paid for my last two semesters of school and helped me get out of student loan debt, before the lawyers sucked up every last dime.”

  “Where are you going with this?” Melanie circled her head and felt the pull of stiff muscles from the airline seats. She pinched the tension at her temples.

  Jessie pulled the keys out of the ignition. The large, faux diamond-studded J on her keychain dangled and swung in her grasp. “I’m not going anywhere. We haven’t spoken much while you were in Maui. I didn’t know if, maybe, you’ve changed your mind about Mark’s innocence. What happened to the mystery of the tourmalines anyway? Did you find them?”

  “I don’t ever want to talk about gemstones again.” Melanie checked her phone and saw a missed call. “Let me check this,” she said, and dialed her voicemail.

  “Melanie, where are you? It’s Kendra. What on earth is going on? I came back from Felicity’s bridal gown appointment to find you’d been let go and on your way home. I have to talk to you. I owe you information for what you did and I hope I didn’t get you fired. Please call me back as soon you get this message.”

  Melanie slid her phone closed.

  “Who was that?” Jessie unlocked the door.

  “Luke’s assistant. It’s nothing, she owed me some information.” There wasn’t any point in calling her back. Luke wouldn’t give her the letter of support. She couldn’t care less about what Kendra had to say. She deleted the message.

  Chapter 25

  “Do you have what I think you have?” Brent said to Luke, standing in the middle of the foyer.

  “Arrived this morning,” Luke answered. The timing couldn’t have been worse with Melanie leaving yesterday and the rock he’d planned to give her arriving less than twenty-four hours later. Already, the house felt dull without her, but she’d made the choice easy for him and later, when he’d approached Damon, he didn’t deny Melanie’s attempts to sleep with him.

  “Let me see that beauty.” Brent and Luke stood close as Luke reached into his pocket and took out the blue garnet, still in rock form, as if the darn thing had been plucked out of the mine an hour ago. “How did you find her?”

  “Andry contacted me. This gem has created a lot of activity around his hometown. He followed up on a couple of leads and found out that Bruno’s men sold the stone to Chadwick’s of London.”

  “The biggest owner of diamond mines in the world. I can only imagine what they wanted for her. Usually this type of stone goes up for auction. She doesn’t come around very often.”

  “I got in touch with our contact at Chadwick’s and negotiated a good deal. I also offered them something no one else could.” Luke grinned at the forthcoming reaction from his brother.

  Distracted by the stone, Brent held their prize up to the light. “Extraordinary. What did you promise them?”

  “You. I signed a deal for you to do contract work for three months outside of Turkey. They own a hefty section of Grossular mines and they need someone with a certain set of skills to be on staff and oversee the quality of the gems once they’re found.”

  “I don’t like Turkey.” Brent handed the garnet back to Luke. “All the gem-hunters are flocking there. It’s too overcrowded for my taste. What are you going to do with this garnet anyway? Send her to auction?”

  “I’m going to treat the rock myself, over at Seal’s. The owner has the equipment to cut and polish and has agreed to let me use his shop this afternoon. Karen Adams is drawing up sketches and we’ll show our garnet off in the form of a necklace.” Luke left out the fact that he’d planned to give this to Melanie. He’d wanted this garnet more than anything and now it was in his hands, he couldn’t get rid of it fast enough.

  “There you are,” Damon said, strutting into the main living area. “Why aren’t the two of you on the beach, with the rest of us? Goldie won’t shut up about you. Go down there before I tell her you’re sleeping with Sid’s girlfriend.”

  Brent rolled his eyes. “I’ll be down in a minute. You should see what our brother scored.”

  “Depends what we’re talking about. What do you have?” Damon folded his sunglasses and hung them on the front of his shirt.

  “I have a blue garnet from Madagascar.” He opened his hand and showed off the chunky, rough rock.

  “Look at this,” he marveled and whistled. Damon eyeballed the rock. “How much you want for it?”

  Luke knew where he was going with this and he closed his palm. “She’s not for sale.”

  “I’ve been waiting on the right stone to give to Felicity as a wedding present. I want this one. I’ll pay full price. Have Karen make this a ring more stunning than Felicity’s engagement ring. I want it big, flashy, and every one of her friends to be jealous when they see this on her finger.”

  Luke scratched the back of his neck. The idea of this ring going to Felicity by way of Damon irritated Luke. He stalled and gave Brent a momentary look of help-me-out-here. “What do you think?”

  “What do you think? Luke, I’m your brother. You don’t need Brent’s input or approval. You run the company. This is your choice.” Damon’s gaze scanned the rock. “We’ll discuss price after she’s had a makeover.”

  Brent shrugged his shoulders. “Your call.”

  “Wait a minute.” Damon held up his hand. “Why don’t you want to sell this to me?”

  “There’s no reason.” Luke didn’t know why he wouldn’t sell to Damon. Or, maybe he did. Maybe he couldn’t stand the thought of Damon getting this ring after kissing Melanie.

  “You’re still mad at me for what Melanie did.”

  Brent’s gaze slowly moved from Damon to Luke. “What. Did. Melanie. Do?”

  “She threw herself at me.”

  A sharp, booming laugh ran out of Brent’s mouth and echoed in the rafters. “Melanie and you? This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.” He caught sight of Luke’s compressed lips and he stopped laughing. “Did she sleep with you?”

  “Luke knows the story.” Damon looked away, bored.

  “Why would she? I don’t know what to say. I now understand why she’s no longer working for you.”

  The conversation plummeted from there with the angry stares between Damon and Luke. As a businessman, he couldn’t turn down this deal and Damon could have his way. The goal was to get rid of the stone and to get this piece of rock far away from his life. “I’ll sell you the stone.”

  “I’ll take your deal.” Damon slapped him on his back. “I want the ring ready by the wedding. The cut doesn’t matter. She’ll be happy with whatever I give her.”

  They all parted ways a few moments later with Damon and Brent heading to the beach and Luke going to Seal’s to spend the afternoon transforming rock to value. The winding road of the highway shaved off some of his tension. Melanie stayed in his thoughts more than he would have liked. Each time he thought of the alluring voice she’d used to speak to Damon curdled his insides. He might have given her the benefit of the doubt, if Damon’s story hadn’t matched what he had seen with his own eyes.

  Luke drove to Lahaina, to the touristy section with shops and restaurants. A cruise ship hovered in the horizon as one always did, every part of the year. The Surf’s Up surf shop on the left sat next to Seal’s, a small shop with overpriced gold necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. The latest charms hung in the window: Plumeria-shaped rings, a necklace with a whale’s tail, and mini gold flip-flop earrings. Garrett Mugby, the owner, sold out of these items all the time and he greeted Luke with a smile.

  “Mr. Harrison, a pleasure to see you again,” he said and pumped Luke’s hand. Garrett’s short height forced him to look up at Luke. “I wasn’t clear if you want me to do the cutting or if you preferred to do
this yourself. You are a master at your art.”

  “I’m going to do this one myself. I have a blue garnet.”

  Garrett’s eyes grew big. The age spots on his forehead rode up with his eyebrows. “Impressive. Only you could find such a stone. It’s good to see you again.”

  A couple walked through the door and an electronic bell dinged. The woman removed her sunglasses and twisted a fashion ring on her right finger while the guy swept an uninterested gaze over the jewelry counters. “Do you have any of those gold flip-flops in a necklace?” she said to Garrett but settled her gaze on Luke. She stood up straight and put the tip of her sunglasses in her mouth.

  “I do have the flip-flops in a necklace, over at this counter.” Garrett showed them to the space displaying the necklace in sterling silver and gold. “I only use twenty-four carat gold,” he said to them.

  They proceeded to peruse the counters, and, eventually left without buying. “I’ll show you to the back.”

  The short walk to the back revealed a small, disheveled office with an open door, a unisex restroom with a sign For Customers Only, and the back room, a slightly larger room with inventory stacked in boxes and locked in heavy cases. The row of machines on the back wall Luke recognized at once. The gem cutter and the gem polisher both appeared more like saws. They sat side-by-side and to the right, a station with tubes or flames, and a heat treatment machine for stones like rubies and sapphires, ones that required more heat.

  The electronic bell dinged again and Garrett looked to the door. “Do you need assistance?”

  “I’ve got this.” He sat down at the bench and turned on the desk lamp. “I’ll come get you if I need anything.”

  “Excellent. Take your time.”

  Garnets in general didn’t require much heat treatment, if any. They posed a natural rarity of being unspoiled on their own. They didn’t require countless hours of changing their color or their brilliancy. Once he got them out of the rock, they shone with minimal touch-ups.

  Luke took the rock out of his pocket and tumbled it in his hand a few times. He located one of the tools, a pair of pliers on Garrett’s tool board and hand-chipped away the rock with steady hands. The rock wouldn’t take much abuse and needed to be dealt with gently and with care. If he pushed too hard, the inclusions could expand and shatter the stone.