by Nancy Adams
“I'm going to say what I'm feeling, and I'm praying that it won't be the wrong thing to say,” I began, “but the truth is that I have been in love with you for weeks. I can't explain it, I can't say what it was that first made me realize it, but I know it in my mind, I know it in my heart, I know it even in the deepest part of my soul—and I find myself hoping that you'll come to feel it, too.”
I fell silent, watching his face for a reaction, and my heart jumped into my throat when he smiled from ear to ear.
He raised his glass a little higher, and I lifted mine to meet it. As we clinked them together, he said, “To the woman that I also have loved for some time, now. May we find our way to happiness together!”
I was smiling, even as the tears began to fall.
Chapter 8
Monkey Wrenches and Other Disasters
* * * * *
The next three hours were some of the happiest of my entire life. We sat together, Nate's arm around my shoulders, and ate our picnic lunch; the Colonel had done us proud, I had to say! When we'd finished eating, we just stayed there, just enjoying being together. My phone rang twice, and both times it was Corie, but I let it go to voicemail; nothing was going to interrupt this incredible afternoon,
We talked about our dreams and goals. Nate told me how he wanted to be the best executive he could be when he finally took over the family business, which was why he was still insisting on learning every phase of it. His stint as Manager Trainer would be over after he was done training me, and he'd be moving to Personnel to work under Ms. Newsome, the lady who had hired me. After that, he'd be going into purchasing, learning the ropes of buying the products the company sold in its stores.
He told me that he did want to have children, and asked me how I would feel about that. I told him that, despite my original plans to go into politics, I had always felt that motherhood would be part of my future, and that I hoped to have at least four kids. I didn't care if they were boys, girls or a blend of the two, as long as I could be a mom, and that I prayed I'd be a good one. He assured me that he was certain I would be, because of the example I'd had from my own mother.
We talked about things that probably should have waited for a later time, like where we'd each like to go for a honeymoon, and what kinds of things we enjoyed for vacations. It hit me that we were actually planning a life together, and while it might have been premature, it was something that warmed a part of my heart that I hadn't even realized existed. We were happy, that day, and nothing in the world could have broken the spell.
But then something did.
We were picking up the blanket and gathering up our trash when Nate's phone rang. He glanced at it and smiled, the punched the button to accept the call. “Hey, Mom,” he said, and I thought how cute it was that he still had the Tennessee country boy way of saying hello, but then his face went instantly dark as he listened to what his mother was saying. “When? How bad is it?” He listened again for a moment, and then looked at me.
“My father's had a heart attack, and he's been rushed to the hospital, Katelynn, I...”
I grabbed the rest of our trash and shoved it into the garbage can that was near where we'd parked.
“You have to go,” I said. “Come on, let me help you get packed.”
He threw the blanket and basket into the trunk while still talking to his mother, and then rushed to open my door even as I was reaching for the handle. I slid in and he ran around the car. As he got in and fired it up, I heard him say, “It's more than four hours to Denver, but there's an airport here that can handle the Learjet. Send it for me as soon as possible, and I'll be ready to go.” He ended the call and took my hand as he drove back towards town.
“Baby, I'm sorry about this,” he said, and even as I was worrying about and saying prayers for his father, I felt a thrill that he had called me “Baby” without even thinking about it.
“Nate, I understand. You've got to go, right now, today. Don't worry about me, I'll be here whenever he gets better and you can come back.” I squeezed his hand to let him know that I would wait, and he squeezed back. He looked my way for just a second and smiled, but there was tension in it that he couldn't hide. I let my own smile show that I felt his pain, understood his worry and his need to get to his father as soon as possible.
“I'll be back as soon as I can,” he said. “It's not that you really need more training, but I...” He seemed to falter for a moment. “I just want to see you again, and let this continue. I think we're maybe the right ones for each other, Babe, but I don't want to rush things too fast. I want to go slow and make sure, so that neither of us ever feels we're making a mistake.”
I nodded. “I understand, and I respect that.” I squeezed his hand again, and impulsively pulled it up to my lips and kissed the back of it. He let his fingers extend to caress my face, then pulled my hand to return the kiss.
We went straight to his hotel, and he told the front desk clerk that he would be checking out early due to an emergency. The man told him that he would prepare and process his bill, and not to worry about checking out formally, and we rushed up the elevator to his room.
I began taking clothes out of the closet and folding them while he gathered up his laptop and emptied the drawers in the dresser. There wasn't much to pack, and within a few minutes we had it all in his two suitcases and a computer bag and were on the way back to his car. His phone rang again as we left the elevator, and he snatched it up instantly.
“Yes,” he said, and I caught a glimpse of the decisive, powerful man he truly was. “Excellent! I can be there in plenty of time. We'll get back in the air ASAP, and I'll see you as soon as we land, Mom. Don't worry, he's tough; he'll make it, I'm certain.”
He cut the phone off and turned to face me. “Mom says the Learjet was in Omaha with one of the attorneys, so it'll be here in about twenty minutes. I can be in San Francisco within six hours.”
I put my hand on his shoulder, and he smiled. We turned and went to his car.
I thought he would run me home first, but he headed straight to the airport instead. I raised my eyebrows, and he smiled.
“I rented the car for the whole three months, and I can't get a refund if I turn it in early. You can drive it while I'm gone.” He pulled up at the small terminal, and got out to unload his luggage from the trunk. I stood there beside him as he set it all on a cart.
“Do you need to go check in?” I asked, and he grinned.
“The beauty of having a corporate jet is that you don't have to worry about things like check-in. As soon as the plane lands, I'll go right out and climb in, and we'll be back in the air in two minutes.”
In the air and gone, I thought, and for a split second I thought I was going to start crying, but he didn't need me to fall apart on him just then, so I kept a smile on my face and warned my tears not to cross me. We were standing there, facing each other, and suddenly he reached out and pulled me into an embrace.
“I'm going to call you every chance I get,” he said. “And you can call if you need anything.” He pulled back long enough to aim his lips for mine, and I returned the kiss with all of the love inside me, pouring myself into it and praying he'd find his father doing well when he got there, so that he could come back even sooner.
There was a whine that began off to the north, and it grew until we realized that it was his airplane, coming in for a landing. We watched it descending through the sky, and when it touched down, I followed him through the gate and right up to where the sign said private planes would park. We watched it turn around and taxi to where we stood, and then it spun itself around, the jet engines screaming and blowing everything within fifty feet into the air.
Nate grabbed me again, and held me close, and the kiss we shared was full of hope and promise and passion and excitement like I'd never felt before, and when we broke away from each other I looked at him and said, “Get on the plane, Baby, before I can't let go!”
He looked at me longingly one more time
, and then grabbed his bags from the cart and shoved them into a small door that popped open on the side of the plane, then climbed inside. I saw him move forward as he closed the door, and then he was sitting beside the lone pilot.
He waved his hand at me and blew me a kiss, and then I had to step back as the plane spun around once more. The engines screamed as it began to taxi back toward the runway, and then I saw it turn and the pilot poured on the power. The little jet surged forward and within seconds the nose came up, and then it was in the air and climbing toward the sky.
A sob escaped me, and I turned to walk back to the car. I didn't even realize he'd given me the keys, but they were in my hand, so I got into the car, adjusted the seat for myself and started it up. I drove home, fighting back further tears as I did so, wondering how long it would be before I would see him again, the man I had fallen in love with.
BOOK II
Chapter One: When Changes Come
Chapter Two: The Heart Of The Matter
Chapter Three: Transitions
Chapter Four: Entering The Labyrinth
Chapter Five: The Value Of Friendship
Chapter Six: When Dreams Begin To Live
Chapter Seven: The Attack
Chapter Eight: There Are No Happy Endings
Chapter Nine: The Breaking
Part I: Nathanael
Chapter One
When Changes Come
* * * * *
I stepped down from the small jet airplane and rushed to the limousine that awaited me on the tarmac of San Francisco International. The driver was holding the rear door open, and I slid in quickly while the airplane's pilot carried my luggage to the trunk of the big car. There was a thump as the trunk closed, and the driver was suddenly back behind the wheel and we were threading our way out of the private jets area and onto the exit streets. A moment later we were on Highway 101 and headed into the city.
We arrived at the UCSF Medical Center within thirty minutes, thanks to light traffic at night, and the driver stopped in front of the main entrance. I didn't wait for the door to be opened; I was out and into the big building within seconds, following the signs to get to where my father lay in the ICU.
I'd spent most of the flight on the phone to my mother, who explained that the Old Man had had what was called an STEMI, an ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. What the big words meant, she told me, was that one of his coronary arteries was completely blocked, resulting in the loss of blood flow to a large part of the heart itself. Without immediate angioplasty, a procedure that uses a balloon on the end of a catheter to open the artery while a small metal tube is placed to keep it open, Norman Simmons, billionaire founder of Nate's Stores, inc. and my father, would be dead within hours. She had given permission for the procedure immediately, and it was all over by the time I got there.
Fortunately, while the event itself was serious and could have been fatal, the procedure has become routine, and recovery was expected to be quick and relatively easy. By the time I walked into the hospital room where mother sat beside her husband, the Old Man was awake and sitting up in his bed.
“Hey, Son,” Norman said with a grin. “You missed all the excitement. I had half the city thinking they were gonna have to come to my funeral!”
“And a few of them were looking forward to it, I'll bet,” I quipped in return.
“Oh, you two!” said my mother, rising from the chair beside the bed and wrapping me in an embrace. “Don't get him started, Nathanael, he's been insufferable since he woke up from surgery. Doctor wants him to rest for the remainder of the night, and says he can go to a private room in the morning. They're saying he'll be home within a day or two, can you believe that?”
I gave Mom a hug and smiled. “Well, there's no keeping a Simmons down,” I said, “unless you heap him up with a bunch of concrete. I'm just glad he's gonna stick around, I'm not ready to take over the company yet.”
I saw the look Mom sent to Dad, and groaned silently. I'd always known the day would come when the Old Man would insist on retiring and making me step up as the new CEO, but surely, since he'd be out of the hospital in just days, this wouldn't be the time for a decision like that, would it?
There was only one way to know, and that would be to wait. One thing I knew for certain about my parents was that anything they wanted to say would be said only when they were ready; it would do me no good to ask any questions, at this point, so I put a smile back on his face and took the chair on the other side of the bed.
“So,” Norman began, “tell me how it's going in North Platte. I hear the M.T. is doing extremely well, and in more ways than one.”
I groaned again; leave it to Carolyn to spy on me for my father. She'd better hope I didn't get to take over anytime soon, because I privately and silently vowed to find an excuse to transfer her to the recycling department of a store in some small, boring town.
“She's a fast learner,” I said with a straight face, “and probably one of the nicest and most beautiful young women I've ever met. As I'm sure you already know, we've been seeing a bit of each other outside of business the past week or so, and I'm giving serious thought to looking at engagement rings. We don't happen to sell those, do we, Dad? I'm hoping to get a discount.”
“You know, I've been thinking of adding in a jewelry department, but our stores aren't secure enough for anything with serious value. You better go to one of the bigger stores, if this girl is worth the investment of a diamond.”
Dad's face stayed as straight as my own, but Mom looked like she was about to have a heart attack of her own. “Nathanael!” she said. “You've been there only a little over a month, and you're thinking of marrying a girl you only met when you got there? You can't be serious?”
I nodded my head. “I can be, Mom, and I am. And just for the record, I seem to recall Dad telling me how he met you on the third of the month, and married you on the eighteenth. Compared to you two, I'm a slow-poke.”
Dad pointed a finger at me. “Don't be glib with your mother,” he said. “That's my job. Now tell us about this girl, before I rip out my IV and strangle you with it.”
I grinned at him. One of the best things about my Dad is that he never lets his sense of humor fail him, and so I began to tell them about Katelynn Burke. I guess I should tell you about her, too.
First, let me back up. I am Nathanael Simmons, son of Norman and Katherine Simmons. My father, as I mentioned previously, is the man who founded the chain of small general stores you all know as Nate's (yes, he named the company after me; isn't that cute?). As of this time, we have six hundred and fifty two stores scattered throughout the US and Canada, and we're opening an average of three new ones every month. Katelynn was hired as Manager Trainee for our new store in North Platte, Nebraska, and since I am one of more than a dozen Manager Trainers, I happened to be the one assigned to teach her how to perform her new job.
I'd gone out on a commercial flight that had me landing at Denver to rent a car and drive in, and when it got delayed in Chicago, I ended up making it to the store about two hours later than I’d planned. Katelynn was already there when I arrived, and my very first thought about her, as she nearly ran me over in a rush to get to the ladies' room, was Wow! What a beauty!
Of course, I didn't let her know that I felt that way; I had to begin and maintain a highly professional relationship with this young woman, and a wolf whistle would probably be a poor way to start, so I simply smiled my most disarming smile and went inside the office to wait for her return. I found that she'd been studying the video tutorials we offer to new trainees, and was diligent enough to be taking copious notes. I scanned through them as I waited, and saw that she was gleaning points from them that most trainees didn't get without careful explanation. Our personnel department had done their jobs well in choosing this girl for the position, of that I was certain.
We worked well together, and she was a very quick study; I found that I rarely had to explain anything more than once, an
d she proved to me over and over again that she was not the least bit afraid of work. This girl was intelligent, as evidenced by a degree in Political Science, but since she had come to feel that politics wasn't all she'd thought it would be, she was planning to make this more than a job; she was looking at it as the beginning of a career in the retail industry, and that made her even more valuable than most of the other trainees I'd met. Because of the intense training schedule, we were together for about sixteen hours every day, sometimes more, and she kept up with me better than anyone I'd ever worked with.
The only problem I had with her came after each day ended.
Katelynn is, as I've said, a beautiful young woman. Couple this with the fact that I'd not had a relationship in more than a year—there were opportunities, but none of them felt right, if you can understand what I mean—and it wasn't more than a week before I found myself thinking about her every night. I'd get back to my rental condo, get a shower, fall into bed and then lay there for an hour or more, visions of Katelynn from the day running through my mind.
I wish I could say that they were a review of her performance, that I was remembering the way she worked in the office, or stocking the shelves, but the truth was more basic than that. I was recalling the way the light hit her hair as she came into view, or the smile that she gave to every employee, and how it was subtly different from the one she would give to me. I thought about the way she moved, the way her hips would seem to be doing a dance to music that only she could hear, and how that dance was the most enticing thing I'd ever allowed my eyes to see.
I'd wake in the morning, brush my teeth and comb my hair, thinking the whole time about what she would be wearing that day, or whether she'd tell me more about herself when we had lunch together. It wasn't long before I started taking her out of the store for dinner; not like a date, really, but just a chance to take a break from work.
