by Ava Miles
“Hey!” Moira said, putting her hand on her arm. “I can’t tell you it’s going to be all right, but I’m here to help.”
Lucy bit her lip and nodded bravely. “Can I leave these with you? I have other copies. I’d like you to take your time with them. I can send you the electronic files when I get home.”
“That would be great,” Moira said, giving her an encouraging smile.
“Well, I’d better run. You’re right. It has been a long day. And I haven’t even talked to your brother yet.”
“What did he do?”
“Besides visit my mother as an emissary of peace while she was in the hot tub?” Lucy asked, rolling her eyes.
Moira couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. “I hope he burned his eyes out. I mean, I love my brother, but sometimes he gets these ideas in his thick skull about fixing things.”
“I know!” Lucy said, and they shared a smile of understanding. “But he’s pretty great, and it did end up helping. I’m trying to decide how angry I am.”
“We’ve all struggled with that conundrum at one point or another,” Moira said. “You’ve known him forever, so you know he means well. I’m sure you’ll find a way to draw the line with him.”
“One would hope,” Lucy said, pulling her into a hug. “Thanks, Moira. I was so scared to tell anyone what was going on with me, which is why I kinda…kept you at arm’s length. I’m sorry about that. I hope we can be friends.”
“That would be great, Lucy,” Moira said, wishing she could high-five herself. “I’m honored you trusted me enough to ask for my help with the calendar.”
“Well,” Lucy said, shrugging, “you Hales are a pretty special lot. Tell your mom I said hi.”
“Will do,” Moira said and saw her to the door.
As she walked back to the kitchen, she was smiling. Lucy O’Brien had just agreed to be her friend and let her help with the calendar photos. Talk about awesome.
She scanned the photos again. It felt good to be involved in something that mattered. If she got the job at the Artemis Center, her whole career would be devoted to making a difference in the world. She’d had a long time to self-reflect over the past several weeks, and no question, that was what she wanted.
Dammit, Chase Parker! Call me back and offer me the job, she thought. You know you want to.
Then she realized she wasn’t going to give him another day to call her. She had an offer in hand. Why not call and tell him about it?
When he came on the line, she went for honesty. “I have a pretty competitive offer from another company in Denver. You checked five of my references personally. How much longer are you going to take to offer me this position?”
Because her gut told her the job should be hers.
“Hello to you too, Moira,” he said in that even-Steven baritone voice of his. “Evan said you were pestering him for a progress report at the bakery.”
She made a face. Good thing he couldn’t see it over the phone. “I don’t pester. I ask reasonable questions.”
“Oh,” he said, sounding amused. “Is that how you’d qualify the question you just asked me?”
“Truth or dare,” she said, putting it all out there. “When was the last time you personally checked five references on someone?”
“You mean other than the defense minister of the former Yugoslavia?” he asked blandly.
She knew better than to ask if he was joking. “Exactly.”
“Our HR director sent the offer to our lawyers for final review yesterday,” Chase said. “I’ll give them a call and make sure they know I want the final copy ASAP. Would that be agreeable to you, Ms. Hale?”
More than. She executed a salsa step, grinning like a loon. “You can call me Moira,” she told him primly to get his goat, “and yes, it would be.”
“I’m going to like working with you,” he said, chuckling softly over the line.
“You’d better have put together a better offer than the other one I have on the table,” she told him. Okay, she wasn’t planning on taking it regardless, but still… He needed to understand what others were willing to offer.
“Don’t try and bluff me. You don’t want that other job, but you’ll be happy to know Quid-Atch has a reputation for offering its people top dollar. It encourages company loyalty and productivity.”
God, he was attractive when he talked all corporate like that. “Don’t forget about employee retention.”
“Exactly.” His soft chuckle made her smile. “Did I mention top executives receive signing bonuses?”
She jumped in place. Forget the salsa. “No, you forgot to mention that,” she replied, trying to keep the excitement out of her voice.
“Care to ask what that might be?” he said, the glee apparent in his tone now. “I have a mind to break through that exterior reserve you put on so well.”
It couldn’t be that much, could it? Normal signing bonuses ran anywhere from two to ten thousand in her line of work. But this company wasn’t exactly normal. “Okay, shoot.”
“Are you sitting down?”
There was no mistaking it. He was laughing at her. “I’m fine standing.”
He named the number. Moira’s knees gave out, and she struggled her way into a chair. For a moment, the only thing she heard was the buzzing in her own ears. Holy freaking baloney.
“Are you still there? I assume that’s acceptable since you don’t have a witty comeback for me.”
He had her number all right. “Does it come with a company car?” she asked, just to be punchy.
He sputtered, and this time she laughed silently.
“In Dare Valley? Please. You’ll have to drive like two miles at best.”
“But I’ll be working in a high-tech facility,” she pressed, loving the process of negotiation, particularly with him. “Evan has a Maserati.”
“This week,” Chase said with a sigh. “And Moira? The whole car ploy is a no-go, but please do keep those kinds of tactics in mind when you’re meeting with potential donors to the Artemis Center. I like people who push for more.”
Oh yeah, this was going to be fun. “I’ll look forward to seeing the offer.”
“Really?” he drawled. “Please don’t sign it in purple ink. I understand from Evan that your cousin Jill has a fondness for purple tutus. I wasn’t sure whether an affection for that particular color runs in the family. I’ll only have to send back the contract, you see.”
“I don’t have a purple pen—or purple tutu, for that matter—so you’re safe,” she said dryly, tucking away the reminder that Evan apparently shared a great deal more than business impressions with Chase.
“Thank God. We’ll talk again once everything is official. You can jump up and down and cheer now.”
He hung up. And she did jump up and down, shouting the numbers of the signing bonus out loud.
She was going to be able to do something meaningful in the world, and that was important.
But she was also going to be able to pay for her new car in cash.
Like the calendar she was helping Lucy with, she had the makings of her own new beginning in Dare Valley.
Chapter 30
Andy had this niggling feeling in the back of his mind that he really shouldn’t have talked to Lucy’s mom. Perhaps he should have left the moment he saw Ellen soaking in that hot tub. Matt sure as heck had laughed himself silly when he’d told him about the ordeal. He’d agreed Andy could never unsee that horror. Oh, and wouldn’t it be funny if Ellen ended up being Andy’s mother-in-law? his brother had teased. According to Matt, that was going to be a story for the kids he had with Lucy.
Was it any wonder Andy was stirred up inside?
Thinking about having kids with Lucy—seriously thinking about it—had made him a little queasy. After all, he’d married Kim thinking it would last forever. That they would have babies and grow old together.
But Andy couldn’t deny that the thought of marrying Lucy made him happy. After waking up next to her
this morning, he’d pretty much decided he wanted to wake up with her every morning. She was a snuggler, and he liked that. Plus, she laughed at normal things like bed head and bodily functions—not something every woman could do, he’d learned as a doctor. He liked the thought of them still swapping ice cream cones and wisecracks when they were eighty.
He loved her, but he’d been dancing around a future with her, letting her take the lead. It was time for him to admit he was in this for the long haul. To craft a possible vision of their future together for her to mull over. Funny how making that decision had erased his fear of losing her.
Lucy had been silent all afternoon despite a couple of texts he’d sent her to check in. That didn’t bode well. Her silence indicated the news of his unceremonious meeting with her mother might have reached her. He could be in deep shit for all he knew.
Well, as Uncle Arthur liked to say, he needed to pick up his Man Shovel and dig his way out. He was going to apologize to her for talking to her mother behind her back, whether she already knew about the hot tub chat or not.
Since Matt had continued to text him hot tub jokes after their brief call, he asked his brother to come over and watch Danny for a little while. Danny was already asleep by the time Matt and Jane arrived, so they were sitting on the couch browsing on Netflix when he left.
Only after he pulled into Lucy’s driveway did it occur to him that he should have brought a peace offering like roses or ice cream. Why the hell hadn’t he thought of that before? Because he was an idiot. He’d blame it on the shock of seeing her mom in the hot tub. Clearly it had shorted his brain.
But he couldn’t very well reverse out of her driveway. Not when she was already peering out her window to identify her caller.
She already had the door open as he walked down the path to her front steps. “I’m still a little mad at you,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.
So, the cat was out of the bag. “I don’t blame you. I meant well. Somehow I failed to comprehend how bullheaded your mother can be when she feels cornered. I should have made my retreat the moment your dad opened the door and told me he hadn’t gotten anywhere.”
She continued to stare at him blandly.
Hitting his head with his palm, he said, “What was I thinking?”
“You were meddling,” she said sternly, “which I thought we’d discussed. Besides, you must have said something about me having a special reason for returning to Dare Valley. She blasted me for telling you the whole story and not her. She was pretty worked up.”
“Did she tell you I found her naked in the hot tub?” he asked, trying to make her smile. “I’m going to have to pay your dad back for that one. You don’t do that to a brother.”
She rolled her eyes. “From where I’m sitting, you deserved to catch her in the hot tub after what you pulled. I hope the image is burned into your corneas so you never do this again.”
Ouch. “I’m sorry, Lucy. I really am. Are you going to let me come in and grovel?”
“No groveling is needed. Why don’t you just come inside and tell me what you were thinking? I have some ideas. I talked to your sister, who told me you’ve done lamebrain things like this for all of the Hales. I might have remembered a few examples after I got to thinking.”
“Which sister?” he asked.
“Moira, but I’ll tell you about that after we talk about you.”
He followed her inside to the kitchen, finally cataloguing she had on pink and brown plaid pajamas. It was no wonder she was exhausted if she’d had another confrontation with her mother.
“Do you want anything to drink?” she asked, opening up the fridge and pulling out a bottle of fizzy water.
“I wouldn’t mind some of that water you’re so fond of,” he responded, feeling awkward standing in her kitchen. “I don’t want things to be weird.”
She poured two glasses of water and crossed to him. “I don’t either, so let’s sit down and talk.”
Right. Their relationship had become so much deeper and stronger, but they were still friends. They knew how to talk to each other.
“To be fair,” he began, watching the bubbles dance and fizz, “I would have talked to your mom even if we weren’t involved.”
Sitting back, she crossed her arms again. “Really? You never did that sort of thing when we were growing up.”
“I used to be terrified of your mom, something I thought adulthood had changed. My mistake.” He gulped the water to wet his throat. “I wanted to show Ellen that photo you took of me when I was thinking about Kim. I thought I could help her see what you helped me see.”
“So she said. Keep going.”
His chair squeaked when he rocked back on its legs. “I wanted so badly for you two to understand each other. Lucy, it broke my heart to think about you and your mom fighting like that. Especially when you need all your friends and family in your camp right now.”
She gave him a bland stare. “I know you meant well, and if we’re being honest, you did help my mom see things in a different light.”
“I’d like to say ‘then what’s the problem?’ but I already know.”
“I know your M.O.,” she said, giving him a stern look. “But you know how much I hate having other people interfere. Have you forgotten how many times I’ve told you to let me deal with my own problems?”
Game. Set. Match. “Yes, but—”
“You’re lucky I talked my mother out of believing I’d put you up to it, or it would have been World War III. Trust me. Then you really would have been in trouble.”
He winced. “Listen, I know I…overstepped. I’ll say it again. I’m sorry.”
“I know,” she said, lifting her glass and toasting him. “That’s why you’re inside Merry Cottage drinking my fizzy water. Now, let’s talk about how you put my mother on the scent about why I came home.”
Shit. “How bad did she dog you?”
She crossed her eyes in a move he hadn’t seen since third grade.
“After a surprising come-to-Jesus talk with her, I ended up telling her the whole story. We even agreed I’m going to do the calendar my own way with Moira’s help. That’s why I went to talk to your sister.”
His mouth must have dropped open because she shook her finger at him.
“But you listen to me. I’m going to remind you of the same thing I just told my mom. I don’t want anyone meddling with my life because of this whole eye thing. Or talking to me about the dangers of working overseas. Or about why it’s so much smarter for me to settle down in Dare Valley forever.”
That seemed like a reasonable segue to his earlier thoughts, so he said, “About settling in Dare Valley forever…”
She set her water glass down with a clunk. “I beg your pardon?”
He settled back into the peace he’d felt earlier. “I had other reasons for going to talk to your mother today. Okay, this is going to sound a little crazy, but it’s partly because I was thinking about you and me as a unit.”
Her face was losing its red ire—not a good sign—so he rushed to continue.
“If you were at odds with your mom, I was too, and I didn’t want that. Then things would be weird with my mom because she’s your mom’s best friend. Is this making sense?”
“You sound like some mutant version of the telephone game right now.” Her eyes were narrowed in deep concentration.
“Okay, so let me try and muddle this out.” He took a moment to think through the best way to convey his feelings. “When I realized how stubborn your mom was being in refusing to see you for who you are—something I never fully got until today—I grew incensed. I went a little crazy on her.”
“She told me,” Lucy said, a smile touching the corners of her mouth.
“The reason I went a little crazy is because I’m completely crazy about you. I went from trying to reason with your mother to defending you. Something I hadn’t expected. And taking things to a whole other level of crazy…I told Matt about talking to your mo
m in the hot tub.”
“He must have wet himself laughing,” she said, fighting a bigger smile now.
“Pretty much,” he admitted, shuddering. “Some things can’t be unseen, Lucy.”
“You deserve it,” she said, echoing her earlier sentiment.
“Fine, it’s my penance for interfering. But then Matt told me it would be a great story to tell our kids.”
She blanched, going several shades paler.
“I know! My brain pretty much exploded, but then I got to thinking… Well, I thought about what it would be like swapping ice cream cones with you when we were both old and gray and laughing together and all that jazz.”
Her face wasn’t very encouraging, so set his glass down with a clunk too.
“Lucy, I’m not proposing right now because I’m not prepared with a ring or anything, which you deserve.”
“Holy shit! You’re—”
“Let me get this out. I never thought I’d want to marry again. But then I thought about how wonderful things could be if we stay together in the years ahead… I realized I want to put a possible future out there for you to consider.”
Her mouth gaped, and she stared at him.
“Lucy, I’m not afraid anymore.” And after all the fear he’d lived with for the past couple of years, he knew this marked a turning point for him.
She didn’t move a muscle—not one.
“You say you can’t know what your future will look like because of your vision,” he continued, “but I don’t think that has to be true.”
He was tempted to get down on one knee, but he realized from her agitated breathing that it wouldn’t be the best move. Instead, he inched his chair closer to her so their knees touched.
“Lucy, I love you. I want you in my life forever. Not just as a friend, although that connection has always been so special between us. I want to wake up with you and laugh with you. I want to share my days with you—and tell you everything, from the random to the profound. You appreciate both, and I love that about you. I want to share Danny with you, and I want to create more beautiful little people with our genes that we can raise together.”
