Just then my phone buzzed, and I answered without looking at the display. “Isla?”
“Clio! Oh, thank God, are you OK?” My mom’s desperate voice screeched down the line.
“I’m good, Mom. You heard about the fire I take it?” My voice came out limp. I couldn’t fake it with her today.
“Yes, why didn’t you call? Are you sure you’re OK?”
Kai motioned to the door, as if he understood the need to speak privately. I nodded thanks. “I was going to head over to you. I’m with Kai… I’m fine, Mom. I wasn’t close when it broke out. But Micah was. He’s in hospital under observation and so is one of the carpenters. We’re worried about the amount of smoke inhalation at this stage.”
“Poor Micah. I bet he was the hero, wasn’t he?” Her voice was soft with pride. Mom had always liked him. The Micah effect – everyone did.
“If it wasn’t for him there’d be no more Cedarwood. I owe him everything. But still, I wish he hadn’t put himself in harm’s way. I’d choose him over property any day of the week.”
“That place, Clio…”
“What?”
“I think you should sell it. Get out, get away before something truly terrible happens.”
I sighed. “It was an accident, Mom. There’s bound to be accidents, no matter how much we try and prevent them. This was a one-off, an electrical issue that will be investigated to make sure it doesn’t happen again. To advise me to sell seems a bit dramatic. Why do you hate the lodge so much, anyway?” Again, I had that overwhelming feeling it was about more than the bricks and mortar of the place, and right then I was tired of pussyfooting around her.
“I just don’t like the idea of you in that big, old lodge alone.”
“I won’t be alone. Eventually I’ll have guests staying in the rooms. You could always sell your cottage and live with me. There’s plenty of room, you know.”
She gasped as if that idea was preposterous. “That place is hexed, I’m telling you right now.”
“What, Mom? What do you mean it’s hexed?”
“Nothing. I didn’t mean to say… that.”
She was speaking Mom riddles again. “Can we stop sidestepping the real reason for once? Do you have some connection with the lodge I don’t know about?” My mind reeled through possible reasons. The previous owners? “Did you know the woman who lived there? The one whose husband abandoned her and the business?”
There was a pause. My pulse sped up. Was Mom connected to the former owners? If so, why hadn’t anyone breathed a word of it to me? Evergreen was a small town. Surely something would have got back to me after all these years, unless… it was something they all wanted to forget.
“No,” she said, her voice tight. “If you’re coming to stay here for the night, I’ll leave the key out. I have to go to bed…”
“Actually, I think I’d better stay where I am and wait for news. I don’t want to disturb you.” In actual fact, I couldn’t be bothered with Mom and her delicate moods. And I knew she was hiding something and I’d probably push her to breaking point trying to find out what it was.
“Pass on my love to Micah.”
Did I imagine it, or was she rushing me off the phone, grateful for the reprieve?
“Bye, Mom.”
I turned to Kai, who’d reappeared, frowning.
“Problem?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Nothing serious.” It was too soon to confide my suspicions to anyone. Besides, I couldn’t exactly explain it when I had no real information. “I think we should go visit Micah at the hospital. Isla hasn’t called and I’m worried.”
“Let’s go.” Nothing ruffled Kai. Maybe it was the Australian side of his nature – he was a laid-back, roll-with-the-punches kind of guy. I liked that he was still in control, but moved through life in a fluid, easy-going way.
At the hospital we found the nursing station and asked about Micah and Joe. With a smile, the young nurse pointed us to a room further along the corridor with assurances that Joe had been discharged and was totally fine, and that Micah was being observed overnight and would likely be discharged first thing in the morning. Relief flooded me, and I pulled Kai forward, counting room numbers.
We came to a single room, with the sound of a TV blaring some cops and robbers show. I was about to knock when I saw them and wrenched my hand back. Isla was on the small bed next to Micah, running the pad of her finger along his jawline, before kissing him softly on the lips and then murmuring quietly to him as he closed his eyes.
I nudged Kai, who stood behind me, and moved out of sight. Kai grinned, lacing his hand through mine to pull me away. Once we were out of earshot Kai said, “I think Micah is totally fine. And in good hands.” He waggled his eyebrows just like Micah would do. My heart just about exploded with so many feelings – relief, awe, happiness… and hope that my two friends had opened their hearts to one another.
“Let’s get out of here,” I whispered, wanting to dance down the hushed, antiseptic-scented corridor. Micah deserved to tumble into love with someone gorgeous, bubbly and free-spirited like Isla.
“The night is young. Should we get a bottle of wine and head to the lake at Cedarwood?”
I gasped. “The lake? Are you crazy? It’ll be freezing!”
He shrugged. “We’ll take a couple of blankets. When’s the last time you switched off your phone, lay on your back and counted stars?”
“Counted stars?”
“Yeah,” he laughed. “Soak up some of the moonlight – it’s good for the soul, like midnight yoga… but I’ll let you off that activity for tonight.”
The autumnal sky was pitch-black, and there was a bite to the air. “OK, why not? But it’ll be even colder by the lake, just so you know, you with your sensitive Australian skin.”
“I can handle it,” he laughed. “The view will be worth it.”
I shook my head, bemused to be getting myself into such a situation. Even though we’d been told to stay away from Cedarwood, I felt like a worried parent, and I’d be glad to see the lodge for myself from a distance and make sure it was OK. I’m sure, deep down, Kai sensed that and had made up the counting stars idea to make me feel like I wasn’t some needy parent, returning to the nest, when in fact I was.
We gathered wine and glasses from Kai’s motel, pulled blankets from the bed, and drove back to Cedarwood, winding down the driveway past the lodge. It looked gloomy in its abandoned state, with the smell of smoke and sadness still heavy in the air. A part of me wanted to go inside and investigate, but we weren’t cleared as yet to enter. The thought of the lodge sitting empty for a night hurt right down to my soul. Sentimental or not, it was part of me now.
“We were lucky today,” Kai said, as if guessing my mood as he drove past the lodge and toward the lake.
“Damn lucky.” No matter what happened once we investigated tomorrow, if our plans ground to a halt, I’d for ever be grateful that Micah, Isla and Joe were safe.
“Once we have the report from the firefighters, we’ll gear up to get the ballroom back into shape as quickly as we can. We can do it,” Kai said, his voice resolute. “We’ll just have to get everyone to help.”
I searched his face. “You think so?”
He nodded, parked the truck under a copse of white cedar trees, and killed the engine. “I know so. It’s important not only for your future but for morale. Everyone has worked so hard, and they want to see it finished. I didn’t tell you before, but I’ve had calls from the previous laborers, and they’ve offered to come back if we need them.”
Those weary tradespeople who’d left Cedarwood with tired faces after such long, hard days? “They’d come back and start over?”
“You treated everyone like they were part of the family, and they want to see this place done. Of course they will.”
Something fluttered inside me, hope maybe. “Wow, OK.” I shook away the worry and angst from the day, their compassion giving me a boost. “We can do it! No matter what we find tomo
rrow, there will be a solution so Imelda and Edgar can still have their party here.” I was used to solving crises, right? That’s what I was paid to do. Make it work, no matter what!
“That’s the spirit!” He grinned, and my heart beat staccato. Kai was one of the good ones.
We laid our rug by the lake, the wind icy as it blew toward us. “We’re going to catch our death here.” I laughed and fell back, gazing up at the star-filled sky. The moon was a fuzzy yellow orb, illuminating the ripples on the water like diamonds.
“Do you think they’ll end up together?” he asked.
“Isla and Micah… I don’t know. He was with Veronica – Ronnie, we called her – for most of our teens, right up until a couple of years ago. I thought I’d come back to Evergreen and they’d be living the American dream. But she left, and it tore him up pretty bad. When I think of love, I always picture those two, the way they finished each other’s sentences, cast these long looks that conveyed some private meaning, and sensed each other’s needs on some deep level. He’s adamant he doesn’t want anything serious, but Isla is pretty damn amazing, and I think, despite being younger than him, she’s mature and sensitive in a way that suits him.” It still hurt the edge of my heart thinking that Ronnie had waltzed out of Micah’s life in such a blasé fashion, so coldly, leaving such damage in her wake. Though I was one to talk. I’d left my best friend too and hadn’t made a quarter as much effort at keeping in touch as I should have. Life had just got so busy…
“Some relationships are a warm-up for the real thing. Maybe the first one was just practice.”
I turned to face him. “Do you really believe that?”
With his hands clasped across his belly, he said, “It makes sense, right? Do you think you’re only allowed or allotted one love your entire life?”
“If I say yes does that make me seem naïve?” I plowed on. “I guess I thought you’d recognize true love when you saw it. Like the world would flip over, colors would brighten, it would be like having your favorite song on repeat.” Oh God, had I really just said that to him?
But deep and meaningful Kai didn’t laugh. Instead, he contemplated it before saying, “Maybe. Have you been in love before?”
I sighed. “You know that guy we saw in town? Timothy?” He nodded. “We were high-school sweethearts, I suppose a much more subdued version of Micah and Ronnie. But looking back I think it was puppy love. In New York I had lots of first dates, but work was hectic and I couldn’t or wouldn’t commit to men who counted three months as a long-term relationship. What about you?”
He pushed his hands under his head. “There was a girl back home. But when it came down to it, there wasn’t enough between us for it to go anywhere. I felt a little like a cardboard cutout, going through the motions as if it was expected of me. Meet a girl, move in together, and eventually propose. But it never felt quite right. I left Australia, with no hard feelings between us, searching for something else. I don’t know whether it’s love or a different life, or something spiritual I want. All I know is that, if I’d stayed, suddenly I’d be sixty and looking back wondering why I felt so empty. I want more, as selfish as it sounds. Or if not more, something truer.”
“Do you think the tiny town of Evergreen is the answer?”
He faced me, moonlight reflected in his eyes. “Could be. I have an affinity for this place. Like I belong. Maybe it’s being so close to nature. I’ve always been happier in the wild than out with a bunch of people. Weird, huh?” He took a sip of wine and cupped his glass by his side.
“Not weird. Evergreen is the kind of place you can get lost in if you want. You’ve climbed the mountains, you know how easy it is to find solitude here.”
“Until Cedarwood Lodge is alive and kicking.”
“From your mouth to the universe’s ears.” I laughed.
A shooting star flashed across the sky leaving a phosphorous trail.
I made a wish. That Kai would find what he was searching for, and that he’d find it close to Evergreen.
Chapter Eleven
“So, hang on, let me get this straight. Micah, the best friend who happens to also be a super-hot male, has hooked up with the landscaper, Isla? And Kai, the Australian surfer god, is searching for something but doesn’t know what? And there was a fire, thank the lord you’re all OK, and your mom is acting weird?” Amory spoke at lightning speed and I had to pause a second to untangle her words.
“In a nutshell, yes. And the fire broke out in the ballroom ceiling, so we have to start the reno over and we’ve only got two weeks until the party.”
She let out a pah of surprise. “You make New York look positively boring! I need to pull some vacay time and haul ass there.”
Laughter burbled from me. “It does seem rather fraught on the retell, but it’s mostly been lots of work. Cleaning, and painting, and paperwork. And now this drama…”
“Don’t negative Nelly me! You can still do this! And what about Timothy? That fine specimen of young love? Have you reconnected?”
I groaned. I’d forgotten her earlier directive about catching up with him for coffee. “Well, we’re all supposed to be going out on Friday. But that’s only because I literally bumped into him in town…”
She cut me off. “Bumped into him? Like meet-cute bumped into him? Like the beginning of every single decent romantic comedy?”
“If I eye-roll any harder I’ll see my brain. Yes, but it wasn’t like the movies at all. It was painful and all sorts of awkward because he had his two children with him, who were so frosty they were practically snowmen. The little girl made the finger-across-the-throat gesture behind his back. And she’s only, like, four, or eight, or something!”
“OK, OK, that’s interesting. We don’t know enough about kids to translate the meaning. It could be anything! Did he say where their mom was?” Her voice rose with excitement and I knew I had to put a stop to her scheming. Before I could answer she was off again. “Was he wearing a wedding ring?”
I debated whether to lie, because if I told her the truth there’d be no going back.
“He wasn’t, was he?” she said triumphantly.
Dang it! “No, he wasn’t. But that doesn’t mean anything! He could have been swimming, or at the gym and taken it off for safekeeping. Besides, I’m not interested in revisiting the past.” I didn’t know which way was up at the moment and definitely couldn’t be trusted with matters of the heart unless they related to someone else’s heart. Someone like Micah and Isla.
“Did you have butterfly belly? Yes or no?”
“Possibly, but I think that was because I had a traumatic bump to the head…”
“Yes or no?”
“It was more nerves…”
“So that’s a yes. Did he give you that same special smile from back in the day?”
Damn it.
“I’ll take your silence as an affirmative. And who invited who out? Actually, don’t bother answering that – it was him.” The clack of laptop keys clattered down the phone line.
“What are you doing?”
“Research.”
“His Facebook page is locked down.”
Her curse rang out and the keys clacked furiously once more.
“He doesn’t use Twitter.”
I was met with silence.
“Or Instagram.”
“Are they so remote they can’t communicate? I mean, how do these people survive?”
I giggled. “I think they meet face to face.”
She gasped. “Bloody hell. OK, so if we can’t stalk him online, I suppose you’re going to have to do this the old-fashioned way.”
“I’ll go to the catch-up because I said I would, but that’s it. I’ve got too much to do here, especially now, and Kai’s making me do midnight yoga by the lake because apparently it’s the only way to get the knots out of my shoulders and help me have a proper deep sleep. So, with all of those late nights and waking with the birds, I’m totally bushed. Maybe I’m getting…”
“Can you get your mind out of the gutter?”
“Never. Love is what makes the world go around and I am your cheer squad.”
“Riiight.”
“So, you just happened to be together at midnight?”
“Well, we were climbing the mountain…”
“What for? To escape the fire?”
“No, for exercise.”
“WHAT! You don’t exercise!”
“I know, but Kai’s really attuned to the earth and nature and he seems to have this kooky idea that I hold stress in my body and it’s toxic and a spot of midnight yoga will ease all of that. And I must admit, I’m sleeping soundly at night. But yeah, it’s pretty exhausting.”
“But why midnight?”
“Something about the shift in ocean current or the moon, or something.”
“Golly, and here I thought you’d be going to some little backwater with people who wore overalls and ate stalks of hay, and you’re surrounded by all these potential husbands.”
“They’re not potential husbands! One of them might be married and the other one works for me! How do you twist something innocent into… matrimony?”
“Oh, please… don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it?”
It had crossed my mind about Kai, but only in that very blurry, ‘I wonder where he’ll end up’ way. “No, I haven’t. Not at all.”
“You can’t fool me, Miss Winters. But fine, keep your secrets.”
“How’re things there?”
“Fine. Fine.”
“Oh no, what now? I know your fine does not mean fine. It means the exact opposite of fine.”
Amory groaned. “You’re the only one who can pick that up in my voice. It’s quite a nuisance. I didn’t want to tell you, because seriously it’s just ridiculous. Have you had any calls, any requests for interviews?”
“You’re the only one with my new number.” When I left the agency, I’d had to hand in my phone like a naughty schoolgirl.
“Ah, of course. Well, yesterday your lovely face popped up on page two of the Gazette.”
Winter at Cedarwood Lodge Page 9
