Reyva had a desk on one side of the large room. But it was to the leather couch and chairs in the corner that she led Quino. The room was full of plants of various sizes and had the faint scent of lavender and vanilla permeating the air. Quino felt his tension ease just by being in the room.
“I suspect I know why you are here,” Reyva said. “But why don’t you tell me?”
Quino put his sweet tea on a coaster on the glass coffee table as he sat in one chair and Reyva sat in the one beside him. He took Desi’s note from his pocket and handed it to her. Reyva opened it and scanned the message.
“Did you know about this?” he asked. He tried to keep the hurt out of his voice. He wasn’t sure he was successful. Reyva had been a part of their lives for so long, if she had advised Desi to keep something from him, the level of betrayal he was going to feel was going to be deep.
“No,” she said. Her voice was gentle. When she glanced up at him, her face was wide with a big grin and her eyes were sparkling. Quino blinked. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
“No!” Quino cried. He cleared his throat and said, “No, I don’t think so.”
“You’re worried for her,” Reyva said. Her tone was warm with understanding.
“Terrified would be closer to the mark,” he said. “How can you be so calm?”
“Because she’s been working for this for years,” Reyva said. “And now she’s done it. I’m very proud of her.”
“But . . .” Quino protested.
“Don’t mistake me.” Reyva shook her head. “She should have told you she was going. She should have had the maturity to tell you her plan, but I believe she was afraid that you would talk her out of going.”
“She would have been right,” Quino said. “I’d have locked her up and . . .”
Reyva stared at him.
“Ah, hell,” he said. He ran a hand over his face. “Excuse me.”
“It’s all right,” she said. “I know how much you love her and how hard this must be.”
“How do I get her to come home?” he asked.
“You don’t,” she said. “This is her journey. Not yours.”
Quino reached for his tea. He took a long swallow. He wished it was something stronger than tea.
“She says she’ll be in touch when she lands. Kenya is seven hours from North Carolina,” Reyva said. “And if she’s flying there, she’ll likely have to stop somewhere along the way, like London. I’ll bet she calls from there.”
“Anything could happen to her,” Quino muttered.
“Yes,” Reyva said.
Quino looked at her like she was insane. Reyva didn’t take offense but instead laughed and patted his hand where it rested on his knee.
“In all the years I’ve known her, your sister has dreamed of seeing the world and saving animals, big and small.” Reyva paused and clasped her hands together over her chest. “I know this is terrifying for you, and I know what a good big brother you’ve been, stepping in to raise her when you lost your parents, putting aside your own grief to make sure she survived and thrived. But you have to remember, Quino, this is why you raised her . . . so that she could live her dreams.”
“I just don’t understand,” Quino said. “Sure, she’s talked about elephants and gorillas and tigers all the time. She belongs to all of the world rescue organizations and spends half her salary from the stable on animal causes, but I didn’t think she was planning to enlist.”
Reyva burst out laughing. “You make it sound like she joined the army.”
“She’d be closer to home if she had,” he groused.
“Quino, you heard what Desi was saying but you weren’t really listening,” she said. “When she told you about these things, she was telling you her plans.”
“But we have horses. Why does she need to go save animals on the other side of the planet?”
“You’ll have to ask her that.”
“What if she gets kidnapped? Or robbed? Or a poacher shoots her?” he asked.
“And what if she doesn’t?”
“Argh, I thought you’d be on my side,” he said. He knew he sounded like a big baby but he couldn’t help it.
“There are no sides,” Reyva said. “There is only a young woman, pursuing her dreams, hoping that the person she loves most in the world will support her.”
“You’re killing me here,” he said. “I want to support her, I do, but . . .”
“No buts,” she interrupted gently. “Desi has worked for this for years. She will call you and you can tell her that the way she left hurt you, but she will want your support.”
“But—”
Reyva shook her head.
“What if she gets into trouble?” he asked.
“What if she doesn’t?”
“Seriously, stop that,” he said. She smiled so he knew he hadn’t offended her. “All question of my supporting her aside, what if something happens to her?”
Reyva looked thoughtful for a moment. The look she turned on him was serious enough that he straightened up and met her dark gaze, trying not to be petrified by whatever she was about to say.
“A very large part of success is learning how to fail,” she said. “Desi has to fail a little bit if she is going to learn how to succeed, and you have to let her. If she gets lost, she needs to figure out how to find her way. If she loses her passport, she needs to learn how to navigate getting a new one. If the internship is not what she hoped, she has to learn how to continue on or leave a bad situation. These are the skills we have been working on for years and this is her time to shine.”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Quino said.
Reyva laughed. It was a light musical sound that actually made him feel a teeny bit better. If she could laugh at his worry and believe in Desi, her patient of so many years, then how could he, as Desi’s big brother, do any less?
“When she calls, what should I say?” he asked. “Because I’m guessing Get your behind home right now would be wrong.”
“Tell her you’re proud of her, tell her that her exit left a lot to be desired,” Reyva said. “And then ask her how she is doing, and when she tells you, listen.”
“I’ll try,” he said.
“Good,” she said. She smiled at him as if completely confident in his abilities and Quino had the feeling this was how she managed all of her patients. He didn’t want to let her down.
“One thing is bothering me, however,” he said. “How did she get the money to get to Africa and what will she be living on when she gets there? I looked at their website. They don’t offer paid internships. The interns have to pay their own way, travel to and from Africa and living expenses. I checked the accounts and she hasn’t taken out any money. How did she manage this?”
“I don’t know,” Reyva said. “She never told me about this internship, which proves to me that she was more than ready to do this all by herself. Have faith, Joaquin.”
“I’ll try,” he said. He did feel a little bit better. Except he still wanted to know how she’d paid for the trip. If she’d taken out a credit card and was using that, they were going to have to have an entirely different conversation. He ran his hand over his face. He had a feeling he was in for a long night of worrying.
* * *
* * *
HIS phone rang at nine o’clock. Quino snatched it off the coffee table. It was Desi! He swiped the screen and barked, “Where the hell are you?”
Okay, that was wrong but damn it. He’d spent the past four hours in various states of excruciating worry.
“Hey, bro,” Desi cried. “Or should I say Cheerio? I’m in London, eating a pasty and enjoying a pint before my flight to Nairobi.”
“Desiree Maritza Solis,” Quino said. It came out in his parent voice, the one he used when she was in big trouble, huge trouble, grounded-for-life trouble.
<
br /> “That’s my name,” she said. Then she giggled. “Sorry, I’m not laughing at you, really—I think I might be a bit drunk. It was a super long flight and I’m only halfway there.”
“Desi, you really need to turn around and hop on the next plane back to North Carolina,” Quino said. He maintained his stern voice, fully aware that Reyva would not approve of this at all. In fact, if she heard him, she’d probably tackle him to the ground, rip the phone out of his hand, and tell Desi to go, go, go. He knew that and still he couldn’t stop himself. This might be his last chance to get her to come home.
“Not gonna happen, big brother,” Desi said. “I did it all by myself. I got the internship, got my physical and the required shots, I got my passport and a visa. I even got a grant, which is paying for the whole shebang. I worked so hard for this, and I’m not giving it up, not even for you.”
“But . . . but Christmas,” Quino said.
“I know you love the Christmas season and all of our traditions,” Desi said. “It’s probably weird for you to not have me there, but you’ll be fine. Just throw yourself into the holiday like you always do. It’ll be okay, big brother, I promise.”
“Desi, this isn’t about—”
“Oh, sorry, they’re calling my flight. I have to go!” she cried. She sounded beyond excited and for a second Quino felt his heart lift at the pure joy in her voice. Then the fears kicked in.
“Don’t talk to strangers,” he said. “Don’t let anyone buy you a drink, always go to the bathroom with a buddy, put your passport in a safe place, don’t go out alone at night, don’t—”
“Quino, breathe,” she said. “I’ve got this, really, I do. I love you. I’ll call you from Africa.”
“I love you, too,” he said. But she’d already hung up.
Quino dropped his phone onto the coffee table in the living room and collapsed back against the cushions. He’d blown it. She’d called from London and he’d blown it. He should have told her he was in the hospital for a mild stroke—then she would have come home.
The house was too quiet. He couldn’t stand it. He shoved off the couch and grabbed his coat from the hook by the door. He had to be outside where it was cold and calm so he could clear his head. The corral was empty. The horses had been put in for the night.
He glanced above the detached garage at the small apartment he rented to Luke. The light was on, so Luke was home. Then his gaze cut across the front yard to the small cottage on a side lot by the main road. Lanie had moved into the guesthouse after Ryder and his daughter, Perry, had moved to their new house by the bookstore in town. Quino missed having Ryder and Perry underfoot, but he felt reassured seeing Lanie’s and Luke’s lights on, knowing he wasn’t alone.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t be alone, he told himself. It was just that he hadn’t had very much practice at it. He’d gone to school in Texas for a couple of years and worked construction around his classes, which was how he’d met Ryder. But he’d abandoned all that when he was called home to take care of Desi. He didn’t think he’d been alone, truly alone, ever since.
As if she was the antidote to his loneliness a sudden image of Savannah hit him low and deep. He wondered what she was doing right now and how put off she would be if he showed up on her doorstep. He’d bet dollars to donuts she’d be furious. She’d made it pretty plain that she didn’t want to go there with him and he knew he needed to respect her boundaries. He was holding out hope that in their quest to save Maisy’s bookstore, she’d finally see him in a different, meaning datable, light.
It was that thought that made his anxiety ease. He shifted his brain from the panicked useless overload Desi had left it in to the much more manageable problem of Red. A fantasy vision of Savannah talking with him, laughing with him, hanging on his arm as they walked through town, while melting under his kisses whenever they happened upon some mistletoe, filled his brain, pushing aside his frantic worry about his sister. There was nothing he could do there, but Savy was a different story.
No matter how much Red denied it, he knew—and he knew she knew—that there really was something crazy hot between them. He just had to figure out how to get her to admit it. And he sincerely hoped mistletoe was involved in the solution.
Chapter Nine
LET’S review the schedule one more time,” Savannah said.
“No,” Maisy argued. She flipped the OPEN sign to CLOSED and glared at her friend. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, I do, but it’s late and my feet are killing me and I want to go home and soak in a tub full of bubbles until the jaundice has left my skin and I resemble a human being and not a waxy mannequin. I’m exhausted. Aren’t you exhausted?”
“Yes, but it’s only nine o’clock,” Savy said. “During the holidays, we should absolutely think about staying open later, like eleven or midnight.”
“Nine o’clock is late enough for holiday hours. Honestly, I can’t wait until we go back to closing at eight.”
“M, I know you’re all lovey-dovey with cowboy architect guy in your new house and you want to be home canoodling with him, I do, but the first few months of opening a new business are the most critical.”
“When did you become so knowledgeable about small businesses?” Maisy asked. She walked through the store, straightening up the displays. Savy followed her, trying to plead her case.
“I’ve been attending the small-business meetings held at the Fairdale Public Library,” Savy said. “You should come with me. I’m trying to get us connected to other small businesses in the area, beyond the ones we already know.”
“When are they?” Maisy asked.
“Tuesday evenings,” Savy said.
“Can’t. Ryder and I are taking dance lessons on Tuesdays,” she said.
“Dancing?” Savy asked. “I’ve seen Ryder dance. It’s terrifying.”
Maisy laughed. “Thus, the dance lessons.”
“Huh.” Savy didn’t know what to say.
She supposed if she was a better friend she’d be happy for Maisy, but there was a part of her that felt left out and she didn’t like it. She didn’t like that her friend was too busy for her and she didn’t like it that her friend had a great guy and she was still flying solo. Yes, it was petty and ridiculous, and, sure, she’d decided not to date while in Fairdale because she knew she was leaving but that was before she’d kissed Quino and now she didn’t know what to think.
“Do you want to come over for a while?” Maisy asked. “We’re beginning the start of a month of Christmas movies. Perry is making popcorn as we speak.”
Maisy shook a box of treats that she kept under the front counter and King George came trotting down the staircase from the second floor. Maisy opened the lid and gave him two treats while she slipped on his halter and leash. She’d been trying to leash-train him for months. It wasn’t taking and she usually ended up tucking him under her arm like a football and carrying him home.
Holiday movies? Savy would rather watch live coverage of snails migrating. She supposed it was just as well. She knew she needed to stay in and strategize. Ryder clearly had Maisy so distracted, she wasn’t showing the proper amount of concern about her own business endeavor. Savy had been blinded by new love-lust in her day, so she understood, really, she did, but if she left to go back to New York, who was going to make certain the bookstore succeeded? Quino could not possibly do it on his own.
“No, you go ahead,” Savy said. “I have some things I want to get done.”
“All right,” Maisy said. She hugged her quick and then stepped back and studied her face. “But if you change your mind, you know where we are.”
“Absolutely,” she said. She waved Maisy and King George out of the shop and then locked the door. The bookstore seemed so empty without customers and coworkers. Savy almost ran after Maisy and joined her for the movie. No, she wasn’t that desperate yet.
Instead, she to
ok out her phone and called Archer Vossen. He answered on the fourth ring.
“Savannah, my favorite redhead, how are you?” He sounded upbeat and happy. Savannah could see him, martini in hand, wearing some ridiculously expensive designer ensemble, and staring out over the city from his Hell’s Kitchen apartment that he shared with his surgeon lover, Gregory.
“Fine,” she said.
“Which means you’re not,” he sighed. “I’m so sorry, Savy. New York is absolutely dismal without you.”
“Such a liar,” she accused. “I’ve been gone for months. You probably already have a new best friend.”
“Hush your mouth,” he said. “I could never replace you.”
She knew it was just lip service, but she did feel a bit better.
“So, is there any news?” she asked.
He sighed. “I was waiting for the right time to tell you.”
Savy felt her heart sink. This couldn’t be good. “What’s happening?”
“Linda is doubling down,” he said. “She’s holding the line that you stole her work.”
“But that’s crazy!” Savannah said. “I mean, it’s been months. She should have gone up in flames by now.”
“Linda’s been very cagey, but I’m trying to get a friend in IT to take a look at her hard drive and see if there are any clues there,” Archer said. “She also hired your replacement. Sarah Cooper, a young dynamo in her twenties, who is very savvy about publicity. Sound familiar? Linda’s been working her like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. Sarah has taken to crying in my office on a daily basis. Again, sound familiar?”
“Ugh,” Savy said. “We have to stop her.”
The Christmas Keeper Page 10
