The Dream Jumper's Secret

by Kim Hornsby

  “Sure. Between me, Katie, and Megan, we can handle everything. You know that, Tina.” Shelley was more than capable of running the business and coordinating the dives. Katie would manage the shop. Megan would work the boat. Mikey would wait for orders. Everyone in her employ would fall into place while Tina spent a few days with her father.

  She was already visualizing how to make her mother sweat over an apology which was probably a good sign for their relationship. She couldn’t imagine feeling forgiveness for that woman, but she would have to try.

  By the time Elizabeth Greene called the next day with the news that the tests showed something and her father had to be admitted to the hospital for a surgical procedure, the plan was in place to fly to Seattle in two days. Changing the flight to that night would be easy.

  Tina switched into survival mode, like being on automatic pilot, an outsider looking in at her life. “I’m going to book the ten o’clock red eye out of here tonight. I’ll be there by the time he goes into surgery.” She’d drive straight to the hospital from SeaTac Airport.

  “Thank you, Kristina. I’ll tell your father. He’ll be pleased you’re coming.”

  “Put him on the phone, can you?”

  Her mother paused, and Tina wondered if she was up to something. “He’s still sedated but I’ll call you later and you can talk before you get on the plane.”

  Once the flight was booked she phoned Shelley. “I’m outa here tonight. I’ll phone the Mamas to tell them goodbye. You and Megan will do the final dives tomorrow.” She warned Shelley that although she had a return ticket in a week, it might be longer. “I’ll be available by phone, so you can call me for anything. If I don’t pick up, it’s just because I’m driving or in the hospital, but always leave a message.”

  “You can count on me, Boss.”

  “I will be doing just that. Take care of my business.”

  Tina grabbed a small duffel bag from her closet and packed a few necessities. Very little was needed. At the outside, she might be gone ten days, but no more. She had a business to run. Hanging around her parents’ house would get old fast, and soon enough she’d find herself back on a plane to Maui and Obi. Her dad just had to get through this small surgical procedure, and then she could heave a sigh of relief.

  She still hadn’t spoken to her father on the phone and somewhere in the back of her mind, Tina didn’t trust her mother, but couldn’t imagine that she’d be lured to Seattle under false pretenses. That would be despicable.

  Chapter 6

  For Jamey, seeing his daughters after an absence was always like the Seahawks won the Super Bowl on his birthday. Even though he’d visited briefly the night before, both girls rushed through the school parking lot like they were still five-years-old. He took one in each arm and spun them around. “Hi Squirt and Cookie. I missed you today.” He put them down and pointed to his truck. “Let’s go. Mom said I could help you with homework today so let’s go home and start the fun.”

  They groaned, but walked to their father’s truck and climbed in.

  After dinner, homework, and putting the girls to bed, Jamey felt like a dad again, and that was about the best feeling in the world for him. He smiled all the way back to Pops’ house, driving the twisty, dark road out to the river property on the south side of town. As he steered his old truck down Pops’ driveway, the thought of the girls’ excitement made him grin. He’d go over again in the morning to take them to school. Even though they loved the school bus, they’d agreed to let their dad drive them the next day. “Just this once,” Jade had said.

  “Don’t be late.” Carrie had looked at Jamey, her face stern.

  Jamey thought about how different the two women in his life were. Carrie was distracted and bossy, saving her smiles for her baby, Mango, these days. Doting over the baby, and four-year-old Wyatt, seemed to be her only joy in life. Even the twins were getting the short end of the stick. She’d been testy with them, too, and Jamey had to think it was post-pregnancy hormones even though Mango was almost ten months old. He’d never mention that to Carrie, though. Not unless he wanted his head bit off. Her moods seemed to fluctuate between being barely tolerant, and quietly furious.

  After the twins were born, she’d been difficult to live with then, too, for the whole first year. He’d chalked it up to hormones and sleep deprivation.

  Tonight, she’d snapped at him when he didn’t immediately offer to dry the dishes after dinner. In front of everyone, she’d said, “You know, you could set an example for your daughters and get off that chair to help me.”

  “You are absolutely right.” He’d jumped out of his chair. “And, I happen to know two little assistants who could join me in this help-fest.” Jade and Jasmine made a game of it.

  Later, when he asked his ex-wife if she was mad at him for anything in particular, besides sitting on his backside while she slaved away, she’d paused and took a deep breath.

  “I have a lot on my mind, and I’m not sleeping well these days.” She’d crossed her arms and leaned against the kitchen counter. “Kevin is back in town and wants to see Wyatt. He says he now wants a relationship with his son.” She uncrossed her arms long enough to make air quotes around the word relationship. “After running out on me and Wyatt, he wants to mend things.”

  “Sorry to hear that, Carrie.” Jamey had almost forgotten that Kevin’s birthfather wasn’t Chris. Kevin was a fling of Carrie’s after she and Jamey split, and having the guy back in town would be worrisome. Jamey wasn’t fond of Kevin even though he’d only met him once. That time Jamey’s spidey alert had picked up on something he didn’t like.

  These days Carrie was bogged down with worry, and she was probably trying to be as nice as she could manage. Tina, on the other hand, was becoming more carefree every day. The fact that she was coming to Seattle in less than ten hours made Jamey happier than he’d been in the last two days. They’d only been apart forty-eight hours, but they were the loneliest hours of Jamey’s life, if you didn’t count the days after he’d left Tina ten years ago. The only thing that had pulled him out of that funk was knowing he and Carrie were about to have twins. Two babies were on the way, and Jamey needed to keep it together for them, and for Carrie.

  The scrabble board was on the table when Jamey walked in Pops’ kitchen. He looked at his father. “You’re going down, Old Man Dunn.”

  Pops motioned for Jamey to sit down. After getting a beer from the fridge, Jamey did. “Figured you could use some entertainment after all your hard work,” Pops said.

  Earlier that day, Jamey had started working on projects around the house, like filling in the potholes. After he’d fixed those suckers, he replaced some rotten boards on the back porch. Pops liked to say he was leaving jobs for Jamey, to keep him in shape, but the truth was that Pops wasn’t looking as robust as usual and it worried Jamey. Secretly, he hoped his father had quit sneaking cigarettes now that his son was keeping an eye on him.

  “Tina flying in to Seattle tonight?” Pops spelled “flight” on the board.

  “She’s trying to get here before her dad goes for surgery tomorrow.” Jamey would see her in two days, probably. Like some lovesick schoolboy, he’d drive in to meet her anywhere, even cruise by the house, if that’s what it took. She’d insisted on taking a taxi to the hospital tomorrow from the airport.

  “Heard anything from Milton lately?”

  “I need to call him. Last we talked, he wanted to do tests. I’ll have to show him I can’t jump. Leave out the part about Tina being the jumper these days.” Jamey set down a double word score for “mortar.”

  For decades, Scrabble had been Jamey and his father’s favorite board game, with lots of name-calling and word-inventing on the game board. Pops always kept a dictionary at his elbow for those moments when Jamey started making up “crazy-assed, homemade, flubberty-jubbed words,” Pops said, usually while he was verifying Jamey’s latest creation.

  “What time does her plane land?” Pops asked. He added the word
“fun” to the scrabble board, looking smug.

  “Six thirty.” Jamey stifled a smile. “She’ll go straight to the hospital and be there when they take him in to surgery, if traffic isn’t too heavy from the airport.” At least, he and Tina would be in the same state. That alone would make him feel better. Not that he was the priority here. If Philip Greene pulled through in the next day, and it sounded like he would, Tina would eventually make her way east to his little hometown to meet his family, and the idea of his sexy girlfriend in Carnation was as exciting as anything he could think of right now.

  “Impress the hell out of your brother and your father,” she’d said to him on the phone.

  He was sure his father would love her. Pops had a soft spot for girls, even the older ones. And Tina was one special girl. He added the word “sexy” to the board and smiled.

  “Do the girls know their dad has a girlfriend?” Pops didn’t look up.

  “I told them. They were pleased.”

  “I bet they were." Pops grinned over the scrabble board, and spelled “extra” using Jamey’s x. “Did you have fun at dinner tonight?”

  “Sure did. Those kids can eat a lot of food!” He chuckled. “The three of us are going on a date tomorrow.”

  Carrie had given permission for Jamey to take Jade and Jasmine to Red Robin in Redmond, a favorite restaurant where the waiters would sing the girls happy birthday. “Tomorrow being Friday, is fine. Just not on a school night,” she’d specified. Jamey was getting a little tired of her bad mood. “If Carrie doesn’t change her mind about letting me take them, that is.” Jamey shrugged.

  Pops shot a look at Jamey and spelled “bitch” on the board.

  “Hey. Not nice,” Jamey said.

  “Female dog.”

  “Carrie is stressed these days.” Jamey tried to explain.

  “Well, my advice is just try to be as easy going as Chris, and everyone will be happy.” He chuckled.

  Carrie’s husband, Chris, was a big Teddy Bear. “Wyatt’s birthfather is here, and wanting to see him,” Jamey said.

  Pops frowned. “I heard. Makes things tricky now, for her. It’s different than when I got married and had kids, and that was it. If your spouse left you and the kids, you just made do.”

  When Jamey’s mother had left them, he’d been five years old and his younger sister, Jenny, was two. Jamey had little memory of his mother except what he got from photographs. Virginia Dunn’s departure had always been explained like she was a bird and needed to fly away. “Some women just aren’t fit for mothering,” Pops had said. She’d never contacted her family again. Not that Jamey knew. Talking about his long-departed mother always made everyone miserable. “I’m hoping you will all get to meet Tina this week, as long as her father is better, and her mother can spare her.” He added an “s” to the word “extra” on the board.

  “That would be nice,” Pops said. “Terrible thing about her mother doing that to her marriage. The woman is lucky those two con men didn’t try to off her.” Pops laid down the tiles to spell “murder.”

  “I’m pretty sure those men weren’t murderers.”

  “How did Tina’s mom know all this was going on? Did she suspect something, and confront them?” Pops didn’t know the part Jamey had played--the letter he’d sent years ago, as a warning to Tina’s parents. Jamey just couldn’t tell his father that he’d broken the promise to Uncle Don to never change the future after a vision in a precognitive dream.

  “She hired a private eye.” He hated lying to his father, but the day Jamey decided to interfere with Tina’s marriage and write that letter, was a day he decided to keep secrets. Breaking the promise didn’t seem as important when he found out Hank’s motive for marrying Tina. He’d had to warn someone. Was Hank always destined to die that day on the cliffs over Honolua, or did he die because of the letter? He’d never know. He spelled “guilt” with the “u” from “murder.”

  Pops’ interested expression encouraged Jamey to continue talking. “She’d had other boyfriends of Tina’s followed. The mother is overprotective because Tina’s twin brother drowned when they were young.”

  “And now, she and her mother aren’t speaking?” Pops added “er” to “murder.”

  Jamey shook his head. “Nope. Tina needs time to forgive.”

  “Parenting isn’t easy. And loving your kids like your heart’ll burst sometimes leads a parent down the wrong path.”

  “Tina will forgive her mother. Probably on this visit.” He added a “y” to guilt.

  But when Jamey went to bed later, he lay in his old room thinking. What would happen in the next few days? Tina needed to make amends with her mother, or the stress of their broken relationship could have an effect on Philip Greene’s health. Lying with his hands behind his head, Jamey tried not to think of the absence of Tina’s body in bed beside him. He’d become used to sleeping with her. Her firm butt, two perfect handfuls of breasts, her soft lips. The way she sighed when he kissed her neck. Realizing that he’d never get to sleep with those thoughts, he switched to thinking about fishing and soon found himself drifting off.

  In the dream, Jamey stood on the front porch of Pops’ house, waiting. But it wasn’t for Tina. She was long gone. His heart was heavy with that knowledge. He couldn’t remember why, but she had good reason to hate him, and it was impossible to get her to see his side of things. Soon a car would head down the long twisty road, the driver not sure he had the right house. Jamey would be there when the car pulled up, and the driver stepped out.

  Jamey would be ready to go.

  Chapter 7

  Seattle was chilly, compared to Maui’s balmy temperatures. Most of Tina’s cool weather clothes were at her parents’ house so she’d avoided having to pack a suitcase. For the flight she’d worn a pair of jeans, T-shirt, and a bomber-style leather jacket she saved for trips to the mainland.

  Tina hurried through the Seattle airport, her carry-on duffle bag pulling heavily on her shoulder. The plane’s arrival was only a few minutes late, but she wanted desperately to get to the hospital before her father went in to surgery. Just in case. She hailed a taxi and settled in for the thirty-minute drive to the Seattle hospital.

  Jamey answered his phone on the second ring and she knew from the sound of his voice she’d woken him. “I’m headed to the hospital now.”

  “Your dad will be fine, honey. He’s tough.”

  “I know, but I still worry. He’s my dad. I just hope Mother and I appear normal for his sake.”

  “You can do it, Baby. Just let it go. You’re here for your dad. Pretend you’re back where you were two months ago with your mother.” Jamey had a calming effect on her that she cherished. It was almost frightening how quickly this man had made himself indispensable in her life.

  They hung up a few minutes later but the thought of Jamey lying in a bed, naked, and all sleepy-eyed, was enough to distract her for most of the drive. Especially because they were only separated by land now, not ocean.

  Once she got to the hospital, a quick question at the hospital’s Information Desk had Tina in the elevator to surgery. The worry in her heart was almost dwarfed by the worry about seeing her scheming mother again.

  Tina had switched from flip-flops to stylish boots on the plane and her heels clicked on the shiny floor as she followed a nurse to a curtained cubicle. When the nurse pulled the curtain aside, the sight of her vibrant father lying in a hospital bed, his sleeping face drawn and old-looking was shocking. Her mother stood and smiled her pinched smile, the one that never made it beyond her mouth.

  “There you are,” she whispered. “Did you have a good flight?”

  Tina set her bag by the foot of the hospital bed and glanced at her mother. “Not bad.” She looked to her father. ”Is he sedated or just asleep?”

  Elizabeth touched her daughter’s arm. “Sleeping.”

  Tina moved to her father’s bedside, longing to take his hand, but not wanting to wake him. This was the man who was always so
strong for everyone else. Her father was an esteemed lawyer, used to commanding a whole courtroom of doubters. Seeing him so vulnerable brought tears to her eyes.

  “You can wake him,” her mother said moving to the end of the bed. “He was awake earlier, waiting for you to arrive, but only just dozed off.”

  Tina shook her head. “I’ll wait.” She sat down in the chair nearest to her father. Had her mother just moved over to offer the closest chair to her? That display of consideration would be something new.

  Taking her father’s hand, Tina squeezed gently. She had to face her mother eventually. They had days ahead of them, days of closeness, and days of sharing concern about the man they both loved. “How are you holding up, Mother?” Until she said it, she hadn’t thought that maybe all this stress of being shut out of her daughter’s affections, and then this episode, might be taking its toll on her other parent.

  “I’m fine.” She nodded like the question needed nothing more.

  Tina reminded herself that Elizabeth Greene would have to be on a stretcher, covered in blood, to admit that anything was wrong. She was a master at subterfuge and denial.

  “Did you sleep last night?” She tried not to look too interested in her mother’s welfare, but then wondered why. Was she trying to teach her mother a lesson? She wasn’t the type of person who withheld love as punishment. “Did you, Mother?”

  Her mother nodded. “Well enough.”

  Her father was breathing evenly, his eyebrows in need of a good trimming. She almost smiled. After this, Tina vowed that she’d try to build her relationship with her mother to a point where they could be comfortable around each other. Then she’d decide if she wanted to make a further effort. If so, she would approach the relationship like the adult she was, and stand her ground, not be reduced to her usual state of the scared little girl.

  Philip Greene’s eyes fluttered open, and he smiled. “There’s my two girls.”