A Map To Destiny

by Ellis, Nicole

  He stared down at his shoes. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention to leave you out of things.” He snuck a peek at her. Laney’s eyes were bright with tears and she was biting her lower lip. His heart sank. This wasn’t how he’d meant for things to go.

  “Okay, but you did leave me out.” She blinked back her tears and stared directly at him, her voice stronger now. “I want to be involved with every step of the process that I possibly can. This is important to me.”

  “I understand, and I’ll make sure to involve you with everything in the future, okay?” He moved closer to her and rubbed her upper arm. “I’m really sorry.”

  “Okay.” She seemed unsure. He fought to think of something that could make things better between them.

  “Hey, there’s a conference coming up at the college next week. I’m supposed to present a lecture on the shipwrecks of Florida. I bet I can have you join me as a speaker to present your role in finding the Livingston. The attendees would love having the perspective of someone from outside the world of academia. Sometimes our lectures can get a little dry.”

  A small smile crept across her face. “Really? Do you think they’d let me participate?”

  “I’m sure they will. I’ll tell them that this shipwreck never would have been discovered if not for you. I’ll make the arrangements when I go back to work on Monday and I’ll fill you in on it, okay?”

  “Yes. I’d like that.” She smiled again, wider this time, and leaned in to him, placing her hands on his chest and gazing into his eyes. “Thank you.”

  He kissed her lightly, then pulled her against him and rested his chin on the top of her head, happy that she was no longer upset. They didn’t have much time left together in Fortune’s Bay and he didn’t want to spend what little time that remained in a fight with her. He’d told her that he could get her on the docket at the upcoming conference, but he wasn’t sure he could pull it off. However, he didn’t have much of a choice. If he didn’t find a place for her in his presentation, she’d never forgive him.

  * * *

  A week later, Laney slowed her car to a sedate thirty miles per hour and pulled off the freeway at the exit to Ambright College. The familiar sight of the tree-lined streets and neat Arts and Crafts style houses from the early 1900s brought back happy memories from her years spent there as an undergraduate. She continued driving until she reached the parking lot closest to the anthropology building. The clock on her car’s dashboard read one o’clock.

  Perfect. She was here an hour earlier than they’d arranged and could surprise Jack at his office. They had been chatting daily on the phone since he’d returned to the college after Spring Break, but this was the first time they’d see each other in person. Her stomach twisted in anticipation of seeing him.

  Would it be the same between them? Without the almost vacation-like feel of being in Fortune’s Bay, would they still work as a couple? Give it a chance, Laney. It was almost like she expected him to disappoint her, but as Becki had told her, she needed to trust Jack and take a chance on a relationship with him. She’d had some bad experiences with dating tourists who’d ended up lying to her, but not every man would disappoint her.

  Her nerves were still on high alert as she pushed open the door to the anthropology building and located Jack’s office on the directory. When she reached the door to his department, she put her hand on the door, but her hand froze in place. Was she making a big mistake? Long-distance relationships never worked out. Why should she think she and Jack would be the exception? She closed her eyes for a moment and felt the door nudge against her hand.

  Laney stepped back and allowed the door to open fully. A young girl, probably in her freshman year of college, brushed past her. Laney entered the office and stopped in front of a desk near the entrance. A woman sat behind it, tapping away at her computer, consulting a document on her desk every so often.

  “Excuse me,” Laney said. “Where can I find Jack LaFlamme’s office?” She scanned the room. Fluorescent lights hung overhead, but a window on one side of the room allowed in some natural light. There were several bookcases pushed against the walls, crammed full of books. It was almost like being back home in the library. But here, there was a different vibe. Somehow, there was no mistaking that this was a college setting. She felt like a coed, visiting her professor for help with a class.

  “Hello,” the woman said in a pleasant voice as she looked up from her computer. She peered at Laney. “Are you a student of Professor LaFlamme’s?”

  “Me?” Laney laughed. She hadn’t been a student for quite a while. “No, I’m here to meet with Jack on a personal matter.” Her cheeks grew warm.

  The receptionist’s eyes widened and she stood up behind the desk, revealing a pregnant belly. “Are you Laney?”

  Laney looked at her in surprise. “Yes. Did Jack mention me?”

  “He did. He said you’d be here at two.” The receptionist glanced at the clock on the wall. “You’re here early.”

  “Eh, you never know what traffic will be like.”

  “Well, I’m glad you’re here,” the woman said warmly as she held out her hand. “I’m Lisa.”

  Laney held out her hand, as well. Lisa clasped Laney’s hand and shook it vigorously.

  “I’m so happy to meet you. Jack talks about you all the time.”

  A warmth spread over Laney. If Jack had been telling people about her, this must be more than just a fling to him. The thought was reassuring.

  “Nice to meet you.” She smiled at Lisa. The woman’s friendly persona was helping to calm her nerves. By the time Jack arrived back at his office, she might just be normal again.

  “I never thought Jack would meet someone he was interested in,” Lisa said. “He jokes about dying a bachelor, alone with his artifacts and books.”

  Laney raised her eyebrows and Lisa laughed.

  “Don’t worry, Jack’s a great guy. It’s just that he spends so much time on his work that he never gets out to meet women. I’m always telling him that he needs to get out more.” She glanced at a framed photo on her desk of herself and a man around the same age. Lisa ran her fingers along the edge of the frame lovingly. “My husband is the same way about his job. If his sister hadn’t fixed us up, I don’t think he’d have ever married.”

  Laney nodded. “That’s funny that you say that about work, because we never would have met if it weren’t for his expertise in local shipwrecks. His career brought us together.”

  “Are you coming to the underwater archaeology conference next week here at the college?” Lisa pointed to a bright yellow flyer on her desk.

  “I was planning on attending.” She glanced at the piece of paper.

  Lisa beamed. “That’s great! Jack will be presenting his discovery of the Livingston. He’ll be so excited to have you in the audience, cheering him on.” She shook her head. “You have no idea how different he’s been since he came back from Fortune’s Bay. He’s so much happier and full of life now. I have to admit, I’d started worrying about him.” She frowned. “With this on his curriculum vitae though, he’ll be a shoo-in for that job in California. They’ve been courting him for a while, but this should make their decision clear.”

  She peered at Laney. “Has he said anything to you about the job offer from the university in California? We’ll all certainly miss him if he decides to take it.”

  “We haven’t discussed it,” Laney said tightly. More like they hadn’t talked about it at all. Was Jack keeping it from her?

  Frazzled, Laney picked up the flyer from the desk. After reading down the list of presenter’s names, the blood drained from her face. Jack’s name was on the speakers list, but there was no mention of her at all.

  She held it up to the woman. “This is the program for the conference, right?”

  The woman nodded. “It should be a wonderful conference. I know our students are excited about attending.”

  So, Jack was presenting “his” find at the conference. She doubted
there would be any mention of her role in the discovery of the Livingston. Acid churned in her stomach and a rush of anger and anguish surged through her chest and into her throat. She pushed back the bile and fought to regain control of her emotions.

  How could he leave her out of the conference, after they’d talked about speaking at it together? If he hadn’t been able to arrange for her to speak at the conference, he should have let her know. And what about the job in California? He’d promised her that they’d be able to make a long-distance relationship work, but being apart from each other, thousands of miles across the country, was vastly different than being only a couple hours’ drive away from each other. She’d been burned before by dating a liar, but she’d thought he was different. How could he do this to her? The only answer was that he wasn’t the man she’d thought he was.

  She put the flyer back down on the desk and stepped away from it as if it had singed her fingers. “I’ll come back later.”

  “Are you sure? You can wait in Jack’s office down the hall if you’d like,” Lisa said, pointing down a brightly lit hallway. “His class will be out in a few minutes. It’s no problem, really.”

  “No, I think I forgot something in the car. I’d better go check,” Laney lied. She wanted to get as far away from the college as she could—as far away as possible from any possibility of seeing Jack.

  She rushed out of the office before the tears pooling in her eyes could stream down her cheeks. She swiped at them as she unlocked the car, having trouble inserting the key in the lock.

  Stupid broken key fob. She’d have to get it replaced soon. Finally, the key slipped in and she slid onto the seat, slamming the car door behind her. She leaned back against the headrest. This wasn’t how she’d pictured the day going. She’d never expected betrayal like this from Jack. With a deep breath, Laney started the car and drove out of the parking lot, heading home by herself to Fortune’s Bay.

  10

  Jack checked his watch for about the twentieth time, since he’d returned to his office, after teaching his Intro to Underwater Archaeology class. He got up and stared out the window at the parking lot, but it was almost empty. Laney’s car was nowhere to be seen. He paced back and forth along the length of his office.

  Where was she? He and Laney had made plans for her to meet him at his office at two o’clock and it was now three-thirty. Lisa had told him that Laney had stopped by, but that she’d gone back to her car to get something. As far as he knew, she hadn’t returned.

  He walked down the hallway to Lisa’s desk. “Have you seen Laney since she left here?”

  Lisa shook her head sadly. “Sorry. I haven’t.”

  “Did she seem upset when she left?”

  Lisa shrugged. “She jetted out of here quite suddenly, but said she forgot something in her car, so I figured it was something important. I didn’t have any reason to suspect otherwise.” She peered at him with a concerned expression on her face. “Do you think she’s okay?”

  “I’m sure she’s fine. She probably had something come up and she’ll get in touch with me later. Thanks.” He returned to his office, dejected and a little worried.

  She should have been back by now. He picked up his phone, to make sure that he had no missed calls, and dialed her number again. As it had every other time, it went straight to voicemail. Face it, Jack. She stood you up. He’d been so convinced that they could make this long-distance thing work, but now it was looking like it wouldn’t.

  But what if she was hurt or something? He texted her to make sure she was okay and waited a few minutes, tapping his pen on the desk the whole time. Not knowing what had happened was killing him.

  She finally replied, I’m not coming.

  He stared at his phone and then fired off a text asking her why not. After several minutes without a response, he concluded that she wasn’t going to get back to him. He pushed the phone to the far corner of his desk. Well, that was that. As he’d told Dane, he was more of a lone wolf. Maybe some people could have it all, but it looked like the only thing in his future was a good career. As he’d thought before, love was not in the cards for him. He’d thought Laney cared for him, but she must have gotten cold feet. Still, her behavior was strange. He’d never thought she was the flighty type.

  He tried to focus on his work, but found it too difficult. Images of Laney kept popping into his head—the way she’d scolded him after he’d mistakenly thought she’d let Marshmallow loose on purpose and how they’d talked for hours in the Irish pub about anything and everything, laughing the whole time. He’d really thought they’d had a future together. Who else would be as excited about finding a shipwreck as he was? The idea of marriage had even entered his head and that had never happened before—an idea for which he blamed Dane and his nonsensical talk about love. Laney’s sweet smile popped into his head and he swallowed a lump in his throat. What he’d had with Laney hadn’t been nonsense, it had been real. He reached for his phone, checking for messages again, then flipped to the last photos he’d taken, a series of photographs of Laney and their date at the amusement park in Fortune’s Bay.

  She looked so beautiful and carefree hugging that giant panda he’d won for her. His stomach twisted into a thousand knots. He’d been so excited to tell her that he’d managed to convince the conference manager to allow both him and Laney to speak at the upcoming conference, as they had discovered the shipwreck together.

  What should he do now? Should he tell her about the invitation to speak at the conference? She didn’t seem to want to have anything to do with him, and he didn’t know why. Could she still be upset about him taking over the process of getting the shipwreck explored? He’d thought they’d moved past that, but maybe he was wrong.

  He turned off his computer and got up from his chair. There was no way he could live like this—not knowing why she’d changed her mind about him. She’d driven all the way to the college to see him and then left suddenly. Something wasn’t right. He needed to go back to Fortune’s Bay to find out why she had stood him up and see if there was any hope of a future for them together.

  He wanted to leave right away, but he had a staff meeting that evening, so he planned to leave as soon as his last class was over the next day. With any luck, the extra time would give Laney a chance to cool down and rethink her refusal to talk to him. If nothing else, he hoped to get closure from her.

  * * *

  “Laney, there’s someone here to see you.” Andrea ducked her head around the doorframe and smiled at her.

  Laney hid the Kleenex she’d been using to wipe away the tears that appeared every time she thought about Jack. At this rate, she should buy stock in the company. She glanced up from her office at the library. “Who is it?” she asked, but her coworker had already scurried back to man the information desk.

  She stood, smoothing her linen skirt and brushing back her hair with her fingertips, before walking out to the public area. As soon as she rounded the corner and came within sight of the information desk, she stopped in her tracks. Jack was standing there, wearing a casual navy-blue polo shirt that matched his eyes, and khaki shorts. Her heart fluttered at the sight of him and she started to turn around, but he’d already seen her.

  “Laney,” he called out. She stopped, then took a deep breath and walked toward him. He smiled at her, but she didn’t return it.

  “Jack. What are you doing here?” Her words were clipped and she worked hard to keep any emotion out of her face.

  “You didn’t show up at my office, and you sounded odd in your text response yesterday. My receptionist said you came by but left to get something from your car. When I returned from my last class, you weren’t there.” He peered into her eyes. “Laney, what’s going on?”

  She opened her mouth to speak but thought better of it. The public library was not the place for this conversation.

  “I’m going on break,” she said to Andrea. Her coworker nodded. Laney grabbed Jack’s arm and led him outside the library t
o a bench underneath a tree, away from prying eyes and ears.

  They both hovered near the bench, but neither of them sat. Laney stood a few paces away from Jack. How did he have the nerve to come here after what he’d done to her?

  Overhead, birds chirped cheerfully as they flittered about in the foliage. The sound of children’s laughter floated through that air and the scent of the rose garden behind the library filled the area. The only thing wrong with the perfect picture were the frowns on both of their faces and the stiffness in their bodies.

  “What’s going on with you? It’s not like you to just not show up.” His eyes were glued to her face. “I was worried about you.”

  “I don’t think this is going to work out between us. You and I are just too different. You have your life back in Ambright and I have my life here. We were fooling ourselves to think it could work long-term.”

  What she really wanted to say was that she wasn’t devious like him. She would never have left him out or not given him any credit in finding the shipwreck. They had worked together to locate the Livingston. How could he have changed his mind about her speaking at the conference? He knew how much it meant to her but the promise of tenure must have been too much to resist.

  “Too different?” he echoed. “I thought we had something special.” He glanced down at his shoes, then looked back up at her, gazing straight into her eyes. “I don’t know about you, but this wasn’t some Spring Break fling for me. I’m sure we could have made it work long-distance.”

  “It wasn’t some fling for me either,” she said. “But I don’t think it meant to you as much as it did to me.”

  “What do you mean?” He reached out to her and put a hand on her arm. His complexion had paled underneath his light suntan and his voice wobbled slightly.

  She shook off his touch, taking a few steps back. Her skin burned where his fingers had touched her. Conflicting emotions whirled around in her brain with the force of a hurricane. She couldn’t make sense of how she was feeling. Was she mad at him? Or was she mad at herself? She knew she shouldn’t have trusted someone from out of town, but she’d given in to the heady feelings of romance.