This Magic Moment (Just a Little Magic Series)

by Cross, Daryn

  Tom looked that up at him. “I’m sorry. I should’ve done what you said. Can you please tell me one other thing? About the island, did this whole adventure start there for a reason? I’m still confused about that.”

  Magic’s eyes narrowed. “Magic doesn’t do anything without a reason. Now, you tell me, son, isn’t it easier to fall in love next to the water than it is in an apartment building or the middle of the city? That’s where they fell in love, Thomas. That was why they started there. And that’s where they’ll finish.”

  Tom glanced back at Magic. “But how can they get together now? I don’t understand. Crandall saw how Zack lied to her once again. How could the trust between them ever be built one more time?”

  Magic sat on the side of the seat in front of Tom. “Don’t forget what’s going on here. It will be important to you in time. True love is very forgiving when there’s a reason to forgive. The universe allows for mistakes and for forgiveness. For, without forgiveness, there is no love.”

  Tom stared back up into Magic’s eyes. “I’m more confused than ever.”

  Magic winked. “Stick with me, son, and many things will become clear.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Crandall, you need to snap out of it. We still have a lot of decisions to make for this magazine layout in ‘Bakery Delights.’”

  Crandall glanced up. “I’m sorry. I just keep seeing Zack’s wife on that ventilator, and I want to cry. That poor woman must have gone through so much.”

  Gretta nodded. “I understand, but I know for a fact he’s divorced from her. I checked, and he didn’t lie about that.”

  “I know. That is some consolation. I didn’t know that when I ran out of his mother’s house so quickly, but I’d have still been upset. He led me to believe she was dead.” Crandall leaned down on her hand, propping it up with her elbow. “He led me to believe he divorced her years ago, not last year. Half-truths are no better than bald-faced lies. What else has he told me a half truth about?”

  “Um, I guess I shouldn’t mention that you told him your mother was dead?”

  Crandall stared up into Gretta’s serious face. “Okay, I’m just as bad.” She sighed. “I blew it. It’s blown. All I can do is try to get over it and move on.”

  “In that case, what do you think of this brand new sexy approach to the ad?”

  Crandall grabbed the mock-up. A woman stood there holding a tray of hot pretzels, steam rising from them. She was dressed in a robe with a black bra peeking out of the top and a leg extended adorning a black garter. The caption read, Prezelicious will steam you up. “You’re kidding, right?”

  Even as she said it, she saw Zack’s smiling face telling her the ad was perfect and sexy, and she wanted to cry. “Look, I concede to your wisdom. We’ll give it a go and see what happens, okay?”

  Gretta took back the mock-up and stared at her. “What just happened? It’s like a new person just snapped into view. It’s Zack, isn’t it? He told you that you should trust my instincts. I know I’m right.”

  Crandall nodded as tears began to flow down her face. “You’re right. He thought I’d misjudged you. I know I have. I’m just so miserable. If I had a mother who knew who I was, I’d be crying in her arms.”

  Gretta dropped the ad and massaged her shoulders. “You know, maybe you ought to go talk to her anyway. It could help you both.”

  “But she’s so…gone.”

  Gretta sighed but kept on rubbing. “Just because you don’t know what’s going on in there doesn’t mean your mother has lost the ability to feel. If nothing else, it will give you the space to vent while giving her the comfort she needs.”

  “You’re right.” Crandall grabbed a tissue from the box on her desk and blotted her face. “Run with the ad. I’m going home.”

  ****

  “How could Crandall have bolted like she did?” Zack asked. “I didn’t even get a chance to explain to her what happened. No matter how hard they worked, no investigator found Susan. Her parents did a damned good job of keeping her hidden and not letting me discover I even had a daughter. Hell, I didn’t even know the sex or name of my child until the auto accident.”

  He raked his hair back out of his eyes. “Then I discovered Susan’s condition. Well, I couldn’t just divorce her when she was still in unstable condition. It wasn’t until they assured me she was as stable as she could be, in an induced coma, that I filed the papers. Even then, the judge didn’t just nod and agree.”

  Mike nodded and pushed a cup of coffee toward him. “Wish this could be something stronger, but we still have a lot of work to do tonight. You need to wrap this ad blitz before you’re due to meet Brooks at his home in Chicago. That’s less than a week away.”

  Zack stared blankly off into space, never focusing on any one thing. Time to put some things in order. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.

  “Hi, Miriam. Could you put Meredyth on the phone? I need to speak to her.” He took a deep breath as he waited. Now was the time. He wanted to be on good terms with at least one of his girls. “Hi, sweetie. Listen, I know we haven’t spent a lot of time together, but I promise it won’t be too much longer, and then we’ll spend a lot of time.” He smiled as he heard her say I love you. “I know, I love you too. Don’t ever forget. I’ll never stop, sweetheart.” He hung up, feeling close to tears, and looked back at Mike. “Do you think Crandall will even show up for the meeting?”

  “I don’t know.” Mike exhaled sharply. “Look, you’re a lost cause. I can do this. Since we don’t know what’s going on with this elusive Mrs. Tolbert, why don’t you concentrate on tracking her down? Maybe you’ll have some news by the time you meet Brooks, and hopefully, Crandall. News she’ll want to hear.”

  Zack smiled weakly. “The way things are going, this woman will probably vanish into thin air.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Zack deplaned in Sacramento and walked to the airport’s rental car section. Call it a hunch or call it crazy, call it the fact that man in the suit and the dark glasses had walked up to him and given him a slip of paper that said he needed to go to the West Coast for an answer. The secretive man had said it was Zack’s fortune. Yeah, that was strange all right, but no stranger than anything else that had happened to him since he went to that island. After pondering about the West Coast, he’d decided Mike had stopped a few minutes short on his interview with Washington’s great-aunt, Evelyn Gray. He believed Ms. Gray still held the secret to discovering more about Mrs. Grant Tolbert.

  A couple or hours later, he walked up the sidewalk of the old white-planked Victorian home and admired the house as an old lady in her own right. The wrap-around porch and high dormers begged to whisper their secrets of days gone by. Here was hoping its owner would do more than whisper.

  As he got ready to knock, he heard a rustling to his right and saw a short woman round the corner wearing a huge floppy sunhat and carrying a basket full of roses. She glanced up and smiled. “Hello young man. I must be doing something right. You’re the second young man to visit me this month.”

  He smiled. “That was my cousin, Mike. My name is Zack Graham. Is it okay if I talk to you a few moments?”

  “Of course, if you can wait until I trim these and put them in a vase. Then we can sit and have iced tea.”

  He followed her into the house, surprised with how spry the woman was. “I can’t believe how active you are, ma’am. I hope I do as well when I’m just a few years older.”

  She chuckled as she set the basket next to her sink and pulled a vase out from the cabinet under it. “You have a long way to get to my age. My ninety-third birthday was just a week ago.”

  “And you were outside picking roses?”

  She grinned. “I’m not dead. The exercise is good for me, no matter what my doctor thinks.” She quickly trimmed and placed the roses in a vase.

  Minutes later, she sat down across from Zack at her kitchen table. “What’s on your mind your cousin didn’t ask me?�
�

  He looked up over his glass. “You’re straight and to the point.”

  She shook her head. “First you question my physical health and now you’re surprised at my mind. I haven’t lost anything but foolishness in ninety-three years, though I do have arthritis now. Are you still looking for Roberta’s first love?”

  He nodded. “Yes ma’am. Mike says a woman named Laura Appleby would know where he is. His name didn’t happen to be Grant Tolbert did it?”

  She shook her head. “Afraid not. In fact, I couldn’t recall his name at all when your Mr. Kramer was here, but I remembered it when I was watching an old movie about a week later.” She smiled. “The whole thing was such a wicked mess back then. Roberta getting pregnant and then having her beau leave town suddenly. Laura followed immediately of course.”

  He cocked his head sideways. “Why would she do that?”

  She shook her head. “I guess you don’t know the whole story. You see, Jim didn’t know anything about Roberta being pregnant. They broke up after her father forbade her to see Jim any more. He said the young man would never manage to make a decent living for himself, much less a wife. Jim started seeing Laura and married her on the sly. Then he found out about Roberta and he was spooked. He left town with Laura running after him.”

  “Wow, that must have been tough.”

  She nodded. “I remember it like it was yesterday. He told Roberta he didn’t think the baby was his, said he thought Ben Drake had knocked her up, as he put it. He was so sure of it, he stole Ben’s coveted recipe for his special pretzel when he was at the bakery.”

  Zack froze in place. “He did what?”

  She leaned forward. “Roberta swore me to secrecy. She was so upset. Ben told her not to worry, he’d just change the recipe. That man was a sweetheart. Too bad little Donna stole his heart. Otherwise things would be a whole lot different. Anyway, Jim never came back and we didn’t hear anything about that stolen recipe. But word was around town he’d done well in the stock market.”

  “I see.” Zack set his glass down. “Do you know what happened to him and his wife?”

  She shook her head. “Nope. Though I’m fairly sure Jim died at some point, because I believe I saw it in the paper, just one of those little free announcements. I always read the obits to make sure I’m not in them.” She winked.

  Zack leaned back in his seat. “It’s the only way to be sure. Ms. Gray, that was quite a tale. Did the obituary say where he was?”

  “Not sure, but not here.” She rubbed her forehead like she was trying to bring the memory back to the front of her brain. “It seems like it was San Francisco. Sorry I can’t pin it down for certain.”

  “No problem. You didn’t happen to remember his last name, did you?”

  “I did, only because I always associated it with the Civil War.”

  “Civil War?”

  She smiled. “Grant. His name was Jim Grant.”

  ****

  With trepidation, Crandall walked into her mother’s room at Sequoya Care Center. Today Donna Drake was sitting facing the window smiling. Crandall wondered what had caught her attention. Approaching her mother and bending down, she touched her hand. “Mama, what do you see?”

  Her mother chuckled. “Look at those kids out there. Even my own daughter is part of their fun and games.”

  Crandall stared outside and saw nothing but a few squirrels under the tree in the front yard. “Mama,” she said softly, “I’m not out there. I’m here. I’m Crandall.”

  Her mother turned and looked at her. “Of course.” She grinned and then winked. “Whatever you say dear. How silly of me not to realize many years have passed.”

  Crandall eased up and grabbed the chair next to her mother’s and sat in it facing the woman. “Mama, I need you right now. I feel lost. Somebody’s trying to take over Daddy’s business. You used to know him. Remember Xavier Washington? He is trying to take what I have. I run Daddy’s business now.”

  Her mother reached out and kissed her on the cheek. “Darling, you always loved the bakery. No one will take it. Your father made sure.”

  “How, Mama?” Tears rolled down her cheeks. The woman was still trying to appease her. “How did he make sure?”

  Her mother smiled. “He waited and then changed the recipe.” She laughed until tears ran out of her eyes, slapping her knee. “He let that good-for-nothing Jim Grant steal the wrong one. Roberta never knew what he did.”

  Crandall blinked. “Jim Grant?”

  Donna Drake nodded. “The young man left Roberta broken-hearted. At the mercy of that Washington man.”

  Hope welled up inside Crandall. Was it possible her mother had a lucid moment, or was this all a jumbled contortion of the truth? “Where is Jim Grant, Mama, do you know?”

  Shaking her head, Crandall’s mother’s smile left her face. “The guy was an idiot, a rich idiot, but still an idiot. Who’d have thought he’d get in that speed boat like that?”

  “He died?”

  She nodded. “Left more than his heart in San Francisco.” She stared back out the window. “Just look at those kids out there. Go tell Crandall to come inside. That’s enough for one day.”

  ****

  “Mike, do me a favor. Run a check on a man named Jim Grant in San Francisco. Also, on a hunch, check for a company named Grant Tolbert, not a person—company.”

  “What are you on to?”

  Mike’s voice sounded excited through Jack’s headphone. Zack grinned. “I just had a wonderful chat with a spry woman. Get the information fast while I start driving to San Francisco.”

  At the pause, Zack almost laughed. “Zack, are you in California?”

  “Do you think I’m driving across country?”

  “Right, I’m on it.”

  As Zack disconnected, he started singing Tony Bennett’s iconic song. Yep, no doubt about it, he was about to catch Xavier Washington at his game. He could just feel it.

  Minutes later, before he’d even got half way down the highway, Mike reported back. “So what did you find out?”

  “How did you know? Now I know why you’re the CEO and I’m your flunkie. Jim Grant died in San Francisco on the bay in a fast speedboat twenty-seven years ago. He’s buried in Cypress Lawn in Colma.” Mike rattled off the address.

  “And the company?”

  Mike chuckled. “You old goat. You’re so smug now, I don’t know if I should tell you.”

  “Give.”

  “Okay, you’re right. Investment firm, privately owned on Market Street in San Francisco.”

  “Good work. Did you find out who the owner is?”

  “Laura Grant-Tolbert.”

  “Wonderful, thanks pal. First, I’ll visit the cemetery.”

  “But the guy’s dead.”

  “I have my reasons. Later.” Zack hung up and thought about the man who’d handed him the note about coming to California. Now he understood the rest of the message: all you seek will rest in peace.

  ****

  Pulling up in front of Jim Grant’s grave, Crandall was overcome with the feeling of extreme reverence. I wonder what secrets you took with you? She got out of her car and strode silently down the path to his enormous monument. Looking down, she read the inscription: For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. What did it mean? Had Jim Grant felt as if he were the Prodigal Son?

  “What are you doing here?”

  Crandall turned slowly at the sound of Zack’s voice, goose bumps forming in her arms. “How did you know he was here?”

  “I just found out.” Zack stopped a few feet away from her. “Xavier’s great-aunt told me about Jim Grant.”

  “I see.” Crandall stared at the ground. “Xavier’s family is Jewish, you know. This is a Christian inscription.”

  “Grant must have been a Christian, then.” Zack took a deep breath. “Roberta’s family didn’t approve of him. Perhaps this was just one more reason why.”

  “I’m betting you figure
d out about Grant Tolbert too?”

  He nodded. “I think Washington still believes he has the right recipe, and more than likely, even if he knows Grant was his real father, he doesn’t know Ben Drake didn’t betray his mother. Not that it’s important regarding what we need to do. But I think it’s too early to play out the hand. It’s better to wait and catch Washington in a badly laid out ploy and nab him red-handed.”

  Crandall nodded, shivers still running up and down her spine. If he touched her all bets were off. “How do you suggest we do that?”

  “I’m assuming Washington is using this Grant Tolbert as a way to get to your company?”

  She nodded. “Smith has been trying to get me to appoint him to the board.”

  “Yeah, as in Washington as a representative. I doubt the elderly Laura Tolbert will show up. Have Smith tailed. Set it up so you can catch Washington in corporate fraud. Last I checked that’s a federal offense.”

  Crandall fingered a lock of her hair as she thought. “I don’t think I even have to go that far. Jenny’s been miserable as of late, even hinted at resignation. I think it’s time to turn her into my informant.”

  Zack chuckled. “Great idea. Crandall, look, about what happened in North Carolina…”

  She waved him off. “It’s okay, I know. I just didn’t right then.”

  “Still, I want to make sure you know. First I didn’t know where Susan was, and then when I found out her condition…”

  “Don’t swoop in and knock me off my feet right now. If everything goes well, we’ll celebrate in Chicago when we go see Brooks, okay?”